Topic: Do you use Blu Ray Discs?

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I have a Blu Ray Writer and I have a ton of unused blank discs. I was curious if anyone else tried to use these things or if I was alone? When DVD -R came out I was all over it so I thought yeah Blu Ray cool. But then I realized it was cheaper, and easier, to just keep adding new USB hard drives than it was to keep track of so damn many discs. So I have a TON of unopened discs just sitting in their spindles waiting to be resold on Amazon down the road. I used to frequent the Blu Ray forums when I was first getting into all things HD, but I have long grown tired of them.

If you do or did buy a Blu Ray writer and discs please share your experiences, thoughts, impressions here.

[NWR_insanolord]

I've actually moved away from using discs at all. I replaced the disc drive in my computer with a second storage drive, which I did about a year and a half ago, and the external USB one I picked up with it is still in its unopened box.

[BranDonk Kong]

Only if I can get a movie cheap (or as a gift) so my kids can watch it easier without trying to figure out how to watch movies on the Ouya.

[shingi_70]

not really, I tend to buy all my movies and TV series off of Google play or wait till they hit netflix.


I do buy Blu-ray's for the MCU stuff and Man of Steel.

[Stratos]

I still burn music CDs for my car since there is no music device hook up in my car. My wife at least can use my old cassette player to hook up her phone or iPod for music. I have one of those FM receivers that you can use to play mp3s but it has lost signal quality so much it is unusable so mix CDs are still my thing until I buy a new music machine for my car.


I will use DVDs from time-to-time as well because everyone has a DVD player in their computer so that is an easy way to transfer large files.


I never buy movies, I wait for them to become stream-able. Though a few have been stubborn enough that I want to either renew my Netflix DVD subscription or buy some classics on the cheap. We plan to let our Amazon Prime expire in December and I want to replace it with a DVD subscription for all of those great shows that never stream.

[Shaymin]

CDs: Get thrown into my PC, ripped and then put away.

DVD/BR: Between WWE Network (only nine... ninety-nine) Netflix and, uh, lamps 99% of my needs are covered. Attack on Titan was the first BR I've bought for myself in I don't know how long.

[broodwars]

I still collect BluRays of movies, TV, & anime series. Personally, if I can't pull them off a shelf and play them, it doesn't feel like I actually own them. Plus, however good a digital file may be, it'll almost always be more compressed than the version on the disc, just out of concessions to bandwidth speeds. I've made my living the past 10 years or so spotting small issues, so I can't un-see compression issues in downloaded versions.  So if possible, I'll stick with the better-quality disc versions.

[BranDonk Kong]

Plus, however good a digital file may be, it'll almost always be more compressed than the version on the disc, just out of concessions to bandwidth speeds.

Not if you download BD rips...

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I was talking about recordable blu ray discs not the movies.

[BranDonk Kong]

Yes, you did. But if you put that specifically in the title, probably no one would have replied, because no one uses them. It turned out for the better.

[Oblivion]

For recordable Blu-rays? No point. Recordable CDs and DVDs are far more versatile due to their cheaper price and usually larger bulk per package.

For retail movies and TV shows, only if I'm a huge nerd about the movie/show (ie Korra/The Lord of the Rings). The rest? I just download them online.

Plus, however good a digital file may be, it'll almost always be more compressed than the version on the disc,

lol nope

Like Brandogg said, you can download rips of the disc that have perfect video quality. I did that with movies like Pacific Rim. If I put both on two identical televisions, you would not be able to tell the difference. The days of downloads being of lower quality than retail is far, far behind us.

[azeke]

Significant part of my collection of animated series and movies is on Blu-Ray.

High quality picture is nice, but honestly i keep buying them mostly because publishers are locking extras (like creator commentaries) to blu-rays.

[broodwars]

Plus, however good a digital file may be, it'll almost always be more compressed than the version on the disc, just out of concessions to bandwidth speeds.

Not if you download BD rips...

Which proves my point, actually, if your only point of comparison is ripping the files off the physical media (where download file sizes) rather than downloading the official made-for-download video files.

[Oblivion]

Plus, however good a digital file may be, it'll almost always be more compressed than the version on the disc, just out of concessions to bandwidth speeds.

Not if you download BD rips...

Which proves my point, actually, if your only point of comparison is ripping the files off the physical media (where download file sizes) rather than downloading the official made-for-download video files.

I didn't think we were talking about "official" digital releases.

[Ceric]

Blu-Ray Discs just came out to late to really fit the need they were built for.  When I was in College I had to burn things to DVD.  We are talking SSD like Pricing for harddrive space.  It didn't take long for space to suddenly become a none issue for Hard Drives so the need pretty much went away before Blu-Ray could get to a competitive price.

What get's me a bit about Blu-Ray as a movie media is on TV Shows the space needed for the extra quality only allows for the same amount of episodes on a disc as DVD.  There are some shows that weren't shot with the idea of going to a higher quality and I was hoping those would be say 1 disc a season.

[BranDonk Kong]

The bitrate could easily be lowered to allow a lot more video on a disc (just like you can make a 4-hour DVD video, it will just look like crap), and with 50GB discs a full season, say 13 22-minute episodes shouldn't be a problem. That wouldn't leave much, if any, room for stuff like additional audio, commentary, bonus scenes, etc. It's also probably cheaper to make two 25GB discs though, so that's how it's typically done.


I also think the companies making said TV show series on Blu Ray think that people will justify the price more if they see that it's 3 or 4 discs.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

The bitrate could easily be lowered to allow a lot more video on a disc (just like you can make a 4-hour DVD video, it will just look like crap), and with 50GB discs a full season, say 13 22-minute episodes shouldn't be a problem. That wouldn't leave much, if any, room for stuff like additional audio, commentary, bonus scenes, etc. It's also probably cheaper to make two 25GB discs though, so that's how it's typically done.


I also think the companies making said TV show series on Blu Ray think that people will justify the price more if they see that it's 3 or 4 discs.

We had this discussion endlessly on the blu ray forums before I got tired of the BS and left. Basically it boils down to two things. Studios are snobs about quailty more than average consumer when it comes to the discs so when they release something like a TV season they always use the highest bitrate they can never the opposite. They only lower the bitrate as a last measure to cram in additional audio commentary.

With SD content you can fit an entire season on a single Blu Ray disc pretty easily IF you stick with just SD resolution and DVD bitrates but because even in SD Blu Ray does allow higher bitrates, and much better quality, less compression, studios normally just opt for the higher bitrate to provide a quality product, and in the case of SD content because DVD is cheaper they just release most of that on DVD anyways.

The main issue is consumers hear Blu Ray they think HD so studios go with that, if it ain't HD they are reluctant to release it on Blu Ray even if there are benefits to the consumer, Blu Ray supports vastly superior audio as an exmaple to DVD but again even with high bitrate low compressions SD content with uncompressed master HD Audio average consumer will not care they will stick with cheaper, "sd-DVD" and reserve Blu Ray for the quality stuff.

The other MAIN reason studios choose to go with more discs over fewer every time is value perception, the consumer thinks they are getting a better product because more discs = more value. This was one of the reasons why LaserDisc fans chose to go with the 30 Minute discs instead of the 60 Minute discs that require less swapping, more discs = more value plus they wanted the bonus features.


As for Blu Ray recordables, I was curious if anyone else bought into it. I wish I hadn't I have a ton of unopened packages. Even when I bought it I knew it wasn't worth the space to cost ratio but I felt like it would even out eventually and I was all into DVD because despite how cheap Hard Drives are now I still like having a physical back up that is less likely to become corrupted or suffer from hdd failure or whatever else could happen. I store everything on hard drives but I still back it all up to disc. I also have spare hard drives just in case because data loss is a bitch and I don't trust cloud storage because there are times when I don't have access to the internet even still.

[BranDonk Kong]

I would never buy a Blu Ray that was SD video. That entirely defeats the purpose. You say consumers won't care. You are wrong. You have a strange stance on this, and are in an extremely, extremely small niche.

[Ceric]

I would never buy a Blu Ray that was SD video. That entirely defeats the purpose. You say consumers won't care. You are wrong. You have a strange stance on this, and are in an extremely, extremely small niche.

I think you sort of just proved the point.  There is plenty of SD content out there that could benefit from Blu-Ray's better sound and the higher bit-rate but, most consumers wouldn't buy.

Audio also had this problem with Audio DVD.  There are some things, especially orchestra and other heavily instrumental pieces, that it is night and day to even the untrained ear but, CD was good enough.  Then MP3 was also Good Enough.  It really frustrates me in a way because there are a lot of pieces that would benefit from Lossless codecs that you just can't find a copy of and I'm not going Vinyl.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

I would never buy a Blu Ray that was SD video. That entirely defeats the purpose. You say consumers won't care. You are wrong. You have a strange stance on this, and are in an extremely, extremely small niche.

You misread what I said, that was my argument consumers WON'T buy SD on Blu Ray. I was pointing out the benefits but then said CONSUMERS won't go for it hence why it isn't done.

[marvel_moviefan_2012]

So yeah I take the long way to get to the point, I was basically asking if anyone wants some blu ray dics I have never used but have no further use for.