Blu VS DVD

[bigandya]

I always buy new films on Blu Ray, though these days I tend to wait for the price to tumble on 2nd rate movies (others I buy on the 1st week of release).

Older movies I upgrade whenever one is released I like. And if a special edition box set becomes available - like the Watchmen Ultimate Cut, the Back to the Future Tin - and all the steelbooks, then I try to get as many of them as possible.

I'm holding off on the Star Wars Blus til they go sub-£50, maybe even lower, and the LOTR Extendeds til they go sub-£30. I hung on for the JP tin and got it this morning for £27.97 - a bargain!

I still buy DVDs where there is no Blu Ray release - like Code Red's Nightmare and Night of the Demon, but most of the time I wait for sub-£7 prices on DVDs.

[Daemonia]

Originally Posted by Prince_Vajda

It's similar to optical computer drives or mainboards - you have to upgrade your device to make sure that it recognises the newest blank discs or random access memory modules.

From time to time, you have to download new operating software (i.e. firmware) for your Blu-ray player so that you can play all the newest discs - which are manufactured to standards that are subject to changes.

You can do this via USB stick, LAN, or the world wide web - it depends on your player's connectivity.

And, yes - it can be quite a pain in the bum.

Greetings!

You can also easily download the latest firmware from the manufacturer's website and burn the data to CD and load it onto your BD player that way - that's how I do it and it's piss easy. But, to people who may not be technically minded, it can seem a bit daunting and will certainly put people off the format. Basically, the BD profile should be finalised once and for all and all players should now come out as standard. They've had more than enough time now to get it right. But I think one of the problems is that the distributors keep introducing new copyright protection or encode their discs with complex Java code, which requires the players to have a firmware update.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

You can also easily download the latest firmware from the manufacturer's website and burn the data to CD and load it onto your BD player that way - that's how I do it and it's piss easy. But, to people who may not be technically minded, it can seem a bit daunting and will certainly put people off the format. Basically, the BD profile should be finalised once and for all and all players should now come out as standard. They've had more than enough time now to get it right. But I think one of the problems is that the distributors keep introducing new copyright protection or encode their discs with complex Java code, which requires the players to have a firmware update.

With my Samsung Blu-ray player updates only work via USB stick with a size of more than 1 GB and not via CD. My player could also be directly connected to a router in order to download updates - but it doesn't work with my specific router. That's "technically minded" for you.

But I totally agree with the rest of your statement.

Greetings!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

It all sounds a right load of bollocks to me.

Buy a disc, stick it in the player, watch it. - Simples.

[Sobral]

It's not as if you have to update it every month...
In my case, for example, I bought my player almost an year ago and never had to do it, yet.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Sobral

It's not as if you have to update it every month...
In my case, for example, I bought my player almost an year ago and never had to do it, yet.

It also depends on the Blu-rays that you're buying. Some run without problems on older players, others make problems even with the newest equipment.

But it's true: there was only one update that I HAD to install within a year - most of the other ones simply boosted the start procedure of certain Blu-rays.

Greetings!

[Baseball Fury]

This is why the PS3 is the ultimate BD player for your average "man on the street". Great picture quality, great loading times and auto updating. It even has built in wi-fi.

[keirarts]

Originally Posted by Baseball Fury

This is why the PS3 is the ultimate BD player for your average "man on the street". Great picture quality, great loading times and auto updating. It even has built in wi-fi.

Fully agree there, my ps3 updates with every new game. I put killzone 3 in and voila! I can now play 3d blus!

Still think that the manufacturers need to quit it with the firmware updates. At work last night and had another customer getting dvd's telling me he'd had it with blu's not playing. I explained the firmware updating to him and the poor bloke just looked frightened. Truthfully Blu-ray is taking off, but the sales dont reflect the early days of dvd and I suspect the firmware issue could be at least a part of the problem (not discounting downloads, sky box office ect)

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Baseball Fury

This is why the PS3 is the ultimate BD player for your average "man on the street". Great picture quality, great loading times and auto updating. It even has built in wi-fi.

But it's still a bit expensive - if I only want to watch Blu-rays, that is...

Greetings!

[Baseball Fury]

£170 for the base model? Thats the same price as a mid range 3D player with wi-fi. Add in the 4OD, iPlayer etc,plus all the file type support, network streaming and it's not expensive at all.

Everyone has a different definition of value though