Blu ray blues

[xIsamuTM]

So what is it about blu ray that delivers a higher picture then conventional DVD's? is it the technology or actually data contained in the disc?

[Stuart Sweet]

Both. There is much more data on a Blu-Ray disc, and the technology allows for real-time decompression of that data. DVDs have lower resolution, not as many colors, and less sound fidelity than Blu-Ray.

[smiddy]

Yep, Mr. Shadow pretty much summed it up.

However, visually, this says nothing. You have to go out and experience it first. I had to explain this to my father-in-law, he's about to retire mind you, and is always looking for the bargain and if it isn't needed to him, why bother is how he approached things. I took him to see what was so spectacular about it and his jaw literally dropped open, it was funny actually. I expected he would continue his why bother attitude, but now he thinks it is cool but will try to find the bargain at very least.

I suggest you take yourself to a decent Home Theater Showroom and get a demonstration of a movie you like that you've seen on DVD and that is out on Blu Ray and give it a preview. You will love it, and if you don't...I will be amazed.

[BattleZone]

Blu-Ray is an HD format; capable of 1920x1080 resolution, along with 7.1 multichannel sound in LOSSLESS format.

DVD is an SD format, limited to 720x480 and 5.1 DTS lossy-compressed audio.

A dual-layer DVD can hold a bit under 9 GB of data. A dual-layer Blu-Ray can hold 50 GB of data.

Most DVDs average about 5 Mb/s data throughput, with peaks up to 10 Mb/s. Blu-Rays average about 20 Mb/s, with peaks beyond 40 Mb/s.

[Mark Holtz]

Blu-Ray is an HD format; capable of 1920x1080 resolution, along with 7.1 multichannel sound in LOSSLESS format.

DVD is an SD format, limited to 720x480 and 5.1 DTS lossy-compressed audio.There are some inaccuracies in your statements.

Most DVDs have a Dolby Digital soundtrack, not dts. dts was added after DVD was introducted, and many titles do not include a dts track.

Also, DVDs are encoded with a MPEG-2 compression. BluRay can be compressed with MPEG-4 or similar type of compression. This results in better compression of the data, but, more importantly more of the data is retained.

Also, DVDs can be 4.7GB single layer, or 9.4 GB dual layer. BluRay is 25GB single-layer/50 GB dual-layer, with a potential for higher capacity discs.

[BobaBird]

IIP meant that 5.1 DTS lossy-compressed audio is the best you're going to get on DVD Video, not that every DVD has it.

Blu-ray can have Dolby TrueHD or dts Master Audio, but most of the few titles I've glanced at have Dolby Digital Plus which I think is supposed to be better than even regular dts.

[Stewart Vernon]

To add to the above... It's really more about the content. Blu ray technology permits the 25/50GB data to be on a single disc and stream at nice bitrates... but truth be told, you can store 20-30 minutes of high-def video/audio on a standard DVD. Of course that doesn't get you a movie in high-def... which is why you need the Blu ray capacity.

Lots of folks are burning standard DVDs though with HD captured from an HD camcorder that look nice... probably not high audio quality though... but I suspect if you have the right equipment, you could DVR a 30 minute HD program from your cable/sat/OTA and port that over to your computer in 5.1 audio and HD video and burn that to a dual-layer DVD and have a nice HD program on a DVD.

So, in summation... it's mostly about what is on the disc... but the fact that you need more space to have longer programs means you need something other than DVD to store the info, otherwise you'd be swapping out discs every 20 minutes like the old reel-film projectors in movie theatres.

[BattleZone]

To add to the above... It's really more about the content. Blu ray technology permits the 25/50GB data to be on a single disc and stream at nice bitrates... but truth be told, you can store 20-30 minutes of high-def video/audio on a standard DVD. Of course that doesn't get you a movie in high-def... which is why you need the Blu ray capacity.


You also need Blu-Ray bitrates. A DVD player can't sustain more than about 8 Mb/s throughput, while most Blu-Ray movies average about triple that bitrate. If you put HD content on a DVD player at a higher bitrate, you'll get skips and stuttering. Plus, DVD players can't output more than 720x480 anyway.

[xIsamuTM]

so i see. a mix of data and hardware. i think i have a better understanding now.

[hdtvfan0001]

...and of course...the Blu ray name comes from the use of a Blue Laser instead of the traditional red laser technology....which provides the means to read more concentrated data on the disk surface.

This then allows the disk to "read" up to 50GB (and maybe more down the road) on Blu Ray disks, providing the means to the HD resolution and audio that we see and hear.

[smiddy]

...and of course...the Blu ray name comes from the use of a Blue Laser instead of the traditional red laser technology....which provides the means to read more concentrated data on the disk surface.

This then allows the disk to "read" up to 50GB (and maybe more down the road) on Blu Ray disks, providing the means to the HD resolution and audio that we see and hear.

The reason, of course, is that the wavelength of Blue versus Red are different, Blue being much smaller, means physically you canplace more information in the same amount of space as with Red. ;)

[mutelight]

As others have already mentioned the capacity and bit rates are higher, it also allows for for the lossless audio formats which bitrates rival the video portion on DVDs. Also, a big contributing factor is the codecs used on Blu-ray which initially was MPEG-2 but was changed to significantly more efficient codecs like H.264 and VC-1. These codecs handle motion, color and overall detail much better than MPEG-2 at lower bit rates and when using higher bitrates like those on BD it allows the 1080p to handle extremely complex scenes with no macro-blocking.

[xIsamuTM]

are there any bluray players that can handle .mkv or .ogm files?

[hdtvfan0001]

All this talk is giving me the urge to leave my desk and go watch a Blu Ray movie right now.... :D

[Stewart Vernon]

You also need Blu-Ray bitrates. A DVD player can't sustain more than about 8 Mb/s throughput, while most Blu-Ray movies average about triple that bitrate. If you put HD content on a DVD player at a higher bitrate, you'll get skips and stuttering. Plus, DVD players can't output more than 720x480 anyway.

Of course if you play the DVD in a DVD player you'd get less than HD... but my HD DVD (haven't tested my Samsung combo yet) will play DVD-Rs and I have put HD content onto DVDs and played them in HD that way. Still need the HD/Blu player to get HD to the TV, but the content itself will actually play back fairly well from a DVD actually.