DVD player VS blu-ray player ?

[MacinMan]

I was curious at this point in time, Is there any advantages of having a regular DVD player over a blu-ray player these days for standard DVDs? While i have no issues with playing my standard dvds in my panasonic blu-ray players, It seems that a regular DVD player can still address some of the specific navigation features such as hitting the number buttons for chapter and scene navigation. as well as a few other minor differences.

One more thing, I don't notice as much difference of DVD video playing at 480p upscaled by the tv as playing a DVD in a bd player and letting the player upscale. In fact, I find that feeding a direct 480 signal to the tv provides better results for SD content.

Just thought i'd see what people have to say, since many people still have a large dvd library still. My choice about dvd upconversion is simply upgrade to the blu-ray source when it becomes available. It's the only real way I noticed a full difference in content.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by MacinMan

One more thing, I don't notice as much difference of DVD video playing at 480p upscaled by the tv as playing a DVD in a bd player and letting the player upscale. In fact, I find that feeding a direct 480 signal to the tv provides better results for SD content.

TVs and players use different techniques to scale...for instance, lets say you have a 768p (such as a panny plasma).

If you send 480p content straight to the TV the panny may upscale to 1080p then back down to fit its native resolution 768p. (not sure if this is exact process?)

If you have the player upscale, it may upscale 480p directly to 720p then to your tv which will take 720p and upscale once more to 768p. So in essence, more scaling possible more problems. etc


again this is just a scenerio and may not work exactly as I described but you get th jist... players and tvs use different technologies and different hardware to achieve things.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

TVs and players use different techniques to scale...for instance, lets say you have a 768p (such as a panny plasma).

If you send 480p content straight to the TV the panny may upscale to 1080p then back down to fit its native resolution 768p. (not sure if this is exact process?)

If you have the player upscale, it may upscale 480p directly to 720p then to your tv which will take 720p and upscale once more to 768p. So in essence, more scaling possible more problems. etc


again this is just a scenerio and may not work exactly as I described but you get th jist... players and tvs use different technologies and different hardware to achieve things.

Ok, Yes I have a 1080p panasonic plasma 42" so anything not restricted to 1080i or otherwise, goes to 1080p unless it's an SD source which the TV says is coming in at 480p, or SD ota reports 480i when hitting info.

I may just buy an appletv for the bedroom, i have two panny players the livingroom panny has netflix it's the BD85k the bedroom is 601k, no netflkix the new appletv has netflix and it iwll play itunes content
so it would be a good streaming addition, which is the only reason I'd buy a new bd player at this point to replace the 601k.

I may pick up a cheap dvd player because i've found sometimes letting the player upscale brings out video defects. All depends on the source though.

[bhampton]

When I was in France over the summer I saw a tiny Chinese DVD player on sale at a grocery store. It was black and great looking. You could set the region to whatever you wanted including region free. (Sometimes you have to set a player back to region 1 for example for discs that won't play in a region free player) and it had all kinds of outputs including VGA and SCART and so on.

It was very cheap and nice looking and it was hard for me not to buy it but it would have complicated my setup so I left it sitting there.

Such a player would be great to play DVDs and CDs to save wear and tear on your main player.

-Brian

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by bhampton

When I was in France over the summer I saw a tiny Chinese DVD player on sale at a grocery store. It was black and great looking. You could set the region to whatever you wanted including region free. (Sometimes you have to set a player back to region 1 for example for discs that won't play in a region free player) and it had all kinds of outputs including VGA and SCART and so on.

It was very cheap and nice looking and it was hard for me not to buy it but it would have complicated my setup so I left it sitting there.

Such a player would be great to play DVDs and CDs to save wear and tear on your main player.

-Brian

speaking of region free I really would like to find a source of the original bionic woman series that will play in the u.s. the only version is the remake. I hear it's not as good as the original. I found it for sale for region 2 and 4 but i only have region 1 or all players.

[Spence]

speaking of region free I really would like to find a source of the original bionic woman series that will play in the u.s. the only version is the remake. I hear it's not as good as the original. I found it for sale for region 2 and 4 but i only have region 1 or all players.

I still use my DVD player to play my imported titles (since I can't crack my Samsung BD-1500 blu to be region free for DVDs!).

As far as the original Bionic Woman, it's coming to DVD in the US on October 19th.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by Spence

I still use my DVD player to play my imported titles (since I can't crack my Samsung BD-1500 blu to be region free for DVDs!).

As far as the original Bionic Woman, it's coming to DVD in the US on October 19th.

wow nice! i'll have to pick up a copy.

Thanks

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by FranklinWalker

for sure,choose blu-ray player

Thanks, that's the thing I have two perfectly good BD/DVD players one in the livingroom and one in the bedroom. The one in the living room is the Panasonic DMP-BD85k which is a 2010 model and has netflix support. The one in the bedroom is the Panasonic DMP-BD601k which is fine for discs, has pandora and amazon video on demand. Everything but netflix. Now i'm thinking it might be cheaper just to get a stand alone netflix box for the bedroom since the older player is still solid and up to date for blu-ray playback. I have also started using Amazon VOD as an alternative to netflix streaming as well. Both players support it. And netflix streaming support as far as titles available i still think is very limited. Amazon VOD is also a good alternative to the itunes store for devices not made by apple hence not being able to play itunes drm'd video.

[Spymaster]

It depends on the quality of the DVD player.

My Denon 2930 has two distinct advantages over my BD player. It uses its built-in buffer to remove layer changes, and its upscaling chip is magnificent, bettered only by the more expensive Denon 3930.

I never use my BD player for DVD.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by Spymaster

It depends on the quality of the DVD player.

My Denon 2930 has two distinct advantages over my BD player. It uses its built-in buffer to remove layer changes, and its upscaling chip is magnificent, bettered only by the more expensive Denon 3930.

I never use my BD player for DVD.

That's another thing, I've heard people call blu-ray "blu-ray DVD" Are blu-ray discs still considered DVDs Just in a new format?

[cinema sickness]

I think I'll always have a DVD player. Ive already had a few DVDs that gave me no sound (except the foreign tracks) in my BD player but worked just fine in my DVD player. They are super cheep these days and its nice to just have one hooked up for those certain occasions.

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by MacinMan

That's another thing, I've heard people call blu-ray "blu-ray DVD" Are blu-ray discs still considered DVDs Just in a new format?

No to both.

DVD and Blu-ray Disc are two different pieces of technology. The only commonality is the use of a "disc."

Many retailers mistakenly referred to Blu-ray Disc as Blu-ray DVD which lead to the misconception among uneducated consumers that ti was Blu-ray DVD.

Blu-ray Disc is not the successor to DVD, it is the next format step up. The actual successor ro DVD was HD DVD, a format that failed.

And since my PS3 is Region A Blu/Region 1 DVD, I still use my Philips DVD player which is multi-region to watch my imports.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

No to both.

DVD and Blu-ray Disc are two different pieces of technology. The only commonality is the use of a "disc."

Many retailers mistakenly referred to Blu-ray Disc as Blu-ray DVD which lead to the misconception among uneducated consumers that ti was Blu-ray DVD.

Blu-ray Disc is not the successor to DVD, it is the next format step up. The actual successor ro DVD was HD DVD, a format that failed.

And since my PS3 is Region A Blu/Region 1 DVD, I still use my Philips DVD player which is multi-region to watch my imports.

Thanks for clearing that up, ti seems with the introduction of HD DVD bluray disc, etc and HD in general even people who are professionals or at least know their video technologies have some catchup to do. I had intended to fully witch to blu-ray but I'm finding tv shows and low cost films only have DVD media so sometimes I still buy new DVDs too. but in the end, a good source properly mastered on DVD doesn't look bad at all. In fact, some look just as detailed as a blu-ray especially on a smaller screen.

I have a 32 and a 42" tv and it's only on the 42" do i notice any real difference between the formats as far as real detail loss beyond the normal differences between SD and HD.