Upgrade your DVD's to Blu-Ray inexpensively!

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Upgrade your DVD's to Blu-Ray inexpensively!

ascroft

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#61357 14-May-2010 20:35

Wouldn't it be good if you could do this?

I see you can in the US to some extent. Warner are offering this.

I will never buy Blu-Ray until:
- I see an inexpensive way to get to 3D in due course.
- A DVD version on the back of the disk
- Oh, and not charging me $50 a disk.

I think the industry is having us on, with hardware upgrades then expecting content to be re-purchased from scratch. And lets be honest, how many of us have bought DVDs and never really watched them again or not often anyway. Think we have woken up to this.

I would only ever rent Blu-Rays. And interesting that most movie rental places have bugger all of those...

No wonder Blu-Ray hasn't really taken off. Sony is just been too greedy. I think they need an economics lesson in pricing and volumes.

I suspect the future is Google, and online content, and probably sooner than you think.

Goodbye Sony - you had your chance and you blu it..........

"Artificial Intelligence" - aka Machine Learning 2.0

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#330226 14-May-2010 20:56

I've never paid $50 for a BlueRay (or DVD for that matter).

The 3 BluRays I own hs cost $19.99 $24.99 and $29.

3d? A gimmack until the need for glasses is gone.....or leave it a theatre experience.

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Wade

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#330410 15-May-2010 16:13

If you start buying BD moving forward you will be fine, your BD colelction will grow and your DVD collection is still useable, unless you want to replace your entire DVD collection with the respective BD versions? But other than a select few i would imagine you wouldn't want ot do that. No doubt there will be additional recoveries agaisnt new equipment so isn't it fair the movie companies reap some payback?

Dunnersfella

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#330482 15-May-2010 19:35

Blu Ray players are dropping in price, movies will eventually do the same.
Right now, NZ interweb takes its sweet time for a majority of people, so popping a disc in works well.
Remember, not everyone downloads movies and streams them to their screen... that's a serious minority.
The Blu Ray media is here for a while me thinks, heck don't be surprised to see 4 mill pixels as the next format...

ilovemusic

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#330504 15-May-2010 20:45

Blu-ray is great !

The picture and sound quality is superb (if you have the display and sound system to show off BD properly).

The players have come down tremendously, from the first Sonys and Panasonics at ~$3k+ to the latest Sony at only $288.

If you can resist the urge to buy BDs when they first come out, you can usually find them for well under rrp if you shop around a bit. Places like the Warehouse usually has big discounts every few months as well as regular $10 specials.

What's not to like ?

:)

lchiu7

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#330519 15-May-2010 21:41

Well I have about 50 BD at the moment and growing. I recently, because my TV died connectd my PS3 up to my Vivtek 1080P projector on a 100" screen and watched The Dark Knight. The PQ, especially in scenes shot in Imax so they took up most of the screen, was outstanding. In fact I am now thinking that rather than pay $30-$40 to take the kids to the movies, just wait a few months for the BD to come out and watch it at home instead.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

70mm

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#330692 16-May-2010 17:55

If you shop between Amazon USA and Amazon UK you can pick up great bargins on Blu-ray, thats the way I buy most of mine. I still buy and collect films I call special or classics, I want them in my collection. I rent the ones I dont want to keep.

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bazzer

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#330708 16-May-2010 18:24

Did you get cheap copies of all your LPs/tapes when CD came out?

ascroft

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#330726 16-May-2010 20:07

I don't recall....

Good comments. To be honest I am pondering a blu ray player......

Just got a new Samsung 40" LCD full HD - series 5 so might be the time....

"Artificial Intelligence" - aka Machine Learning 2.0

bazzer

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#330771 17-May-2010 00:45

ascroft: I don't recall....

Pretty sure the answer is no. There's no compulsion to "upgrade" your existing library to BD. If I could swap for a nominal fee I suppose I would., but even $10 would probably be enough to convince me not to bother for the majority of my discs.

Kiwipixter

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#330787 17-May-2010 07:29

ascroft: Wouldn't it be good if you could do this?

I see you can in the US to some extent. Warner are offering this.

I will never buy Blu-Ray until:
- I see an inexpensive way to get to 3D in due course.
- A DVD version on the back of the disk
- Oh, and not charging me $50 a disk.

Good to get that off your chest, but youre misinformed on a fews things. Blu-ray has taken off, just a bit slower in NZ. Blu-ray sales globally is at a much faster rate than what DVD was. Bluray discs and players are getting cheaper by the day, but paying $50 for a bluray is like paying $5 for a loaf of bread at the service station. You know you can get it much cheaper elsewhere.

I think the industry is having us on, with hardware upgrades then expecting content to be re-purchased from scratch. And lets be honest, how many of us have bought DVDs and never really watched them again or not often anyway. Think we have woken up to this.

So how do you explain the popularity of DVDs? People do re-watch and likes the convenience of having it handy instead of going to a rental store.

I would only ever rent Blu-Rays. And interesting that most movie rental places have bugger all of those...

Rentals are not good indicators. I can remember DVD weren't widely available and having to buy my DVDs.

I suspect the future is Google, and online content, and probably sooner than you think.

Goodbye Sony - you had your chance and you blu it..........

Yes and no. NZ don't have the infrastructure, and cheap enough, to stream 1080p contents. When we do have the infrastructure, streaming will mostly likely to replace the rental market, but not purchases. HD streaming is widely available in the US, yet blu-ray growth is massive there, as is in Japan.

Lastly, blu-ray is the only medium where you can get the best (currently) 1080p and HD audio content for your LCD/plasma and audio systems.

clevedon

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#330790 17-May-2010 07:40

ascroft: Wouldn't it be good if you could do this?

I see you can in the US to some extent. Warner are offering this.

I will never buy Blu-Ray until:
- I see an inexpensive way to get to 3D in due course.
- A DVD version on the back of the disk
- Oh, and not charging me $50 a disk.

I think the industry is having us on, with hardware upgrades then expecting content to be re-purchased from scratch. And lets be honest, how many of us have bought DVDs and never really watched them again or not often anyway. Think we have woken up to this.

I would only ever rent Blu-Rays. And interesting that most movie rental places have bugger all of those...

No wonder Blu-Ray hasn't really taken off. Sony is just been too greedy. I think they need an economics lesson in pricing and volumes.

I suspect the future is Google, and online content, and probably sooner than you think.

Goodbye Sony - you had your chance and you blu it..........

We've got over 80 Blu-rays and never paid $50 for one, even got Band Of Brothers six disc set for $46.
Also rent from Fatso and they have a large selection of Blu-ray, can't even remember the last time we have even watched a DVD.
I don't agree that Blu-ray hasn't taken off, behind maybe in sales numbers, but I know a lot of people with Blu-ray/PS3 players now.
Online content downloads - ten years away before speeds/caps allow it economically.

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#330807 17-May-2010 09:20

We had the DVD version of Roy Orbison's "Black and White Night" (one of my favourite music DVDs) then the BD came out. Last week I bought the BD version for $19.99 from JB HiFi in Queen St, Auckland, and at the same time Marbecks in Queen Arcade had it for $39.99! Gave the DVD version to a friend.

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Handsomedan

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#330810 17-May-2010 09:41

Just out of interest - I often format shift my DVD's to watch them on my iPhone while I am out of town etc.

Is it as easy to do this with BD's?

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Paulthagerous

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#330812 17-May-2010 09:45

I have 8 Blurays I can think of, a moderate amount I know. The reason I watch so many blu-rays is the amazing quality. However, my parents would rather spend 3 times as much and get a disc than a 'digital download' or stream off the net. Even if we could stream at 1080p legally for free, they would still buy a disc, as to many non-geeks having the physical media is worth it. Heck, I am happy with digital distribution, but there is something about having a disc..

Oh, and for my discs, I got 2 as presents, 3 off trademe for just under $20 each and the other 3 I paid about $30 each for new releases. Anyone that pays $50 for a standard edition blu-ray ought to shop around. I remember when DVD came out some places gouged the uninitiated worse than this...

An example after 2 mins checking: Avatar, Bluray, $31.95 brand new.

http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/dvds/Avatar-%28Blu-ray%29?SKU=1397851

lchiu7

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#330836 17-May-2010 10:38

Handsomedan: Just out of interest - I often format shift my DVD's to watch them on my iPhone while I am out of town etc.

Is it as easy to do this with BD's?

Not so easy. There's only one that I am aware of, tool that is free and can rip Bluray discs and that's in beta still. .There is commercial software around. But if you're going to rip for the iPhone might as well use the DVD as the source since you won't see the PQ difference.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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