Blu-ray
vs.
Standard DVD

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Blu-ray

2
Low Cost
2
Movies Availability
2
Picture Quality
2
Sound Quality
2
Special Features

Standard DVD

Blu-ray

Blu-ray format is the new and improved movie watching technology. It won the battle of high-definition viewing format over HD-DVD, and is slowly gaining traction.

Standard DVD

After winning over VHS as the most wide-spread video format, standard DVD still prevails as a good quality movie watching tecnology, and you can find players virtually everywhere (computers, gaming consoles etc).

Low Cost

Blu-ray players cost five to ten times more than DVD players (and sometimes even more than that). But the costs don't end there. To really enjoy a Blu-ray movie you'll also need a good HD screen and adequate sound system. If you don't already own those, the price difference climbs up quickly. As a rule of thumb you're probably better off getting the screen and sound system first, so that by the time you get to buy the actual Blu-ray player prices may drop. Blu-ray players can play your standard DVD titles, which means you don't have to go and replace your entire collection at once,. However, you'd probably want Blu-ray titles to exploit everything Blu-ray has to give. The movies are not cheap, and easily cost twice more than the same movie in standard DVD format.
Standard DVD players cost a tenth to a fifth the price of Blu-ray players. Add to that the low prices for movie titles, and the savings are huge. Also, consider the issues around picture and sound quality on Blu-ray. While superior, they are really enjoyed on good HD screens and sound systems, which you may be tempted to buy. In the standard DVD world � these are still very nice to have, but will not change your viewing and listening experience much.

Movies Availability

More often than not, new movies get released in Blu-ray format. Older movies get ported and released slowly as well. However, the total number of titles in Blu-ray is only 1 percent that of the titles available for standard DVDs. This means that unless your taste in movies fits in exactly with what the Blu-ray library has to offer, your Blu-ray player will be mostly used to play standard DVD movies. Also, if you buy your movie in Blu-ray format, it will not play on standard DVDs.
All new movies are still released in the standard DVD format, and that will probably go on for a while longer. All in all, the number of titles you can find in standard DVD formats is almost 100 times more that of Blu-ray. Add TV programs to that and the DVD's edge is clear. Standard DVD format will play happily on a Blu-ray player.

Picture Quality

Blu-ray has maximum picture resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p). This is a far better resolution compared to DVD. What it means is that the quality of the picture you'll see is far better as more detail can fit into every single frame. The experience, on good HD screens can mimic a real cinema quality. Additionally, Blu-ray technology stores the video differently to DVDs (in technical terms, the Blu-ray discs use superior video-compression). The difference is that the picture looks more real � it has rich colors and sharpness (contrast). The downside is that while the picture quality is superior, you really need a good HD screen to enjoy it.
Standard DVD has inferior resolution compared to Blu-ray. At only 730x480 (480p) and older video storing technology (inferior video compression) � the quality of picture on a standard DVD just doesn't cut it, This being said, it doesn't matter much for older movies, or if you don't have a good HD screen to watch the movie on.

Sound Quality

Blu-ray uses very sophisticated, new soundtrack technologies such as Dolby TrueHD and Master Audio. The quality sound stored on the Blu-ray disc is really studio-quality and, especially for newer movie titles, sounds great with the right sound system. The downside is that to enjoy this sound quality, you really need an excellent sound system, which costs a lot by itself.
The sound quality on standard DVD players is adequate for most people. This is especially true for older movie titles, where the soundtracks were not of high quality originally anyway.

Special Features

Blu ray boasts several special features that standard DVDs do not have. The most obvious one is the ability to access the menu options without having to stop the movie. You simply open a pop-up menu that gets displayed on the screen while you continue viewing. Different features are available for different Blu-ray profiles. Profiles are the different generations of Blu-ray players, and some features are only present in the latest profile. Picture-in-picture viewing, or Internet connectivity to download additional material directly from the player are cool features but not available on all models. The downside of Blu-ray is that movie loading time is substantially longer than what you get on standard DVD, and that no Set-top recorders are currently only available in Japan.
A standard DVD does not have anything on Blu-ray in terms of special features except for the wide availability of set-top recorders. However, being more simple, movie load time (the time from when you insert the movie into the player until it is ready to play) is short.

Blu-ray

Standard DVD

Blu-ray

Average rating: 3.5 / 5
based on 408 customer reviews
Feel factor: 1


fun while it lasted

(Score 2/5)

The unit lasted less than a year. Now it won't play DVD-R's (home movies) any more. It will stil play blu-ray's but I need something that plays everything. I should have known I was headed for trouble when a few weeks after buying it there was no sound. After unplugging it for a couple minutes and plugging it back in, it was fine. Now, even with the lastest firmware I can't fix it.

I wanted a Samsung DVD player with my Samsung TV but there was no way I was going to buy another so I bought a Sony DVD player.

Posted on: 2010-06-11
By Sean Johnson



Biggest Piece of Junk!

(Score 1/5)

This is the first blu-ray player we bought. It worked for a while, and then all of a sudden everything went down hill. It stopped reading blu-rays; I would have to unplug it and put the disc in repeatedly before it might actually read it. One time I sat in front of the player just putting the disc back in for 15 minutes and it never would read it. It was kept updated as well, so this was not the problem. It would freeze up in the middle of dvds and blu-rays; it would stop playing it all together, or start chopping it. Even on brand new discs that work on other players, this piece of junk would not play it correctly if at all. Eventually, we gave up and bought a sony on sale at our BX and could not be happier with it.

Posted on: 2010-06-10
By A. Bartoszek



Samsung disapoints

(Score 1/5)

Painful experience. I have the most recent firmware. Some discs play. Others do not. Don't purchase. Go for something newer.

Posted on: 2010-05-22
By D. Foltz



My Samsung BD-P1500 doesn't work after 1 year

(Score 1/5)

I bought the Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray disc player and didn't really use it all that much, just a handful of movies I purchased and some rental from Netflix (for just a few months). Shortly after the one-year warrantee term expired, the machine stopped working. I got on the phone with three technicians, they were all very nice to me, but couldn't help me to fix it. Nothing more they could do with the software upgrade, that wasn't the issue. The last technician advised that it could be the laser issue and suggested that I sent it in for repair, and the charge for this is $166. I am not interested in spending anymore money on this machine and would rather have a new machine from Sony.

You may find this interesting, while the machine no longer play any blu-ray movies anymore, it does play standard DVD movie however, it doesn't show the menu. I had to make my menu selection in the dark.

I'm so disappointed.

Posted on: 2010-05-11
By Chailai Brune



Bad

(Score 1/5)

I received this player for Christmas. I don't watch a lot of movies so it took longer to reveal the problems with the machine than for some of my fellow reviewers, but it stopped playing Blu-ray discs this past March, so I settled for DVDs. Then it wouldn't play the sound on the DVDs! Unfortunately, we had dumped all the packing and the receipt for the unit so it wasn't even returnable (a lesson learned). Needless to say, no more Samsung products for me.

Posted on: 2010-05-07
By Donald Hazeltine

Standard DVD

Average rating: 4.0 / 5
based on 178 customer reviews
Feel factor: 2


Bad sound, good picture

(Score 3/5)

I was pleased with the size and picture quality of the DVDs I watch on it. But the sound has static and is distorted. If it weren't too much of a hassle, I'd return it.

Posted on: 2010-07-21
By Steven Buckhalter



Electronic Express

(Score 2/5)

I ordered a Sony DVD Player from Electronic Express thru Amazon on 6/9/2010. As of today I have not received the unit. I received a notice from Amazon on 6/16/10 indicating that they had not received a shipment notification from Electronic Express. I requested Electronic Express give me a order status and received no reply. On 6/20/10 I again requested a status update. On 6/22/10 I finally received a notice from Electronic Express expressing how sorry they were for not responding and indicating that the units were on backorder and should be available very shortly. As of today, 7/9/10, I have received no further communication as to my order. If Electronic Express does not ship by 7/11/10, Amazon will cancel the order as it would not ship w/in their 30 day max. window.

I will note that a few weeks before this order I ordered another item from Electronic Express and received it w/in a few days. I was so impressed that I ordered this unit. Very different result. It appears that they are very weak on communicating issues , such as backorders, to their customers.

Posted on: 2010-07-09
By Jimd
Helpful index: 100%



totally worth it

(Score 4/5)

For the price, this DVD player was more than worth the cost. It's sleek, slim, and works perfectly, even with my scratched DVDs.

Posted on: 2010-07-07
By adeline



Great college DVD player

(Score 5/5)

I bought a Zenith dvd player at the beginning of freshman year and it lasted about 3 years just wonderfully before it finally died. After looking at reviews for new players I decided upon buying this one.

Pros:
Rather small and light player
Time display on the front
Worked right out of the box
Sound and picture quality are great
Has the resume feature but you have to press play to make it work... odd.

Cons:
Remote has no eject button
Remote also is pretty cheap looking (it has legs on it. Why?!)
Remote will only control major brand TVs (otherwise you need your own remote)
Included cables are total rubbish. They don't latch on and fall right out of the player
Resume feature is supposed to remember up to 6 disks. Mine remembers 0 as soon as you take out the disk
Menu is a little cheap looking


Overall the cons aren't deal breakers. For a cheapo DVD player, I would say that this is probably a pretty good deal. I got it at Best Buy though so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping ;)


Posted on: 2010-07-03
By Kelly A. Rogers



What a great little workhorse!

(Score 5/5)

I bought this little Sony almost a year ago for my elderly mother. She is not at all technologically savvy and she lives far away, so I photographed the player and the remote from all sides and gave her instructions over the phone on how to use it at first. Now she has pretty much mastered it and is very happy with it. She has been using it fairly consistently since she received it and has had no problems with it at all. This device is so small and lightweight that I am thinking of getting one for the guest bedroom. This is a very satisfactory little machine! Remember, it plays CDs and JPEG photos as well. If my mother can learn how to use it, anybody can.

Posted on: 2010-07-03
By S. Adams

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