Disappointed in Blu-ray

[Greggy P. Wild]

I'd been looking forward to getting a Blu-ray player and building up a nice collection of hi-def movies for ages, so I picked up the Sony S350 and a couple of movies last week (Terminator 2 and Total Recall... 2/$20). And before you ask, I was always rooting for Blu-ray in the hi-def format wars.

The good news: A) The cases are great and look good on my bookshelf. B) I can kinda tell Terminator 2 is hi-def if I sit with my eyes 4 inches from the screen and squint. C) The S350 upconverts quite well (although the picture is a bit "warm" for my taste).

The bad news: A) Total Recall looks no better, and possibly WORSE than a regular DVD. B) Neither movie looked noticeably better than DVD versions. C) Several regular DVD's I own look MUCH better than either of these "hi-def" Blu-ray's. D) The HD-DVD's I used to own (King Kong and Goodfellas) actually looked hi-def (much better than both of these Blu-ray's).

So what's the deal? Is it common for Blu-ray's to look like garbage? And no, I'm not blind and my setup is fine (HD-DVD looked great).

[Astalder]

Read reviews of the BDs you're buying before you do so.

[Plasmachick]

Originally Posted by Greggy P. Wild

I'd been looking forward to getting a Blu-ray player and building up a nice collection of hi-def movies for ages, so I picked up the Sony S350 and a couple of movies last week (Terminator 2 and Total Recall... 2/$20). And before you ask, I was always rooting for Blu-ray in the hi-def format wars.

The good news: A) The cases are great and look good on my bookshelf. B) I can kinda tell Terminator 2 is hi-def if I sit with my eyes 4 inches from the screen and squint. C) The S350 upconverts quite well (although the picture is a bit "warm" for my taste).

The bad news: A) Total Recall looks no better, and possibly WORSE than a regular DVD. B) Neither movie looked noticeably better than DVD versions. C) Several regular DVD's I own look MUCH better than either of these "hi-def" Blu-ray's. D) The HD-DVD's I used to own (King Kong and Goodfellas) actually looked hi-def (much better than both of these Blu-ray's).

So what's the deal? Is it common for Blu-ray's to look like garbage? And no, I'm not blind and my setup is fine (HD-DVD looked great).

I think you got the worst 2 titles of the bunch in the history of blu-ray. PQ is awful on these. You should read the reviews first re: AQ & PQ.

A lot of older titles are hit or miss on blu-ray.

[BruceWayne]

Those are some of the worst movies you could use to get an idea of blu-ray... got check out some of the Disney/Pixar movies, you'll be much happier.

[Clark Kent]

You happened to start your collection with two of the worst Blu-ray releases out of the hundreds released so far. A new edition of Terminator 2 is coming out in May.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by Astalder

Read reviews of the BDs you're buying before you do so.

+1

[Red Hood]

somebody didnt do there research

[CaptainCanuck79]

dam u gotta get cars or any disneypixar. even dark knight is awesome in blu

[jw]

i knew this was going south when I read this

I picked up the Sony S350 and a couple of movies last week (Terminator 2 and Total Recall... 2/$20.....

[Irrob]

You poor bastard. Go get you Iron Man and The Dark Knight and check back with us later.

[jkwest]

LOL!!! You've been member for almost 2 1/2 years and you just bought into Blu...wow...

[Astalder]

Originally Posted by Irrob

You poor bastard. Go get you Iron Man and The Dark Knight and check back with us later.

Yeah, do this, that's a better way to start than animated films (those are like cheating).

[SatinKzo]

Originally Posted by jkwest

LOL!!! You've been member for almost 2 1/2 years and you just bought into Blu...wow...

At least I'm not the only one to wonder about that.

Also, as soon as I saw the title, I thought " I bet this guy bought the lionsgate T2 release"

[Greggy P. Wild]

Ok, looks like I'll give Blu-ray some more time. I've got to sell those 2 movies though... Total Recall is just atrocious (in terms of PQ).

Sad to hear another poster say most old movies don't look all that great on BD though.

[TheTenth]

you chose some of the worst looking Blu-rays ever created, better choose : PotC, Ratatouille, Die hard 4, Transformers ...

[Greggy P. Wild]

Originally Posted by SatinKzo

At least I'm not the only one to wonder about that.

Also, as soon as I saw the title, I thought " I bet this guy bought the lionsgate T2 release"

I signed up in the heat of the format war... bought an HD-DVD player when it was $99 (a friggin' amazing value, by the way), then sold it when I could see the end coming for HD-DVD and haven't posted since.

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by Greggy P. Wild

Sad to hear another poster say most old movies don't look all that great on BD though.

Thats complete BS...

The Godfather Collection is amazing...as well as Casablanca.


some of the older "catalogue" films weren't given the TLC that they needed to take advantage of Blu-rays abilities.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by Greggy P. Wild

(Terminator 2 and Total Recall... 2/$20)

I think that was the Wal-Mart deal in Canada I posted a few weeks ago. Hope for you you didn't pick up CRASH either!

John

[Red Hood]

Dr. No is amazing.

[bone crusher]

Read the reviews.

Pick up Casino Royale, King Kong, Tropic Thunder, Deja Vu, Man on Fire, Transformers, I Robot, The Dark Knight, Lakeview Terrace,The Shining, Iron Man, 3:10 to Yuma, Pirates of the Caribbean, Live Free or Die Hard, Top Gun, Kung Fu Panda, Ratatouille and Cars and then tell me the picture quality sucks.