| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.248.172 |
Due to some daft recent circumstances I've just had to but a HD telly and blu ray player. I say 'had to' because I like my old, coffin-thick telly, and dvd, but things have happened (grandpas - don't ask) and so here we are. Any tips? Is blu ray really actually any good? The telly is a samsung, and so far terrestrial tv looks as fuzzy as shit on it. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.165.34 |
All I know is that if you'd bought a PlayStation 3 instead, it could serve as a blu-ray and you'd be able to kill Nazis, too. What's not to like there? | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
I'm definitely not the person to answer this one, Tony, since I'm still using a video player/recorder! I do have a DVD player too, but don't use it much. I guess one day I'll have to try to keep up with all this technological innovation too ...  | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.87.16 |
To save money, I've just had my eyes downgraded to standard definition. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Tony: yes, TV will look quite good on the HD screen, but the 'analogue' signals will look odd due to it not being the same number of lines and things. Imagine putting an 8-track tape in a typical cassette player: it will work, but it'll hardly be all that great. Until you get the Digital Signal Antennae De-Coder Ring thing, it'll look the same, so the sooner you get one the sooner you'll understand why the flat-screen in the pub looks better than your set at home. Blu-Ray is inherently better than earlier DVD technology: more detail in each image, better sound quality, and so on. To have a DVD player hooked up to an HD screen would look better than a DVD hooked-up to your brick-like screen, but a Blu-Ray hooked-up to an HD screen is better still and the more 'logical ideal' arrangement. That said, Gary's right: you're not going to be able to shoot NAZI soldiers on that flat-screen until you get the PS3 (which I thought only had a DVD player, but clearly that's either the Wii or the PS2). [makes mental note to price a PS3 + copy of either the Half-Life series or the new version of Wolfenstein] | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.129.110 |
I've realised what's happened; my dvd image is the same as when my telly was little, it's just now the pixels are further apart. Isn't it? That said, my remastered dvd of Nightmare on Elm Street actually looked pretty good (had the soft quality of a seventies/eighties De Palma film) Anyway, going to buy my first blu ray disc today; can't wait. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.229.104 |
it's just now the pixels are further apart Yep, that's right, Tony - or rather the pixels are bigger than on your older TV. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.129.110 |
Sigh. My poor older telly. The picture was lovely on it. Tried The Miracle Worker last night, a black and white film; it looked horrible in HD. All the picture muck was heightened.  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.129.110 |
Right; just bought two blu rays; Dark Knight and Halloween. They're AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! (Played a dvd of Gran Torino on it, too; it looked pretty good once I'd played with the picture. Gran Torino was great, btw. My fave recent Clint.). | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.173.248 |
Hey, these blu ray thingies aren't dear, are they? Just got Close Encounters of the Third Kind for under £8 new. What a dull post. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.173.248 |
Look at this; http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/5109536/2001-A-Space-Odyssey-Special-Edition/ Product.html New, I say, new! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.155.197 |
A friend has 2001 on BluRay and on his 92 inch screen (yes!) you can clearly see film noise rather than digital noise, which is pretty good. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.173.248 |
92 inch. My God. One downer about the film is that you can see more clearly that the desert backdrops are just paintings. That was hidden before. Size really makes a difference, doesn't it? Even if the quality faulters the size does something. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.155.197 |
That 92 inch screen is used with a high definition projector; looks better than any projected picture I've seen, I think, on HD-DVD and BluRay. Those desert backgrounds are front projections - actually, even in the cinema these look unreal, but it's still one of my all time favourites; one of the few SF films to attempt to cover 'big' ideas. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.232.127 |
. . . and succeeding! I first saw it as a 12-year old and it was the first film I wanted to see again. And again. I remember taking my copy of Clarke's novel with me; in the intermission I noticed I was not the only one. Practically no-one who hadn't read the novel understood the film, mind. Apart from Heywood Floyd's pre-recorded explanation there's very little to go on. I was fascinated by the sun-moon-earth juxtaposition which is repeated a number of times - "When the stars are right" . . . | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
Mick, I believe that's called "grain". For those of you un-photo-savy, it's those little specks of stuff on the negative and the transparent print that's projected in the theatre, and when the two don't fall EXACTLY together (nigh-on impossible to accomplish that, really) then you get those little dots showing up. You young people haven't a clue what I'm talking about, though, do you? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.129.15 |
Right; just made my blu ray region free, and have a surprising admission; I think I prefer the look of dvd on blu ray players to blu ray. There's just a weird over-crispness to blu ray that's sort of distracting. And does anyone know how to make the blu ray image a little less 'jangly'? It's like a hallucination or trip. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.143.129.15 |
Also, I'm one of these dafties who prefers full screen; why won't my telly/player let me choose that? With Dark Knight it actually kept hopping between full screen and letterbox. Looked awesome full, but letterbox it looked sort of 'noisy'. Arg! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.60.142 |
Mick, I believe that's called "grain". It is indeed, Ian! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.60.142 |
Also, I'm one of these dafties who prefers full screen Tony! |