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I have now had my Blu Ray player for two months (its actually a PS3 because Alison wanted to stream music and photos to the living room) and finally got to compare the same movie as Standard Def DVD and Blu Ray.
My 37" LCD TV is a 'Hi Def ready' set with 1080i instead of the full 1080p but I reasoned that for this screen size you cannot really tell the difference between 1080i and p and I still believe I am right in that.
I have now got the best part of a dozen Blu Ray films and I have been impressed with the sheer clarity and sharpeness of the image. One film did disappoint, Bram Stoker's Dracula just did not seem to benefit from the Hi Def treatment. This led me to wonder:
Is it worth buying older films that were not originally filmed in Hi Def on Blu Ray, would there really be a noticable difference by laying out the extra dosh to make it worthwhile? Should I upgrade my older favourite films?
I found a 3 for 2 offer on Amazon with the Blu Ray movies many costing less than £13 each, some under £10. Among them was my all time favourite film, Zulu, one I already have on DVD. I recently watched this DVD again and was impressed by the quality of the DVD and really did not think a Blu Ray could do any better. The Blu Ray Zulu had some great reviews for filmic quality so I decided to give it a try and ordered it to do a comparison.
Last night I watched sections of the DVD and then the same sections of the Blu Ray.
Wow, what a difference. For the first time on Blu Ray I noticed that the facings on the uniforms of the Welsh regiment were dark green while Stanley Baker's Engineers uniform had blue facings. On the DVD they all looked black (though knowing what to look for you could just make out a greeny tinge around the edges, but Baker's facings still looked black). The clarity and sharpness of the Blu Ray was just stunning and a completely new experience. I then put the DVD back in a second time and after seeing the Blu Ray, what I thought was a great picture previously, just looked soft and dull.
I concluded that a good Blu Ray transfer of older films is certainly worth the extra wedge to upgrade.
Clearly though some films will benefit more from Blu Ray than others so it is best to be choosy about what films to upgrade. And it is certainly true that a lot depends on the quality of the Blu Ray transfer as the Dracula film demonstrates. Best advice, check out reviews on Amazon first. Those films that offer a real spectacle are certainly worth the upgrade but if, for instance, chick flicks are your poison I would not bother, you are just as well served by a DVD.
If you are one of the many who love Zulu, upgrading to Blu Ray is a must, you will not regret shelling out.
PS - so as to show no favouritism, play.com is another good source of Blu Rays worth checking out. There is only one shop in Dover, Blockbusters, where I have found Blu Rays, with a limited range of movies available, typically £2-3 each more than on-line. I have bought from there when I have wanted a film straight away.
