oppo blu ray player 95 image
bob356
I'm looking at upgrading to a 26" or a 32" new LCD 1080p flat screen tv for my bedroom. I want a really good quality long lasting blu-ray player to go with it. I'll be using it for blu-ray DVDs of course and also my 300ish regular DVDs. Which one is best for me?
Answer
The best Blu ray players are made by Oppo, the BDP 95 always gets top ratings; but the BDP 93 is also very good....
The best Blu ray players are made by Oppo, the BDP 95 always gets top ratings; but the BDP 93 is also very good....
Is Blu Ray necessary for Home Theater?
Q. How big is the visual and audio upgrade from DVD?
Answer
Blu-ray is certainly not necessary (most consumers are still quite happy with DVDs). Whether you would benefit significantly from Blu-ray depends on many things. Many consumers don't see or hear huge improvements.
First recognize that movies are generally not going to look like the crystal clear images you see in some store demos. Movies tend to be much more grainy, washed out or have strange color pallets (as part of the Director's vision). Blu-ray will be as close to the theater version as it's currently possible to be ... but not necessarily crystal clear, etc.
On a large screen HDTV (>37") and relative to a standard DVD player many Blu-ray movies will look noticeably (but NOT "night and day") sharper than DVD. However, some Blu-ray or upscaling DVD players (e,g, Oppo) do a better job than others on making DVD look really good on even a big screen, so under optimum conditions DVD can look almost as good as Blu-ray (particularly when the Blu-ray is not super sharp anyway (e.g. District 9).
Whether sound is better depends on your audio system, but even on a good system difference is incremental rather than great. Many won't even notice.
Whether to buy Blu-ray ... and if so, which one ... depends on your situation. And recognize that players and movies cost more than DVDs so it rarely makes sense to pay more than a few $ more for Blu-ray.
If you don't have at least a 30" HDTV forget Blu-ray ... put the money into a larger TV and/or HT system first.
If you currently have a large collection of DVDs and need a new player ... look for a Blu-ray player with excellent DVD handling capability (read reviews). Then play Blu-ray for films that justify it (or you can access at reasonable price), but enjoy your DVD library (or newer films that don't justify Blu-ray prices) played back as sharp as possible on the Blu-ray player using it as a top notch upscaling DVD player.
If you don't have DVDs and rent movies... buy almost any Blu-ray player and enjoy.
If you have a smallish HDTV (37" or less) and don't have a good sound system ... stick to DVDs and buy a sound system. You'll get more benefit from improved sound from DVDs than you would from improvement by moving to Blu-ray from DVD.
For other situations, extrapolate from the above.
FYI, I watch DVDs and Blu-ray on a 1080p projector and 110" screen and have a top end 7.2 sound system. DVDs usually look about 85-90% as good as Blu-ray and normal 5.1 DD sound is 90-95% as good as HD audio on Blu-ray. But I have a Blu-ray player that does a better than average job on DVDs.
Blu-ray is certainly not necessary (most consumers are still quite happy with DVDs). Whether you would benefit significantly from Blu-ray depends on many things. Many consumers don't see or hear huge improvements.
First recognize that movies are generally not going to look like the crystal clear images you see in some store demos. Movies tend to be much more grainy, washed out or have strange color pallets (as part of the Director's vision). Blu-ray will be as close to the theater version as it's currently possible to be ... but not necessarily crystal clear, etc.
On a large screen HDTV (>37") and relative to a standard DVD player many Blu-ray movies will look noticeably (but NOT "night and day") sharper than DVD. However, some Blu-ray or upscaling DVD players (e,g, Oppo) do a better job than others on making DVD look really good on even a big screen, so under optimum conditions DVD can look almost as good as Blu-ray (particularly when the Blu-ray is not super sharp anyway (e.g. District 9).
Whether sound is better depends on your audio system, but even on a good system difference is incremental rather than great. Many won't even notice.
Whether to buy Blu-ray ... and if so, which one ... depends on your situation. And recognize that players and movies cost more than DVDs so it rarely makes sense to pay more than a few $ more for Blu-ray.
If you don't have at least a 30" HDTV forget Blu-ray ... put the money into a larger TV and/or HT system first.
If you currently have a large collection of DVDs and need a new player ... look for a Blu-ray player with excellent DVD handling capability (read reviews). Then play Blu-ray for films that justify it (or you can access at reasonable price), but enjoy your DVD library (or newer films that don't justify Blu-ray prices) played back as sharp as possible on the Blu-ray player using it as a top notch upscaling DVD player.
If you don't have DVDs and rent movies... buy almost any Blu-ray player and enjoy.
If you have a smallish HDTV (37" or less) and don't have a good sound system ... stick to DVDs and buy a sound system. You'll get more benefit from improved sound from DVDs than you would from improvement by moving to Blu-ray from DVD.
For other situations, extrapolate from the above.
FYI, I watch DVDs and Blu-ray on a 1080p projector and 110" screen and have a top end 7.2 sound system. DVDs usually look about 85-90% as good as Blu-ray and normal 5.1 DD sound is 90-95% as good as HD audio on Blu-ray. But I have a Blu-ray player that does a better than average job on DVDs.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
