Blu-rays Your Budget And Which Ones To Buy

[Sub]

I'm in a very limited financial situation and love Blu Ray movies. Two approaches I have taken to adding to my large movie collection and adding more Blu Ray movies is this

1- I try to only buy the movies that I truly love to watch over and over.
Any ones that get viewed a few times a year, and are all time favorites.

Also next is get the ones that REALLY need it.

2- Some movies just don't need to be Blu Ray, for me. Even though we know everything looks better on Blu Ray some movies just don't need to be Blu Ray for me. I do A / B's with the regular DVD's side by side with Blu Ray's all the time. And I can honestly sit there and say, nope that does not improve this film so greatly that I'm gonna drop $30.00 bucks on a film I already own. And it's not one I watch alot either.

In other words the Blu Ray "Iron Man" movie does not level the Regular DVD
of "Iron Man" enough for me to care. There's plenty of these out as well.

Again this is for people with limited money but here is a list of a few movies that looked TERRIBLE on DVD for years, and the Blu Ray was a MUST if you like these movies.

I thought if we have discovered any films that fit this we could share that info. Here is a small list of films that looked TERRIBLE on DVD for years. I mean brutal like we were watching VHS The Blu Ray's on these blew the doors off of what was available on DVD. I mean a HUGE difference. Not just
"oh yeah that's better"

The Robe - My God, Incredible the best I have seen yet in difference.
The Road Warrior - Didn't even know Mel was in this till now... LOL
Unforgiven -
The Lost Boys -
Twister -
Halloween (the original)
The Thing
Silverado
Gangs Of New York

Of course some others looked better for example "The Searchers" is stunning
on Blu Ray but so was the last regualar remastered DVD I had of it.
The difference wasn't huge but i bought it because it's a favorite that gets watched alot. And it was on sale for $12.99
The "Warriors" looks awesome on Blu Ray but so does the regular DVD very nice transfer to begin with.

So what have you found that was horrible before the Blu Ray?

[Icedburden]

I'm kinda confused as to what this thread is about. If you're asking what Blu-Rays are substantial upgrades from the DVD's a safe answer would be most Criterion Blu's.

[Jobber8742]

I think he is asking how you decide what to buy given a limited budget. One thing I saw wrong with his thinking is that he said:

And I can honestly sit there and say, nope that does not improve this film so greatly that I'm gonna drop $30.00 bucks on a film I already own.

You should never be spending $30 on a Blu. Shop around, most times you can get them for $15 or less.

[Icedburden]

Originally Posted by Sub

So what have you found that was horrible before the Blu Ray?

Originally Posted by Jobber8742

I think he is asking how you decide what to buy given a limited budget. One thing I saw wrong with his thinking is that he said: You should never be spending $30 on a Blu. Shop around, most times you can get them for $15 or less.

I was confused with that statement at the end, but I cannot stress enough that Amazon (support the site!) and gohastings.com are the best sites around right now for low-priced blu's.

[MaCruz]

First off. Welcome to the Blu-Ray community!

I was a the point where I bought a lot of blind buys, but I slowed down. I mainly buy titles that are on sale around $20 or below. As far as DVD's, I upgraded them to BD as they were released. I only had around 60 DVD's in my collection. I'm down to half since they are slowly coming out on BD.

I think we are all on a budget, and if you're looking for great deals.. check out the trading forums!

[DealsR4theDevil]

Originally Posted by Jobber8742

You should never be spending $30 on a Blu. Shop around, most times you can get them for $15 or less.

Exactly! .. I have never paid $30 for any blu-ray (Box-sets and TV seasons dont count .. but even then if u average out the cost of each disc in the set, still not close to $30)

[blurayjunkie]

i have paied $36 for a disney blu am i crazy? Sadly I think I am lol.

[bluman007]

check out the trading forum if you want low priced blus..maybe that $30 movie you were talking about is in one of the threads there.

[benricci]

Originally Posted by Sub

In other words the Blu Ray "Iron Man" movie does not level the Regular DVD of "Iron Man" enough for me to care. There's plenty of these out as well.

Um, yes it does. Maybe your system is not good enough, or not calibrated properly to appreciate the difference.

[xander]

Not sure how Iron Man of all titles ended up being your example of a Blu that doesn't warrant a upgrade, but I hear what you are saying.

Good call on The Lost Boys. One of my favorites, and the Blu is a huge leap.

[blurayjunkie]

Originally Posted by bluman007

check out the trading forum if you want low priced blus..maybe that $30 movie you were talking about is in one of the threads there.

I go to my local blockbuster they have great deals there. I need to learn to not need a new movie on day one and to wait a week or 2 untill it shows up at blockbuster. But it is so hard to

[retablo]

Iron Man, an arguably reference-quality blu, didn't "wow" you, but Gangs of New York, which is known to be one of the worst looking, mosy heavily DNR'd blus out there, did?

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by retablo

Iron Man, an arguably reference-quality blu, didn't "wow" you, but Gangs of New York, which is known to be one of the worst looking, mosy heavily DNR'd blus out there, did?

While there will likely always be some argument as to what is and what is not beautiful to look at, I think his sentiment that not all films are worth buying has some merit.

For some, the quality of the movie still takes priority over the quality of the image. I think he's looking to buy films where both the movie and the image quality are great. However, there's also this sense that one can't compare the visuals of a film like Shallow Hal with that of Gladiator, Planet Earth, or The Dark Knight. Put that all together and it probably limits how much he's willing to buy.

In other words, it takes more than the bluray label on top of the box to get him to buy a movie, even less so if it ships in a metal tin at three times the price.


P.S. You really have over 300 blurays? Where do you find the time??? Were all of those films really must-haves?

[repete66211]

I have two criteria when it comes to buying Blu-rays:

1.) It's a movie I really like and know I will watch periodically.
2.) The price is under $20 (more for box/trilogy).

I never blind buy. I don't like horror movies and most blockbuster movies aren't worth a second look. What this means is that many of the Blu-rays I buy are replacing DVDs I already own.

[Ernest Rister]

Well, this is very similar to what we used to hear in the early days of DVD...do I need to buy this again?

What happened was that as DVD grew in popularity, DVD new release sales overhwelmed VHS new release sales. Certain catalog titles were good sellers, but new release titles became the stalwarts of DVD sales.

In other words, Blu-Ray is a growth market, and will feed on new product, while catalog titles will support the momentum.

Do you need to buy this again? It's really a question of WHEN you will buy the title again, and how.

Right now, you're being selective about what you're buying on Blu-Ray. That will phase out, in years, and one day you'll be asking yourself if you should buy a Blu-Ray or just download it or subscribe to a studio media feed.

[surfdude12]

on ebay, i buy used blu-rays, and often pay $12-15 for movies that are $20-25 new on amazon. check it out.

[DealsR4theDevil]

Originally Posted by risingstar

While there will likely always be some argument as to what is and what is not beautiful to look at, I think his sentiment that not all films are worth buying has some merit.

For some, the quality of the movie still takes priority over the quality of the image. I think he's looking to buy films where both the movie and the image quality are great. However, there's also this sense that one can't compare the visuals of a film like Shallow Hal with that of Gladiator, Planet Earth, or The Dark Knight. Put that all together and it probably limits how much he's willing to buy.

In other words, it takes more than the bluray label on top of the box to get him to buy a movie, even less so if it ships in a metal tin at three times the price.


P.S. You really have over 300 blurays? Where do you find the time??? Were all of those films really must-haves?

"some films not worth buying" is certainly true and a matter of opinion .... but I dont know if "some films arent worth buying on blu" is really the case for anyone (i could be wrong). Clearly there are films u simply dont want to own but anything worth owning is worth owning on blu .... and obviously, like with anything else, having a limited budget forces u to choose and prioritize ... but thats the case with everything ...

He wasnt saying some films arent worth owning .. he was saying some films are worth owning on DVD instead of Blu-ray .. his whole post was about the image quality of some movies not being a significant upgrade from the DVD .... and all retablo was saying was that Gangs of New York really doenst look too much better than the DVD and Iron Man is one of the best looking movies out on Blu .. im not sure if i agree with that ... but he wasnt suggesting Iron Man is a better movie than Gangs of New York and is a better buy for that reason

and lets not judge people for how many movies they own .... 300 is a lot of movies but not everyone buys only "must-have" ... you have to remember some people have large disposable incomes and can afford to buy w/e they want .... some people also have big families and not all the blus are for them or watched by them .... i could go on ...

and btw .. i do feel that I own to many movies myself .. but thats me .. i would never tell anyone else how many they should own or what should be in their collection

[repete66211]

Originally Posted by surfdude12

on ebay, i buy used blu-rays, and often pay $12-15 for movies that are $20-25 new on amazon. check it out.

+1 I've bought several titles used on Amazon. I mean, a Blu-ray is used after you watch it the first time, so why not get it for half the price?

[boxterduke]

I only buy the ones I want and lately I just shop around until I find the cheapest price.

[Coov]

I used to have the mindset of..."Only my favorite movies that I watch all of the time"... I knew I was in trouble and have veered from that mindset when I purchased Mall Cop and the Wedding Singer! It is a common story.