*The Bluray Quality Thread*

SiD the Turtle said:
I got fed up of trying to get PowerDVD working when every solution seemed to be 'buy the latest version' and instead gave up and bought a stand-alone Sony player for 80 quid in the Boxing Day sales, which is only a little bit more than PowerDVD itself :eek:
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I first started out on blu ray with an lg drive from mm, and power dvd 9 ultra, cost £140.00 all in, thankfully ive had no issues with power dvd, last month i bought the sony player for my telly down stairs for £130.00 with 3 movies, then it drops down to £80.00.:(
 
SiD the Turtle said:
I got fed up of trying to get PowerDVD working when every solution seemed to be 'buy the latest version' and instead gave up and bought a stand-alone Sony player for 80 quid in the Boxing Day sales, which is only a little bit more than PowerDVD itself :eek:
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I bought PowerDVD and it works quite well. Had the odd problem. Since Mum bought a new 32" 1080p TV Bluray films look so much better on the TV than on my 24" monitor. So I'm planning on getting that cheap Sony BR player and the same TV Mum bought for my room. :)
 
SiD the Turtle said:
I got fed up of trying to get PowerDVD working when every solution seemed to be 'buy the latest version' and instead gave up and bought a stand-alone Sony player for 80 quid in the Boxing Day sales, which is only a little bit more than PowerDVD itself :eek:
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The software alternative is AnyDVD HD which costs £56 currently. This sits in the tray and decrypts the disc which enables many freeware (and far superior) media players such as Media Player Classic Home Cinema to play Blu-rays. However even that is far from perfect as these players do not fully support Blu-ray, for example they cannot play the menus, only the film files.

Frankly all Blu-ray software is extortionate, and most of it is crappy bloatware.
 
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MarcLister said:
I bought PowerDVD and it works quite well. Had the odd problem. Since Mum bought a new 32" 1080p TV Bluray films look so much better on the TV than on my 24" monitor. So I'm planning on getting that cheap Sony BR player and the same TV Mum bought for my room. :)
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I was having no luck.

Randomly the sound would go.
Randomly the sound would switch to two channel.
It would always pop up the 'register now' dialog when I didn't have a keyboard or mouse to hand to get rid of it.
It's slow.
It crashes all the time.
Etc..

Of course your mileage may vary :D
 
fozzybear said:
Just bought The Hurt Locker as my first ever bluray viewing.

I'm going to watch it fully tonight (never seen it before) but have just tested it. It looks grainy but I'm guessing that that's the way it was supposed to look.
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Just watched it and well....

It had lots of grain in the picture throughout the film. This is apparently purposely done. I'm not going to rate it as I was only watching on a 1920 x 1080 LG 22" screen. It was nice, slightly better than DVD but the sound was good on headphones using Power DVD9.

I thought the actual film was a 7/10. It was OK, a bit like Jarhead with some actual action. Some good tense scenes (one especially which I won't spoil) but it left me feeling a bit flat at the end of it.
 
fozzybear said:
Just watched it and well....

It had lots of grain in the picture throughout the film. This is apparently purposely done. I'm not going to rate it as I was only watching on a 1920 x 1080 LG 22" screen. It was nice, slightly better than DVD but the sound was good on headphones using Power DVD9.

I thought the actual film was a 7/10. It was OK, a bit like Jarhead with some actual action. Some good tense scenes (one especially which I won't spoil) but it left me feeling a bit flat at the end of it.
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Ive got the hurt locker on order along with district 9, ive noticed with a lot of war films ive bought lately, we were soldiers and saving private ryan, they seem to be pretty grainy, one exception is shooter, in some parts it seems to shiny and polished, but the opening sequences on it are fantastic where swagger and his spotter are watching the road, really enjoyed that film as sniping is one of my favourite reading subjects.
 
I recently purchased a Blu Ray player in the sales.

Don't think its been mentioned but Sin City is simply stunning on Blu Ray. I'm only watching it at 720p on my 32" TV and the level of detail and crisp picture is fantastic. Makes me want to get a bigger 1080p screen now!
 
The Die Hard BR was a lot better than I expected, could be better but I'm pleased with it.

District 9 on BR is very good imo, one of the better released. the prawns look brilliant.
 
Messiah Khan said:
Because the camera is very big, cumbersome and very very expensive. They will have rented it for some scenes, but it will have been too expensive and impractical to use it for all the scenes. I seem to remember reading that they actually managed to break one of the IMAX cameras they rented during the filming. Bet that was an expensive repair bill.
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And there are only four in the world or something?
 
Just bough the Shawshank redemption and the quality is excelent from a quick look, will report back later with full review :p
 
Zombieland is an excellent bluray transfer. Especially the opening credits which are is super slo-mo. Gamer is pretty good as well, not a great film but a good bluray. Have to agree with Dark Knight, Gladiator and Blade Runner. Top quality blurays. Casino Royale is also worth a mention.
 
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Tefal said:
Just bough the Shawshank redemption and the quality is excelent from a quick look, will report back later with full review :p
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The UK version only has Dolby Digital audio though.

Unless you went for the superior US version with full HD audio? :o
 
It's probably worth mentioning that I've got over 104 Blu-Rays, so I can't be bothered to review every one.

The best quality ones being:

WALL-E
Ratatouille
Cars
Kung Fu Panda
Open Season
Crank 2
Shooter
Band of Brothers (superb audio)
The Watchmen

District 9 is alright. Not in the same league as Crank 2 or WALL-E for picture quality though.
 
Only ones I've been disappointed with are:

Matrix - as it has a stupid green tint to everything.
Moon - Makes the cheap sets stand out more.
King Kong - Makes the CGI stand out as fake much more than DVD did, ruins it.
AvP - About the lowest quality BR I've seen but even so it's still a fair bit better than DVD, I tried switching straight to DVD and it's still noticeable.
 
I use my ps3 to play blurays which look great, however always wondered if there is any major difference in sound and video quality on the dedicated players? Slightly off topic I know...
 
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