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Post by Falconer on Jul 11, 2011 11:41:33 GMT -5
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004E10QCIYou can buy the complete series in a single set. It’s only sold in Europe, but it’s Region-free so can be played on any Blu-ray player. It’s pretty pricey, but Amazon has enormous sales all the time, so I will be watching and waiting. Because TOS was filmed on 35mm film, it was possible to produce a High-Def version of the series. Imagine, for forty years TOS was never seen in this high quality! You can toggle between the old effects and the new effects at will.
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Post by finarvyn on Jul 12, 2011 10:50:56 GMT -5
But it won't work on a regular DVD player. Has to be Blu-ray. (Actually, it would play on my son's PS3 video game player.)
I have mixed feelings about Blu-ray. I haven't actually seen anything in this format, but it is frustrating to see another format that I can't play on my regular machine. I saw an advertisement for the LotR movies on Blu-ray the other day and really wondered what made it better/worse/different from the DVD copies I already own.
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Post by aramis on Jul 12, 2011 11:04:10 GMT -5
Blue-Ray is, essentially, DVD 3rd ed... a blue-ray player can read standard commercial DVD, most DVD RW types, and is the same physical package size. It just packs th tracks tighter, and provides a better encoding system. It's able to get 4-5 full HD hours on a disk, instead of 2 hours for DVD.
It beat out the other "next gen DVD" format (HD DVD) by a long shot.
And the quality difference vs DVD is noticeable on 1080i screens.
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Post by finarvyn on Jul 12, 2011 15:20:39 GMT -5
So if I'm in the market for a new DVD player sometime soon I should go with Blu-ray?
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Post by aramis on Jul 12, 2011 22:46:18 GMT -5
So if I'm in the market for a new DVD player sometime soon I should go with Blu-ray? Absolutely. I got a Sony BR player for $125 when my DVD player was dying. Plus, it plays mp4's off of USB drives and ISO9660 data CDs... plug-n-play. (I'd had the DVD player for 10 years... it simply couldn't handle the newer data elements on recent DVDs...)
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Post by Falconer on Jul 13, 2011 10:23:22 GMT -5
I don’t have a Blu-ray player yet, but I will definitely grab a cheap one soon. My DVD player only has component video output, so even DVDs will play better on a Blu-ray player if it has HDMI output (especially if it has upconversion).
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Post by aramis on Jul 13, 2011 15:51:39 GMT -5
Almost all Blue-Ray players have DVD upconversion. At least to 720p.
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Post by szieser on Jul 17, 2011 10:04:03 GMT -5
I just bought our blu ray a month ago and I love it. The quality difference is really noticeable in my opinion, and they really aren't much more than what you probably paid when you bought your last DVD player. Plus, most of them do streaming video, so you can get services like Netflix in HD (at least, the things they offer in HD). Plus it does upscale my DVDs nicely.
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Post by finarvyn on Jul 17, 2011 17:06:16 GMT -5
So do I understand correctly that even regular DVDs look better on a Blu-ray player? That's pretty sweet!
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Post by aramis on Jul 19, 2011 2:27:42 GMT -5
So do I understand correctly that even regular DVDs look better on a Blu-ray player? That's pretty sweet! If you have an HDTV of 740 or 1080 res, yes, many do. Not all (Jason of Star Command, for example). but having Serenity on both BR & DVD.. BR was best, hands down. DVD on the blue ray player was just a bit crisper than on the DVD player, the upconvert was noticable but not impressively so. The BR player itself handles the buffy menu system MUCH better than the DVD players do; their menu is so badly coded it locks up my laptop!
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Post by Random on Jul 19, 2011 11:09:07 GMT -5
Hey, thanks for the shout. My birthday is about a month away! As for Blu-ray's picture quality, it is 100% amazing, even for older recordings. For example, the first movie I watched on Blu-ray was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and it blew my mind. *edit* Also, you can buy the same shows here, although the packing is different. I wouldn't know about any extras.
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Post by Falconer on Jul 19, 2011 12:27:47 GMT -5
I’m looking at getting the Panasonic DMP-BDT210. Seems like a really solid player for ~$160.
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Post by Falconer on Jul 19, 2011 12:29:20 GMT -5
I just got High-Def Cable, and caught an episode of Firefly on SyFy HD. It was WAY better than my old DVD set. So I will definitely be getting it on Blu-ray.
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Post by aramis on Jul 19, 2011 18:26:55 GMT -5
Much as I want this, I can't justify $200 for something I can watch for free online...
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Post by Random on Jul 19, 2011 20:04:02 GMT -5
Much as I want this, I can't justify $200 for something I can watch for free online... Are you talking about the videos on startrek.com? Beyond the advertisements, there is a CBS watermark and the picture is abysmal. I've been watching on Netflix, but I am grievously dissapointed that the HD streaming sucks so badly that I can't possibly watch them that way. I'm on a fast cable connection here; it just can't seem to buffer properly. Therefore, with this in addition to the usual perks of hard copy, I am likely to grab the blu-rays.
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