73 replies to this topic

[VulcanFanatic]

Off Topic : I seen an ad in todays paper for a DVD "Upconverter" player which takes standard DVDs and makes them 1080p quaility . I think it was either in Best Buy or Conn's.

Bluray players upconvert DVDs played in a bluray player up to 1080p already as far as i know. As cheap as Bluray players are getting to be there isnt much excuse for not getting one. I think Bluray will be around for quite some time. Heck, there are people that are still watching VHS tapes, i still have a lot of them myself, so i doubt that even if digital downloads is popular that people will all of a sudden forsake DVD or Bluray anytime soon.

[Gothneo]

I've never seen a Blu-Ray play that won't up convert, but as cheap as Blu-Ray players are becoming, you can still get a DVD player that up converts for much much less. I picked up a DVD player that up converts to 1080p and has component outputs 3 years ago for $40, and I'm pretty sure I saw the same basic players in wal-mart for around $25 or $30 this year.

While I have a Blu-ray player, I actually prefer digital copies. I currently have a digital player w/ 4.5 TB of storage space. IMO it's the way to go. It's a rare movie that I actually think the extra cost of Blu-Ray will justify... most movies just aren't shot with such exacting good cinematography that warrants the extra cost. I do see a quality improvement for something upscaled from 480i/p to 1080p, and you will see that in the blu-ray version, but you get that with the cheaper DVD / digital copy and DVD player. I guess what I'm saying is that your average movie, when upscaled from 480i/p to 1080p looks good enough when compared to a Blu-Ray version, you wonder where the value is in the extra expense.

All that aside, the main reason I bought a BR player was to be able to watch the remastered TOS... and there are some really great discs out there that really show case High Def with Blu-Ray... but IMO they are far and few between.

[VulcanFanatic]

I have to agree with you about the extra expense of buying bluray movies. I have seen a few older movies put on bluray that i was not particularly impressed with and were not worth the extra expense of purchasing on bluray. I have pared back my video collection, whether it be VHS, DVD or Bluray, to items i really want to keep, because there is a limitation on space, and i just dontr want to keep a ton of movies around that i dont watch. I seem to watch my bluray player more to watch streaming netflix movies than to watch discs it seems.

[A Chimpanzee & 2 Trainees]

I seem to watch my bluray player more to watch streaming netflix movies than to watch discs it seems.

JOOC, what's the quality like on Netflix movie streaming? How do you compare it to VHS/DVD/BD? I haven't ever tried it or seen it in action since I don't have any devices which can stream movies (outside of a PC/Laptop, obviously).

I'm very hesitant to use them, first of all because I can't stand their incessant internet advertising, but also I have a hard time imagining the average 5Mb home Cable-modem connection can stream a movie at sufficient quality for an HD TV.

[knightone]

Bluray players upconvert DVDs played in a bluray player up to 1080p already as far as i know. As cheap as Bluray players are getting to be there isnt much excuse for not getting one. I think Bluray will be around for quite some time. Heck, there are people that are still watching VHS tapes, i still have a lot of them myself, so i doubt that even if digital downloads is popular that people will all of a sudden forsake DVD or Bluray anytime soon.

It has nothing to do with use, it is about what the industry will put their money and effort behind. In five or six years, the powers that be will be backing digital downloading in lieu of Bluray or any other disc format, just like how they are now backing Blurays with advertising dollars, better editions, etc. to push the format while, I'm sure, the majority of people are still buying and watching DVDs for the most part. The vast majority of homes don't have HDTVs in order to take advantage of Blurays, but it is what the industry is pushing with other incentives to get people to switch.

[Gothneo]

Yeah, a BR player w/o HD TV doesn't make much sense to me.

But, I don't know that anyone can really say for certain what the next tech push will be... but I do agree that Blu-Ray will be short lived. The whole DH vs BR fight that played out a few years ago simply highlighted that both systems were deeply flawed.

The truth is that even today, decent, reliable, and cheap broad band is not available to a large segment of the population, thus, some form of media sales and distribution is necessary. I don't see that infra structure changing all that much in 6 years, but it might. For example, right now I have to tether my cell phone to my PC to get internet connection, and I live in what's supposed to be a decent sized city.

[VulcanFanatic]

JOOC, what's the quality like on Netflix movie streaming? How do you compare it to VHS/DVD/BD? I haven't ever tried it or seen it in action since I don't have any devices which can stream movies (outside of a PC/Laptop, obviously).

I'm very hesitant to use them, first of all because I can't stand their incessant internet advertising, but also I have a hard time imagining the average 5Mb home Cable-modem connection can stream a movie at sufficient quality for an HD TV.

Broadband internet is definitely nescessary for watching netflix, and if you actually have a 5mb connection, it should work fairly decently. My intial broadband connection was the low end Roadrunner package, which was not sufficient to stream the video properly without choppiness, but when i went with the Roadrunner turbo it was pretty great. Roadrunner in my area comes in like 4 or 5 levels, and i imagine that a midrange package would be sufficient to play the streaming video. The quality also depends on the movie or series you are watching, like the HD TOS series 1 remastered episodes actually come across as "HD" and the clarity is great, but other movies that are not presented in HD, while looking great, do not have the same clarity, but to me look about as good as watching a rented dvd played on a HD tv. For the $11.84 (including taxes) that i pay a month for Netflix(i also get a BluRay movie sent to my house 1 at a time) i think the price is really reasonable for the astounding amount of programming that i have at my fingertips to choose from. The Bluray player i bought that streams Netflix also streams Blockbuster(if you subscribe) Pandora music(free) and free Youtube streaming, and it didnt really cost much more, if any than a regular decent Bluray player.


I also agree about there not being enough widespread access to decent Broadband service with reasonable enough rates that digital downloads may not be a success in that amount of time. There are still many people in my area, the same general area that Gothneo lives in, that dont even have access to cable tv. Yes, they could get a Satelite dish, but i have heard a lot of complaints about poor service and high cost, dont see that changing that radically in just a few years. The industry might want to push that way by the 5 to 6 year mark, but access and cost will determine its success. Infrastructure needs to catch up with technology.

[knightone]

I also agree about there not being enough widespread access to decent Broadband service with reasonable enough rates that digital downloads may not be a success in that amount of time. There are still many people in my area, the same general area that Gothneo lives in, that dont even have access to cable tv. Yes, they could get a Satelite dish, but i have heard a lot of complaints about poor service and high cost, dont see that changing that radically in just a few years. The industry might want to push that way by the 5 to 6 year mark, but access and cost will determine its success. Infrastructure needs to catch up with technology.

Industry backing and increased customer base will bring prices down and access up. Look at the price for BD players and discs. They have come down in price drastically, mostly due to the industry pushing the format and, slowly, because more people are switching to BD. It will happen and, when it happens, it can happen fast. It all depends on industry leaders in technology, communication, and entertainment being ready to front the capital for such a venture. And I think that day is coming in the near future. New tech usually takes a while to catch on before it goes ahead full steam. We haven't actually had broadband technology for that long. Widespread internet access hasn't been around that long either. But, as need, demand, and necessity increases, so will the money to expand the technology and access.

I'm not saying people won't be watching their Blu-rays five years from now. People will probably still be watching BDs a decade from now, just like there willl still be people watching DVDs five years from now. It's just that the various industries will no longer be fully backing or pushing the format five years from now, but on the next step in technological advancement. Right now, it just looks like digital downloads will be the logical way to go.

[Gothneo]

We haven't actually had broadband technology for that long.

ISDN and B-ISDN were developed and available almost 20 years ago. Same for DSL. Cable modem technology has been around for more the 10 years. The idea of broadband and the technology to implement it has been pretty congruent with the rise of the internet, so I guess it depends on what you think long is? But 10 to 20 years seems pretty long when talking about technology to me!

Widespread internet access hasn't been around that long either.

If anything "Access" has actually been around longer. If money wasn't any issue you could access bitnet and other nets through services like compuserve way back in the 80's! Right through your POTS connection and 300 baud modem!

Affordable, reliable and fast internet access is another thing, and I'd say that it still hasn't been achieved.

But, as need, demand, and necessity increases, so will the money to expand the technology and access.

Again, I disagree with you here. If were are talking about fast reliable and affordable service, It's available to people with money now, but, unfortunately, it is not and never will be available to a larger segment of the population w/o some type of regulation (at least in this country). The idea that my monthly broadband bill is higher then my monthly electric, or phone bill (which it would be if I wanted to purchase Broadband) is quite ludicrous. But I also think that broadband (information connectivity) is almost as important as electricity to our modern society. Certainly in the 21st century it is as important as a the telephone was in the 20th.

[knightone]

ISDN and B-ISDN were developed and available almost 20 years ago. Same for DSL. Cable modem technology has been around for more the 10 years. The idea of broadband and the technology to implement it has been pretty congruent with the rise of the internet, so I guess it depends on what you think long is? But 10 to 20 years seems pretty long when talking about technology to me!

Ten and twenty years is not very long at all. An extremely short amount of time, actually. In terms of technological development, it may seem like a long time, but as far as changing societal norms to accommodate it, it is not long at all. It takes a while to get the bulk of society to restructure their lives around it and demand wide access to it even if technology has advanced far beyond what society is asking for. Once that happens, the changes to infrastructure and cost and availability will, most likely, happen extremely quickly.

[Gothneo]

Time will tell I guess! It seems to me that demand is there, and the technology is there, but it's just not being filled. But that's just my opinion.

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

Here's a question .Just got my new laptop today and I've downloaded ST : XI onto the hardrive . I'm watching the film as I type this ,but how do I access the free trail of Star Trek D.A.C.?

[VulcanFanatic]

Here's a question .Just got my new laptop today and I've downloaded ST : XI onto the hardrive . I'm watching the film as I type this ,but how do I access the free trail of Star Trek D.A.C.?

I could not figure it out either. One other thing that sucked was when i upgraded my PC to Windows 7, i lost my digital copy of Star Trek, and you only get to download it once. Sucks.

[Tiberius]

did you have to reformat your computer to do this?
have you tried to reinstall the digital copy?
it is possible that there is information on your computer to "tell" the movie that you are the same computer... I am not completely sure, but it might, I know windows can identify if you have the same computer, if you register it.