Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Overlooked Blu-ray attribute.
Overlooked Blu-ray attribute.
by chesterdkat - 4/24/09 9:07 AMAll discussions of Blu-ray seem to focus on the picture quality. While picture quality is better with Blu-ray (and I'd have to conceed that DVD players with upscaling offer very good picture quality) Sony claims that Blu-ray audio is "uncompressed" and thus of higher quality as compared to standard DVD. When we purchased a Blu-ray player we definitely noted much better and cleaner sound with greater definition with our 5.1 surround sound system.
Agreed
by LenSp - 4/24/09 4:43 PM In reply to: Overlooked Blu-ray attribute. by chesterdkatAgreed. The sound on the Blu-ray discs with good sound is absolutely stunning on my 5.1 system.
But, then, so is the picture quality. Using Netflix, I've been watching seasons 1 and 2 of the BBC show Torchwood. Season 1 was available in Blu-ray, season 2 isn't at the moment. And on my 61" TV, I can definitely see the difference. The upscaled DVD is good, especially in camera shots close in. But the distance shots are noticeably less crisp than the Blu-Ray distance shots. I definitely found this less visual acuity a tad distracting at times while watching Season 2 on DVD. The lower quality is enough for me to wait for Battlestar Galactica to come out on Blu-Ray first, before I move it to the top of my Netflix queue.
I am streaming from Hulu and Netflix, but only anime/animation since only traditional cartoons look good via streaming (probably due to the lower number of details in a cartoon versus real world camera work). The real stuff just looks bad on the big screen.
Yeah but...
by Nicholas Buenk - 4/24/09 11:08 PM In reply to: Overlooked Blu-ray attribute. by chesterdkatIt's an old technology. Optical is on the way out. All that would be requires to actually stream a blu Ray video, infact is fios. This stuff is going to be taken over by streaming before it takes off.
Blu Ray might have great quality. But streaming can catch up in a handful of years.
And 720p streaming already exists which of course blows away DVD.
What about...
by chesterdkat - 4/25/09 5:40 AM In reply to: Yeah but... by Nicholas BuenkOf course the technology is simple to deliver the quality of Blu-ray by download but, there are still a lot of obstacles to giving real value. Look at music where a still compressed 256 kb song is being sold for about the same cost as physical media if not more. With physical media you get an uncompressed and of higher quality experience with an included and great archival method. I personally buy used music CD's often through Amazon for a few dollars before I will pay retail for a compressed album at full retail price and with no physical media. There is also the security of having that physical media in the event of a hard drive failure as well as the ability to re-rip to the up and coming format or gadget out on the horizon. I love Apple today however in 5 years will I have to throw away or spend countless days reconverting expensive sub quality content to work with the next great gadget? Blu-ray quality streamed to your home is some years off with ISP's playing with bandwidth caps after all they are trying to make you buy your media content from them because they are monopolies. Can you imagine Comcast's 250 GB cap and streaming several 50 GB Blu-ray quality movies? From my personal experience with Comcast this 2 hour movie would take 6 hours from Comcast (2 hours of movie and 4 hours of buffering or a massively pixelated picture). We'll first need a service offering competitively priced dumb pipes with no agenda to steer you to a video and or phone service. It seems to me we will have spent on nice A/V equipment only to watch and listen to sub quality content for the coming years if we choose only to stream our content. I'll stick with Blu-ray and Netflix until I see a better alternative.
Yes
by Nicholas Buenk - 4/26/09 1:15 AM In reply to: What about... by chesterdkatThe technology is there, the economics will be harder.
Situation with music, iPods plays apple lossless and it's not that hard to convert FLAC to apple lossless and being lossless there is of course no quality loss.
I listen to mainly classical and film scores. A type of music that is more sensitive to sound quality. Many record companies now have web sites selling the music in flac for some extra money.
With regards to movies though, I think it will be a long time before they have comparable bit rates to blu ray online, but I think they'll offer 1080p video at a lower bit rate that will still be very competitive.
I wouldn't hold my breath.
by Renegade Knight - 4/27/09 2:25 PM In reply to: Yeah but... by Nicholas BuenkISP's are clamping down on the bandwidth that streaming will take even now. I may like the option but unless ISP's get with the program or the governments treats the internet like the utility it's become our caps and access restrictions will prevent it from happening.
Streaming reliability
by LenSp - 4/30/09 5:26 PM In reply to: Yeah but... by Nicholas BuenkWhile I do use streaming for the anime and it looks solid, it's reliability is inconsistent. The stream gets interrupted a lot for various reasons, often forcing me to go down two floors to fiddle with the computer. There's just too many variables involved -- software, media extenders, ISP's, and the video sites all have to work right.
With a disc, as long as the disc isn't scratched (a risk with Netflix), the experience is just more reliable. And for ownership purposes, you just can't beat having a physical item.
Good point...
by dovad - 5/1/09 8:59 AM In reply to: Streaming reliability by LenSpSurely physical media is most reliable and a great point! I've personally had pretty good luck streaming content although the quality is not quite on par with a physical DVD and a good bit less than Blu-ray. I believe you may have a better experience with a box that is dedicated such as the Roku Box or one of the various Blu-ray players that support streaming online content. We also are fortunate to have Verizon FiOS in our neighborhood and have a speedy and solidly reliable 20/5 connection.
Actually
by Nicholas Buenk - 5/1/09 2:50 PM In reply to: Good point... by dovadHehe, I think optical media is probably less reliable than steaming.
Scratches... Ever used DVD rentals much? So many fail to play properly...
I completely gave up on CD's in 2003.... yet
by minimalist - 5/1/09 7:25 PM In reply to: Actually by Nicholas BuenkI still hold strong to DVD's and Blu-ray. Why?
Because even back then it was easy to rip your CD's and create a massive library that could be moved around at will. DRM didn't get in the way. You didn't need to waste 45 minutes ripping and then twice that time transcoding etc.
I think the downloading-and-streaming-video-is-going-to-take-over-physical-media apologists forget that the reason mp3's took over so quickly is that everyone's back catalogs of CD's were so easily converted to the new format and the resulting files were small and easy to manage.
None of this is true with video. We are still in the dark ages with DRM on streaming and downloadable video content and there are a other dozen obstacles all keeping downloadable and streaming video from reaching that ease of use we are accustomed to with digital music (data caps, fickle licensing agreements, proprietary formats that can;t be backed up or moved to other devices, etc, etc).
Don't agree
by Nicholas Buenk - 5/2/09 12:23 AM In reply to: I completely gave up on CD's in 2003.... yet by minimalistConverting a DVD to another format is as easy as converting a CD to mp3.
However, it does take a lot more time.
I could use a program like handbrake, to put all my DVD's into my iTunes library.
But yes, there are many problems with online video distribution, which is why it has yet to take off.
But I'm confident it will faster than blu ray will.
I love my Blu-ray player but
by minimalist - 5/1/09 6:28 AM In reply to: Overlooked Blu-ray attribute. by chesterdkataudio quality is just not a huge selling point to mainstream customers.
You can tell by looking at their priorities. People routinely spend 1500-2000 dollars on a big TV but rarely do you see people buy anything more than a cheap 300-400 dollar HTIAB for their audio system. You arne't going to hear the quality difference on five speakers and amp that sell for that price.
That said, what people will notice (aside from resolution) is the increased contrast, color depth and and overall richness of a Blu-ray picture compared to DVD's.
Streaming and downloads may become the norm in 10 years but not anytime soon. They have a lot more hurdles to overcome than just bandwidth (data caps, licensing agreements that make movies available one day but not the next, intrusive DRM, proprietary formats that stay locked to one box, etc)
I'm sure that you are right...
by dovad - 5/1/09 8:20 AM In reply to: I love my Blu-ray player but by minimalistI have to agree with your assessment of the typical household and their chosen sound system. While my wife and I spent a multiple of 4-5x your estimate ours is still far less than a great system. We DO clearly hear the difference in sound quality between the compressed audio of standard DVD and Blu-ray and are very pleased with having added Blu-ray to our home movie experience. We don't collect Blu-ray movies and own only a couple but choose to use NetFlix. I feel that the price of Blu-ray movies will fall to DVD levels eventually and perhaps then we'll buy a few "keepers".
The one thing that is fascinating to me is how easily "we" who have enjoyed "uncompressed lossless" music on CD's for almost the last 25 years are so quickly willing to pay as much for crappy compressed online downloads. It would be great if out of protest everyone would not download a single song for a day to get the message that we are not willing to compromise quality and value for impulsiveness. A pipe dream I'm afraid.
Oh well, food for thought!
I don't miss CD's all that much
by minimalist - 5/1/09 7:11 PM In reply to: I'm sure that you are right... by dovadI have boxes of hundreds of CD's and decent sound system (NAD Amp and mid 90's Cambridge Soundworks sats and dual subs back before they got into the cheap computer speaker market).
Yet I don;t miss CD's at all. The convenience of having everything streaming from a central music hub controlled by the iPhones and the Touches in our household is fantastic and when you pump that supposedly crappy music through a decent amp and speaker you realize its not so much the mp3's that are lacking its the cheap speakers and headphones through which most people play them. I am of the belief that the speakers are always the weakest link.
I'm still using a simple stereo setup to watch blu-rays and that suits me just fine. When it comes time to upgrade I'll likely spend the bulk of the money on quality speakers. Codecs change so often that the idea of keeping an amp for 20 years anymore is absurd.
Missing CD's...
by dovad - 5/2/09 6:35 AM In reply to: I don't miss CD's all that much by minimalistI don't miss the physical CD's either. I've ripped my CD collection to a lossless format (hard drives are really cheap these days) and play it through either a Roku SoundBridge or Apple Airport Express to my A/V equip. I control both the SoundBridge and Airport Express with my iPhone using terrific apps. I'm not sacrificing any quality or convenience to say the least. It seems to me that to purchase 128 or even the recently available 256 kbs compressed versions of music you are taking a step backwards when even a lossless version which is a compressed file but with no loss of highs, lows or any quality shakes out to between 800-1000 kbs. The masses bailing on CD's works for me, I've purchased a good amount of used CD's for just a few dollars including shipping. I just don't feel like paying full price for a compromised product for the sake of some convenience. For what it's worth I'm certain when lossless comes into vogue for downloads the likes of Amazon and Apple will cheerfully upgrade everyone for a cost.
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