Standard DVD vs Blu-ray/HD?

Question

Not sure if this questions been asked before... What exactly is the difference between a regular dvd and a blu-ray/hd. To me, standard is fine, but is upgrading worth it?

Answer 1

Blu-Ray and HD DVD are competing (and incompatible) high definition (1080p) video formats. They both have identical video and audio quality and, despite claims about space/storage differences, both work for all current movies .... i.e. there IS NO DIFFERENCE.

Under the right conditions they can give stunning video and sound (some people upgrade more for the sound than the video), but depending on your equipment there may be no benefit to upgrading.

Unless you have a 40" or larger 1080p HDTV you will see little difference from HD DVD or Blu-Ray compared to a normal DVD on a good upscaling DVD player. Sound may be better if you have a good sound system and an amp/receiver capable of processing the high bitrate sound tracks.

Personally, I have a 720p/1080i front projector and a 110" screen. HD DVD has a very slight edge over normal DVD's on my Oppo DVD player ... but not enough for me to buy more HD DVD disks or retire my DVD collection. I admit sound is a bit better too, but Dolby Digital or DTS is plenty good enough.

Since pictures say a lot. See the link (caution: big images) for a visual comparison of DVD and HD DVD scenes from LOTR.

I, personally, don't find the difference compelling enough to pay $$$ to upgrade.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Upconversion is exactly what it imples; it takes a signal and converts it to a higher resolution. Of course, upconversion will not add anything more to the video than what's already there. Upconversion involves two processes: deinterlacing to allow the video to show properly on a progressive scan display, and scaling the video up to an LCD or plasma monitor's native resolution (electronically processing a lower resolution image into a higher resolution) as an alternative to forcing the display to show a lower resolution image over a larger field of pixels (zooming), which can cause aliasing. As for buying a regular DVD player over a Blu-Ray Disc player: most, if not all, Blu-Ray Disc players do a terrible job at deinterlacing and scaling DVD Video. The very best DVD player, the Oppo DV-983H, will play DVDs with better quality than even the highest end Blu-Ray Disc player. The reason is simple: a Blu-Ray Disc player has its design emphasis on playing Blu-Ray Discs. DVD compatibility is, more or less, a secondary consideration that resulted in a second-rate design for DVD playback in a Blu-Ray Disc player. If you want to get the most out of your DVDs, get a good progressive scan DVD player, such as the Oppo model that was mentioned while using the Blu-Ray Disc player for playing Blu-Ray Discs. The Oppo will set you back about $400, but that's money well spent considering that there are DVD players costing over $1,000 that do not perform nearly as well, much less Blu-Ray Disc players. Most, if not all, players around the $100 are junk.

Answer 3

Is standard def television good enough for you compared to HD?

DVD's contain video that could be played on a 1950's television.

Both HD-DVD and BluRay contain 1080 lines of video with lots of other improvements in image and video quality to make it a dramatic improvement over standard def DVD's.

Yes, it is really worth it.

Toshiba HD-A3 - $199 this weekend.

Answer 4

The main thing would be storage capacity, I think that Blue Ray has more info than H.D.,if you upgrade you'r library to either format you will also need to upgrade you'r t.v. ect. to H.D. (high definition) to expirience the difference,my children are gamers, and my one son just purchased an 42"LCD high def. tv and the playstation 3, the picture is unbeleivable better than what is on my desktop p.c., I here to stay away from the plasma t..v. and go with the lcd type watch the prices tho I think they will come down, the more storage on the disc I would guess would allow for more digital info to be stored for a way better picture...all that 720 and 1080 dpi. stuff (dpi.-dots per inch ??) hope this answeres you question

Answer 5

wanna see the difference? go to circuit city, look for the Samsung LNT4071F, they're showing this tv with pirates of the caribbean movie, you will see the difference!!! worths every penny!!!

Answer 6

Bluray and Hd have longer time on one disc why not upgrade