There is no doubt, blu-ray is better than dvd in every way except current costs. It's better sharpness, color, highlights and shadow detail win out in every category. The question is, "is it time to switch?"
Well, we switched a few months back. With our old dvd player, (13 years old and one of the first cheap models), dying on us and needing an extra television for a Wii system for my wife's excercising, we decided to take the plunge. The one thing we didn't take the plunge with, (my wife may say different), was upgrading movies to blu-ray. In that we have actually been rather conservative.
There are several reasons for this. First, we did buy some new blu-ray movies. What we bought were mostly movies that fit certain criteria. At first, we purchased blu-ray movies we absolutely loved enough to spend an extra price for since blu-ray was much higher in cost than dvd. Dvd, however, has become especially cheap now with companies packaging movies and their sequels in multi-packs, (see the Miss Congienality series online), with sometimes four movies in a pack. We saw superman series, one through four, sold for as little as $9.99 for the four-pak. Dvd could not get any cheaper. Also, ebay made buying dvd's as cheap as 99 cents, (plus $3.00 shipping), bringing our price for dvd's down to as little as $4.00 a movie. At that cost, it is cheaper to buy movies than rent and if you don't like the movie, sell it again on ebay.
This brings me to the second reasoning to stick with mainly dvd copies. With some movies it honestly did not matter whether they were on blu-ray or not simply because the difference in quality was not as apparent. I found this out when we bought the stunning remastered BBC version of Pride and Predjudice on blu-ray vs. the remastered dvd version. Well, we actually bought a couple of other BBC blu-ray also and love them, but purchasing them later on blu-ray made me wonder if it was worth it and affected my decisions for other movies too. Primary, was the fact that none of our family's computers have blu-ray drives. Being too expensive to update them too, and since most of our movie watching was done on computers. I decided that owning blu-ray needed to be constrained mostly to sci-fi movies, such as Star Trek where the digital detail was most appreciated in the special effects of the movies, with classics now released in remastered editions, or movies we didn't own yet but the blu-ray sold for the same or less than the dvd version. My wife, and I are both "chic-flick" fans. These we purchased instead as dvd's on ebay or at several Blockbuster stores that were closing in our area at a severely discounted price. Some of them I purchased for as little as 99 cents.
Another factor that has swayed my opinion to purchase dvd is the quality of dvd's has advanced in the last few years. With the switch by studios from using what is called "dvd-5" to "dvd-9" has made a difference in movie quality. For the most part, these movies will be labeled "enhanced for 6 x 9 televisions" or "anamorphic widescreen" on the backs. Sometimes it will just say "HD" or "high definition" transfer. Usually, if a disc simply has the words "letterboxed" the movie is not "dvd-9." DVD-9 is a dual layer disc that allows more storage for the movie itself by producing it in dual layer 8 GB disc, as opposed to a single layer 4 GB dvd disc. By allowing more space for the movie, quality is improved. Because of this, the appearance of the movie when played may be close or similar in quality to a blu-ray's quality. While it is not the same quality, in most cases people may not notice enough difference to justify spending the extra amount for a blu-ray version. Whether or not saving money by buying higher quality dvd over blu-ray in the long run depends on two factors. One is whether support for dvd being built into the blu-ray players, (or whatever replaces blu-ray in the future), continues for a long time, and whether or not blu-ray ever comes down in price enough to warrant simply replacing it.
A couple of other decisions have affected whether or not we replace dvd with blu-ray. Cartoons and kids movies seem to least be benefited by the upgrade. Not only do children not care one way or another whether a movie is higher definition and in blu-ray or not, but the improvement for graphics in the case of cartoons seems only slight. Exceptions would be some of the Disney cartoon movies but not all. For instance, the improvements in Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" are unmatched. Not only is the quality better, but it's in it's original widescreen version now instead of the previous fullscreen. Not only that, the stunning "Grand Canyon" feature film bonus alone makes it worth owning. But some movies, like Incredibles, were not worth the upgrade to me. Even though I received disney's $10.00 discount coupon for the upgrade, (which was only good for about 3 days once I got it; not enough time to me to consider an upgrade) I did not consider the previously purchased dvd quality enough quality difference to justify repurchase in blu-ray.
One reason to step up to newer versions on blu-ray is some of the movies have impressive remasters, such as "The Ten Commandments," with Charlton Heston. This movie, to me, has become the definitive example of what was great about Technicolor films- great filming, and masters of the camera and filming craft. Not only has blu-ray advanced film archiving and restoration for blu-ray films, but this has carried over into dvd as well. After all, if the studios are going to pour money into restoring an old film so it will show-off in blu-ray, why not sell it again as a dvd and make money there too, right? I only wish they would pour money into restoring all the old films. As a side-note here, whether or not you like the movie "The Red Shoes" remastered by Criterion, you should nevertheless watch it simply for it's technical retoration improvements. This remaster is an example of what can be acheived with state-of-the-art digital enhancements. It is absolutely flawless even in it's fullscreen original state, (not widescreen). Every dust speck, hair, spot, wrinkle, faded shot, variation in color has been removed which was quite a feat as explained in the special features. Would every older movie got the same treatment. I was impressed when in the first shot of the Moira Shearer's face one could distinquish the subtile differences in the shades and color of whites, (teeth, pearls, eyes), something that is difficult for any photographer to capture. Every shot is like a piece of fine art.
One thing to know about upgrading to blu-ray is each player must be connected via a lan line to upgrade the player. What this amounts to is the studio's want control over your viewing of their movies. With new copy guard protecitons being invented as time goes on your player will need to be "upgraded." I have two problems with this. First, I currently own a blu-ray copy of Disney's "Tangled" that we cannot watch in blu-ray. This is because Disney, from what my blu-ray player manufacturer has told me, has a new copy protection system in place and the manufacturer has not developed an upgrade for this that will allow it to play. This is adventagious for both the manufacturers of the players and the studios that make the movies. Let us hypothisise the manufactuers are not selling enough players and no longer provide updates. They can simply stop upgrading their older players to the new movies. Let's say the companies that make the movies want your movies to be obsolite. They can simply make movies that can no longer be decoded by current players. Let's say the movies studios lobby so that all manufacturers must release their knowledge of each players decoding functions so they can police how you play what you play by allowing movie companies to automatically outdate your movie if it was produced after a certain date by simply over-riding your player. Dvd's do not have the capability for this kind of control so sticking with dvd's may be the only way to go if you don't want to run lan wires from your routers or have companies make your player obsolete in the future. I want to note here this has so far not been done, I am only speculating the future of the medium.
Our blu-ray collection currently is only 10% of our total movie collection, with an average cost of less than $7.00 each including the shipping in that cost. Many of them were purchased used through auctions. I have never had a used blu-ray not play. Since blu-ray discs are more durable, and less likely to scratch, the used versions seem just as good as the new. My first two were purchased in local stores at regular retail price. A few others, probably about 5, were purchased retail at not more than half the regular retail price. There are good deals in blu-ray if you are willing to wait for a good sale or for them to arrive with shipping through ebay, or amazon, for example.
Whether you decide to upgrade to blu-ray, or just retain dvd for a while, I hope you will be better able to make the decision when it comes.
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