Blu Ray...or not?

[Neil C.]

So my birthday just passed, and the gifts I got were all cash. I was thinking of buying a bluray player. I have a ton of DVDs and I know I won't have to rebuy them, but is it a good idea for the future? We got an HD TV last year. I just want it to watch TV on, I don't care if I can surf the Internet, play games, etc. Thanks!

[DungeonMasterJim]

I don't notice Blu-ray usually until I go back to regular DVD, then I'm like 'whoa...'

There was a high end TV showing Iron Man via Blu-ray on display at an electronics store. It looked like I could reach into the screen and physically feel around the scenery.

I'm really stingy with buying movies but I really like my Blu-ray.

[Personamanx]

Eh, well my TV's built in DVD player broke* so when I was looking for a new machine to watch DVDs on I decided to upgrade to Blu-Ray. Works pretty well. But I've not been able to watch enough movies on it to really see the difference yet.

*I have an X-Box 360 that can play DVDs well enough but it's a pretty loud machine and can often kill the experience.

[Weeto]

Blu ray is pretty good. It is better than DVD but not essential.

[stevapalooza]

Well even if you don't care about the sharper image, Blu-Rays also have more space on them, so they usually come with more extras (if youre into that sort of thing). A lot of players also upscale your old DVDs, so you might notice better image quality even in your existing DVDs. Either way I don't think you'll ever regret getting a blu-ray player. At worst it will only be a slight improvement.

[Gaelforce]

Find a blu-ray player that 'upscales' your regular DVDs.

I do recommend a PS3 as it's one of the best Blu-Ray players on the market and gives you net/hulu/netflix access as well (and you can play games on it if you wanna )

[AndrewCrossett]

I have a perfectly good DVD-only player that I've had for years, and am too much of a miser to just get rid of it and replace it with a Blu-Ray. Also, it would be pretty useless because I still have a standard-def television (for the same reason). But, when one or the other of them finally crap out I'll probably replace both.

[Lunar Archivist]

So my birthday just passed, and the gifts I got were all cash. I was thinking of buying a bluray player. I have a ton of DVDs and I know I won't have to rebuy them, but is it a good idea for the future? We got an HD TV last year. I just want it to watch TV on, I don't care if I can surf the Internet, play games, etc. Thanks!

Well, it's the wave of the future and you'll have to switch over eventually. DVDs are the new VHS cassettes, after all. They're just not disappearing as quickly.

Have you considered saving your money now and waiting for a next generation gaming console that plays DVDs and Blu-Rays?

[Spiffy]

Blu-Ray COULD be unnecessary if you are a big consumer of digital downloads and/or streaming content (iTunes, Netflix, Amazon Video, etc).

That's the real "wave of the future", then again Blu-Ray is more of a physical solid commodity (and of course continues the DVD tradition of special features).

[Neil C.]

Well, the LG player I'm looking at plays 'old' DVD as well. And I hate watching shows on my computer unless it's as a last resort (watched two seasons of Eastbound and Down that way).