Following on from Nick’s earlier article about the game quality of the cross platform titles comes this story… and believe it or not this is a pure coincidence..
In Nick’s earlier article he asked the question “did you buy the PS3 primarily for games or movies?” before going on to slate the gaming ability of the PS3.
So Are you one of the few who said they bought it for Movies? Well then once again you are in the minority, Sony’s latest problem is that the general consumer cannot tell the difference between upscaled DVD and Blu-Ray. Nor do they really care.
So while Sony may still be celebrating the victory of HD-DVD the stark truth of the matter is that they still have a very large hill to climb. I have made no secret of my belief that the HD revolution isn’t going to hit us this year and possibly not until 2010.
Will Blu-Ray still be the dominant format at that time…. only time will tell. All I do know is that I am in no rush to stock up on Blu-Ray titles and my DVD collection will suit me fine for a while to come.
Last Updated: April 25, 2008
Lupus
April 25, 2008 at 11:37
I think it’s due to the fact that no movie is truly filmed in HD? Or the conversions are just awful. Perhaps IMAX titles would look good on bluray?
hilt_ctn
April 25, 2008 at 11:55
Uhh no. Loads of movies are shot in HD, as are series. Then they’re downscaled for standard def
doobiwan
April 25, 2008 at 11:56
It’s because the second something moves on screen, motion blur obscures any benefit of higher resolution.
James Francis
April 25, 2008 at 11:57
Technically most movies can go to HD. If it was shot on film, you can scale the resolution easily, while pretty much all professional digital work is being done on HD.
The real problem is that maybe a simple leap in resolution isn’t enough. DVD grew phenomenally, mainly thanks to it being much more durable and easier to use than VHS. Blu-Ray DOES NOT an equal jump between it and DVD. I suspect consumers detect this. The world has been aching for a VHS replacement, but nobody was really bemoaning DVD.
I won’t got to Blu-Ray for two reasons. Firstly is possible damage. While BRD has scratch-proofing, that’s not enough. Any DVD owner knows that eventually your discs get damaged. What happens if your BDR gets scratched? With that high compression, surely more data will be affected. As I see it, a damaged BDR will be harder to use than a damaged DVD.
Secondly, I have a large collection of DVDs, a vast bulk of which are not on Blu-Ray. Instead all the stuff being sold are new TV shows and blockbuster films. But one of the big appeals behind DVD was to build a long-lasting collection consisting of the movies you love and cherish. In fact, DVD sales slowed as people started to round off their collections. I don’t see BDR give any incentive to collectors.
JimBob
April 25, 2008 at 12:02
I’ve heard people say they can’t tell the difference, but a quick demo of Casino Royale and Planet Earth shuts them up in quick time, mostly because their jaws are touching the floor. 🙂
hilt_ctn
April 25, 2008 at 12:09
With you JimBob.
The difference is night and day. Those who can’t see it ( oober pun..c’mon..it’s Friday ) would better spend their money on Optometrist bills as oppose to a hi-def solution
Arc316
April 25, 2008 at 12:13
I agree with JimBob.
I have both Casino Royale and Planet Earth on blu-ray.
And if you can’t see the difference, please stop driving cause clearly your i sight has gone and you are a danger on the road.
And no one said you have to throw out your dvds just because you you cat start watching blu-ray.
Next the anti Blu-ray crowd wil probaly say “Duh! Why does I want 5 speakerses when I only have 2 ears”
hilt_ctn
April 25, 2008 at 12:20
Take a 40inch LCD
Take an XBOX360
Take your beloved Gears of War ( fab game btw )
Run it in 480i/576i and then run it in 720P. Is there a difference ? I think so
Fox1
April 25, 2008 at 12:28
One small scratch on a Blue-Ray disc will wipe gigs of data out.
hilt_ctn
April 25, 2008 at 12:40
One significant scratch on your car = thousands of zars in respraying a panel…welcome to life
SlippyMadFrog
April 25, 2008 at 12:51
Don’t compare games with movies regarding resolution, not a fair comparison
hilt_ctn
April 25, 2008 at 12:55
And why not praytell ?
Abe
April 25, 2008 at 13:28
Yea I agree, There is a very definate and very visible difference.
PS james francis, remarkable yet true, dvds work in a BD player. WOW!!!
doobiwan
April 25, 2008 at 13:39
See my first point:
Casino Royale and Planet earth are fine examples of movies where nothing happens 😉 In both a lot of the shots are effectively static, so yes they benefit.
300 is fast and action packed, there is movemnt on screen all the time – much less remarkable.
Even thoug there is a difference, that’s not the issue. CD sound better than MP3’s – fact. MP3’s are pwning CD’s because they’re good enough and most people don’t care. That’s exactly what this article is corroborating.
TinFish
April 25, 2008 at 14:10
I’ve watched the same thign on BD and upscaled DVD, I must say I can tell the difference, but for the cost.. R199 for a BD vs R199 fro 3 DVD’s, upscaling is big enough improvment over watching 480p for me… don’t need the BD stuff yet… will get the must have titles but that’s about it.
Ruslan
April 25, 2008 at 14:12
Upscaled DVDs are cheaper, easily available in SA and look great. Thus far only Casino Royale impressed me from the BD arena. All else has better uncompressed PCM sound which sounds excellent, but Sony was touting on impressing people’s eyes and not ears. So thus far BD is nothing but an intermediate media till digital downloads kill it.
JimBob
April 25, 2008 at 14:25
Nonsense. The chase sequences in Casino Royale look stunning, and Planet Earth features a magnficent sequence where a pack of wild dogs chase down some impala, just as one example.
300 is purposefully grainy, which is why it’s not as impressive as Blu-ray film as one would think. It’s got nothing to do with how much action there is in it. The sound is another virtue of Blu_ray that isn’t played up enough.
SlippyMadFrog
April 25, 2008 at 14:29
Because in movies aliasing doesn’t exist while in games a low resolution magnifies aliasing
hilt_ctn
April 25, 2008 at 14:42
I was thinking more along the lines of how more clarity the extra 2 million pixels bring to an image
Jinja
April 25, 2008 at 14:55
What DVD’s do you buy?
Jinja’s last blog post..CNN Names ChumpStyle as Website of the Year
Arc316
April 25, 2008 at 15:39
Digital Downloads in SA with Telkom. Good Luck with that.
bhw
April 25, 2008 at 15:48
DVD was a big leap forward in terms of functionality, durability ,and quality which prompted the broad acceptance. The average joe did not buy DVD’s for the 5.1/DTS audio or superior picture quality its was the special features , the interactive menus , the chapter select features etc. that impressed your man in the street.
As far as the audio goes – hands up who has a HD AV Receiver with TrueHD / DTS-HD support. Now go outside and ask the first 10 people you meet what that means
Abe
April 25, 2008 at 18:53
One thing that everyone is forgetting about is BD as a storage device, one of the things that helped DVD’s was its fast uptake by the pc as a storage device. BD drives are fast making there way into pc’s.
James Francis
April 26, 2008 at 17:15
Some reckon solid state will catch up too quickly for that to really happen. Companies would definitely benefit from mass-capacity discs, but that won’t make the format beat DVD. Meanwhile we’re getting cheaper and beefier flash drives all the time.
James Francis
April 26, 2008 at 17:20
One interesting point someone made to me was that when HD video came along, it also benefited DVD. HD video simply looks better, even if it’s a scaled-down version. The Planet Earth series is a good example of this.
The average person liked the ease of the format. Good luck getting them to simply upgrade to a whole new setup.
daniel
June 5, 2008 at 19:14
i think blu ray is a big difference from even upscailed dvd but i think there are 2 problems at present.1 you need a very expensive tv which not only has the full pixel range but also a motion enhancer to handle movement.that being said the biggest problem is that the movie titles are just not in our local stores.aka 310 to yuma(supposidly out tomorrow)but the shops are clueless