Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater To Blu-ray... Or not to Blu-ray

Ok, I need some advice here, your help is appreciated.

I have a dedicated HT room with a Panasonic projector PT-AE900u that will do 1080i / 720p. I also have a non up-converting Pioneer DVD player I bought for around $200 about 4 years ago. Over the past year I have been planning to purchase an Oppo 981 to replace the Pioneer. I never did get around to it. I now see Oppo has come out with a newer model but with a heftier price tag ($399) although with better picture so the reviews say.

Now that the format war is over and I have noticed my local video rental store is now stocking blu-ray discs, and the prices of players are starting to drop (Sony BDPS300 at Futureshop for $299). Maybe I should be considering a blu-ray player.

Here is the question. I have an extensive SD DVD collection that I will not be converting to blu-ray anytime soon, if ever. How is the up-converting on blu-ray players in comparison to the Oppo? Has anybody done any comparisons? Remember, I am still limited to 1080i / 720p. Will I notice a sig. difference between an SD upconverted image on a blu-ray player compared to my SD Poineer player.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

pn

Without being familiar with the exact model my gut instinct says that you will not notice a difference in the upconversion of standard DVD's with a bluray player. I would say buy a bluray player for blurays, not for upconversion.

However, I use a Toshiba HD-DVD player as an upconverting player for my standard DVD's, because it seems to work better than my 360 and I don't have another upconverting player. (actually I just got a PS3 but I haven't watched any SD DVD's on it.)

I would reccomend getting a netflix account if you plan on renting any more than 2 blurays per month.

I think you will notice an inprovement with an upconverting player vs your present player.

I also noticed a considerable difference in quality with my Toshiba HD player. HD may be dead but I'll be keeping it around for it's up-scaling abilities for quiet some time, I think.

I have never compared it back and forth to the PS3 I also have now.

I have quite a few HD-capable devices. It order of upscaling capabilities, I would rank them as follows:

1-2) Panasonic BD-30 and Toshiba A-30 equally good, distinctively better than the rest

3) LG DVD player (forgot the number).

4) Popcorn Hour media streamer

5) Oppo 980.

6) Reserved for any new device

7) PS3

I am wondering a bit about this as well.

So the PS3 doesn't upconvert well? Although I have been so anti-Blu-Ray, I have been toying with a Blu-Ray purchase this Christmas. I had my HD-A2 for HD-DVD, but a lot of those HD-DVDs that I have I don't care if I keep or not. I'd like to have just 1 player in my theater, so my goal was to possibly get a PS3 and use it for Blu-Ray and SD movies, but if the PS3 is worse at upconverting than my HD-A2 (or even my good ol' Panasoniv S97 upconverting SD-DVD player) then I will need to look at other options....

I am using a Sanyo Z3 (720p) projector as well. I do see a difference in SD vs. HD even when the SD is upconverted, but the upconverted image is nice.

Now that the format war is over I think Blu-ray is the only way to go. I will always rent Blu-ray movies over SD, I use my HDXA2 for up conversion but Imo its no match in PQ for some of the new Blu-ray offerings. It's not only the picture, the new HD sound formats are very impressive also. I think the PS3 is still the best value out right now for its features.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't belive Netfix is available in Canada.

I live in a small town where the local video store is now stocking Blu-ray discs, however, they only have one wall and only one disc per new release. The chances of me getting the Blu-ray disk vs the SD DVD are probabaly about 50/50. Probably better during the week than on the weekends. Ofcoarse they are charging a dollar more per rental for blu-ray.

So SD DVD is still important, for then next year of two, until Blu-ray becomes more popular (if it ever does).

My brother bought a blu-ray player last week and the picture was great, really great, but what I also noticed was the improvment in sound. He has just a mid buget Mirage speaker set-up. No where near the quality of my M80's, VP150 and EP500. I think the imporvment in sound is a reason to move to Blu-ray alone.

pn

I think they must have improved the PS3's upconversion with their firmware updates. I remember being very unimpressed initially, but now I find it pretty close to my Toshiba HD-A35. It could just be a trick of the mind, but I don't think so.

I bought my PS3 end of July and I have the latest firmware. If it improved, it must have been pretty bad!