Oh, sure, Blu-Ray is backwards compatible and you don’t HAVE to have all that megariffic hardware to get some improvement out of your Blu-Ray player, but if that’s the case you might as well get a regular 21″ HDTV and Upscaling DVD player and save yourself a few hundred buckaroonies.

DVD made a HUGE leap in quality for movies, not just for the new movies but also showed capable of improving viewing of the old ones too. You could really see the difference, and not just with two screens frozen side by side either. You could see it in the playing. And there were the various features produced by being in a CD format. And your movies didn’t deterioate just by EXISTING.

Now Blu-Ray makes another improvement, but unlike DVD vs VHS, you DO need a direct comparison. You see it best on a frozen screen, and if you’ve got 13 speakers and a cinema-sized screen, of COURSE you’re going to see a difference – but then you’d see one with DVDs too.

For the movie fanatic in us, with a lot of money to spend and a desire to be absolutely up to date with the best, there’s no reason NOT to upgrade to Blu-Ray – if you don’t mind the fact that when push comes to shove, the majority of your movies will inevitably be upscaled DVDs anyway.

But for the rest of us, which is most of us, since movies are still coming out on DVD, cost less, there are more of them, and the quality difference is negligible, DVD has quite some running distance yet. Those old movies weren’t DESIGNED to be shown on our modern 1080p screens, so there’s a limit to how much better they’re going to look.

And despite Blu-Ray’s success over HD-DVD, with the current economic crisis tightening our belts and constricting our wallets, there’s no guarantee that Blu-Ray will truly win the race against DVD.

After all… does anybody remember the magnificent failure that was mini-discs? Sure, people are buying Blu-Ray players, but you only buy one of those. The REAL money is made in the selling of the movies, and somehow I don’t see people going out and replacing their entire DVD collection with Blu-Ray disks, the way they did with DVDs and VHS.

Nobody’s FORCING you to buy Blu-Ray. We can vote with our wallets, and for once we aren’t going to be losing out substantially by doing so. We CAN show Sony where they can stick their smug new upgrades, and stick with DVDs for a good long while yet.

It’s a maximum outlay for a minimal return. And I think I’ll pass on this upgrade, and wait for Supa-Ray (or whatever the next one is) when I’ll actually be able to SEE a difference between the formats.

As things get replaced, it gives new incentive to upgrade complimentary hardware. I remember when Lord of the Rings came out, my father finally decided it was time to get a DVD player (~100). The difference in picture quality was amazing, but the sound was lacking, so after a couple of years, we sprang for a midrange 5.1 system (~$500). The difference in sound was incredible. Now, a few years later, we finally decided prices had dropped enough and purchased an HDTV, a 42′ 1080P LCD on sale (~$650). We spent a little more for HD access from our satellite provider and even my incredible skeptical mother was made a convert in a matter of seconds watching Planet Earth in 1080i with Dolby Digital 5.1 (HDTV channels are generally in surround). Yes, that’s $1250 spent over a few years for entertainment to keep up with the general progression of technology, but every individual step of the way has been worth the cost 150%. Now I’ve finally purchased a blu-ray player after looking around and getting a good deal for $160 on a refurbished Panasonic BD35. We aren’t extraordinarily well off in my family, we certainly don’t “need” these things (we live in a warm state and spend much of our time outside), but the difference is staggering with each technological step we take, and well worth the price to make entertainment that much better. Yes, even as my BRD player comes by mail, my father still insists that DVD is “fine” (the same way SDTV and 2 channel sound was fine), but I know it’ll only take a few minutes of watching Prince Caspian in 1080P to convince him.

That’s what any skeptic here should do. Go see for yourself on a good sized screen (I’ve found 42′to be the point at which 1080P begins to become noticeable) with a good surround sound setup and see just how dramatic the difference is. I’m mostly a National Geographic or History Channel type guy, and only intermittently into high-octane movies and the like, but HD really allows one to connect with their entertainment in a way never-before possible outside of the theater. Given the $10 it costs these days for a movie ticket anyways, I’ll spend the cash to have the theater at home. You don’t have to blow your life’s saving right off either. Just buy things as prices drop. Blu-ray is fairly new. It’s just getting on its feet. DVDs and players were just as expensive at this stage (if not more so). Still, a rather nice HDTV can be had for WELL under $1000 these days (and even under $500 for slightly smaller sets in the 32′ range). If you really want to dive in, just start with that and get some basic HD service through your television provider. Where we are, a basic HD package can be had for $30 a month through satellite.

first of all the prices have come down. In the UK you can buy blu ray starting at £8.00 for movies such as War to 3:10 yuma. I bought superbad on blu-ray new and the same store sold it dvd new the same price (which was £8.00). Yes some cost more, but shop around online also, you will be surprised.

So is this too much to spend? Well if you go to the movies then no! You pay to go to the movies, the price of one seat is a price of almost a blu-ray movie!

I understand you need a HD tv first. Okay well if you need to replace your old one when it packs up like I did, I felt good, but I only got it because I was living in a small room and had no space for a big old style.

If you want to wait, wait because it will drop a little more, especially the players. Do hunt for bargains for the movies, they are priced from £8.00 in the UK at least. I use my PC to watch on my tv DVI to HDMI so no loss of quality (You need a graphics card which can do this though) and I only spent £57 on the blu-ray player which also burns and plays DVDs, CDs.

I hope this opens your eyes a little. But if you want to save every penny then DVD’s you can buy £3 each on sales and even then, every penny counts right?

(Most claiming they can’t see the difference between standard DVD and a Blu-ray. Which just makes me think they are actually going blind or is it they are blind to new technology? ).