Oolite Bulletins

As I am going to relocate from the african bush to european civilization later this year, I am sure I will be going to have to buy a lot of modern consumer electronics I have no clue about. So, here's my question for your kind consideration:

DVD or Blu-ray? And what's the fuzz about anyway?

blu ray.. if you want HD, and have a telly that can handle it..

DVD if you do not care: DVD players are cheap now, a likely sign
that they are being phased out.

Blu Ray Fuzz: you watch movies in High Definition.

I myself got a 42" flat LCD screen with a resolution of 1920 * 1080..

In regard to Flat screens there is also different Technologies


PLASMA TV: Cheap
LCD TV: mid range
LED TV exspensive
OLED TV very exspensive

Signal

Make sure your TV got a build in tuner that supports both DVB-T DVB-C (mpg 4 & mpeg 2) and old school Analog reception. then you got broad coverage

anyway regarding signals here is two links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T

Regarding DVB-T there is a list at the bottom of what country uses what specification exactly...

Cheers Frame

The main thing to note is that in most countries of Europe, analogue TV is being phased out, to be replaced by digital. In the UK this "switchover" is happening region by region, and has already started. It will be completed by 2012.

There are basically three main options for digital TV: satellite, cable, and digital-terrestrial, plus a fourth option of streamed TV over the net.

TV sets come in two main flavours, standard definition and high definition. If you need to get a new TV then go for HD. As far as I know SD isn't yet planned to be phased out in the near future, although its bound to happen eventually.

SD transmissions can be watched on HD TV's.

So for DVD vs Blu-Ray, go for a Blu-Ray player they are backwards compatible with DVD.

JazHaz wrote:

So for DVD vs Blu-Ray, go for a Blu-Ray player they are backwards compatible with DVD.

So you can put a DVD in a Blu-Ray player, but not vice versa?

Didn't know that, and it's a really useful information! (Sorry if it was painfully obvious for everybody else, but I am living really backwater, as far as technology is concerned. I am still a little amazed by video projectors. )

Commander McLane wrote:

JazHaz wrote:

So for DVD vs Blu-Ray, go for a Blu-Ray player they are backwards compatible with DVD.

So you can put a DVD in a Blu-Ray player, but not vice versa?

Didn't know that, and it's a really useful information! (Sorry if it was painfully obvious for everybody else, but I am living really backwater, as far as technology is concerned. I am still a little amazed by video projectors. )

See here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Di ... patibility

I am also interested in your question, Cmdr McLane, and people's responses.

I currently have a 7-yo 21" CRT tv and freeview box and about 1200 dvds (mostly amassed before I got married ). I do like to record stuff off the telly and save it on my pc (via a dvd-r), but my LG dvd player /recorder packed up last week. If I'm getting a new one, I should consider how to make it compatible with my future new HD tv.

I went into Richer Sounds (UK store) but got totally blinded by science by some salesman with a PhD in audio visual studies. Left with my head reeling and still confused.

Basically I know that I can play my dvds in a blu-ray player and it will 'upscale' them from 480p resolution to 1080p HD resolution. Which is good. But can I get a blu-ray player that can record tv signals onto a dvd-r that I can import onto my pc, or should I get a pvr, or what?

And what about watching standard quality freeview tv, and recording from tv?

JazHaz wrote:

SD transmissions can be watched on HD TV's.

This is also what the salesman told be, but my brother-in-law got a new LED LCD HD tv and his standard broadcast signal was hideous to watch - majorly blocky. he ended up buying a subscription to sky+HD or something. I really don't want to have to get a HD broadcast subscription, cos we don't watch that much TV. But blocky is no good!

Then there's the budget.

It is confusing, and things seem to have moved on a lot since I was last in the market for a telly and video!

I currently use a standard definition widescreen CRT TV with Freeview (digital terrestrial). I use a harddisc PVR (personal video recorder) to record Freeview.

Thinking about changing to Freesat, but can't afford it atm (need a job first lol).

Probably would need a new HD TV before then though Freesat does work with SD TVs.

From looking at the Freesat website it seems that the PVRs require a HD TV although they do record SD channels. I might be wrong though.

I get the strong impression that the whole technology is in a state of flux right now, and that nobody has yet decided what's going to happen. In five years DVDs – blu-ray and otherwise – might have gone the way of the betamax and we might be streaming everything, perhaps into a special socket behind our ears ... I predict a surge in sales of shower caps. Anyway, my advice would be, unless you're a massive film buff, go with what's cheap, basic and functional. Let others take the pain of early adoption.

At the moment I don't think there's anything that's only available on blu-ray, and unless you have a huge HD telly the advantage of blu-ray over basic DVD is, I think, hard to see. Unless you have a fascination with actors' nose-pores, a bog-standard unregioned DVD player is all you need and is dirt cheap. Personally I'm sticking with that until the whole thing gets sorted!

Regarding a new TV.. Not sure if it is called the same in UK and other countries..

Do not buy a TV with the label "HD ready", it basicly means a less but want to be a HD Television, but only with a resolution of 1024 * 768, so it scales the size of the picture down, in order to project it...

Go for a telly that is "Full HD" meaning it got a resolution of at least 1920 *1080.

Cheers Frame..

So would you go for a non-HD flat screen telly to go with you region-free dvd player?

I'd go for a cheap telly. If I was thinking of replacing my 17-year-old, non-HD, non-flat-screen CRT set, that is. It still works, I can see everything I want to see, and hey – it's only telly.

It seems it should be HDTV that you need to have:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_ne ... 572828.stm

lol. who'd've thunk it. But a crab, another octopus and a jar? Not the most imaginative marine biologists. They should have shown them Finding Nemo, Jaws, and Into The Blue and see how they reacted to that! I also like the name of the scientist - Renata Pronk

See, now I am getting conflicting advice (discounting the cephalopods). Get a Full HD, get a cheap telly.

I would go for a Samsung full HD Led TV. A Led tv saves 45% on power against a conventional LCD screen.

Samsung Led B7020

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbnakf110-c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p76QkHKxgE8

In combination with a PS3 slim and for example a Onkyo receiver this is a deadly combination

Ps3slim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jFXeqftppo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fF5k4OtW-c


With the PS3 you have a blue ray player with a plus that you of course can watch dvd's, play the PS3 games and browse the Oolite forums on your TV. In my country the PS3 is about € 100,00 more expensive than a standalone player.

Of course your cable provider must provide HD -TV.

IGN still rated the PS3 as the best Blu-Ray player over the purpose built Blu-Ray players. One of the advantages of the PS3 player is that it gets regular firmware updates when needed.

Panasonic and Sony do great HDTVs (but they're also the most expensive) I have a Sharp 42" which was about £800 when I bought it, compared to a Sony 36" which was £1300! (Personally I think the Sharp is fine - but I have seen the Sony in action and you can see the pedigree)

If you're going to be spending money, you might want to consider the fact that the first 3D TVs are supposed to be coming out in November too. IGN (again) reckon the trailer of Avatar they saw running on a Sony 3DTV was better than watching it in the cinema. It seemed to work even better on the TV.

And if you've got Sky HD, they are automatically adding the 3D channels for no extra charge.