The Red Circle

The release of Watchmen: The Ultimate Edition saw the first time that more than 50% of sales were on the blu-ray format. A year and a half after the format war ended, Blu-Ray is starting to pick up steam. It’s an exciting format, to be sure. The picture is near perfect, and the audio is almost always the same master track that played in the theater you saw the film in. It’d be silly to point out how good new films like Hot Fuzz, Star Trek, and UP look on the format. What’s most impressive is how fantastic this format can make 30, 40, even 70 year old films look.

It’s a great time to love movies. Not only has 2009 been a great year for cinema, it’s also the year that lots of people are rediscovering classic films on a breathtaking home video format. In honor of Black Friday, and the ensuing holiday season, The Red Circle has decided to put together a Blu-Ray buyer’s guide. Over the next two days, we will spotlight some of the great deals on hardware that will be available, as well as giving some recommendations on some of the essential software purchases needed to enjoy your new HD abilities.

The Basics of Blu-Ray: The format of Blu-Ray offers several things over standard DVD. First of all, the resolution is increased from 720 x 480  to 1920 x 1080. Quickly change your computer’s display resolution from the lowest to the highest to get a good idea of how much better this looks. The discs are increased from a double layer standard of 8.4 GB to a double layer standard of 50 GB. On the average, just the movie’s picture (not including sound and features) takes up about 27 GB of space. With almost half the disc space left over, Blu-Ray has room for what is called lossless audio (the sound mastered in the studio is the same sound that is output through your surround system), and wealth of extra features that are becoming more and more exclusive to the format. Besides the technical advantages, blu-ray also has another ability – it’s interactive.

Since Blu-Ray is a relatively new format (and the first home video format to utilize the internet as part of its functionality — see the BD Live section a little later), it is constantly being updated. Currently, we are on what is known as Profile 2.0 which requires two things – An internet connection, and at least 1 GB of onboard storage. All of the players I’ll recommend will at least be Profile 2.0 compatible. Some offer more advanced features, and others are expandable even past the current 2.0 configuration.

What it comes down to is this: Are you a features junkie like myself and the rest of The Red Circle’s staff, or are you just in it for the movie? If the answer is b), you can get by with a Profile 1.0 hardware unit (although the firmware upgrades will be a pain in the ass to do by disc). You can probably score one on eBay for well under $100. They are huge and slow, but they get the job done.  That being said, with the deals that will be covered in the next edition, you have zero reason to look for an older player to save money.

I mentioned something called BD-Live earlier. This is a feature specific to Blu-Ray that allows for limitless interactivity with the web. Sometimes its used to stream exclusive content from the web. Other times, when the filmmakers really want to use it to its full potential, you can take part in a live chat with the film’s director in a worldwide screening of his movie. This has happened with both The Dark Knight and Hellboy II. You can bookmark favorite scenes, and watch them on demand. While I certainly won’t defend BD-Live’s usefulness across all media, the idea has merit and shortly will be the gateway to something special. I’ll discuss a little more of its uses in the hardware section of this feature tomorrow.

The Benefits of Blu-Ray: I could go on and on about the picture difference, but I will just resort to visual aids. These images had to be resized to fit this blog, so I will provide links to the full comparisons at their respective websites. Even with the remastering process what it is today, the space limitations on DVDs allow for unreliable color transfers and inconsistent blacks. Take a look at this shot from Zulu to understand. Notice the difference in the uniform colors now that a full 50 GB transfer of the movie is able to be mastered:

DVD

Blu-Ray

The original comparison can be found at the essential DVDBeaver right Here.

That should be sufficient to showcase the improvements Blu has to offer, but just in case there is more convincing to do, I’d suggest you take a look at these comparisons as well. All credit to the brilliant folks at DVD Beaver.

Blu-Ray is everywhere. Every week, some chain has them on special. Netflix offers them alongside their considerable DVD selection. Unlike even seven months ago, this format is thriving in every nook and cranny of every electronics manufacturer. Hell, even Krogers sells them. Blu-Ray is no longer a specialized format for audio/video enthusiasts. It’s the format of choice for an increasingly large percentage of home theater owners. Why not make 2009 your year to go Blu?

The Summary: Look around you. Now is the best time to start buying into blu-ray. The price is right, the amount of movies available is right, and the quality is too right. Check back tomorrow and Thanksgiving Day for spotlights on the Software and Hardware that will make help you have very Blu Christmas.

Tom Nix // 11.24.09

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