Finally Blue Ray

[Art Blade]

It was an accident. I bought a director's cut of "Millennium" (Swedish trilogy, based on a novel by Stieg Larsson) and yesterday I wanted to watch it. For some reason none of my two DVD players was able to read the first disk and the PC nearly choked on it (I was almost unable to end the process in the task manager).

Then it dawned on me. And yes.. I had bought a Blue Ray version without having a BR player. Someone must have slipped the BR version in the shelf where they used to have only DVDs. Bastards, and silly me. Because it was a special edition, the package was silvery rather than unmistakably blue.

Only a few days ago a colleague told me about his external BR player.. so that was it, time to buy one. Just plug and play.. well, almost. My VLC software player doesn't play BR discs. Fortunately LG boxed a PowerDVD software player capable of playing BR, so there I was.. But hell, coincidentally just a few days ago they released Tron Legacy on DVD.. and BR. Well, a brand new techie SF film.. that ought to be the first film I'd ever see on BR.

Whoa. ??? :-X

The Millennium trilogy is impressive, too, on BR. I could almost pluck hairs off of the actors, amazing details  :-()

[mandru]

Art, when I configured my computer to be built a couple years ago I really studied and researched the reviews for every component from among the options that were available to me.  Blue Ray was one of the options that had at that time narrowly become a possibility but when I went to various sites and read the reviews (both professional and customer) for specific models I had to choose from I found that 4 out of 5 comments posted were approaching the 'storming the castle with pitchforks and torches' level of anger and that included any unit I purchased after system delivery and installed myself.   ???

So I decided to wait.   :-\\

I see it was an LG unit you got (I had to read your post three times to find the indirect brand referencing  :-D ) and I see that there is a LG variant available that also utilizes the LightScribe in drive laser disc labeling technology which I am very keen on.

It looks like I'll have to start dropping hints to my wife now so that when we get around to upgrading it will be her idea.   ;)

[Art Blade]

Actually I mentioned the brand in the movie recommendations, it is an external drive, LG BE12. Can be connected via eSata (1.5 Gb/s) or USB2.0 (480Mb/s). I paid 135€ for it which didn't seem to be too much. :)

Oh, the abbreviation for Blue Ray Disc is BD.. hehe

It can read and write CDs, DVDs and BDs.

[PZ]

This internal LG drive is what I use.  I purchased DVDFab some time ago, which is software that rips DVDs to your hard disc.  When I travel, I like to watch my DVD collection, but I use a netbook without a physical drive, plus I don't want to lug around the DVDs.  Using this LG player/recorder, I can rip a typical movie to less than 1 gb disc space, then copy it wherever I want.

It plays blu-rays beautifully, as well as standard DVDs, and I have not had a single instance where it failed to either play or rip a DVD.

Internal LG Blu-Ray disc at newegg.com

[Art Blade]

Actually I mentioned the brand in the movie recommendations

Sorry, I mentioned it in the gaming rig specs when I edited the post about my rig specs. :-[ :-D

[mandru]

 :-D

[Fiach]

I dunno if you saw Tron Legacy mate, I saw it in the cinema in 3d and its kinda crap :(

Also regarding Blue Ray, some are great, but some older films do not translate well to BD as it shows up their flaws as its so vivid and clear.

Some Blue Ray players will upscale normal DVD's to Hi Definition, so check some oldies out like that, they look pretty amazing :)

[Art Blade]

upscaling DVDs, interesting :)

Tron legacy looked awesome in BD 2D. Not exactly a great story, but man, the visuals were nice ;D

I decided to buy BD only if the films are pretty new rather than to have old material "labelled BD" while it's not produced in ultra high resolution.

[mandru]

One scale of image improvement BlueRay over DVD that I've heard was the increase in image quality that was achieved by upgrading from VHS to DVD is just about equal to the increase in image quality that you will experience upgrading from DVD to BlueRay.

[Dweller_Benthos]

The new computer has a bluray drive, but I haven't used it yet, don't have and BR discs. The monitor is also HD, so nothing stopping me now. I did watch a couple of videos my friend took on his HD camera while we were hiking last summer, and could finally see the difference. Makes my regular def videos look crappy by comparison. Then again, the file sizes for mine are more manageable, which is one reason I got that camera instead of HD.

[Art Blade]

By comparison, there are still too few films out on BD that are worth it, as far as I can tell.

I'm referring to the story of "vinyl goes CD" -- back in the day when CDs were revolutionary but on their way to replace the old records, all major labels started to push into the new market and put on CD whatever old crap they had. Only the new productions were actually digital. There used to be a little hint on the package that gave away the actual quality, it still appears on some CDs, the SPARS code (Society of Professional Audio Recording Services):

There are four types:

• AAD – Analogue tape recorder used during initial recording, mixing/editing, Digital mastering.
• ADD – Analogue tape recorder used during initial recording, Digital tape recorder used during mixing/editing and for mastering.
• DAD – Digital tape recorder used during initial recording, Analogue tape recorder used during mixing/editing, Digital mastering.
• DDD – Digital tape recorder used during initial recording, mixing/editing and for mastering.

So only a DDD-labelled CD was actually a fully digital product, in my opinion the only "real" type of CD.

Now I am certain that most of the films you'll get to see/buy on BD are actually no "real" BDs. Just some DVD stuff rescaled and resold. That's why I try to buy only the very latest films on BD as they will most likely be "real" BDs.

[Fiach]

Yes, I bought Highlander and was disappointed with the quality.

Watchmen
Green Zone
Kick a$$
Resident Evil 4
Earth
30 Days of Night
Sweeney Todd
Doomsday
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Star Trek (the new one)

Are all very nice looking BD's and cover a fair range of movie genres.

[Art Blade]

Tron Legacy was mind-blowing regarding BD gfx  ??? :) (the story is not so important).
Avatar wasn't bad, either.
Stieg Larsson's Millenium part 1 was extremely detailed while I was under the impression that part 2 didn't quite live up to it, haven't watched part 3 on BD yet.

I loved the new Star Trek on DVD already (laughed a lot), so if it's really shining on BD I might buy it again. :)

[Fiach]

Yes mate I have both versions, its a great BD, you will enjoy it immensely :)

[Art Blade]

done deal, then :-() Cheers ;) :-X