COLUMN: Death to Blu-ray
By Tony Wittkowski on March 13, 2013 7:00 am / 5 comments
I come to plead the case for DVDs.
As new technology begins to surface every year from the iPhone 5 to the next PlayStation console, DVDs are being pushed back onto the shelves of museums, next to books and cassette tapes.
I’m an avid fan of cinema and have produced a mass collection of movies over the years amounting to over 300 films.
And yet, as a consumer, I am afraid this anthology of motion pictures will have to be replaced in a decade, having been deemed useless in comparison to Blu-ray.
A Blu-ray disc is the same size as a DVD or CD, but it is supposed to have a higher quality when it comes to its picture.
The main difference between the discs is the storage capability. The standard DVD can hold anywhere from 4 to 8 GB of memory. In layman’s terms, that is enough space to watch the three-hour movie “Avatar,” assuming you can make it through the movie in its entirety.
A Blu-ray disc averages around 25 to 50 GB in comparison, leaving one the ability to watch “Avatar” and parts I, II and III of “The Godfather” on the same disc.
But does the unnecessary extra space, or the higher quality picture, really worth the extra $6.50?
I remember the hassle of having to rewind every movie on a VHS tape after finishing it each time.
The release of the DVD format changed the movie watching experience for a generation to the point that it was life-consuming.
The case itself didn’t take up as much room as the boxy VHS tape, and the cover was plastic, which could stand the wear and tear the VHS cardboard covers could not.
You were no longer forced to watch movies at home or at school when your substitute instructor wheeled in that large television set strapped down by several cables and duct tape.
The DVD first implemented the menu button on the remote and allowed people to skip to certain chapters with ease, forever erasing the burdensome task of fast-forwarding, blindly hoping you’ve stopped at the right spot.
I have to admit, I didn’t want to buy movies twice over in a different shape or form, but, once I did, it proved to be an easy transition.
So when it came to Blu-ray, I tried it out, waiting to be taken to a place only IMAX theaters had steered me before.
However, I was met with the same movie-loving experience with DVDs and, having felt cheated, vowed to never buy a Blu-ray disc out of protest.
One could even make an argument for digital download and use of the cloud, which is a long enough subject for another time.
Now, I’ve come to the realization that it doesn’t matter what format the film comes in, whether it is standard, high-definition, 3-D or labeled FUBAR on a small black and white.
What is important is being able to watch “Dirty Harry” or “Saving Private Ryan” while appreciating the movie for what it was made for: our enjoyment.
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5 Comments
If you have the proper equipment such as a 50″ or larger TV or a projector and a properly setup audio system capable of decoding DTS-HD or Dolby True-HD, bluray blows DVD out of the water in all aspects. The price of most blurays have come down significantly. I often purchase movies on Amazon for $15 or less and new releases are usually $19.95. I agree on appreciating “the movie” but per your example, you have to agree that the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Private Ryan is much more intense when watching in surround sound and on a bigger screen. I also agree that I hate having to re-purchase my favorite movies every time a new format comes out. Hell, I still have some laserdiscs. At least you won’t have to worry about blowing your money on blurays when 4K discs come out in a year or two. Looks like I will have to buy the Star Wars Trilogy for a 5th time. Sigh……
If you have the proper equipment such as a 50″ or larger TV or a projector and a properly setup audio system capable of decoding DTS-HD or Dolby True-HD, bluray blows DVD out of the water in all aspects. The price of most blurays have come down significantly. I often purchase movies on Amazon for $15 or less and new releases are usually $19.95. I agree on appreciating “the movie” but per your example, you have to agree that the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Private Ryan is much more intense when watching in surround sound and on a bigger screen. I also agree that I hate having to re-purchase my favorite movies every time a new format comes out. Hell, I still have some laserdiscs. At least you won’t have to worry about blowing your money on blurays when 4K discs come out in a year or two. Looks like I will have to buy the Star Wars Trilogy for a 5th time. Sigh……
This would have been relevant 6 years ago. If you like inferior image quality, continue buying DVDs. Nobody is forcing you to buy Blu-rays.
Blu-ray’s have much better picture quality than DVDs. Thanks to all of that extra storage space, movies are finally able to look closer to their intended viewings in the home theater market than they have even been in history. They are the closest format to actual celluloid and sometimes make a world of a difference (depending on the transfer) than ever before.
This website has been indespensible to me for DVD/Blu-Ray Comparisons: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/
And this is one of the best examples I have to defend the Blu-Ray format:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/zulu.htm
See the first three or four screen captures? Those were taken from DVDs and DVD transfers. See the fifth one? THAT was taken from a carefully remastered Blu-Ray, and it only would have been possible with all that extra storage space and projection onto a hi-definition screen.
DVDs are fully backward compatible in Blu-Ray drives, so you don’t have any need to repurchase movies. As for the “unnecessary extra space”, even if you don’t appreciate that for movies, try to understand that the 50 GB of space on a BD are important to more than just the film industry. The 17 GB max on DVDs gives you not only room for more special features on movies, but also revolutionizes gaming and file system backup. If you’re really that upset about Blu-Ray, just don’t buy any. No one will notice.