More and more I hear, “there is no difference between DVD
and Blu-Ray” and I am shocked, dismayed and can do nothing more than scratch my
head. How can anyone with eyes not see the improvement over upscaled DVD? Is
Toshiba working behind the scenes to brainwash people as payback for losing the
format war?
I will admit to the fact that I do not always see the financial
benefit to HD sound or 1080p source material but I sure as hell can see and
hear the difference. I think a fly, with its multi-faceted view of the world
can see the difference. When I have to consider budget however, many times the
DVD wins out. I have discussed my buying criteria in previous articles so I won’t
rehash it here.
I did find a clue to at least one person’s unfavorable
review of DVD VS Blu-Ray however and just so no one else makes this mistake…
You cannot connect your Blu-Ray player to your HDTV with a composite cable (the
yellow one) and see 1080p or even good 480p. You must use at least a component cable
(red, green, blue) for 1080i and HDMI or DVI cables for 1080p.
I understand that to many people, connecting anything to a
TV or receiver is akin to launching the space shuttle, but you spent a lot of
money for your system, read the manual and get what you pay for. If you don’t
want to, can’t or the manual isn’t available in your native language get help
from a friend!
DVD is a wonderful media and I still buy movies on it. The
picture is great and for many of the movies I purchase, quite adequate. Blu-Ray
is amazing and many of my purchased go to HD. The point is, there is in fact, a
huge difference between the formats for movies that are well produced. I
understand that Blu-Ray doesn’t fit into everyone’s budget and that many people
do not have a display that is HD capable. Down the road when prices are right
or there is a beautiful new HDTV in your living room, I hope you make the smart
choice and jump onto the Blu-Ray train, it is better in every way.