Topic: I'm Amazed

[Dragonfire]

Well I got a Blu-ray player this evening.  A store here had a Sony one for..$108 I think it was, so I decided it was time. 
I just got it hooked up and I thought I'd put in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to try it out.  Less than 5 minutes in, and I'm amazed at all the little details I didn't noticed before.  The clarity of the picture is freaking awesome.  The image is so good I think I actually said holy shit out loud.   

Anyway..I am going back to watching my movie now.

[Critter]

I know what you mean, it's always the little things that I noticed to, like the way water looks, or how blades of grass on the ground and induvidual leaves in trees are suddenly visible.
Congrats on your purchase.

[karmesinrot]

Congrats on your new purchase! I feel the need to go buy some HP blurays now haha

[Achim]

Congrats on your new purchase! I feel the need to go buy some HP blurays now haha

I have films 1 thru 5 on DVD. Held back on 6 and plan to buy the inevitable 8-film Box Set. if they offer a 7-disc set with room for the final film I may purchase earlier.

[Najemikon]

The clarity of the picture is freaking awesome.  The image is so good I think I actually said holy shit out loud.   

Welcome to my world!  "Holy shit" is a regular phrase with me and Blu.

I know what you mean, it's always the little things that I noticed to, like the way water looks, or how blades of grass on the ground and induvidual leaves in trees are suddenly visible.

Only the other day I expressed a "holy shit" moment in another thread about spotting Michael Caine's filling in Zulu when he opened his gob to yell fire!

[MEJHarrison]

I find with hi-def material that it's not the stuff in the foreground that is so impressive.  It's all the background details that suddenly start appearing that completes the entire experience.  It's like getting glasses for the first time (if you're nearsighted).  Suddenly you can see all the stuff that's not 2 feet in front of your face that you didn't even know you were missing out on before.

Congratulations on your purchase!

[Najemikon]

That's exactly the wonderful feeling I got from The Searchers, Mark. That sense of depth in Monument Valley.

[Touti]

Welcome to the new world Marie

[karmesinrot]

Congrats on your new purchase! I feel the need to go buy some HP blurays now haha

I have films 1 thru 5 on DVD. Held back on 6 and plan to buy the inevitable 8-film Box Set. if they offer a 7-disc set with room for the final film I may purchase earlier.

Same! I only have 1 & 3, I'm holding out for the super duper boxset release, hopefully in some gorgeous packaging!

[Critter]

I find with hi-def material that it's not the stuff in the foreground that is so impressive.  It's all the background details that suddenly start appearing that completes the entire experience.  It's like getting glasses for the first time (if you're nearsighted).  Suddenly you can see all the stuff that's not 2 feet in front of your face that you didn't even know you were missing out on before.

Congratulations on your purchase!

I actually am near-sighted and have glasses and this is the most accurate description I can think of. Whenever I get new glasses I just walk around staring at trees becuase I am amazed by how much I can see of them. I probably look like a fool but the same thing has happened everytime I have gotten a new pair, just a lot of walking around, wide-eyed and oogling at the world.

[MEJHarrison]

I find with hi-def material that it's not the stuff in the foreground that is so impressive.  It's all the background details that suddenly start appearing that completes the entire experience.  It's like getting glasses for the first time (if you're nearsighted).  Suddenly you can see all the stuff that's not 2 feet in front of your face that you didn't even know you were missing out on before.

Congratulations on your purchase!

I actually am near-sighted and have glasses and this is the most accurate description I can think of. Whenever I get new glasses I just walk around staring at trees becuase I am amazed by how much I can see of them. I probably look like a fool but the same thing has happened everytime I have gotten a new pair, just a lot of walking around, wide-eyed and oogling at the world.

Yeah.  I do that too.  But nothing compares to that first time when I was 16.  I had no idea what I was missing out on.  Now a new pair of glasses makes me look around to see how much things have changed.  It's expected.  But that first time was I really wasn't expecting it and was caught very much off guard!

Back on topic, this is the reason I'm looking forward to Blu-rays of the Lord of the Rings movies (the proper versions! ).  I re-watched all three earlier this year and while the closeup stuff looked ok, it was the stuff in the backgrounds that really suffer on DVD.

[Dragonfire]

I have discovered movie paradise and it is glorious.

I got the Blu-ray/DVD combo thing for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  So I've seen it on DVD..the Blu-ray so much better I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Little drops of condensation on a window...reflections in windows..the rippling of the water.  I'm still amazed and now I wonder what took me so long to get a Blu-ray.  I could have been in movie paradise for months..   

Anyway, I am thrilled with the Blu-ray.  I have only watched the one movie on it so far, but I'll be watching more. 

I have seen these new special releases for the first two Harry Potter movies...way more extras and stuff.  They were already on my wishlist at Amazon.   I think I see a purchase in my future.   

[Taro]

I saw a Blu-ray demoed at a shop on a 60" something screen about 2.5 years ago. I think it was Ice Age. The picture clarity as well as sound clarity (the demo was setup up with a 7.2 home theater setup) blew me away!

Ever since, I've been collecting virtually exclusively Blu-rays. I don't have anything against DVD's and occasionally still buy them when it's a release that will most likely never make it to Blu-ray, but aside from that, I'm Blu all the way. There's just so much more detail, colors are better and a lot of movies I watch on Blu are virtually identical to the way I remember seeing them in theaters.

Even my catalog titles I'm replacing little by little from DVD to Blu. Recently just purchased Armageddon (a disc I used to use often to demo DVD with surround) and it's definitely a step up. First time I saw I, Robot on Blu-ray I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen.

I'm a bit envious of you, Dragonfire, as I remember it was a great feeling to wonder at the amazing details of Blu-ray (after a while, you start getting used to it). Enjoy it to the fullest!

As for HP6 on BD, I think it's a quality disc but the director went with a bit of a dreary look and as such, detail is great but if you want to show off stunning colors, I can suggestion some quality discs like all Pixar movies or virtually any direct digital transfer disc. When I saw Ice Age for the first time on Blu, I felt like I could almost reach into the screen and grab Scrat. Have a look at www.Blu-ray.com. Lots of reviews of BD's to help you choose your future purchases 

[Achim]

I'll say though, that a really good DVD transfer (Ratatouille, Blade Runner) can look better than a bad Blu-ray transfer.

[Taro]

I'll say though, that a really good DVD transfer (Ratatouille, Blade Runner) can look better than a bad Blu-ray transfer.

True! quality of the transfer matters a lot, not just the format. Although I'll say that you need to look hard to find DVD's that look better than Blu-rays and in 99% of the case, a 1:1 comparison of the same movie from the same distributor will yield better quality on Blu-ray:

For example:
Compare Cars (UK) on DVD to Machine Girl (UK) on Blu-ray and Cars looks better (because Machine Girl has a trainwreck of a transfer)
Compare Cars (UK) DVD to any average quality Blu-ray and I'd say most of the times the Blu-ray still looks better
Compare Cars (UK) DVD to Cars (UK) Blu-ray and the Blu-ray edition is a tremendous improvement over the DVD version