Tech Tuesday – Ted S. Explains Blu-Ray
Well, it’s Tech Tuesday and today I am letting FrontRoomCinema regular and Flixchatter guest poster take control. Here Ted S. gives us a history lesson on the great and mighty Blu Ray Disk.
The history and benefits of Blu-ray
I think most people know about Blu-ray disc by now and probably own a BD player or two. Its major backer was Sony, if you want to read a more in depth history of the product; I recommend you read this article from Wikipedia.
For this article, I’ll go over the battle between BD and its rival HD-DVD and also the benefits of owning a Blu-ray player. Back in the late 90s, Sony wanted to release Blu-ray player but because HDTVs has just arrived in the market, they realized people won’t be interested in the product just yet. Also, Toshiba and most of the electronics manufacturers were backing DVD players around that time. Most people don’t remember but Sony was the last company to come out with a DVD player, there weren’t happy that they couldn’t release Blu-ray so basically they were pouting.
So in mid-2000s when most people have HDTV in their house hold, Sony was ready to release BD. They got most of the major electronic companies on their side and also they got the backings of a few big Hollywood movie studios, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Disney and of course Sony’s own film division. But Toshiba and the DVD group also developed their own version of HD player called HD-DVD. Toshiba has Microsoft and RCA on their side; they also got a few big studios backing them, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios. Things really heat up around 2004 when both announced they will release their product in 2006, Sony said they will include BD in their new Playstation 3 and HD-DVD will include in X-Box 360 game console. Around this time BD was gaining momentum because they unveiled some cool features, especially in PS3 and the media was urging the HD-DVD folks to merge with Blu-ray. Both camps actually met in late 2004 to see if they can resolve their issues and release only one HD player so consumers won’t have to choose side. It’s unclear as to why the two camps couldn’t agree to merge but most people in the media suspected that BD wanted to use Java based technology for their product, while HD-DVD wanted to use Microsoft’s technology.
Well by 2005 both camps still planned to release their own version of HD players to the market. Things got interesting in late 2005 when Warner Bros. and Paramount announced that they would also release their films on Blu-ray; they decided to become format neutral because BD was gaining so much momentum around this time. HD-DVD camp realized they have to do something fast to fight BD, so they decided to release their product a few months earlier than BD. The first HD-DVD player came out in April of 2006 and it got off to a rocky start. Early adopters had issues with their player kept freezing up and some couldn’t even hear the audio from HD-DVD discs. Toshiba released a firmware upgrade a few weeks later and things were going great for HD-DVD, especially when they upgrade the players to play Dolby TrueHD.
The BD camp was a bit shocked because they didn’t think Toshiba would be able to release their product that fast, so they encouraged one of their backers to release BD players as soon as they could. Samsung stepped up and release their BD player in the summer of 2006 (I bought their first generation BD player in June of 2006). Unfortunately for BD, things didn’t go smooth at all, my BD player would freeze once in a while and it didn’t help that most of the movies released on BD weren’t great in quality. Some were slightly better looking than their DVD counterparts. I was not a happy camper at this point because I chose to support BD and HD-DVD was getting all the raves around this time. So in the fall of 2006, Sony and the BD camp needed to push their products fast because HD-DVD was obviously winning. In November of that year, Sony released PS3 and their BD player. On the software side, Disney, Fox, Sony and MGM were rolling out more movies with better quality in picture and sound. At this time, people who have bought into the technology were divided, on one side was the die-hard BD fan boys and the other were the HD-DVD. If you go to any A/V forums, there was lots of bickering between the fan boys. By late 2006, I realized that the battle was going to be a long one so I decided to buy an HD-DVD player and support both formats. I love films and want to see them in HD so it was a win win for me.
In 2007 things were really heated up between the two camps, both spent quite a bit of money promoting their product. But the
funny thing was that, most people still were happy with DVD player so no one was really paying attention to either format, unless you were an early adaptor, you probably didn’t even know about the “HD war”. In the fall of 2007, Paramount decided they were going to release films exclusively on HD-DVD. Well of course this stirred up quite a bit of controversies, the fan boys from BD camp accused Paramount of taking bribe money from HD-DVD, while HD fan boys fired back saying BD was losing and that’s why Paramount defected to their camp. Well by January of 2008, the war was pretty much over when Warner Bros. announced they were going to side with BD exclusively. Let’s just say the HD-DVD fan boys weren’t happy with that news and by the spring of 2008, HD-DVD pretty much threw in the white flag. I think Warner Bros. was just sick of releasing films on both formats and decided it will be cheaper to just support one format. Of course many suspected that they took money from the BD camp, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
As of today, BD is still considered a niche market even though Best Buy and other retail stores have an entire section of BD movies. A few years ago, there was only a small section in those stores dedicated to BD. I don’t think BD will become as big as DVD because most people can get movies through streaming or on-demand option. Plus a lot of people are still happy with just regular DVD.
The benefits of Blu-ray over DVD
Since I’m an early adaptor, I love BD. I have over 70 BDs in my collection, the last time I watched a film on DVD was probably sometime in 2007. The great thing about BD is that if offer full HD picture in 1080p, HD surround sound and some cool features like picture-in-picture commentary. For those who have great home theater set up, you already know that BD offer great quality that you can only get from movie theaters. I have a pretty decent home theater and ever since I got a BD player, I hardly go see films in theater anymore. In fact, some films look better and sound better on my home theater than in the theater where I saw it in.
Click to see the Clarity
Another great thing about BD is when older “classic” films are released in the format, they looked spectacular. For example, I used to own a DVD version of Blade Runner and it looked atrocious but when I bought the BD version, it look and sounds amazing in HD. Of course Warner Bros. spent quite a bit of money restoring the film before they release it on BD. Now with that said there are a lot of bad looking BDs out there, mostly because the studios decided to not upgrade the HD master and used the old version they used for the DVD release.
When people asked me if they should upgrade to BD, I would always tell them if they have a nice home theater set up and a decent size HDTV, then go for it. In my opinion if you have a TV that’s 50 inch and over than you should definitely upgrade to BD, but if you have anything smaller than I don’t know if you can really tell the difference between BD and DVD.
Well that’s just a little history of BD and what you can get out of it if you decide to upgrade. If you’re planning to get a BD player and have questions, feel free to ask in the comments section and I’ll try to answer them as best I could.
Scott Lawlor
I would love to have a Blu-Ray played but my issue is the cost. They still seem to cost an arm and a leg and I’m quite attached to my limbs thank you very much. Definitely worth it if you can afford it though. Especially for a movie blogger.
Ronan, I understand but prices of BD players has come down quite a bit. I spent $800 on my first BD player back in 2006 and now most players are pretty decent in prices. You can get one around the Holidays time for around $150 or less. But again I only recommend you upgrade to BD if you have a nice size TV and good home theater surround sound.
Hey Ronan, if you wanted a cheap way to get into HD then buying a HDDVD player is a cool way to do it. OK you wouldn’t get any new releases, but HDDVD had some really cool niche titles that still haven’t made it to BD. You can pick up a player for like £30 and the HDDVD’s for £2-3!!
Just a thought
Hey Ted, Great article this!! I was one of the fools that jumped in with HDDVD early on, but then couldn’t take the heat and bought a BD player too!! Just to hedge my bets!
I am a little upset about HDDVD if I am honest. I think it was slightly superior.
I hope the layout is OK for you Ted?
C
You’re welcome Custard, when I have some time next week, I’ll write up the differences between all of the HD surround sounds. I know a lot of people are still confuse on which one is which.
You know having used both formats, I think they’re pretty equal when it comes to quality. I only went with Blu-ray first because they had more movie studios backing them. I’m still mad at both Sony and Toshiba for making us choose sides. Instead of releasing one format to us the consumers, they made us choose and both loss quite a bit of money because of it. I spent like $500 on my HD-DVD player and not it’s just sitting there collecting dusts. I haven’t use it in over a year.
The layout looks great and love those images you have on there. Especially the difference between DVD vs. BD.
@Ted, I am glad you wrote this article. As a mgr of the home theater dept in a major electronics retailer I am glad to see others with a great appreciation for the beauty of blu ray! GREAT article
@Ronan, you can find players now for as low as $60 at times, regularly $99. and the movies range from $4 and up! just so you know, I’m happy to help you with any recommendations/questions you may have if it helps.
@Custard. Don’t worry. I bought a HD dvd player myself. then quickly sold it on ebay once bd “won.” You’re not alone.
Many titles look amazing on BD! Good point about older movies too! Beauty and the Beast is absolutely spectacular! Watching it on BD made it seem new all over again!
Which movies on BD are your favs?
Thanks Scarlet, I love BD and every time I’m on Amazon or at a Best Buy store, I’d purchase a few Blu-ray discs, they’re so cheap now. In fact, Best Buy has Maverick on sale for $12! So I’ll picking that up later this week, it’s one of my favorite funny western films, yeah I know it has Mel Gibson but he’s great in it.
My favorite BDs are Blade Runner, Baraka, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tron: Legacy (it just looks and sounds great, the actual film was kind of a letdown), The Dark Knight, I Am Legend, The Bourne Trilogy, Inception, the two new Bond films and a lot more I couldn’t remember. The sound and picture quality are so great and yes it make you feel like you’re seeing the films new for the first time. I hope Fox doesn’t screw up the Star Wars saga that’s coming to BD this fall. They did such a great job with Alien and Aliens.
I am looking forward to Star Wars Complete Saga on BD. 113 days from now, but who’s counting!
Tron Legacy and The Dark Knight are both EXCELLENT choices for BD! I agree. And good note on the audio. so many folks do not realize the audio quality in addition to the video quality of BD!
oh, and good job for shopping at Best Buy!
LOL, not only am I a shopper at BB, I also work there. Well actually I work at the corporate headquarters.
I love The Dark Knight and Tron: Legacy BD, the downside is though I have a projector and I set up my screen at 2.20:1 so when the IMAX sequences appeared, the images spills over my screen. I’m getting a video processor to mask out those sequences.
ha! small world. i LOVE it up at corporate campus! We have much more in common! how cool is that?!
that's great that you are getting your IMAX issue solved. I'll be interested in knowing what processor you choose in case I come across that issue with any of my customers!
Are you in MN too? I actually live only 5 minutes from the BB campus, I don’t have to worry about traffic each morning.
I’m planning to get this DVDO processor: http://www.projectorcentral.com/dvdo_iscan_vp50.htm, DVDO decided to stop making that model and I was able to find some cheap prices online. Another one I’m looking at is Lumagen Radiance processor, I heard it’s very difficult to set up if you’re not a professional.
No, unfortunately I am not. Flip those two letters around and you will find me in a diff state of a much warmer nature! but I only live 2 mins away from my store!
I am, though, seeking to be working at campus sometime soon and I talk with some folks that already do regularly about it!..we’ll see!
thanks for the link on the processor, I will be looking into it. interest in projectors always varies, some months people want ‘em, other months not so much!
very cool Ted!
Ah yes, that state is definitely warmer than here. It was a brutal winter for us, so I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with traffic because of the snow storms and freezing temp. Good luck, hope you can land a gig the headquarters.
Yeah, if your customers are setting up their screen in scope format, then a video processor will definitely comes in handy.
I don’t need no blu-ray as I never actually buy DVDs/Blu-Ray. To truly enjoy blu-ray, you also need a big ass TV which I don’t have. I’m sure I will make the move someday but it will probably be in a couple years at the very least.
Yeah as I mentioned on the article, you’ll probably need a tv that’s over 50 inches to actually see the differences between DVD and BD. I’m sure by the time you’re ready to upgrade, the BD players will be real cheap.
One of the things I enjoy about Blu-Ray titles for purchase is the fact that most bd movies also contain a dvd copy AND/OR a Digital copy of the film. 3 for the price of one. Then I usually give the dvd to a friend and use the digital copy for my laptop, ipod, etc.
My dad has a BD player, although we usually still get dvds. Our BD collection isn still rather small.
The last blu-ray disc we got was Black Swan.
Black Swan's a great disc, Aronofsky shot most of the film in 16mm so the disc really captured that gritty look and feel of the movie.
Yeah, and the special features were nice too
Nice post! Ilike these techoriented posts you hav in here!
Thanks Joel!
Leave it to my good friend Ted to enlighten us about movie technology!
Awesome contribution, Ted, very educational. I’m glad to see you spread your technical expertise around for people like me who’s techie-challenged.
I must say that before I had my Blu-ray player I thought that my dvd quality is fine, but now that I have one I can’t go back! I’ve never watched any HD-dvd though, is the quality inferior to BD? Or is it just a matter of BD just being more popular?
Well like I’m not just a movie geek but also a tech geek.
No HD-DVD is equal to Blu-ray but Blu-ray has the upper hand because they have the support of more Hollywood movie studios. Back in January 2008 Warner Bros. announced they will support BD exclusively, so when that happened, HD-DVD only has Paramount, Universal and The Weinstein Studios on their side. While BD has Fox, Disney, Warner Bros. Sony, MGM and most of the electronic manufacturers. Also, Sony’s Playsatation 3 can play Blu-ray movies so a lot of people who bought the game console can also purchase Blu-ray Discs. Like I said in the article, not many people knew about this “HD war” unless you’re an adaptor like myself. I think Toshiba loss billions of dollars on HD-DVD.
Wow Ted, thanks for your beaming message to get people to make the switch:)
As a quasi recent convert (2009) it is as good as Ted says and more…even on the old titles like Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Yojimbo/Seven Samurai. It's a thing of beauty that really gets better as TVs themselves get better.
I've succumbed to rebuying a good number of titles I already own but it's sooo worth it (and the prices Amazon has sometimes make it a can't lose deal). Two trusted sources to use prior to purchasing any title are http://www.blu-ray.com/ and http://www.dvdtown.com/ Eh, I'm a cinephile and my fix is Blu Ray. Again, great job Ted:)