Register
Events
Popular
More
Post #1
Blu-rays
Since a lot of people seem to know nothing about this shit, here's a thread.
What the fuck is a Blu-ray?
Some kind of blue coloured laser or something?
A Blu-ray is a newer form of digital media disc that allows for a much higher storage size, hence better quality video in films. The Blu-ray standard is 1080p video, or "HD".
You cannot play a Blu-ray movie in a regular DVD Player, and will need a Blu-ray capable player.
Video Quality
Does it really look that good?
As previously mentioned, Blu-rays come in 'High Definition', that is to say 1080p. 1080 comes from the resolution, which is 1920x1080, the resolution of your standard HDTV. The P stands for Progressive. 1080i, broadcast on HDTV, stands for interlaced. Look them shits up if you want to know the difference because I can't be bothered explaining that shit.
You may be thinking 'But what does all this mean? Is it actually any better than a DVD'? Yes faggot, it is!
A DVD is 720x480. As you can already tell, 1920x1080 is a huge improvement over this. The 50gb (or sometimes 25gb) allows for a much higher bitrate. I'm trying to keep this as informative to people uneducated in this kind of area, so the bottom line is it's a fucktonne better. It's the best consumer available presentation of a film, and looks absolutely fantastic on a high def TV.
To give you a good idea about just how much better it is over a DVD, here's a diagram frok Wikipedia I edited to make more obvious.
For those wondering about video codecs, common codecs include VC1, h.264, aaand I forget what else.
Audio Quality.
Sound good?
With the extra space also comes a boost in the audio. Blu-ray supports up to 7.1 surround, although very few actually boast this. Almost all Blu-ray films however have 5.1 tracks. Common codecs include AC3, LPCM, TRUE-HD, HD DTS and some others.
While DVD supports this to some extent, the size limitations still decreased the capability. On a Blu-ray you will often get uncompressed sound.
In other words, the sound is phenominal, especially if you have the right hardware and speaker setup to play it. Personally I have a 5.1 setup and it's fantastic. I've watched The Hills Have Eyes on Blu-ray and there is one scene where a character is whispering to another from an undisclosed location and it made me fucking jump because it legitimately sounded like it was coming from behind me.
Blu-ray Players
How do I play this shit?
There are a few alternatives when it comes to operating Blu-ray discs.
A Playstation 3
A dedicated Blu-ray Player
A Blu-ray Disc Drive (for a PC)
(All Blu-ray players can also play DVD)
My personal recommendation is a Blu-ray Drive, as this allows you to rip blu-ray movies unrecompressed to your hard drive. And it's also the cheapest option (unless you get a dodgy cheap dedicated player which will more than likely give you problems when it comes to updating firmware for newer discs and just being kind of shit in general).
However, apart from that you're better off getting a PS3 since you get a machine capabile of doing a lot more than just play Blu-rays.
Blu-ray Packaging
What's that shit look like?
You've probably seen them before in a store, but for those of you unawares, this is what your average Blu-ray looks like.
Better than a DVD case if you ask me.
Price?
Shit is more expensive?
No not really. Most of them are about the same as a brand new DVD.
Is it worth getting if I already own it on DVD?
Well this depends. In most cases yes. But occasionally you will get a badly done transfer, in that it won't look much better than the DVD, or in very rare cases, worse.
To avoid getting a disc and discovering it looks terrible, check out some screenshots on www.blu-ray.com and maybe even read a review of the quality.
But apart from that, if you love a movie, it's almost always worth 'double dipping' as they say. The viewing experience is just that much better.
As for me, I have about ~100 Blu-rays, but most of them are digital since I have a home theatre PC that houses them all.
See my blu-ray.com collection for what I have:
http://www.blu-ray.com/community/col...ember=Rusty100
Other links:
www.blu-ray.com - Really useful site that has a fuckload of Blu-ray listings, reviews, community discussion and more.
For those of you with Blu-ray drives, here's a guide, in case you didn't know how to do it, or weren't doing it properly:
Guide to ripping Blu-ray movies to your hard drive
[list][*]First of all, you'll need need AnyDVD HD installed before you can start anything. You'll also need a program called TSMuxer.
Once it is, chuck the Blu-ray disc into the drive, and let AnyDVD decrypt it.
_______________[*]Once it has, go into My Computer, and explore the Blu-ray disc.
_______________[*]Go to BDMV\STREAM, here it will list all the movie streams. Normally the main movie stream will be contained within one large M2TS file. You'll know if the biggest is between 15 to 45gb, depending on the film, and most other files are under 1 or 2gb, if not smaller.
_______________[*]However, sometimes the movie is split between two, or many M2TS files. If this is the case (it should be obvious if it is or isn't), continue reading this paragraph. If not, skip over it.
You'll need to go back one folder, and head into the PLAYLIST folder instead. This folder as the name would suggest contains playlists. TSMuxer can also read these files. These files will keep a kind of index of the main film, keeping track of which files are the main film and the order they are played. Search through them for the correct file by importing them into TSMuxer. Most of them are usually 1kb, so look for one slightly larger than this, as it probably contains the multiple movie streams. Once you find the right one (you'll know because in TSMuxer it will list the main run time, and if it's the same run time as the film then it's safe to bet you have the right one) you can move onto the next step.
_______________[*]Once you've imported the file into TSMuxer, you will probably want to remove all unnecesarry streams (in my experience, graphic streams can prevent the film from playing at all once ripped). All you want to keep is a main video, and a main audio steam.
_______________[*]There may be multiple audio streams. You'll want to keep the best one. For example, if there is an HD-DTS or a TRUE-HD stream, as well as some lower bitrate AAC or AC3 streams, get rid of the smaller ones and keep the main/biggest one. For TRUE-HD, you may need to highlight it, and select the Downmux to whatever option, as I've had problems playing TRUE-HD as it is. Not that will, but if you do, then that is likely what you need to do. Make sure the main stream is also 5.1/6 channel. No point in keeping a stereo steam.
_______________[*]Also remove all other streams like I said and just keep two (video and audio).
_______________[*]Now you are ready to save. Select M2TS Muxing under Output (still on the first (Input) tab). Browse to where you want to save it, make sure you have enough HDD space, name it, and start muxing.
_______________[*]You're done. I recommend playing the final m2ts file with Media Player Classic (included in CCCP which I also recommend using (Combined Community Codec Pack)).[/list]
Subtitles: If your movie requires subtitles, you can rip them from one of the streams (one of the graphic or pgs streams or whatever, but it's a HUGE pain in the ass, you might want to google that shit, something like 'extract blu-ray subtitles'.) Alternatively I recommend just downloading some converted subs.
COMING SOON MAYBE:
720 encoding.
Thread written entirely by me. Have a nice day.
-
-
Thank you kind sir. I really need to get a ps3 again.
-
Blu ray quality is undeniably better. Play the iron man blu ray then the original dvd, or Avatar
-
I bought a new title because my old one was bad and had a typo in it! What a chump!
June 2005
6,349 Posts
Nice thread
-
I love watching them through my TV.
-
I looked through the list of blu-rays you own and I got a bunch of ideas of what I might buy so thanks for providing that.
One movie I think I have to own on blu-ray is Forest Gump just because I love the movie. I need that Terminator 2 and anything Pixar.
-
Rate me cardboard boxes because I think pearl harbor is a good movie.
-
I bought a new title because my old one was bad and had a typo in it! What a chump!
June 2005
6,349 Posts
no
-
I'm trying to track down Terminator 2 Skynet Edition because it has improved video quality over the regular edition, but it seems to be discontinued at most Australian stores.
Edited:
not enough boxes in the world my friend
-
And I assume they have localization encoding just like DVDs have?
-
They have regions, but this can be easily cracked if you have a blu ray drive.
-
Customers at my work are constantly hiring Blu-ray movies, and then coming in and screaming at me because their 'DVD' doesn't work. Hello, it's not a DVD, it says BLURAY and is in a completely different section, and has a different shaped case you retard.
Nice, informative thread! If only they were all Facepunchers.
-
Yeah when I go to rent them they used to ask me 'You realise this isn't a dvd right?' and I'd be like 'Yeah I know I have a blu-ray drive'
don't ask me anymore because I'm a regular
-
Great guide.
Would this be a thread to ask what movies look great in 1080p?
-
My family has roughly 900 DVDs (not exaggerating in the slightest).
Does this mean we'll have to start our collection all over again...?
-
nobody says you have to throw away your dvds, or replace all of them
that's up to you
-
IMAX beats everything :)
12000 × 8700 pixels...
hell to the yes
-
I had to get rid of my in home imax when my oil company went under.
-
Sure.. But I do have a good $50 Million to spare
-
I didn't get the fuss.
And then I watched the Hong Kong scene from The Dark Knight and said "holy shit".
-
sony doesn't allow porn films to be released on blu ray still right?
-
I love Blu-Rays. Animated films are by far the best looking Blu-rays you will get. 'Up' is absolutely fantastic. Not to mention, if you have a decent set of speakers, the sound is so much better than a standard DVD.
Even switching from SD-TV to HD-TV makes a very noticable difference.
I don't even know how many I have. Maybe, 45-50? Got every Pixar film available on Blu-Ray in the UK. I'd recommend them to anyone. Also just picked up The Wolfman. Yet to watch it though.
-
How to get the full source code to Half-Life 2: you can extract the source code out for free, not so legal, very hard, but you can do it
September 2005
14,908 Posts
...actually porn took the Blu-Ray transition faster and smoother than the DVD transition.
-
Wolfman's a pretty shitty movie though
Edited:
If anyone has any more questions I'll gladly answer them and add them to the OP
-
I'm now wondering if decades in the future my parents will have 4 or 5 copies of the same movies, all in different formats.
-
Doubt it actually, Blu-ray is almost the final format, the picture is appreciably perfect, and the resolution is such that it doesn't make sense to go much higher for any display that goes in a living room. The surround sound is lossless and far exceeds the capabilities of most people's sound systems. And it does 3D.
And because of this I am seriously considering getting rid of my DVD's and replacing them with Blu-rays.
-
The only format I'll live with is 1080p60 or higher.
-
(Where you gonna' get those extra frames for a 24p medium like film?)
-
I'm not. I want them for new and animated films.
-
Bump because use this thread instead of making other Blu-ray threads
-
I'm hating the fact that my Blu-ray player needs a fucking firmware update every few months, and sometimes it doesn't come and I'm left with useless Blu-rays, wasted money and a trip back to the video store.
Really irritating.
-
That's why a Blu-ray Drive is the best option. Don't need any firmware updates with AnyDVD.
-
Does anyone know a good place to order HDDVDs for cheap online (that ships to Canada)? I bought one of those combo drives back when it was the cheapest option and I figure there must have been a few good movies released on that format and a few stores looking to get rid of their stock.
-
i checked amazon recently and most hd-dvd's are around a buck
seems like a fucking good deal
-
The Canadian amazon has HDDVDs at around 40 bucks. And then you check the marketplace and see that other sellers have them from 1-5 dollars.
Score
Anyone got any HDDVD recommendations? I know this is the Blu-Ray thread and I'll take this into its own thread if you would like.
-
Ironically whenever my family rents a bluray disk, I seem to need to update something every time, and my dad says he should just get a player.
I don't think he listened to me at all when I explained that those also need to be updated.
-
AnyDVD HD will require one tiny update if the disc came out after the version of AnyDVD you're using which takes literally no more than 5 seconds to update.
Edited:
a blu-ray/hd dvd combo drive
it's what i have in my desktop. best of both worlds. mine is the LG GGC-H20L i think
-
A recommentation for those looking to rent a new movie;
Solomon Kane
It's from 2009, so it's a little old, however I saw it recently and it's a really underestimated movie as I have never heard of it before.
Well worth the money it may cost.
-
What?
-
You lost me at 2009. There is no way I'm watching a film that ancient.
x 55
x 6
x 4
x 3
x 3
x 2
x 1
x 1
x 1
x 1
Zing x 1
