Is it worth paying for a Blu Ray DVD player?

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Slash

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Our DVD player seems to have packed up. It just won't play DVDs any more. It's about 5 years old. I opened it up but could not see anything obviously wrong with it. Used a cleaner also, which did not make any difference. Probably not worth repairing, since DVD players are pretty cheap now. So, looks like we'll have to buy a new one.

So, my question is: should I go for a conventional DVD player, or a DVD play and record machine, or go for a Blu Ray player (I don't think there are Blu Ray play/record machines).

Anyone got any opinions on this? Thanks.
 
There are. I have a Philips DVD Recorder that plays blu ray. Very happy with it, great quality, you just have to be prepared to pay more for DVDs.
 
I'm assuming you already have a High Definition LCD or Plasma TV, because if not then a Blu-Ray player is no use to you (they require a HDMI connection). The quality of images from a Blu Ray player are quite stunning as opposed to normal DVDs. Importantly however, they can still play normal DVDs. Sony are giving them free with selected high end LCD TVs. They can be bought for around €170 now, but shop online for the best prices. Are they worth it? I would call them a non-essential luxury that really enhance your home cinema experience. I must admit I love mine!
 
Content is the key thing here (assuming your TV is already HD) oh and a decent HDMI cable is expensive enough.

Do you see yourself buying quite expensive blu-ray discs (worth pricing on line) or checking out in local rental store. I have a good TV/AV/Satelite system and opt for sky HD instead. Great range of content, although sky aren't cheap either. The PS3 is a blu-ray player too!

The quality of HD is amazing and worth the investment
 
Get yourself a sony playstation 3. It has a blue ray player and it plays music cd's and you can hook it up to your internet,play stuff off a usb fob. along with play games. Its a super piece of work.
 
Echo all the comments, you have a couple of choices really. If you've a large enough DVD collection, you can get a Blue Ray player that upscales these to HD(ish) quality.

Generally for price the Playstation 3 isn't a bad buy. You'll have to get a separate remote control etc, but you get a fully functioning Blue Ray player and one that is "future proof". New features have been added, and will continue to be added, to Blue Ray, the PS3 automatically updates the firmware. A lot of the current Blue Ray players can't be updated. And example is the Blue Ray Live, which is really just a feature to access additonal bonus material beyond the extras on the disk. Probably only a major feature if you watch all the bonus stuff though.

There's still a possibility current BR might become redundant more quickly than dvd did though. There are increasing developments on the amount of information stored on the disk and this may not be compatible with current players (so requiring a new machine each time). Also, there's a view that HD movie downloads will take off (as long as digital rights can be sorted out) especially as broadband speeds increase and HDD storage increases and gets cheaper. A 1TB external drive could store upto 1000 HD movies, which is a hell of a lot, and would also mean the PS3 might be the better buy as (I think) you could connect an external drive to it or stream HD videos to it from your PC.
 
Latrade said:
...There's still a possibility current BR might become redundant more quickly than dvd did though....
Click to expand...

The other element is streaming/downloading HD videos. e.g. something like xbox live or .
Might be sometime before these come to IRL, plus you need decent broadband...
 
Just remember that if you have any standard DVDs that are not Region 2 (western europe etc) then you'll have to get a Blu Ray player that can be made multiregion for the normal DVD's. You can't get any that play different region Blu Ray discs but some can play multiregion standard DVD. Can't remember which can be made multiregion for DVD though!
 
Leo said:
HDMI is a digital interface, expensive cables are a waste of money and will give no performace improvement.
Leo
Click to expand...

cheap HDMI cable are expensive if you would like me to say it another way.

interesting opinion all the same techo
 
meatmonger said:
cheap HDMI cable are expensive if you would like me to say it another way.

interesting opinion all the same techo
Click to expand...

As with most things, shop around. You'll get 1.5m cables from about €5.

The HDMI specs were designed so that standard copper cables would be more than capable at lengths of up to 10m. Most shops are pushing really expensive OFC, etc. cables that make no difference. An analogue signal will suffer from attenuation and interference which is where the high quality copper and sheilding come in to play. The same doesn't hold for a digital signal.
 
I think it is worth mentioning also that the true worth of Blu ray players becomes apparent on Full HD (1080p) panels, rather than the lesser HD Ready ones. Also, it is really only larger panels (i.e. > 32 inches) that can display the images in all their glory. Anything less that those, and any normal upscaling DVD player will do the job just fine.
 
Any opinions on this player



or would i be better going for this blue ray player



would like a hard drive though to record tv...I have a 47" Tosh Regza full HD tv. Thanks
 
The quality is amazing with the Blu-Ray. But make sure tyour TV is up for it!

Can't go wrong with SONY
 
Disposable media is obsolute. This is a last ditch effort by the media and electronics companies to get you to re buy something that have.

Jaw dropping viewing is all down to content - not quality.!
 
gebbel said:
I think it is worth mentioning also that the true worth of Blu ray players becomes apparent on Full HD (1080p) panels, rather than the lesser HD Ready ones. Also, it is really only larger panels (i.e. > 32 inches) that can display the images in all their glory. Anything less that those, and any normal upscaling DVD player will do the job just fine.
Click to expand...

its actually up towards the 46" mark before you will notice any difference between 720p and 1080p
 
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