Blu-ray or DVD; that is the question.

Like once you had to decide if was time to move on to DVD from VCR technology, now is about time to decide to move from DVD to a newer technology called Blu-ray. We will point here some details, you decide if it is time for you yet or not.

Differences between Blue-ray and DVD

In simple language, Blue-ray has a much superior quality that DVD. Quality on these equipments are define mainly per quantity of pixels they can play a movie with.

Pixels are tiny points on your TV screen. A bunch of pixels together and you have an image.

Most DVD play a movie 480 lines in your TV, Blue-ray can play up to 1080 lines that means you can see a lot more details on each movie.

There are many DVD players nowadays that can convert their films on the fly to 1080p but off course it is not going to be as good as a Blu-ray because DVDs don't carry naturally 1080p details. On my experience, a good DVD with a DHMI cable (convert to 1080p), made very good quality on our 1080p TV.

My Blu-ray player is Samsung 1400, I love it. The best part is that I plug a network behind it and go on the Internet to update its software.

Current Resolutions

It is important that you know, those "i" on resolution means that the number is not really it as "i" means interpolated or one line of image, one line blank. That effect make the imagines look better on big TVs.

The most common:

"Regular TV" resolution = 525i but only 480i is viewable.
HDTV = can be 480p 720p or 1080i.
DVD = 480i or 480p and some at 720p.
480i & 480p = 640x480 pixels.
720p = 1280x720 pixels.
1080i = 1920x1080 pixels interpolated.
1080p = 1920x1080 pixels using naturally Full HD resolution.

Regarding The TV

If you buy a Blu-ray player but you have those old CRT TVs, it is going to look good but it is not going to be close to what it should be.

If you are planning to buy a new TV, this is what I suggest:

1) Pick a size that is best for the room you are going to see it. If won't matter if you get a 60" TV but have to seat 30cm from it... won't look good. Bring your room size to the store and ask a sales person what size is recommended for you room.

2) LCD is currently my preferred TV type so, all specs below are based on LCD.

3) Frequency: 120hz. 60hz are also good but some times can look unnatural on action movies.

4) Resolution: Full-HD or 1080p or 1920x1080 pixels.

5) Time Response: 5ms or less. No more than 8ms.

6) Connectors: Must have at least 1 DHMI, 3 recommended.

7) Contrast: 10000:1 is minimum best, no less than 5000:1 as black will look like grey.

7) Image Processor: This is a very important item but hard to quantify. On my experience, so far and currently Samsung have the best processors and best options to produce great images.

Summary

Blue-ray looks much better than DVD but DVD players with DHMI connector or even Blu-ray players show nice most DVDs using DHMI.

There is also another factor, a lot of DVD's are right now on places like Walmart for $5 compare to average $20 of Blu-ray players. If you are a movie collector, DVDs are still the cheapest choice for a not bad quality.

I have created the following rule for myself, if it is a new or classic movie, I go for Blu-ray, if not, DVD.

Also, if your TV doesn't not support at least 720p, Blu-ray at this point is a bit of an overkill.