Blu-ray’s “Big” little secret

[Musicguy]

Okay, I live in Hollywood and many of my friends are film buffs (It’s Hollywood after all)

So…some will say to me that they bought a film on DVD, and I say why don’t you buy the Blu-ray instead – most will say they don’t own a blu-ray player.

I respond “why not” The answer usually comes back as “Because I have so many DVDs”

I then say “You know you can play DVDs on a blu-ray player”

9 out of 10 didn’t know that

DVD’s look great on a blu-ray player, and blu-ray players don’t cost much – buy the blu-ray - the quality is better and you won’t have to upgrade later, and blu-rays don’t cost that much more than DVD anymore

I’m wondering just how many consumers out there know they only need a blu-ray player and can then start buying blu-ray disc instead on DVDs?

Ask your friends - bet they didn’t know that


Maybe if people bought blu-ray players – they would buy blu-ray discs

[Robert George]

I work in the AV business, and this is indeed true. Most people simply don't know you can play a DVD, or a CD for that matter, on a Blu-ray player.

I have advocated a simple solution. Market Blu-ray players as "DVD / Blu-ray players" and stop making DVD-only players.

[Scarface32]

About two years ago I told my sister-in-law that Blu-ray Disc players will play DVDs and she said "oh really, I didn't know that." A BD player was on her Christmas wishlist that year

[Corner Camping Noob]

Most of my friends would then say, "Why would I buy a whole new player when my DVD player works fine?" haha..

[Race Bannon]

I have found this to be true. Instead of getting a player and buying blu-rays on just a going-forward basis, most people seem to treat it as a an "all or nothing" conversion.

[Race Bannon]

I don't think filmmakers and sellers care -- every DVD they sell, they view as one more future upgrade possibility.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Race Bannon

I have found this to be true. Instead of getting a player and buying blu-rays on just a going-forward basis, most people seem to treat it as a an "all or nothing" conversion.

That's just silly The select DVDs I own that I really love, I upgraded to the BD version. But the majority of my DVDs won't be upgraded.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

I also worked in Hollywood and I've experienced the same thing. And the people who knew there was a difference between the two formats didn't seem to care. None of the people I worked with paid for media anyway. It's crazy how much free stuff you get when you're in the industry. Seemingly, as long as it was free, they didn't care about the format. (Unless they were going to eBay it or trade it in at Ameoba Records.)

[Musicguy]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

I also worked in Hollywood and I've experienced the same thing. And the people who knew there was a difference between the two formats didn't seem to care. None of the people I worked with paid for media anyway. It's crazy how much free stuff you get when you're in the industry. Seemingly, as long as it was free, they didn't care about the format. (Unless they were going to eBay it or trade it in at Ameoba Records.)

I had the same experience with free stuff - many people didn't care if the disc had screener disclaimers running through the bottom of the image or time counters on the screen - to them it was a free movie. They didn't care that TV shows were running scrolls or pop-ups in the picture just as long as it was free......quantity over quality always wins in America

[TheAtomizer]

Having worked in retail before, not to long ago and in a Electronics department, yes there are people who have no idea what all a blu-ray player does. What makes them different from a DVD, heck even what hi-def 1080p means to some of them. So I have to educate them and explain the perks of a BD to a DVD and etc. Some finally make the switch and upgrade and some like others have said, have a great DVD collection they don't wish to spend more money on to upgrade their titles. Que Sera Sera

[rdodolak]

No matter how much you try you can't fix stupid. At the end of the day the individual is ultimately responsible for educating themself. If they don't want to invest their own time to educate themselves it's not worth our own time to spoon feed them.

[KubrickKurasawa]

People!

Buy your loved ones a Blu-Ray player! SHOW THEM the WAY!

[ibprofane]

I'm always so surprised when people are buying a Roku box or something like Amazon Fire TV for this reason. You can get a quality, solid brand name (Sony/Samsung) blu-ray player for the same price that will do everything those pieces hardware can, and play blu-ray discs as well.

A vast majority of people aren't even aware that blu-ray players can play DVDs, stream Netflix, HULU, VUDU, etc. I agree with those who said they should expand their marketing to show everything a blu-ray player can do. So much value when compared with products in a similar price range.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by ibprofane

I'm always so surprised when people are buying a Roku box or something like Amazon Fire TV for this reason. You can get a quality, solid brand name (Sony/Samsung) blu-ray player for the same price that will do everything those pieces hardware can, and play blu-ray discs as well.

I have to disagree with that. I never use my smart tv or BD player for that because the interface sucks. (Both Panasonic.) I love my Roku and I'll pick up a Firetv if it goes on sale.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by Robert George

Most people simply don't know you can play a DVD, or a CD for that matter, on a Blu-ray player.

The first Samsung BD player couldn't play CDs.

[Corner Camping Noob]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

I have to disagree with that. I never use my smart tv or BD player for that because the interface sucks. (Both Panasonic.) I love my Roku and I'll pick up a Firetv if it goes on sale.

I agree with you on the Roku part. They have that interface locked down, plus it is very fast with that no on/off switch feature. Interested to see Amazon's product.

[Yojimbo68]

When the format wars were at full peek there was a lot of misinformation floating around. I remember Harry Knowles of "Ain't It Cool" reporting that DVD's would not play on Blu-ray players. That was never true.

[benji888578]

Originally Posted by Yojimbo68

When the format wars were at full peek there was a lot of misinformation floating around. I remember Harry Knowles of "Ain't It Cool" reporting that DVD's would not play on Blu-ray players. That was never true.

I recall hearing that. Supposedly you could play DVDs on an HD-DVD player, but not on a blu-ray.

While it's nice that most DVDs upscale nicely, the only problem is that some of my older DVDs that are "widescreen" are actually fullscreen then letterboxed, not anamorphic...my BD player plays these with four black bars around it, or stretched horizontally, but not vertically, depending on my settings. Nothing seems to bring it up to fill the screen, keeping the aspect.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

No matter how much you try you can't fix stupid. At the end of the day the individual is ultimately responsible for educating themself. If they don't want to invest their own time to educate themselves it's not worth our own time to spoon feed them.

Perhaps, but there's something to be said about new technology being advertised properly. They clearly have done a pretty poor job of making it clear to people that blu-ray players double as DVD players. Some proper advertising years ago on tv, making this abundantly clear, could have solved this.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by benji888578

While it's nice that most DVDs upscale nicely, the only problem is that some of my older DVDs that are "widescreen" are actually fullscreen then letterboxed, not anamorphic...my BD player plays these with four black bars around it, or stretched horizontally, but not vertically, depending on my settings. Nothing seems to bring it up to fill the screen, keeping the aspect.

Using your TV or BD player's zoom function should maintain the aspect ratio of a non-anamorphic DVD.