I recently bought a divx compatible upconvert toshiba dvd player for $65. It’s awesome. Why would I pay premium prices for a slight upgrade in resolution on disks I already own and rarely play anyway?
Ah DIVX...another money making scam made up by lawyers...
The slightly "older crowd" here remembers when the IBM PC hit the market.
A lesson: Greedballs in Marketing can screw up the PC!
What happened was IBM built a nice machine that competed quite well over competing CPM and 8-bit systems then on the market. Then the Marketing guys, seeking to protect IBM's dumb terminals (and seeing into the future no doubt) demanded and got a video chip that limited main processor throughput to the speed it took to refresh the CRT.
Oh, yeah, made the PC real popular ~ actually, that standard turned the PC into a "government only" machine because GSA demanded, and got, an "off switch" so that you could literally freeze the screen and process in the background as fast as the main and supporting chips could operate.
By the time the AT came out the problem with Marketing was fixed ~ no doubt many of the same folks there at IBM 25 years ago are working with Blu-ray stuff today.
Alas, there were competitors, and IBM found itself almost excluded from the PC market it'd created.
Trying to remember the last time I bought anything by IBM ~ trying, trying, trying, ~ ding, ding, ding ~ does not compute!
Well, if you have a big LCD tv, the Blu-Ray gives you a bigger picture. We saw it with 27 Dresses. We wanted the Blu-Ray but it couldn’t be found. The girl at Blockbuster said she would call when she found it. We got the DVD and put on the subtitles to read the words to the “Benny and the Jets” sequence. The subtitles were in the letterbox. After the girl called and we picked up the Blu-ray, the subtitles were in the picture itself. The letterbox was reduced by half.
Also the Blu-Rays have the BD live feature that lets you hook with other users.
On Iron Man, you go to BD Live and play trivia games with people all over the world. On Hulk, you have a chat feature.
Also, where Blu-Ray used to SUCK when it came to special features (except Hairspray’s PIP and Enchanted’s D Files) they now have MORE features than three disk DVDs. Both Iron Man and Hulk give you more with Blu-Ray. The Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan does it with the PIP and it’s really fun to watch them making the movie while the movie is playing. I can’t WAIT until Dark Knight comes out in Blu-ray. Understanding that the movie was actually filmed with an IMAX camera, you won’t get half of those scenes with an enhanced DVD.
The cost is prohibitive, but if one gets a PS3, it’s not so bad. On Amazon, most Blu-Rays are only 10.00 more. If you’re a special feature person (like me) that 10.00 is worth it. Add in that most Blu-Ray give you a digital copy to download on your computer and it’s a good buy.
Give me my shot of Captain America in Hulk and I’m a happy camper!!!