Monday 5 April 2010

Blu-Ray: And The Point Is?

Having an HD tv it was suggested that I invested in a Blu-Ray DVD player.
OK - so off I toddled and bought one along with a copy of the new '2012' Blu-Ray DVD.
Plugged it in and put in DVD but when I pressed 'Play' nothing happened.
At first, I thought, dodgy player. Then I thought maybe it was the DVD at fault.
So I checked the DVD on my son's player and he got the message 'Play Prohibited'.
But when he clicked the OK button on his remote we were up and running.
Yet, still no go on my own player.
Went to the troubleshooting section of the Instruction booklet - but no help there.
Right at the back there was a note in capital letters that (I've condensed this bit) explained that Blu-Ray discs were constantly evolving to the point that not all Blu-Ray discs will play.
So, it seems to me that both manufactures of these DVD players and the discs need to get their act together.

On the plus side - and there is one - when I shoved in a normal DVD like the newly released Spaghetti Western 'The Great Silence' I was gobsmacked by the clarity of the picture and the crispness of the sound quality.
In fact, the normal DVD looks just the same as the more expensive Blu-Ray discs. So when you see dust swirl around John Wayne's boots you see dust not a smoky dust cloud. But then this may be down to the fact that the picture you see is boosted to 1080ps (whatever that is).

I guess like all things new there are always plus and minus about them. I like things that do what they say they do but I won't be investing in any more Blu-Ray discs. I'd sooner spend my money on a film that plays just as good as one that costs twice as much that might not play on my player.

3 comments:

Nik Morton said...

Welcome back. What a nuisance, Ray! It reminds me of those phrases, 'videos that will last a lifetime', 'music cd will last forever' and so on... till we realised it was all spin.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Glad to hear from you.

Randy Johnson said...

That whole thing sounds dodgy, doesn't it. A player that plays all variations should be the standard. I suppose if they're constantly evolving, though, they don't know what the next standard might be.

I haven't bought many new films lately, mostly old spaghetti westerns when I find them. The only new thing I've bought was the new Star Trek(hey, I'm old enough to remember the first run of the episodes). It was promptly returned for a refund when it wouldn't play in the computer and sounded crappy in the DVD player.