Top 3 Things To Consider Before Buying Blu-Ray

So you’ve purchased the HDTV and you are eager to see your movies in the Blu-Ray format! This sounds like a fun thing every HDTV owner must try before they die, but before you buy it you may need to understand exactly what you are getting.

Here’s a good caution list (if not a checklist) to see if you really must have a Blu Ray player.

1. Your HDTV is not a 720p set
720p is a picture quality that is slightly better than to 480p (analog with progressive scan) quality. At this 720p picture quality, you would see very little difference between the up-converted DVD and Blu Ray formats. Once your've gathered an expensive collection of Blu Ray discs you’d want nothing more than to upgrade your HDTV.

2. You Don’t Mind Black Bars
For decades, movies have been altered to “full screen” or “Formatted to fit your TV screen”. Now, the 16x9 revolution has forgotten the “full screen” concept entirely. Blu Ray and DVD movies are never changed to be “full screen” for the 16x9 viewer. Even though almost every up-converting DVD player has a “zoom” feature to address this, I have yet to find a Blu-Ray player that has that simple feature.

Many HD enthusiasts will tell you seeing the movie in the “original theater aspect ratio” is ideal anyway, but HBOHD, ShowtimeHD, TNTHD, etc., eliminate those black bars found on the ‘extra wide’ (2.35:1 and even wider 2.40:1) aspect ratios. Without a Zoom feature, would you mind paying more to have the black bars with the “complete picture”?

3. You Don’t Expect Life-Like Images From Film
I remember seeing the beautiful HDTV images piped into the Best Buy store. Then I remember the sales associate telling me ‘the 720p was good enough because most television broadcasts are actually in 720p and that movies aren’t shot in HD. Movies are shot using film that is inferior to the HD standard.’ This is called film grain and some directors reportedly think it doesn't look like a movie without it. Even people with a 720p HDTV can see what seems to be image imperfections. Some people don't mind it as much as others. I find it to be technology exceeding the bounds of a stubborn movie studio that wants Blu-Ray revenue with an inferior product.

If you have a good HDTV and good vision, you'll likely see film grain in parts of most of the movies out, especially during dark scenes. The best two ways I can describe what "film grain" looks like (to me) is seeing small, flesh-colored nats bouncing around the character's faces, or they look like they sometimes have a rough layer of scaley-looking makeup on. DVD up-conversion on the other hand brings a brighter picture and smooths those imperfections away for the most part.

Currently, only a handful of movies claim to be shot in HD, “Fahrenheit 911”, “Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle” come to mind, and the 1080p shows grainy images in even the highest production films - such as “Pirates of the Caribbean – At World’s End”. (I should note that some TV shows such as "Heroes" were shot and provided on Blu Ray with stunning 1080p quality.)

The Blu Ray industry would have a lot to brag about if movies looked as good as the NFL on CBS or those full-screen ‘fish shows’ displaying on HDTVs throughout the stores, but that’s not what they can offer now.

Blu Ray is the future of home entertainment, and they will play the standard DVDs in your collection, but don't be upset if you find you're a little bit ahead of your time.

I know many of you wanted to hear the upside that you hear from the sales associates. If I wanted to sell you on the benefits I would stand to profit, but I'd rather have you understand the downsides. Happy HD viewing!!!

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