I’ve been eagerly awaiting Iron Man’s dvd release for months now and just earlier this week I was on Amazon.com, all ready to purchase it ( and a few other titles like Horton Hears a Who ! ).
That was when I spotted the price for the 2 disc edition Blu-ray release :
Bollocks ! For a modest 3 dollars extra I can savor Pepper Potts in glorious HD, and that’s when little Blu-ray thoughts starting spinning wildly in my head : Should I go HD ?
Here’s the thing : I already have a HDCP compliant BENQ 24 inch widescreen monitor ( HD movie trailers on apple.com are a blast to watch ), significantly bigger than my Sony Trinitron TV, so I’m only a blu-ray drive ( and a cheap graphics card ) away from HD awesomeness, all which can be had for a total of less than 200 dollars. Why not, huh ? Blu-ray’s definitely going to replace standard dvds in the near future, so isn’t it smarter to switch earlier rather than later ?
I think the only major downside here is that some Blu-ray releases are still rather barebones ( when it comes to extra features ), so if there’s a 2 or 3 disc standard dvd release packed with extras I’ll be stuck deciding which I should get, and I’m certainly not rich enough to doubledip.
(above) Some dvds that I bought after coming to Tokyo. I’m a movie geek.
I’m sure some of you out there have already made the jump to HD; I’ll be more than happy to hear your comments, suggestions, even caveats, if any.
8
Star Wars The Complete Saga Blu-ray
Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon) Blu-ray Review
TRON : Legacy
Sukiyaki Western Django
Mononoke Hime ( Princess Mononoke ) Blu-ray Review
October 5th, 2008 at 5:51 am
I bought Iron Man in BRDVD and oh-my-gosh…it is AMAZING. And I’ve seen the difference between DVD and BRDVD. It’s nothing to shake a stick at.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Definitely go for Blu-ray. I only have 3 movies on Blu-ray (Iron Man is one of them, and it’s gorgeous), but I’ve rented lots… they’re definitely worth it.
I personally use my computer’s Blu-ray drive, and output the video from my computer to my HDTV, but I used to just use my 27″ monitor and even on that there was a big difference between DVD and Blu-ray.
That said, you should definitely look into how many titles are coming out on DVD that aren’t coming out on Blu-ray, and also look at price differences, as this $3 price difference is usually not the case (my Iron Man 2-disc was $35, so about $10-15 more than the DVD).
October 5th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Ugh, seems since I had javascript disabled my comment didn’t appear T_T
Shorter version now, I guess:
Definitely go for the Blu-ray. I got my Iron Man 2-disc Blu-ray the day it came out and it was beautiful. I use an HDTV to watch Blu-ray movies now, but I used to use my 27″ monitor and the difference from DVD to Blu-ray was still noticeable.
Keep in mind, though, that this “$3 difference” won’t apply to every release. In fact, I paid $35 for my Iron Man Blu-ray, which was I assume $10-15 more than the DVD.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:50 am
I’d say Go HD! 😀
The media and player prices are slowly going down while the number of available titles (even some good ones) is on a steady rise. Even labels from HK have started to release their titles on Blu-ray.
I’ve imported a US PS3 as a second Blu-ray Disc player and I don’t regret it for a second. Of course it all depends on you display, do you use your BENQ to watch whole movies?
October 5th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I have some experience in this area.
I know exactly your feeling of wanting to collect every illustration book or DVD of works that you love justifying it as reference or just wanting to own a part of it etc. This is how I was for many many many many years. I began to feel burdened by all the stuff and finally felt I need to just “get rid of it all”
With DVDs I sold my collection about 6 years ago (about 150 DVDs) every single one of them. But in 3 years I managed to rebuild another collection of over 100 again (different titles though). Anyways, with Blu-ray I decided if I bought a DVD it would only be Blu-ray, I’d stop collecting standard DVDs. Also, I got rid of all my standard DVDs again and sold them all earlier this year. The truth is you don’t need to own these titles. When you need to watch it you can just go to the rental shop and get it. Now I only own about a dozen or so Blu-ray discs and probably won’t be accumulating them at the same pace as before since Tsutaya now rents Blu-rays.
I’ve done this with CDs too. I used to own about 400-500 CDs but now I don’t even have one. Books are my worst vice and I’ve been less successful getting rid of them. I reduced by bookshelf to a hundred books earlier this year but now it already back up to 250+…Back in Canada I still have a huge collection of anime and manga books that one day I’m gonna bring back to Japan and sell.
It’s very liberating to rid yourself of the clutter, you ought to try it. I suggest an excellent book for you. I’ve given this book to many of my messy pat-rack friends and they started cleaning and decluttering immediately. You can get a lot out of this little book even if you’re not into Feng Shui as the title suggests.
http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Your-Clutter-Feng-Shui/dp/0767903595/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223173809&sr=8-3
Anyways, I know you’re question was about whether to go HD and not about getting rid of your standard DVDs. Well, the answer is YES YES YES!!! Go out and buy Ratatouille on Blu-ray and watch it on a Full HD TV. You’ll be totally blown away about how amazing it looks…
October 5th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
from your post i assume u are the type of person who like to watch DVD extras (making of, interviews etc) right? ya so do i. but i thought blu-ray has equal if not more extras than their DVD counterpart?
i can’t find the iron man dvd in stores here. it’s that hot selling… 🙁
October 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
BTW, from that photo it appears that many of your DVDs are still in the wrapping. Don’t you open them?
October 5th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
OMG. That’s a lot of movie titles you’ve got there!
My philosophy is somewhat similar to Roy. You don’t have to own every or most of the titles. I’ve titles that I bought and only watch once. Those titles definitely should be rented.
So currently, I’m limiting myself only to buying 3D animation movies, especially those from Pixar. They release 1 per year so it’s easy to keep up.
Everytime I want to buy non-related items, I’ll project into the future where that item is going to be in my room, and I won’t buy it after that.
At the moment, I’m just waiting for a Blu-ray software for the Mac to be released before I start buying Blu-ray discs. I can’t wait to watch WALL-E in HD. And maybe replace my DVD version of ratatouille to Blu-ray as well.
By the way, there’s an official ‘art of’ book for Iron man as well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0785133305?tag=parblo-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0785133305&adid=1MSKBJ8BZB8BDH4GESPR&
October 6th, 2008 at 1:41 am
For a movie freak like yourself there is no excuse to not go for HD as soon as possible 🙂
I have been enjoying it for more than a year now and can never go back.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
So did you manage to get your blue-ray drive 😉
p.s. its good seeing you again in tokyo 😀
October 6th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I see you have a super duper edition of Steamboy …..eh :-/
BUT what is going on with that huge AKIRA edition!! whats included?? I am an avid fan of akira 🙂 steamboy left me disappointed
October 7th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Wow…looks like everyone is in favor that blu-ray is the way to go…fantastic ! :] Thank you so much for all your advice and recommendations.
ClearTranquil/Calan – Cool ! I’m going to order Iron Man real soon !
Ulrik – I’ve actually been watching dvds on my television rather than my BENQ monitor, but I’ll be switching over once I get my blu-ray drive.
Roy – Thanks for the excellent advice. I think I’ll definitely be getting rid of my SD dvds and buying my blu-rays selectively. Oh and those dvds with the wrapping still on, I basically just made a slit on the cover so that I can take out the disc so many of them still have the wrappings on.
Gordon – Haha, you’re absolutely right, I dunno why I didn’t think of that – blu-ray has so much more storage potential there should be loads of extras indeed.
Parka – Thanks for the heads up on the Iron Man artbook !
Harry D – A year already ? Haha I must be ages behind time !
one – And you too. Thanks for the bagua. See you again soon !
RAM – That’s the 10th Anniversary edition, it has 2 discs and a storyboard book. I believe the blu-ray edition will be out early next year.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Like most of you out there, im in favour of Blu-Ray as well. The visual and audio quality is by no means many notches above the traditional DVD quality. After watching several movies watching it on Blu-Ray itself, theres no doubt that for the extra 3 bucks investing to get the HD version of the movie, its a steal.
But sometimes i must agree to build up a collection of Blu-rays is a tremendous amount of time and money to invest in. If you are a fan of movies and especially particular about quality, then blu ray is the way to go.
For me, my practice is that i would only buy movies in Blu ray if they are my favourite movies that i would watch again and again and have very high production values, or movies that are visually pleasing and have lots of very good cinematography or artistic direction to it.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Went through the same set of questions before I went Blu-ray. I am understand the dilemma of duplicating the library. I am currently selectively updating my library and choosing movies that I did not already own on std DVD’s. Looking at your library feels like staring at my own. There is a large overlap in the set of movies!
I picked out a bunch of Blu-ray’s from amazon, many I did not have but really wanted (The Fall, Ratatouille, Like of Brian etc…) and some that I already owned (Shining, etc…). I guess the duplication was worth it, shining, specifically, looks amazing. I think it was worth it. I would keep my DVD’s for a while though to lend to friends or so.
Coming back to the question at hand, yes definitely Blu-Ray. But I would keep an eye out for good deal DVD’s. It is much easier spotting good movies at good deals on DVD’s right now.