Jump to content
NEurope
flameboy

Has anyone made the jump to HD for films?

Recommended Posts

Either through HD downloads (legal of course) or Blu-Ray or via Sky HD...

 

Only reason I ask is because for the most part the only Blu-Rays I own have come free with something else or as part of an offer. Also DVD's are so much cheaper, but recently picked up both the Afro Samurai blu-rays on the cheap from Zavvi and just sat watching it now and man it looks gorgeous...I've never really been all that bothered (superbad is good film in HD or not and spiderman 3 is well spiderman 3 plus ratatooie (sp) looks great anyways) but now starting to feel like this it I can't go back...So is it time to make the jump?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Like with all the jumps in technology, I'll probably be a couple of years behind, clinging to the classic grumpy old man attitude: "Meh, it's just some fancy fad among youngsters. Casette tapes, now THAT's the future!"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I intend to get a blu-ray playing device in the nearish future, but doubt I'll "jump" for a long time yet. DVDs cheaper and me broke and what not.

 

And this is as good a place as I'm going to get to get this off my mind; why is it in America TV programs are simul-cast in HD while here companies use separate channels? Silly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I may get a PS3 next year, but other than a few exceptions (Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight) I won't be getting many Blu-Ray films. DVDs are so cheap right now, whereas I don't see the point in paying so much extra money for more pixels.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have an up-scaling DVD player and a HD TV, I'm satisfied with that!

 

way too much money unless you actually want a PS3.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i have made the jump, due to my lovely lovely ps3.

 

deffo worth it, watching a film on blu ray can litteraly blow you away. the clarity is unreal, you dont even realise what your missing untill you see it.

 

one tip, never watch laberynth in HD. trust me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I have an up-scaling DVD player and a HD TV, I'm satisfied with that!

 

way too much money unless you actually want a PS3.

 

see the PS3 upscales but Afro Samurai doesn't look anywhere near as on DVD as blu-ray...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

DVD's are so amazingly good value, since if you just go into Fopp, most stunning films are £3. From what I've seen, Blu-Ray isn't worth my money as of yet.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
one tip, never watch laberynth in HD. trust me.

 

The Bowiebulge in HD? How could I resist? I reckon you'd be able to see the outline of every vein on his pecker providing that the tights are as tight as I imagine them to be.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've watched quite a few things on Sky HD, and personally don't find it much different when I'm actually watching something.

 

I've seen clips of Earth (some nature show with Picard) on a top-of-the-range projector played through an expensive Blu-Ray player. Even The Lord of the Rings (DVD) looked much, much cleaner through it. My only complaint about my brief viewing of a few things is that Madagascar looked really odd - the backgrounds and characters just didn't fit each other for some reason.

 

Although I can't say too much about it as I've yet to watch a full film on it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've got 1 Bluray. And only because it was cheaper than the DVD for some reason.

 

I have got quite a few HDDVDs though. The 360 player was £20 and the HDDVDs were about £3 each. Can't complain really.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've watched about 3 DVDs since I got my PS3 about a year and a half ago. HD all the way. Watching DVDs after is crappy because they look pretty bad in comparison, like they're pirated or sommit.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm sure blu ray is just wonderful, but a lot of people just don't have that kind of money to throw around.

 

The only reason I have an HDTV now is cause my old 14 inch box tv was broken :heh:

 

my upscaling dvd player cost £60. I'm more than happy with that!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not going to make the jump for a long time yet, I just don't see it being worthwhile as I don't believe the quality of picture is worth that kind of money. I've researched it by watching HD movies and don't feel it's the "big leap" it's advertised as. Plus, with the way things are going, CD's as a storage medium for movies will be gone in about 10 years, so if I'm going to make the move to HD for the next few years I don't want to be paying the price they are right now.

 

Be warned about Sky HD too! It only outputs at 720, something they fail to mention, so buying a top of the line TV to go with it is pretty much a waste of money when a cheaper HD set will do. Also, I think Sky are up to their old tricks again in trying to convince everyone to upgrade.

 

I remember when they were making the switch to Sky Digital, we had the old Sky dish and as Digital was coming in more and more the picture quality on the old satellite worsened, grains appearing on the screen and sometimes breaking up completely. Some friends who had made the switch early told me that was because the old satellite system was crap and digital was so much better by comparison, but I hadn't watched any of the digital signals so had nothing to compare it to. I was convinced Sky were decreasing the signal strength very slowly over a period of time to try to get people to make the switch.

 

Now I think they're doing it again. I watched the new series of Knight Rider on Sci-Fi on my Virgin box and I was very happy with the picture quality. However, one week I was in my girlfriend's house where they've two Sky set-ups. One is HD for two rooms, while upstairs there's a regular Sky box. I began watching Knight Rider on the regular box and the picture was awful!! I mean REALLY awful!! It was blocky as hell and you'd have sworn it was being streamed on an old out-of-date PC if it weren't on the big TV screen! A quick look downstairs and there's the same program on the HD version of the channel looking all pretty, but identical to the quality of picture I received every other week on my standard Virgin cable box. (Virgin own Sci-Fi, which is strange too.)

 

I honestly believe Sky are doing this again and a few friends of mine have noticed as well that if a program is available on one of their supposed "HD" channels, then the picture quality from a standard Sky Digital satellite will be rubbish! But just you watch, when the next program comes on and it hasn't got an HD version on another channel then the picture quality will go back to being very good.

 

:nono:

Edited by NintendWho

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm sure blu ray is just wonderful, but a lot of people just don't have that kind of money to throw around.

 

The only reason I have an HDTV now is cause my old 14 inch box tv was broken :heh:

 

my upscaling dvd player cost £60. I'm more than happy with that!

 

I use LoveFilm so Blu Rays are easily accessible (and overall it's a lot cheaper because I buy way way less games) and we upgraded to a lovely HDTV from a CRT Sony Trinitron which was 14 years old. That thing had been with us since I was about 6. :heh: (And it's still working in the other room today :D )

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I get some shows in 720p, I download anime in HD and I'm getting Sky+HD - but I haven't watched a full feature in HD yet, skipped the HD-DVD player altogether (thankfully) and standalone blu-ray players are just too expensive for what they are. Might get a PS3 at some point, but then I don't know what movies I would care enough to go out and get on Blu-Ray that I haven't already bought on DVD :/

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The thing I don't get is that though the PS3 is 'cheap' for what it is - it isn't really just that you get Blu-Ray with it - and can be upgraded with firmware and whatnot, a lot of people who've since bought a standalone Blu-Ray player reckon that the quality of watching Blu-Ray on a PS3 isn't as good.

 

Now this makes sense because generally you get better performance out of something that's built just for that one task rather than something that's made to serve multiple purposes but I reckon it's one of those things wherby you'd only notice the difference if you'd experienced both types of player because from what I've seen of Blu-Ray on my PS3 - read very little - it does look rather nice but DVD's still look good to me too, plus my TV doesn't have 1080P so *shrugs* for now I'm still more likely to purchase DVD's because they are, on the whole, cheaper. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I don't know what movies I would care enough to go out and get on Blu-Ray that I haven't already bought on DVD :/

 

Speaking of old films on Blu-Ray...why is Star Wars not out yet? I can only assume that they're doing a lot of work on it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I'm sure blu ray is just wonderful, but a lot of people just don't have that kind of money to throw around.

 

The only reason I have an HDTV now is cause my old 14 inch box tv was broken :heh:

 

my upscaling dvd player cost £60. I'm more than happy with that!

Indeed, I feel like it's some sort of luxury that, while naturally very nice, just isn't something I can be bothered to switch to. DVDs are cheaper and still the most common format, meaning it's easier to find movies as well as players that support it. The better visuals just aren't worth it yet. This is going to change in a couple of years, obviously, as DVDs will begin to be phased out of the market. Then I'll probably switch, since Blu-ray will most likely have become much more common, not to mention cheaper.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
This is going to change in a couple of years, obviously, as DVDs will begin to be phased out of the market. Then I'll probably switch, since Blu-ray will most likely have become much more common, not to mention cheaper.

 

Don't expect this to happen for a lloonngg time yet. The uptake just isn't there yet, not in the way it happened quite quickly with DVD's. And the big players in the industry just won't take the risk of alienating people, they can't afford to lose sales, not when DVD's are selling so well and at such low prices are still profitable.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've got a HDTV and have a PS3 which I could watch Blu Rays on if I wanted but as others have said, they're too expensive. Even with places like Zavvi offering them at lower prices, I still find it too expensive and the DVD counterparts are almost always dirt cheap and when I think about it, at the moment I don't really care that I can see every hair follacle or what have you in glorious detail. DVDs have sufficed for long enough for me and will continue to do so until Blu Rays drop in price. It'll be a long time before that happens though as DVDs are still the go to really for people wanting to buy movies.

 

--------------------------

 

And at Ashley's question of America TV, I've always wondered that as well. Here, we have to pay to upgrade our service to include HD TV channels which are separate while in the US it's all as one item and I don't believe they had to pay to upgrade their service to view them. I mean, I do think it's a cheek that you have to pay to upgrade to those channels but really, couldn't they output in both HD and standard definition on the same channel and when the signal gets to your TV it automatically detects whether or not you have HD capabilities or not and displays it in the best definition you can have it. We try so hard in this country to be individuals in terms of our services yet it puts us far behind other countries as a result. The likes of the BBC and other network providers should really take note of the services being provided to those in other countries and borrow from that template.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The likes of the BBC and other network providers should really take note of the services being provided to those in other countries and borrow from that template.

 

I have to laugh at Sky, they are constantly attacking the BBC as "having a monopoly", and that they shouldn't be allowed to have an HD channel that's free to broadcast, a free iPlayer or free whatever. Murdoch just wants us to pay for everything, that's what it's all about, it's nothing to do with the competitive marketplace, he wants the monopoly on special services through his subscription-only Sky tv services. You'll see "news"papers like The Sun and News of the World do this too, but that's because they're also owned by Murdoch.

 

We've (I work at the Beeb) got BBC HD which is available free of charge (well, apres TV licence lol) on FreeSat and it's coming soon on Freeview. That's really pissed off Murdoch and I hope other channels like the "UK" brand follow suit and air their's on these free services. Even though they're owned by Virgin Media now, they have to move with the times, think about the revenue from advertising and with all the extra features Virgin already offers I'm sure they can add to these and come up with more that'll still attract paying customers without having to charge for HD.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have over 50 films on Blu Ray but I haven't Jumped to HD. I still happily buy DVD versions of films, it doesn't really make to much difference to me. Plus, my whole TV show collection is on DVD, so I don't go Blu Ray for them either.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×