I never bothered to upgrade my DVDs to Blu-Rays. And I still own a working and currently connected VCR.

Did anyone really go all out and upgrade to Blu ray, except your hardcore people who insist on having the newest toys?

They hardly released anything beyond new films in the format. It's already pretty much leveled off.

Regular DVD is still the go-to format for now. Eventually, it'll all be Downloads. But blu is nothing more than the new Millennium's laser disc.

FirstNationalBastard: Did anyone really go all out and upgrade to Blu ray, except your hardcore people who insist on having the newest toys?

I just got one last week so it's hardly a new toy. They're less than $100 now. I replaced my DVDs like Star Wars, Raiders, Blade Runner, things like that and they're gorgeous. Jaws looks like it was shot yesterday. And they all have a ton of extras if you're into that. I'm not going to go out and replace Caddyshack or anything but for big FX movies it's really worth it.

Cluckity: At this point, physical media is a fool's game. I got rid of all my CDs and DVDs.

I like having physical media. I don't understand how you can get all the extras on a film that you download. Besides, since I never learned to read, instead of a library full of books to display I have DVDs. I don't trust "the cloud" anyway.

Having gone from LPs to tapes to CDs I learned a lesson: skip a generation (or two) of media, it will save you money.

/still owns a CRT TV, no reason to by Blu-Ray.

Cluckity: At this point, physical media is a fool's game. I got rid of all my CDs and DVDs.

Exception: art prints and photobooks.

That's funny.

Yeah, try that when there's a server failure, or your ISP is down, or you have to go somewhere there is no signal, or the service you're using loses the license for your favorite movie/TV show and takes it down.

Physical media means you maintain positive control of the entire thing, instead of leaving it up to a combination of legalities and network issues.

Remember when Netflix went down on Christmas Eve? Was down for most of the night.

I've had favorite films that I liked to watch and re-watch vanish off online services because the license ran out.

If you don't have practically unlimited bandwidth, streaming media services are right out, so it's not really feasible while mobile (unlike taking my DVDs and popping them in the drive of my laptop).

When you buy the DVD, you sidestep all that. You own the physical media, you control when you watch it, and they can't come around and take it back or tell you to stop watching it (well, I guess they could try, but not practically do so).

Personally, I never bought into Blu-Ray. Seemed like a scam to get people to buy the same old movies over on new discs. DVDs offered a clear advantage over VHS: they were smaller, offered clearly superior picture quality, had room for special features and alternate audio tracks (commentaries, other languages), and didn't suffer from media degradation and susceptibility to magnetic fields like magnetic tape media could.

Blu-Ray just meant buying a new player and re-buying everything for a marginal increase in picture quality that you had to buy a new TV to get as well. No thank you.

I have a Netflix subscription, but that's just for casual watching of things, to supplement a more permanent library.

doczoidberg: It doesn't look any better. You people have just fallen victim to the Emperor's New Clothes scam.

I don't know which Blu Ray you watched or on what TV but I disagree. I thought the same way until I actually got one.

Silverstaff:
Physical media means you maintain positive control of the entire thing, instead of leaving it up to a combination of legalities and network issues.

...

When you buy the DVD, you sidestep all that. You own the physical media, you control when you watch it, and they can't come around and take it back or tell you to stop watching it (well, I guess they could try, but not practically do so).


They've tried.

Mugato: FirstNationalBastard: Did anyone really go all out and upgrade to Blu ray, except your hardcore people who insist on having the newest toys?

I just got one last week so it's hardly a new toy. They're less than $100 now. I replaced my DVDs like Star Wars, Raiders, Blade Runner, things like that and they're gorgeous. Jaws looks like it was shot yesterday. And they all have a ton of extras if you're into that. I'm not going to go out and replace Caddyshack or anything but for big FX movies it's really worth it.

Hey, I get where you're coming from... I'm buying the Star Trek: TNG Blu discs, because damn, they're worth it.

But other than that, I can't see buying a Citizen Kane blu-ray, because what is going to be different from the regular DVD version I already own?

NeoCortex42: Mugato: doczoidberg: It doesn't look any better. You people have just fallen victim to the Emperor's New Clothes scam.

I don't know which Blu Ray you watched or on what TV but I disagree. I thought the same way until I actually got one.

Yeah, and it can also sometimes depend on the actual film you're watching. Some Blu-Ray discs, especially early ones, were merely upscaled versions of the DVD in order to cash in. Other Blu-Rays of catalog films have gone through completely new restorations, specifically for the Blu-Ray release. Even content like The Twilight Zone or Star Trek: TNG looks absolutely stunning on Blu-Ray. The original DVD releases of them aren't even in the same ballpark.

Well, TNG looked like crap on DVD because it was just the 480i videotape masters slapped on disc. The Blu discs are completely remastered and re-edited from the 35mm negatives, making TNG look amazing.

likefunbutnot: FirstNationalBastard: But other than that, I can't see buying a Citizen Kane blu-ray, because what is going to be different from the regular DVD version I already own?

If they're re-scanning an original print with whatever improvements in resolution and in optics, possibly quite a bit. There may also be audio enhancements, new commentary tracks or interactive features. Something like Citizen Kane or Lawrence of Arabia would most likely be a showpiece for any new format and might very well be worth re-acquiring.

IIRC, there are no original prints of Citizen Kane left, and all restorations done in the DVD era have been done off of beat up prints sent out to theaters ages ago that have been digitally cleaned and enhanced. If there's ever a Sunset Boulevard or Roman Holiday blu released, those will be in the same boat as Kane.

But, you're right... if I can find Kane at the right price, it might be worth checking out.

rpm: Silverstaff: Physical media means you maintain positive control of the entire thing, instead of leaving it up to a combination of legalities and network issues.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

You are aware that BluRay can revoke keys and cause you to lose access, right?

No, but if you'll read the rest of my post, you'd find I consciously chose to avoid Blu-Ray, seeing no need for it compared to DVD.

You just gave me yet another reason to stick with DVD and another reason that Blu-Ray is inferior.

Wait, how would they even revoke the keys? Does it have to be plugged into the internet to even work?

FirstNationalBastard: But other than that, I can't see buying a Citizen Kane blu-ray, because what is going to be different from the regular DVD version I already own?

Well any transfer of any movie isn't going to look as good as if you're actually sitting in a theater watching the original 35mm print. So even a movie like Citizen Kane would look better on Blu Ray but you're right, movies like that aren't really worth replacing.

Besides which I don't even know if the original CK even exists anymore. They keep them in climate controlled vaults but they still degrade over time. I remember Steven Spielberg coming on TV begging people to donate money to a preservation fund for original prints. Because he'd help out but you know, he's really strapped for cash.

Witty_Retort: Jim_Callahan: Um... why? Conversion from one digital format to another doesn't actually add any definition (well, unless you want to potentially add artefacts to the picture with predicative processing). Once you've gone from VHS to DVD you've done all the converting you need, modern players have to trouble reading DVDs as well as HD formats and there's no reason they'd ever lose that capability so long as we're using circular optical media in general.

//If they mean "upgrading" in the sense of "buying a remastered version in the new format", I guess that makes slightly more sense. I remember we used to have two versions of the moon landing tapes, on VHS and on DVD, because the original film stock has ridiculous clarity that wasn't really reflected on the newsreel copy they used for the VHS version.

Depends. I remember reading an article back a few years ago saying that Paramount was scanning all their movies in something like 8 Mega-pixel resolution and just sitting on them. So they can down-convert the video to what-ever the new format is and won't have to re-scan every few years.
Pre-planning like that is somewhat rare.

Yeah, but when the companies think ahead, it usually works out very well for them... like when Universal thought ahead 15 years and shot stuff like Law and Order in 16x9 starting in 1993 so that when widescreen came, they already had everything from season 4 forward ready for syndication.

Whoever thinks that there's no difference between a movie like Sunshine on DVD and Blu-Ray needs to see an eye doctor or learn how to hook up their system properly.

I pick up a few scattered Blu-Ray movies they have at Best Buy here and there, only cause they're overstocked and selling for $8 a pop. Older movies, yea...no need to upgrade. Not much difference (unless it was remastered). But any recent FX heavy movie looks worlds better than DVD. So much so you gotta turn the resolution down to prevent that hyper real effect.

/Won't be upgrading anytime soon. Blu-Ray is good enough for a long while.

Someone wanna clear this up for me?  I thought UltraHD is the 2,048 pixel height, and 4K is (as the name suggests) a next-next-gen 4,000-odd pixel height.  Are they actually one and the same, and if so, why is it 4K and not 2K?

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraHD " target="_blank">Meh.</a>  4 times the pixels.  Check...