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doctor thodt
Apr 2, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
We are almost 4 years into the lifespan of the format, so I guess it's time to refresh our thread a bit.

Why should you buy in to Blu-Ray?
Simply put: Blu-Ray is the best way to enjoy your favorite movies and tv shows to date, short of a hypothetically perfect theater experience. And indeed, many people these days find themselves preferring Blu-Ray to going out to the theater; theaters tend to have dirty floors, sticky seats, worn-out prints and improperly-calibrated projectors. With Blu-Ray, you can enjoy movies they way they were meant to be seen, all from the comfort of your own home.

I kid you not when I say that Blu-Ray has changed my life (in ways other than spending a fuckton more money than I was before). I'm an avid movie watcher - I love being drawn in by the romance and the spectacle of film - which is why when I go to the theater, I tend to miss a lot. Aside from the many distractions and technical imperfections of the theatrical experience, sometimes movie screens are just too drat big to take everything in all at once. And then there are the films you can't see in a theater anymore - films like The Searchers and Minority Report, like Dr. Strangelove and Zodiac, like Battleship Potemkin and The New World - films where otherwise your only option is a low-bitrate DVD that looks muddy and bland in today's era of high definition.

Well, Blu-Ray is the answer to this dilemma. The format provides a unique opportunity for films - especially older ones - to be restored and seen like never before. One need only look at the DVD/BD comparisons for North by Northwest and Avatar to see the tremendous advantages the format affords to movie-lovers. I can't tell you how many times watching a Blu-Ray has radically changed my interpretation of a film, by mere virtue of being able to see and hear things I've never been able to see or hear before - not in a theater, not on a television broadcast, and certainly not on a DVD - but solely from viewing a film in jaw-dropping 1080p clarity on my television.

What kind of Blu-Ray player should you buy?
I can't say this strongly enough: get a Playstation 3. Here, maybe some profanity and the shift key will help: GET A loving PLAYSTATION 3. While there is no single "best" player, the PS3 is the most reliable and versatile player for what it costs - which is astonishing when you consider that it's been around since the advent of the technology. If you ever browse the Blu-Ray.com forums, you will find that at least half of the technical problems people have with Blu-Rays can be attributed to player compatibility. With the Playstation 3, this is a non-issue - I have thrown literally hundreds of discs at my PS3, and never once had a player-related problem. As for whether you should buy a "Fat" PS3 or a "Slim" PS3, that's totally at your discretion. The major differences are that the Slim model has a smaller design, consumes less power and can bitstream, whereas many people have reported that the Fat model has faster loading times.

If there's one significant drawback to the PS3, it's that it is unable to play region-locked discs from other territories. If you intend to do a lot of importing and would prefer a region-free player (or a player that can be hacked to play region-locked discs), you should check out Panasonic, Momitsu, or Oppo. The Oppo BDP-83 is widely considered to be the best player that isn't a PS3, and the Oppo BDP-80 is a good lower-cost alternative to the BDP-83. Both are also among the few players that best the PS3 in terms of DVD upconversion, if that's an important feature for you.

If you're looking for a decent budget player, I'd recommend just browsing Cnet's reviews so you can narrow your options down to the features and price you're looking for.

Note: one thing that I've heard from consumers far and wide is to avoid Samsung players at all costs. I've never had any personal experience with one, but evidently they cause a lot of problems.

What's the deal with region coding?
Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Blu-Rays, much like DVD's, can be locked to the respective region of their release - so if you buy a region-locked BD from another territory, you will only be able to play it if you have a region-free player. Thankfully, many studios are now coding their Blu-Ray discs to be region free, meaning they should be playable on any player in any territory. Warner Bros, Sony and Universal are among the major studios currently releasing most or all of their titles as region-free discs.

If you're looking for the region coding information for a specific title, this website is an invaluable resource.

Where can you find out which of your favorite movies are on Blu-Ray?
You can find an individual product page for just about every single Blu-Ray, from just about every single region, at Blu-Ray.com. They also have a pretty comprehensive release calendar to see what titles are forthcoming.

How do you determine which Blu-Rays are worth buying?
Sadly, Blu-Ray is not infallible. For every great transfer, there are two lackluster ones. So as with any new product you purchase, you should try to be as informed as possible before spending your money. The easiest way to educate yourself is by reading reviews. Sites such as Blu-Ray.com and DVD Talk employ A/V experts to review Blu-Rays, and are generally pretty trustworthy. However, even the best of reviewers aren't right 100% of the time - I'm reminded of when DVD Beaver's Leonard Norwitz called the original Gangs of New York release (one of the most hated BD's ever) "exquisitely and naturally rendered." Never trust any one reviewer, but collect an aggregate view of what people think about any given disc - and not just reviewers, either. Feel free to ask people's thoughts in this thread at any time, as even the professionals can all get it wrong sometimes. The best example of this is Patton: a Blu-Ray roundly praised by critics for some strange reason, considering its excessive use of digital noise reduction - a technique that scrubs out grain and fine detail, giving the movie a very artificial/waxy look, and thus completely destroying the visual integrity of the film.

So to recap: read reviews, but never be afraid to ask people here to chime in on a particular title you're interested in.

Where should you buy Blu-Rays?
Welp...depends on where you live, what you're looking for, when you're looking for it, how much you're willing to spend, and so forth.

Your safest bet tends to be Amazon, who is constantly running some promotion or another, and usually has the best price on new releases (and if they don't, then they usually pricematch whoever does). If you have Amazon Prime, you get free 2-day shipping on almost everything, and guaranteed release-day delivery on most new releases.

That said, you will still find a ton of great deals at brick-and-mortar stores like Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart. As I said above, when Amazon has the best price on something, it's often because they're pricematching one of these stores - so if you'd rather not wait for something to be shipped to you, you can typically run out to your nearest retailer and still get a good deal. If you keep yourself apprised of the weekly ads from these stores, you're bound to come across some awesome prices. I can't tell you how many titles I've seen debut at $25-$30, only to drop down to $10-$15 in under a month. If you don't need to own something immediately, a little patience will typically result in a lot of money saved.

You can also stay abreast of the latest and greatest money-saving offers by visiting the deals section of the Blu-Ray.com forums, as well as the Blu-Ray deal megathread from these very forums.

And finally, be sure to check out the DVD & Blu-Ray trading thread in SA-Mart!

Can you buy empty replacement cases?
Absolutely. You can find a variety of different case types at Meritline, Vernon Library Supplies, Sleeve City, and even Amazon.

Useful links
Blu-Ray.com - News, reviews, and the largest/most active Blu-Ray discussion forum on the net.
The Digital Bits - News and reviews from insiders Bill Hunt & co. Often scoops news about major upcoming releases.
DVD Beaver - Reviews and screenshot comparisons. Great resource for comparing Blu-Rays to previous home video releases. Also, tits.
DVD Talk - Reviews and discussion forum.
High Def Digest - News, reviews, and discussion forum.
High Def Disc News - News and reviews.
The HD Room - News and reviews.
Cinema Squid - Good all-around website that includes review aggregation, disc specs, price tracking, and so forth.
The Digital Fix - UK news and reviews.
Home Theater Forum - Self explanatory.
AVS Forum - Reviews, discussion forum, and screenshot comparisons. Their reputation for being full of crazy people actually makes for a useful litmus test - if AVS approves of a Blu-Ray transfer, it's pretty much guaranteed to be good.


If you have any suggestions for additions to the op, please let me know!

doctor thodt fucked around with this message at 15:04 on May 14, 2010

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fromsinkingsands
Oct 10, 2005

Gotta find Jason.
I think a picture of your collection in the OP is needed.

I just picked up True Blood from a goon off the SA Mart, what are your thoughts on that?

Magic Hate Ball
May 6, 2007

ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this
Hello, new thread!

So the Patrick Stewart/David Tennant Hamlet is out tomorrow. Has anyone seen it? I'm assuming it's great.

Kull the Conqueror
Apr 8, 2006

Take me to the green valley,
lay the sod o'er me,
I'm a young cowboy,
I know I've done wrong

Magic Hate Ball posted:

Hello, new thread!

So the Patrick Stewart/David Tennant Hamlet is out tomorrow. Has anyone seen it? I'm assuming it's great.

That was on PBS at like 3 in the morning the other night and I was too drunk to enjoy it. From what I saw it looked awesome.

Magic Hate Ball
May 6, 2007

ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this
I don't know why they do that. They've done it with the Met Opera stuff as well. Why can't they just show Bob Ross reruns and save prime-time slots for something people (i.e., me :v: ) actually want to see?

Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 04:52 on May 4, 2010

Call Me Charlie
Dec 3, 2005

by Smythe
A section on Blu-Ray drives, software players and AnyDVD HD would be good for the OP. Drives are getting pretty cheap, software players (Arcsoft/WinDVD/PowerDVD) aren't total poo poo anymore and with AnyDVDHD, goodbye region coding/unskipable trailers. It would be a decent solution for somebody with a computer already hooked up to their TV.

And bad movie knight's idea

bad movie knight posted:

I think it would be interesting to democratically compile a Top 10 list of the best-looking Blu-Rays, the ones with the best supplements, etc. Kind of like a newbie guide to Blu-Ray, or like a readymade CineD Blu-Ray LibraryŽ.

---------

Warner has been doing a terrific job with their classics lately but it is a tragedy they skipped over Barry Lyndon. That needs a Blu-Ray release so bad :(

doctor thodt
Apr 2, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
If you wanted to write up a little blurb for me I'd be more than happy to put it in the op, seeing as how I know next to nothing about computer-based playback.

But yeah we could do that list thing...

doctor thodt fucked around with this message at 14:42 on May 4, 2010

Nut Bunnies
May 24, 2005

Fun Shoe
I liked the list idea. Should we just do Top 10 Overall or do Best A/V, Best Supplements, etc.?

e:fb

Add Best Concert Blu and Best TV Blu, I guess

Nut Bunnies fucked around with this message at 06:18 on May 4, 2010

doctor thodt
Apr 2, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
TV's good, be surprised if anyone here has even watched 10 concert Blus though.

Fat Lou
Jan 21, 2008

Desert Heat? I thought it was Dessert Heat. No wonder it tastes so bad.

Captain Charisma posted:

I liked the list idea. Should we just do Top 10 Overall or do Best A/V, Best Supplements, etc.?

Honestly, I would say keep it simple and just do best overall. If the Blade-Runner Blu-Ray is not in the top ten I will break a Blu-Ray in half.

Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.

Bacon55555 posted:

Honestly, I would say keep it simple and just do best overall. If the Blade-Runner Blu-Ray is not in the top ten I will break a Blu-Ray in half.

You're probably right, though separate categories for modern movies and classics would be better since it's too hard to pick just 10 overall.

doctor thodt
Apr 2, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Fine, fine.

Modern
Baraka
Minority Report
Up
Blade Runner
Avatar
Casino Royale
Mad Men
Crank
Hot Fuzz
Band of Brothers

Classic
North by Northwest
Last Year at Marienbad
The Prisoner
Battleship Potemkin
The Wages of Fear
Pinocchio
The African Queen
The General
The Third Man
The Wizard of Oz

Vargo
Dec 27, 2008

'Cuz it's KILLIN' ME!
I tried to ask this on the last thread, but it got shuffled in the fray.

Is there any people who would be interested in setting up Blu-Ray Live viewing parties? We could all pick a movie and "Live-blog" it, either on here or on the chat features they have.

Budzilla
Oct 14, 2007

We can all learn from our past mistakes.

I think a worst Blu Ray category would be rather pointless. Too subjective (especially with PQ), just recommend in the OP for buyers steer away from discs with MPEG-2 codecs since most earlier releases of Blu Ray aren't too hot.

Butthole Prince
Nov 19, 2004

She said that she was working for the ABC News / It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use.

Budzilla posted:

I think a worst Blu Ray category would be rather pointless. Too subjective (especially with PQ), just recommend in the OP for buyers steer away from discs with MPEG-2 codecs since most earlier releases of Blu Ray aren't too hot.

Maybe a list of titles that are universally agreed upon as something to avoid might be helpful. I know I always wondered why Patton was always on sale.

Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.
Modern
Blade Runner
Star Trek
Up
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Minority Report
Braveheart
Iron Man
Fallen Angels
Band of Brothers
Speed Racer

Classic
Gone with the Wind
The Wizard of Oz
Casablanca
2001: A Space Odyssey
Dr. Strangelove
Star Trek: The Original Series
North by Northwest
The General
The Searchers
The Godfather Collection (is that going far back enough to be considered classic?)

Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.
Atom Egoyan's Chloe is being released July 13, so if you ever wanted to see Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried have naked lesbian sex in glorious 1080p, here's your chance.

doctor thodt
Apr 2, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I say this every time WB releases a new digibook, but man, what a gorgeous presentation they've given Zhivago. Why can't all Blu-Rays come like this? I don't even like Elvis all that much, but I'll probably buy the Elvis digibook when it comes out just for shits and giggles.

Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.
Word on the web is Saving Private Ryan has some syncing issues. How does a problem like this make it to store shelves? Do these studios not watch their movies before they press them to discs?

Truther Vandross
Jun 17, 2008

Bambi posted:

Word on the web is Saving Private Ryan has some syncing issues. How does a problem like this make it to store shelves? Do these studios not watch their movies before they press them to discs?


Apparently the issue lasts a minute at the most and isn't incredibly noticeable even when it is there, according to people on blu-ray.com.

I'm buying it anyway. Worst comes to worst, they do the replacement deal, but it sounds like the problem isn't even worth the trouble.

Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.
I agree that it's not a huge deal, it's just amazing to me that there should even be such a problem on such a significant release.

Dancing Peasant
Jul 19, 2003

All this for stealing a piece of bread? :waycool:

I bought Speed Racer on a whim to see if it could pass the color test on a new HDTV that I had bought.

As one can say, it passed with flying colors. Especially the last racing scene, goddamn.

KingKapalone
Dec 20, 2005
1/16 Native American + 1/2 Hungarian = Totally Badass
You could add some common terms that are thrown around in here. Not everyone knows what DNR is. Describe and give an example or link to something that does.

qbert
Oct 23, 2003

It's both thrilling and terrifying.

sportsgenius86 posted:

Apparently the issue lasts a minute at the most and isn't incredibly noticeable even when it is there, according to people on blu-ray.com.

I'm buying it anyway. Worst comes to worst, they do the replacement deal, but it sounds like the problem isn't even worth the trouble.

It seems like some people are experiencing the issue, and others aren't. So it could just be a bad batch. Either way I just got my copy in the mail and can't wait until I get home from work to check it out.

E.G.G.S.
Apr 15, 2006

Yeah, my copy of the movie doesn't have any audio sync problems at all.

Jay Dub posted:

I haven't noticed anything so far either. Whereabout in the film is there supposed to be sound problems?

People are experiencing it after the Chapter 15 break.

E.G.G.S. fucked around with this message at 21:41 on May 4, 2010

Jay Dub
Jul 27, 2009

I'm not listening
to youuuuu...
I haven't noticed anything so far either. Whereabout in the film is there supposed to be sound problems?

fattypigfatty
Feb 18, 2007

a walking stereotype of self-indulgence
Fun Shoe
Yeah what is DNR anyway, obviously not the Department of Natural Resources.

Robert Analog
Feb 16, 2008

shyah
Do not resuscitate?

On topic I pre-ordered the Vengeance Trilogy and I'm pretty excited about that. I own about 16-20 blurays and most of them have been pretty high quality, except Goodfellas which looks exactly like the DVD version which kinda looked like the VHS version.

Cemetry Gator
Apr 3, 2007

Do you find something comical about my appearance when I'm driving my automobile?
What the hell is this DNR stuff and why is everyone so angry about it

Digital Noise Reduction or DNR is a tool used to remove analog artifacts from a digital hi-def master, such as film grain. Usage can run from making heavily grainy images look a little clearer and better, since heavy grain can look bad and be considered distracting to eradicating any trace of film grain in an image. However, DNR will also distort finer details, and too much will make them disappear. For instance, clothes will lose individual fibers and look like clay. Faces will become waxy. Eyebrows will become mats of hair.

In some ways, DNR is hi-def's Loudness War - a legitimate complaint that does ruin certain releases but often it is just something people make too big of a deal about. You will see many people looking at screen shot comparing the graniness and complaining if an image is slightly less grainy than the other, saying that it is waxy and lacking in fine detail.

In other words, anyone bitching about Band of Brothers.

Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.
I think Goodfellas is a huge step up from the DVD *shrug*. The lossy audio is kind of a bummer though.

No sync issues with SPR on my PS3. It could conceivably be a defect in the disc that's causing only certain players to sync out for that brief period, but like the op states, PS3 owns.

RhymesWithTendon
Oct 12, 2000

Cemetry Gator posted:

What the hell is this DNR stuff and why is everyone so angry about it
This would be a great addition to the OP along with a screenshot showing what DNR looks like. This site has a good comparison of Pan's Labyrinth with and without DNR. A capture from Patton could be a good example of why it's controversial.

Nut Bunnies
May 24, 2005

Fun Shoe
Edge enhancement should be mentioned too.

doctor thodt
Apr 2, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I'm out of town for a few days and it's hard to edit from my phone, but yeah I'll add a glossary of common terms when I get back (DNR/EE/lossy/lossless/whatever).

Volcasarus ReX
Apr 1, 2010

I guess I might be one of the youngest guys on here cause I would have put blade runner under classics. I'm assuming that by classics most of you mean black and white though.

Also I would like to add that maybe a mention of the LG Players in the OP for people that are not trying to spend a lot of money but still enjoy the format. I picked up the LG-BD370 for around 150 awhile ago, and I have had zero issues with it so far. I was even able to play Avatar the Day it came out. Bluray.com gave it a 4.5 and I believe Cnet was around the same.

Might be a good recommendation for someone as a starter bluray player. (I plan on upgrading to an Oppo)

Volcasarus ReX fucked around with this message at 00:52 on May 5, 2010

FitFortDanga
Nov 19, 2004

Nice try, asshole

Volcasarus ReX posted:

I guess I might be one of the youngest guys on here cause I would have put blade runner under classics. I'm assuming that by classics most of you mean black and white though.

Half the stuff on thodt's and Bambi's "classics" lists are in color.

I guess the cut-off point is roughly 1980? I probably would have put Blade Runner under classics too.

Joe Der Maus
Mar 19, 2007

mouseketeerous rex
Another good place to find blu-ray screenshots is http://www.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/movies/screenshots
They update kidof slowly, but they have 20-30 shots from each film.

frumpsnake
Jan 30, 2001

The sad part is, he wasn't always evil.
Anyone wanting a region free player, do yourself a favour and go straight to one of the Oppo models. And I say that owning a modded Panasonic.

I don't see the point recommending a questionable quality Momitsu or good but soldering-required Panasonic when the modchips for the Oppos plug straight in and you know they're a good choice when it comes quality, customer support / timely firmware updates etc.

The only real thing against the cheaper BDP-80 compared to the comparable Panasonic is that it doesn't do 1080p24 for DVD, only 1080p60.

Volcasarus ReX
Apr 1, 2010

FitFortDanga posted:

Half the stuff on thodt's and Bambi's "classics" lists are in color.

I guess the cut-off point is roughly 1980? I probably would have put Blade Runner under classics too.

That seems about right. It's kinda scary to think about what crap movies are going to be considered classics when I'm in my 50s.

nuncle jimbo
Apr 3, 2009

:pcgaming:
Man, Saving Private Ryan would be the best bluray I own if not for the audio syncing. I'd probably ever have even noticed without you guys, but now I can't unsee it.

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Bambi
Jan 26, 2009

Any time you see Delekhan post, make this face and tell him how much he owns.

FitFortDanga posted:

Half the stuff on thodt's and Bambi's "classics" lists are in color.

I guess the cut-off point is roughly 1980? I probably would have put Blade Runner under classics too.

Speaking of this, why is nobody else doing it?

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