Bluray... Any Good?

I'm in the market to upgrade the home theater, as the dvd player has started doing some strange things (like turn itself on, skip a third into the movie, not read a disk unless opening/closing the drawer 12 times)...

..dvd home theater systems are unbelievably inexpensive (at least compared to when I last bought my last one 7 years ago)...

...but is it really worth going the blu-ray path? I have a 56" Panasonic plasma... so visual quality will be seen, but does anyone think that blu-ray is the next laserdisk? Is it really worth the money?

Thoughts?

EdelBrock wrote: I'm in the market to upgrade the home theater, as the dvd player has started doing some strange things (like turn itself on, skip a third into the movie, not read a disk unless opening/closing the drawer 12 times)...

..dvd home theater systems are unbelievably inexpensive (at least compared to when I last bought my last one 7 years ago)...

...but is it really worth going the blu-ray path? I have a 56" Panasonic plasma... so visual quality will be seen, but does anyone think that blu-ray is the next laserdisk? Is it really worth the money?

Thoughts?

HD DVD is/was the new laser disk or betamax.

I actually own a HD DVD player.... got it for £50 shortly after the announcement that Toshiba were dropping HD. Playing through my TV (smasung) the quality is superb, though my TV is not full hd.

I have never seen Blu Ray in action though. How old is your TV?

3 years old, why?

If your Panny 58""! is capable of displaying 720p (check your tvs instruction manual)then either of the hidef formats would look very good especially if you sit within 4 metres of your screen. With Blur-ray, you might want to hang on a few months as they are still developing features were current profile 1.0 and 1.1 players will be obselete. The exception being Sony's PS3 which allows firmware upgrades to bring it bang up to date with new features.

I also bought an HD-DVD player when during the fire sales and quite a respectable 130 titles. Great quality for normal dvd's too.

Bluray any good??? yes its awesome.

one of the best invesments i've made, the picture over DVD is amazing, Panasonic are releasing a 2.0 profile player sonn think its either this month or july, the PS3 is 2.0 profile too but its HD audio support isn't as good as a stand alone player,

EdelBrock wrote: 3 years old, why?

Wasn't sure if it was HD capable or not......... Plasam TV hace been around a while, so wasn't sure if urs was HD ready.

recycle wrote:

EdelBrock wrote: 3 years old, why?

Wasn't sure if it was HD capable or not......... Plasam TV hace been around a while, so wasn't sure if urs was HD ready.

Its not an HD plasma... actually its a computer monitor, not an actual tv (not that it makes any difference)... but that being said, HD channels come in really, super clear... so not sure how much better an actual HD tv would be... I just don't see how the picture could be any clearer than what I already have (on HD cable channels)....

Seems like most of these under $100 DVD players nowadays don't last very long anyway, or work very well. So the choice is the more expensive Blu-ray or the cheap disposible DVD player and wait til next year.