Anyone got blu-ray?

[RGDave]

As per title...anyone watching blu-ray?

Thinking of acquiring one for "family" ( ) over next few days before Santa makes his visit.

I have a 1080 "HD ready" TV (which though not full HD seems to be spec'd to play high def).

Found a few players....ready to go.

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Incidentally....what is it with £20-£50 HDMI cables? I got a gold plated one for about £8 for my DVD player....why are all the big boys selling them for so much? Typical????

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http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140647 £8.12

why pay so much? Belkin pro not good enough?

 

[brendy]

1080p is full hd matey, I bought one good hdmi for the blueray to tv and the sky standard cable is grand for sky +HD as it is only 720p at best.
As fas as Bellini are concerned, over priced junk these days, Bellini used to be a really good brand now they are pants.

 

[RGDave]

1080p is full hd matey, I bought one good hdmi for the blueray to tv and the sky standard cable is grand for sky +HD as it is only 720p at best.

Do you rate the blu ray?

(As you can imagine, it's not much use to me, even the telly at 15' is a bit blurry!! )

 

[brendy]

I've only watched a couple of bluerays but so far the quality blows normal tv away in terms of sharpness and detail, I've got nemo in 720 and to be honest it is fantastic. It really showcases the ability of your tv in the colour department.

 

[StuartD]

On the subject of HDMI cables you did not really need to go for a gold plated one. Digital data is either there or it isn't. A higher-grade cable or conductor will not do any better job passing 1’s and 0's than any other cable. RF shielding could be an issue but if your cable is compromised you will know immediately. You will see a clear loss of data in the picture apearing "blocky". Not a subtle color or clarity variance.

You may however notice a difference in the build quality of the cable, connectors being made of a stronger material etc. so a dearer one may last longer but i would never pay £20-25 for one

 

[RGDave]

I've only watched a couple of bluerays but so far the quality blows normal tv away in terms of sharpness and detail, I've got nemo in 720 and to be honest it is fantastic. It really showcases the ability of your tv in the colour department.

Cool, I must admit *most* of the films we're likely to buy will be kids/animation. Nemo would be right up there!!

 

[RGDave]

On the subject of HDMI cables you did not really need to go for a gold plated one. Digital data is either there or it isn't. A higher-grade cable or conductor will not do any better job passing 1’s and 0's than any other cable. RF shielding could be an issue but if your cable is compromised you will know immediately. You will see a clear loss of data in the picture apearing "blocky". Not a subtle color or clarity variance.

You may however notice a difference in the build quality of the cable, connectors being made of a stronger material etc. so a dearer one may last longer but i would never pay £20-25 for one

Thanks Stuart, I've often wondered this.

I must admit, cables (audio/video/data(USB etc.)) are a bug bear with me.

It all started the day I bought an HP printer which was on (or close) to internet price at one of the big stores. It came without a USB cable (a-b) and they tried to flog me one for £9.99. I politely declined (despite some annoying insistence) saying I could get one from I.T. at work for about under 99p.
The HDMI cable I have is for a DVD player to free up a scart on my TV. They tried to flog me one for £40-odd and I had the same problem in shaking off the salesman. I bought the player and ordered one (as per post).

What do these sales-folk take us for? It drives me mad

Similar thing happened with my digital camera. He was insistent he couldn't do me a 2gb SD card for a penny less than the asking price (I'd bought one a week earlier for about half price)....but he gave me £10 off the camera, so it worked out the same (sort of) and I did need to use a camera in the middle of nowhere with an hour or two to go.

If you bought a club and the salesman insisted on you buying a dozen Titleists for £60, you'd hardly agree!!!

 

[Ethan]

One of the good features of Blu Ray is HD Sound, but you need an AV amplifier that is capable of decoding it (or a player that can decode it) to get that.

Picture is much sharper on Blu Ray as well.

 

[Pants]

As fas as Bellini are concerned, over priced junk these days, Bellini used to be a really good brand now they are pants .

Do you mind

Got a bargain tele last year in Curry's sale. They tried to insist that I needed an HDMI cable to connect my v-box. Basic one about £40 and their recommended one about £60. Check out Fisual cables on Amazon. Cost me about a fiver and as far as I can tell there is nowt wrong with it.

They also tried to insist that I needed a 4 gang extension lead with built in surge protection to plug all my gizmos into plus extended warranty as, although the set was unlikely to go wrong some of the pixels might burn out.

These stores sell the main item cheap(ish) but take the mickey with peripherals to make up their profits. If you value your bank balance, don't even think of buying ink cartridges from them.

 

[Smiffy]

I've got quite a collection of Blu rays and most of them are way ahead of standard DVD's as far as picture quality is concerned. Having said that, if you get a decent Blu ray player it will also upscale standard DVD's, and will really bring them alive. Some of my better DVD's are very close to Blu ray quality once they have been upscaled.
I wouldn't worry about your TV being "HD ready" rather than "full HD". I doubt that you will spot any difference whatsoever between a 720p picture and a 1080p from distance. OK if you put your nose right up to the screen you might (might) see a slight improvement over the latter, but you don't watch telly like that do you?
I don't know how much you want to spend on a player, but if your budget can stretch to it, the PS3 is rated as one of the best players in it's price range, and the equal of some costing a lot more. Plus you get the added benefit of playing the odd game on there as well as everything else the PS3 has to offer.
As far as HDMI cables are concerned a cheaper cable will do just as good a job of passing the digital signal through as an expensive one. My HDMI cables came from ASDA, cost me £7.99 each and I have never had a problem with them from day one.
As somebody else mentioned, to really do Blu ray justice you really do want to hear the HD soundtracks too, and a half decent surround sound system will do this for you. Much better than a televisions inbuilt speakers. But it's not absolutely necessary.
I had a "seperates" system up until recently, but the Missus got fed up with all the different remote controllers lying around and got confused with what should be on and what shouldn't, so I've just sold everything and got myself a really decent "all in one" system. I was worried that the sound quality wouldn't be as good as my previous kit, but after plugging it all in and firing it up I am amazed. Far exceeds my expectations.
And I'm sitting here at the moment patiently waiting for Dixons to turn up with my new telly.....50" Panasonic Plasma. Can't wait to watch the new Star Trek and Terminator Blu rays on that!
And guess what??? The Panasonic is only HD ready, not full HD. I read the reviews on the A/V forums, saw it in the flesh and was blown away by the picture quality. I've sold my 1080p Samsung LCD to help fund it....


The A/V forum is a great place to read up about anything A/V related. Tellies, Blu ray players, cameras, PC's..you name it, there is good advice on there.
Here's a link (hope it works) to the Blu ray section. Well worth registering as a member...
http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-players/

 

[Tiger]

Blu ray is amazing! I agree with Smiffy get yourself a Playstation 3 only £250 plus it can do so much more than a standard blu ray player. Animation looks unbelievable I've got Wall E and the picture is first rate.

While you're at it get a copy of Little Big Planet for the kids and Tiger Woods 2010 for yourself. Happy Xmas.

 

[RGDave]

They tried to insist that I needed an HDMI cable to connect my v-box. Basic one about £40 and their recommended one about £60. Check out Fisual cables on Amazon. Cost me about a fiver and as far as I can tell there is nowt wrong with it.

They also tried to insist that I needed a 4 gang extension lead with built in surge protection to plug all my gizmos into plus extended warranty as, although the set was unlikely to go wrong some of the pixels might burn out.

These stores sell the main item cheap(ish) but take the mickey with peripherals to make up their profits.

Good man I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets cross about this nonsense.

 

[RGDave]

Smiffy. THAT is an excellent post...you're a star.

I am confused about the HD 1080 thing. My T.V. (Panasonic Viera) says it can do 1080 (that's pixels right?) so therefore if I plug in a source sending out 1080, that's what I'll get?

I take it standard dvd gives 576 (or whatever it is) so even 720 will be a step up.

I'm tempted by a PS3 I must say. I've had a PS1 and PS2, both with the almost exact selection of games; one golf, one driving sim, a couple of kids things and a RPG of sorts.

Being keen on good sound (surprise ) I designed a 5:1 surround sound system for the old house with some tremendous kit but it's currently being used in the loft room as part of my music studio.......sometimes I watch a dvd up in the loft (last one was Wall-e) and even on about 1-2 on the volume it's shaking the floor!

The other day, I was working on a remix of a depeche mode song (when everyone was out) and cranked it up to 4...whoa watch me go, like a Spinal Tap moment!!!

Cheers guys for the input.

 

[StrangelyBrown]

I have a PS3 and I think it is great. Games, Blu-Ray DVDs and DLNA media streaming from my NAS or PC in one handy box.

They're pretty cheap now too

Go on, you know you want one

 

[dangermouse]

the wife bought me this for my birthday:

http://shop.panasonic.co.uk/invt/scbt200eb9k

Its a lot of money and you can set your own up quite a lot cheaper, but I've been blown away by its quality. The picture is brilliant - films such as The Dark Knight look so much more real its unture. The sound quality is really good too, so the combination of the two makes watching a film really involving.

Am in the process of buying many of my dvds on blu-ray as the difference is noticeable. Can't wait to have Black Hawk Down blaring away for two and a half hours of action, with the volume turned right up.

Incidentally, she hates it - the sound is so strong it shakes the whole street. I think its by far and away the best thing anyone has ever bought me. Doubt the neighbours would agree!

 

[slugger]

All good info and i'd go with the PS3 as well... i bought an electric golf trolley instead, but that's for the golf forum!

Will defo get a PS3 as well though, especially after reading this thread.

 

[Smiffy]

the wife bought me this for my birthday:

http://shop.panasonic.co.uk/invt/scbt200eb9k

This is the one I've just bought....

http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/blu-ray/blu-ray-cinema-system/hb954pb/product

Absolutely fantastic sound and picture quality. I was concerned that it wouldn't sound as good as my seperates (Onkyo amplifier and Acoustic Energy 5.1 speakers) but I needn't have worried.
It's so powerful I had to set the sub at -13db as there is no way the neighbours would have put up with it.
And the speakers go with the telly superbly.

 

[bobmac]

This is the one I've just bought....
http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/blu-ray/blu-ray-cinema-system/hb954pb/product

You've just bought that AND a 9 ft tele as well?
I'm in the wrong job.

 

[Smiffy]

You've just bought that AND a 9 ft tele as well?
I'm in the wrong job.

Not really Bob. I like to change my gear every 2 years or so and if you shop around, buy wisely and sell at a reasonable price, the cost to change isn't too great.
I like gadgets, and tend to look on my A/V stuff as a "hobbie". Like all hobbies, it's going to cost you money along the way.
I don't drink (get pissed too easily, ask Vig ) and smoke cheap tobacco so I'm fairly inexpensive to run. My only other "vice" is golf but I won't be buying any new golf clubs for a while, believe me.



Oh and the telly is just over 4ft not 9!!

 

[RGDave]

If anyone followed this first time around, I'm keen to offer my quarterly review on Blu-ray?

Anyone? (shouts into black hole of non-interest )