They are different formats I know, but I honestly can't tell a difference in picture quality. I've got a good tv, so that's not it. Can most people really see a big difference in quality?

4/23/2013 5:47:26 PM

before the floodgates open:

yes, I can visually tell the difference. if you can't, one of these is broken:
- the Blu-ray disc content
- the Blu-ray player
- the display connected to the Blu-ray player
- your eyes

the difference isn't OMGZ BLU RAY I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES, but it is significant when produced and displayed properly. some people probably can't tell the difference, or simply don't care/think it matters that much.



[Edited on April 23, 2013 at 5:55 PM. Reason : and i'm assuming this is in reference to movies on dvd vs blu]

4/23/2013 5:53:46 PM

This:

Quote :

"yes, I can visually tell the difference. if you can't, one of these is broken: - the Blu-ray disc content - the Blu-ray player - the display connected to the Blu-ray player - your eyes"

Or check your cables. Make sure the TV actually says "1080p". If you can't tell the difference between 480 vertical pixels and 1080 (maybe get a little closer to the tv) then you have problems with your eyes. Even my 60+ parents noticed a big difference and comment when things aren't in HD.

Even the difference between 720p and 1080p is noticeable especially on 50"+ tvs. I mean you're essentially duplicating or interpolating pixels. It just looks fuzzy. It's kind of like when you set your LCD to a non-native resolution on your computer/laptop. It just looks bad.

[Edited on April 23, 2013 at 6:04 PM. Reason : s]

4/23/2013 6:02:44 PM

yeah i can definitely tell the difference between bluray and dvd on my 52 inch lcd.

The audio is noticeably different as well... I have dark knight rises on bluray. it also came with the standard dvd disc.

i watched the batman/bane final fight scene in both formats and the bluray blew it out of the water, both visually and with the audio

4/23/2013 6:39:58 PM

Yeah assuming you have a newer receiver you should be getting DTS-HD or TrueHD. Much better than the Dolby Digital on DVDs. Or even better than DTS.

4/23/2013 7:00:57 PM

even my half-blind mother can tell the difference.

4/23/2013 7:10:12 PM

I can tell a huge difference is standard def and hi def tv, but not dvd and blu ray.

^does she have one eye that's 20-20 and one that's dead, or does she have half vision out of each eye? That makes a difference.

4/23/2013 7:21:43 PM

^

Not being a picky person (and not watching many movies that aren't on Netflix), the only thing I can comment on is those "side-by-side" setups they have in major retailers.

If those are any indicator, then bluray blows DVD out of the water.

4/23/2013 7:24:42 PM

Quote :

"the only thing I can comment on is those "side-by-side" setups they have in major retailers."

Those are a complete joke. If you have a nice upconverting DVD player it is much harder to tell the difference between a DVD and Bluray. Although If you had them side by side you could still tell a huge difference.

4/23/2013 7:38:01 PM

I do have a nice newer dvd player, so that might have something to do with it. I don't doubt that Best Buy would be able to show me a difference when it means I'll pay more for the movie. I guess I really don't care that much. Just brought it up because I was thinking about it at Redbox today.

Another thing I don't get is people that buy movies. I know very few people that come out ahead financially buying a movie. Meaning they watch it enough before it's format become outdated that their cost per view is less than paying $1.20 to rent it, or just pay $7.99 for nflx. I guess there's a collectible aspect people enjoy, but it's not my cup of tea.

4/23/2013 7:44:48 PM

So you do have a Bluray player? Do you have a newer receiver? I'd check to make sure everything is actually hooked up right and you're getting HD audio and full 1080p video. I would say the majority of people have their media centers set up wrong. Assuming you have a nice TV, receiver and speakers you should tell a huge difference between a DVD and a Bluray with HD audio.

4/23/2013 7:50:40 PM

^I use a PS3, so maybe that's a shitty blu ray player. It's in my office on a smaller HDTV, although it's a newer 1080p. No receiver. I have put it on a bigger tv though, and still not a convincing difference. It's plays the movie on 1080p, and is connected directly with an HDMI.

4/23/2013 7:54:48 PM

there's no difference...it's just marketing hype

4/23/2013 8:53:18 PM

It's possible the Bluray he's using wasn't based on HD source material.

Might have to try a different disc.

4/23/2013 9:09:29 PM

^^^Oh so you don't even have speakers or a receiver? A huge portion of Bluray content is HD audio. So you're missing out on that.

^All movies whether film or digital are "HD". I don't think they upconvert DVDs and resell them as Blurays. Blurays from older non-digitally filmed movies are just film scans. They're actually lower resolution than what you'd get from an actual 35mm film projection but still full 1080p.

How small is small? And how close are you sitting to it? I can tell the difference between 480, 720, and 1080 on my 14" laptop. You'd have to be pretty far from a screen to not be able to tell the difference.

4/24/2013 12:49:11 PM

I mean, there are some crappy HD transfers out there that don't look much better than up-converted DVDs (the original non-extended edition LOTR Blu-rays is the most notable example), but by and large you'd have to blind to not tell the difference. Get any recent CGI movie (Wreck it Ralph is a good one) and try it out. Those tend to have the most flawless HD transfers.

4/24/2013 1:21:03 PM

Good point. They are some crappy ones out there.

4/24/2013 1:45:26 PM

I use the PS3 but it is hooked to a sony receiver/subwoofer with HDMI and connected to a soundbar on the TV.

It works great.

4/24/2013 4:09:00 PM

Are you sure TrueHD or DTS-HD are actually being passed to the receiver and to the soundbar? Does your receiver read "TrueHD" or "DTS-HD"? I don't have a PS3 so I'm not sure if that's a setting you have to select manually.

4/24/2013 4:57:24 PM

Quote :

"Get any recent CGI movie"

this

I puked in my mouth a little watching Finding Nemo in 480p the other day

5/3/2013 6:59:03 PM

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1168342/the-new-pq-tier-thread-for-blu-ray-rankings

This will help guide your content selection. Generally speaking, if I had a DVD and the bluray version wasn't silver or better, I didn't bother. The tier 0, or "reference quality" selections are the knock your socks off versions.

For shits and giggles, see if you can get a DVD and bluray version of the same movie on red box, particularly the better tiers. You will see, especially if you can tell the difference between standard def and HD.

5/4/2013 7:37:25 PM

OP forgot to mention they are watching on a CRT

5/4/2013 10:52:14 PM

I've seen a 16:9 HD CRT before

It was pretty weird

5/4/2013 11:10:48 PM

in the early 2000's you could find them at Best Buy... it was that awkward time when HDTV was a budding industry but Plasmas and LCD's were all still too expensive for the average joe. (at least that's how I remember it being)

5/5/2013 8:58:39 AM

The Sony 16:9 CRT probably still would have better picture quality than a typical LCD today.

They were used as studio monitors in a lot of place for their reference grade picture quality, compared to price.

But they were ridiculously heavy.

5/5/2013 12:34:18 PM

^ this
you can occasionally find sony tube xbrs with the superfine pitch tube on cl for ~$50 kinda crazy how their quality is still better than a lot of stuff out today.

5/5/2013 10:32:41 PM

those Sony Triton or whatever they're called 36 inch mammoth CRT tvs are awesome, especially for retro gaming, but they weigh about 300 pounds which is why people sell them on craigslist for 50 bucks, just too much hassle moving them around

5/6/2013 10:31:54 AM