DVD Vs Blu Ray

I’m sure by now most of you will have heard of Blu Ray, and many of you will have purchased players or inherited them through the purchase of a new pc or PS3, but my question is this….what’s the point of Blu Ray??

When DVD came out to replace the aging VHS system it was plain to see by any idiot just what you were getting; almost unbreakable media, fantastic video and audio quality in comparison, no rewinding before you had to take it back to the video store, the plus points were numerous, and so when the machines first began to make their way into the UK I was one of the first purchases of the “Normal Level” players, shelling out over £450 for a Toshiba DVD player (which is still working now) I even remember going into Our Price to buy “The Matrix” and being warned that certain players were incapable of displaying the film without breaking.

Obviously because I was one of the early adopters, I had the chance to sell most of my VHS collection at a reasonable price to friends and second hand shops and replace the movies in DVD format, but when Blu Ray came out I just didn’t get the sense I was getting anything special for my money (and let’s be honest the price difference is ridiculous between the two formats) and I think that has meant I haven’t bothered to update.

I bought a PS3 early in its lifecycle and was presented with a range of Blu Ray films as a freebie upon purchase, the films don’t really look any different to me than their standard def cousins even on a HD TV, and up scaled versions of normal def movies on a decent player can look just as good, so why spend all this extra money on an overpriced player and movies that aren’t that far removed from their earlier cousins? When faced with the option of a new release movie for £12.99 or the Blu Ray equivalent for £19.99 -  £24.99 I know what my purchase will be every time.

Essentially when you buy a film, it’s for the movie itself, if you get some bonus extras of the actors falling over during a scene, or some insight into the directors mind all the better, but some of the Blu Ray extras just seem stupid and a waste of time such as a downloadable copy for a PSP, now I love my PSP but the prospect of watching a full length movie on it doesn’t fill me with joy no matter how Sony wants to convince me.

Overall I think that movie studios are going to have a hard time trying to shift Blu Ray, the cheapest DVD players are sub £10 these days meaning you can have fantastic quality movies in any room of the house, reasonable level Blu Ray machines are in excess of £200 and you need these to get the best out of those expensive Frisbees, with the recession in full flow, cheap entertainment is the way to go!

Personally I think I will wait for the next jump in technology before I invest my cash.