With HD DVD dead, we can look forward to a crystal clear future.

Its obvious that Blu Ray won't be leaving, as I've seen the number of titles in HMV go up.

With all the movies, and gangster ones, we have on DVD, what would you purchase again? And yes, your DVDs will play on a Blu Ray machine, so everything will not be replaced.

For me the following are definate candidates:

American Gangster.
Casino.
Die Hard 4.
Goodfellas.
I Am Legend.
Scarface(Pacino).
Transformers.

Will it make any difference whether you watch non-HD movies on Blu-ray or not? Does the original film master contain so much more content (audio or video) that was discarded while making DVDs? Granted the DVD uses compression, but.... Anyway I thought that Blu-ray format will make a difference only to new movies that are made in HD. Any one knows?

Blu-Ray is obviously the better choice, quality-wise, but I'd rather wait until prices go down to go out and buy a Blu-Ray player.

I don't think I'd replace any of my DVD's right away unless there were some Blu-Ray editions with a substantial amount of new special features for some of my favorites.

I'm with LLC here. Prices for HD players remained high (and content for them remained limited) as long as the format war was being fought. Now that Blu-Ray has won, there's no reason why prices shouldn't tumble drastically (and relatively quickly), just as they did for CD and DVD players not too long ago. And I'd expect all the studios to fall in line with HD DVD's. But, as LLC said, there's really no reason to change out all your existing DVDs unless the Blu-Ray edition offers more features, or if it's a gonads-out action movie that can be seriously enhanced by Blu-Ray.

SVSG: When existing movies are re-mastered for high definition discs, or shown on TV or cable stations that broadcast in HiDef, they don'thave more content per se. Rather, the higher capacity of HD enables more detail to be shown (or to be less compressed). But the quality of what you see still depends on how much skill and money the content owner is willing to invest in the enhanced product. I'm reminded of early CDs, which sounded tinny because the studios didn't really know how to take advantage of new digital recording and remastering techniques. I think it's going to be a few years before the movie and TV studios really get their arms around how they can produce new content that takes full advantage of hi-def.

Another thing which might have nothing to do with technology might come into play. They may artifically keep the prices premium, because that is supposed to be THE thing for quality. Like the cable tv companies that try to keep HD channels at a premium. Eventhough I have a beautiful HDTV, I get very channels in HD for my package. Prices of players will drop, but they will probably price the Blu-ray discs much higher than the usual DVD prices (though the technology itself will not be that costly for them).

They might try to do what you've predicted. But they'd probably realize that it'd be counterproductive. The figure of merit is to sell Blu-Ray discs, and toward that end, a cheaper player incents people to buy Blu-Ray discs--the old, give-away-the-razor-and-sell-the-blades equation. And Sony owns a stack of movies and music.

I agree that Blu-Ray disc prices will tend to remain relatively high, but the content owners will have to deal with a different equation: when DVDs came out, they were a clear-cut, head-and-shoulders, giant imporovement over VHS tapes. That was a big incentive for people to change out their VHS movies for the same ones on DVD. Now it's going to be (IMO) slower for people to change out their standard DVD movies for the same ones on Blu-Ray, because the difference will be less discernable than it was for DVD vs. VHS.

Does anybody think that Blu Ray will be destroyed by the current DVDs on offer?

I get the feeling that most people are happy with DVD and say that they are good so why would they want Blu Ray. Some people are also asking what is the difference in sound and picture quality.

It could be that a new technology is not ready to be introduced yet, especially as now the British people have paid millions of pounds for DVDs.

For the average viewer does any of this really matter? Or is it critical for the top-end viewer who has the mini-theatre type equipment with the big surround sound stuff.

It reminds of buying golf equipment. Do I have to have the club that Tiger Woods uses? I can buy a cheaper golf club and still have the same results.

The people who can really afford it will buy it. Especially the movie buffs who want the best edition soooooo bad!

Yes, that's another way of putting the issue I raised above:

The difference between VHS tape and DVD was significant, spectacular and instantly discernable to the average person. The difference between Blu-Ray and standard DVD won't be nearly as world-beating.

That's why pricing, more than technology, will be the critical issue.

I still have more VHS movies than DVDs. I mostly just buy them at garage sales where I can get them for $3 or less...

So Blu-Ray can get bent.

And hundreds of DVD titles can be found in a bin at Wal-Mart for $5 -- with some decent titles. The prices of standard DVDs have plummeted (at least compared to 10 years ago when I'd freak out and buy practically anything at $15 or less thinking I was getting a ridiculous bargain). Hell, a couple years ago even Amazon.com was selling multiple BOXED SETS for $15! I got a bunch of them, the first entire seasons of: Buffy, Angel, Futurama, Roswell, 24, and King of the Hill -- all for $15/season. (Actually I'm still not sure how that happened, but I'm glad I took advantage of it ).

When CDs came out, I remember picking up a few titles with my brand-spanking-new CD player. And I'm talking 1985-86. I did think the LP sound was much richer and fuller, but, the sound itself from a CD was remarkable (especially the all-digital ones (remember "AAD/ADD/DDD"?) DDD discs were superb. But there was still that *something* missing that only audiophiles would grasp. But the big deal was, CDs don't wear out, while LPs and certainly cassettes do.

When DVDs came out, I thought of it similarly. I bought my first DVD in '97 I think (Scarface), months before even getting a DVD player to play it on. Then I think The Wall, for digital picture and sound. I was like, VHS tapes suck big and wear out, maybe at least these "disc things" won't wear out. And at first that was pretty much the only difference -- you get VHS quality that never wears out. And that was a plus, but at $20-30/title, they'd have to be important titles. But after a few years, the quality as been VERY good for many, many titles -- even classic movies.

No, I never got into LP-sized laser discs, although I've bought a few titles on that format from ebay as collectibles, as well as some other formats that were around way-back but are since gone.

Now another 10 years later, I've seen HDTV, and have been fairly impressed. But not yet BLOWN AWAY (except for the highest-end models), but that's probably because most stores don't even have HD signals to display their TV's with. I don't know. I've never watched a Blu-Ray DVD, and haven't bought any yet because I don't yet have HDTV (waiting for prices to drop, and income to increase lol). But I certainly think that a Blu-Ray disc on an HDTV would RAWK compared to a standard DVD on a standard CRT TV.

The difference between HD DVD and Blu-Ray? I haven't a clue. Both have their pluses, from what I've read. Could be HD DVD is even better, I don't know. Sony Betamax was better than VHS, but yeah, you know which prevailed...

But at this point, there is no reason whatsoever to buy a VHS tape. It's 2008 for chrissakes. (But if someone wants to buy some, I'll send you a list of titles I have available lol)

With about 350 DVDs (including the fact that the past few years I've almost stopped buying just *anything* but essential titles), I won't be in any rush to replace them all, but once I get an HDTV, I *will* get a Blu-Ray player and start with *essential* titles...

I think those were too many words to state my current opinion... lol

A good HD source on a decent HDTV is amazing. I'm at the point where I don't even watch most SD channels anymore. Blu-ray is amazing too, but it also depends on the source. Older movies transfered to Blu-ray do not look as good as true HD Blu-ray disks. I recently purchased Goodfellas on Blu-ray, and was a little disappointed. It doesn't look a whole lot better than the DVD. On the other end of the spectrum, Disney/Pixar's animated movie "Cars" looks totally amazing on Blu-ray.

I'm sure that's what makes the difference -- either how well a movie is shot (newer Star Wars flicks shot entirely in digital) vs how well other films were shot/restored/preserved. ...but it's still gotta be a little better (all other things being equal) than standard definition, right?

It's definitely better than a regular DVD. It's just not "blow me away better" like some HD is. You get spoiled seeing true 1080p HD. Which leads to one negative thing about HDTV. For the most part SD TV does not looks as good on an HDTV as it does on a regular TV. This shouldn't be an issue for too much longer since by the end of the year, the number of HD channels available should be 100 or more with most providers.

Last I heard, 1080p was still a theory built into some high-end TVs... and that's exactly what I'd get -- but, last I heard there were NO 1080p signals anywhere yet.

In any event, I know what you mean -- my 36" Toshiba (standard CRT) is AWESOME for SD...! People are amazed, even those who overpaid for 36" Sony's... so there are many factors involved...!

Over the air, you are correct...I believe. I know my cable is as high as 1080i. AFAIK, all Blu-ray disks are encoded at 1080p (1920x1080 /24Hz). I know some DVD/Blu-ray players such as the PS3 can upconvert to 1080p. In my opinion "upconversion" is overrated because I see little difference in having the player convert the signal or my TV convert it.

I have no idea what any of those numbers mean

Yeah, I wasn't talking about up-conversion... I was wondering about TRUE progressive 1080... soon enough, I'm sure... I'd still get a 1080p TV, of course... hopefully within the year... but I still need to research LCD vs plasma... and I need (want) at least 46", so... gotta wait a bit...

I had a 32" Toshiba before I got the 61" Samsung. It was a great TV. I gave it to my sister, and she loves it.

You know what "69" means, right? Times that by 15.7, then you'd get around 1080.

I love mine, too! But I haven't done any HDTV research yet -- waiting 'til I'm in the market... I don't need 61", but surely I'd welcome it! lol Time will tell what I end up with -- but hopefully w/in the year!

I have a 61" LED DLP. It's awesome. DLP is the cheapest and lightest of the three technologies, but offers the largest screens. It's almost as thin. About 15" deep. The new LED light engines are supposed to last at least 20 years too, without any maintenance. Each technology has its pluses and minuses.

I appreciate the 61" screen the most watching sports. Sports in HD, on a 61" is truly awesome.

WOAH!! I didn't think they made LEDs that large yet! SWEET! (And somehow I wasn't invited over to watch a game!! ) I was definitely leaning toward LED DLP, too...! Cheapest????

(...and I wasn't talking about a Mets game )

Don't feel bad. DC is practically my neighbor, and we haven't hooked up yet.

....Not only do they make them that large, starting with this year's models, 61" is the smallest LED model Samsung is making. Normal price is around $1700, but sometimes you can catch a sale at Amazon for around $1500.

Samsung 61" Amazon.com

I can't even watch them right now. I feel myself getting physically violent. I've never gotten that feeling watching my teams before.

Very nice!

Despite hijacking this thread - I like it!

I just can't help remember what some kid said delivering my current 100+-lb 36" CRT about 7 years ago... "no TV larger than this would get up this staircase" lol

...but I'm sure a flatscreen would be much easier!

My DLP only weighs 80 pounds.

If you want to do some research on HDTV and related stuff check out:
The AVS Forums. It is by far the best site for info on that stuff. You can find a thread on any HDTV ever made. The thread for my model alone has over 12,000 posts, and over 1 million "views"!