Blu-rays. Beautiful high-defintion movies and TV shows for our viewing pleasure. Excellent 25GB or 50GB (if it's double layer) storage capacity, just enough to store 7.1 Dolby TruHD audio. Requires a Blu-Ray player and an HDMI TV (or monitor) to enjoy its content.
But do we actually need Blu-Ray discs to enjoy HD content?
If you're like thousands of others, you probably downloaded the occasional HD movie through other...more unconventional means. And you might have been surprised to realize that a 3 hour 1080p movie with 5.1 FLAC was only maybe 7GB online.
How was that possible? How can a 3 hour 1080p movie with 5.1 surround sound actually fit into 7GB? That is enough to fit into a double layer DVD by the way. And yes, formats like AVCHD (wikipedia it) exist that allow you to burn HD content on a DVD disc and play it on compatible AVCHD players, like the PS3.
Oh, maybe it's compressed so you won't truly experience the actual HD quality in these movies available online. It is nowhere as near the quality as those on a regular 25GB Blu-Ray disc, correct? But if it's 5.1 FLAC, then it has the original audio quality as the 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. However, it is true that the 1080p HD content was reencoded to a smaller file size, but can you actually tell the difference? In fact, some encoders (especially in the anime fansub world) are actually able to improve the original video quality that came with the Blu-Ray. A 19GB m2ts encoded into a 7GB 1080p 5.1 FLAC file.
So do we really need Blu-Ray, or is it just a technology that has so many unused capabilities. I'll end this by mentioning that HD video games are already available for the Xbox on a format other than Blu-ray, a simple double layer DVD.
Great post, love watching blu rays, interesting about how they're not neccessary. followed!
ReplyDeleteWatching anime in full 1080p is awesome.
ReplyDeleteBlu-ray master race ftw. They'll become more useful in the next few years, as games simply become too large for just a DVD-DL. The next xbox will need to compete somehow.
ReplyDeleteBut as it stands, BR gives us gorgeous movies and games and is a real selling point for the PS3 (which needs it, what with no linux and that hacking shit that happened).
Plus that's probably the sexiest piece of blank media ever.
yes you can burn DVDs like that but a regular DVD player wont be able to play them, thats (one reason) why a new technoloy was invented. I suppose the extra space on bluray was just to make it as future proof as possible.
ReplyDeleteYou do know that they made the Blu-Ray just to make more money, right? It has nothing to do with efficiency or quality. It's all about the money.
ReplyDeleteHD is the one for me.. sooo yeah
ReplyDeletefollowed :D
blurays are a waste to me. im just waiting on the next generation of media
ReplyDeleteI've pretty much switched my entire collection over to Bluray now.
ReplyDeleteI dont buy stuff anymore. Have a huge DVD-collection. Makes me pissed.
ReplyDeleteyeah i think blueray isnt so esential, dvd rulz!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned bluray is betamax.
ReplyDelete"unconventional means", lol
ReplyDeletewell, the more the better. i just always had problems choosing a codec for this stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like there could be a lot of potential there, but to be honest it's more likely that it'll go the way of the Minidisk (or, as noted in a previous comment, Betamax). It's pretty appealing right now, but there are more promising mediums.
ReplyDeleteblue rays are just an unnecessary expense
ReplyDeleteI think there really good in terms for the amount of space they can hold compared to DVD's. I usually notice the difference on animation though.
ReplyDeleteBluRay isn't going away any time soon... But it won't stick around forever.
ReplyDelete