My local Walmarts stopped carrying Blu-ray discs!

[TM2-Megatron]

Actually it is. Especially if you have a progressive 1080 display. Its 5 times better.

Yeah, but this is made somewhat irrelevant by the fact the number people who own such a display is pathetically small indeed. That's disregarding the stragglers intelligent enough to still use CRT computer monitors, of course. Most "so-called" HDTVs on the market today are capable of only as high as 1366x768. Ignoring the fact that this resolution, coming at it from the POV of a computer-user, seems ridiculously low for LCD displays of the sizes being sold as HDTVs (36"+, generally), the limited abilities of modern LCD panels make watching things that aren't sent at the television's native resolution (and I've never observed anything sending out a 1366x768 signal) a painful experience for me. Either a way needs to be found for LCDs to natively display varying resolutions, or their scaling abilities need to be drastically improved.

My computer has a dual display setup, the primary being a 22" flat-panel Viewsonic at 1920x1440 (though it can go up to 2048x1536) and the secondary a 24" Dell LCD at 1920x1200. Personally, even though this LCD is counted as rather good, I'd be hesitant to consider buying an even larger one running at a lower resolution. I've yet to be truly impressed with any consumer-level LCD panel I've come across.

[Ting Ting]

You won't ever have to replace your DVD's. If you read my posts on the "Blu-Ray or HD-DVD" thread you will see that I have made sure to tell everyone that the Blu-Ray player upconverts all regular DVD's to near-Hi-Def quality picture. Your collection won't become obsolete, I can promise you. Unlike HD-DVD, the Blu-Ray player uses a Blu-Ray instead of a Red one to scan discs, and that is what gives it the depth and quality of picture that it does. Since I am a Blu-Ray Disc Player owner, I can tell you that it is well worth the extra money to get into Blu-Ray when you are ready, be it with a PS3 or a stand-alone player. I own only five Blu-Ray discs in my 3,000 DVD disc collection. I am not about to replace any of my previous purchases with Blu-Ray. I will also be very selective in my Blu-Ray purchases down the road.

Hope that this eases your concerns about your extensive DVD collection.

Wow, thanks for your input! I'm glad I don't have to worry about replacing my DVD collection if Blu-Ray does happen to become popular. Thanks again!

But I have one more question. How much does the quality differ from playing a DVD disc on a Blu-Ray player to playing an actual Blu-Ray disc?

[TM2-Megatron]

But I have one more question. How much does the quality differ from playing a DVD disc on a Blu-Ray player to playing an actual Blu-Ray disc?

It would depend on the quality of your television and your eyes, and just a bit of how much you actually care for about such things.

Playing a DVD through a Blu-Ray player (on an HDTV, of course) would likely look identical to playing a DVD on any of the numerous upconverting DVD players now available with HDMI outputs. However, there's still only so much you can do with a 480 picture. Almost anyone would notice the jump from 480i to 720p (the first of the HD resolutions). 480p to 720p wouldn't be as drastic, but many would still discern the difference (and the rest would claim to). The real jumps come to 1080i and 1080p, the latter being the only resolution I personally consider to be HD. That jump is quite remarkable, particularly if you're viewing two displays side-by-side. Even 1080i doesn't look too bad. But as I said before, the number of real 1080p displays on the market today makes it irrelevant for the next year or two. LCDs, by their very nature, can only display a single resolution at optimal quality, and very few LCD televisions have a native resolution of 1920x1080, so they can't even handle 1080i and resort to 720p. The few CRT HDTVs on the market can display 1080i natively, but even those fail to hit the 1080p mark. At the moment, it's mostly computer monitors that can achieve that.

[dvdjunkie]

TM2-Megatron has some very good points, but I wish he would put them in an English we can all understand. Why would anyone care about the input or output of a computer (a laptop one, at that). I would never watch a movie on a computer for any reason.

Maybe it is just me, but Techno-babble just doesn't register with me. I own a 1080i HDTV monitor and a Samsung Blu-Ray Disc Player and I have yet to see anything that matches that quality - or sound. And you can't tell me that a computer can give you 6.1 Dolby Digital through 13 speakers.

I talk in the language of most of the users around here, thig-a-ma-gigs, and whacha-ma-callits do just fine instead of MGZ, GBZ or whatever that computer stuff is.

[TM2-Megatron]

TM2-Megatron has some very good points, but I wish he would put them in an English we can all understand. Why would anyone care about the input or output of a computer (a laptop one, at that). I would never watch a movie on a computer for any reason.

Maybe it is just me, but Techno-babble just doesn't register with me. I own a 1080i HDTV monitor and a Samsung Blu-Ray Disc Player and I have yet to see anything that matches that quality - or sound. And you can't tell me that a computer can give you 6.1 Dolby Digital through 13 speakers.

If your HDTV is an LCD, are you sure it actually has a native resolution of 1080? Usually, manufacturers fudge the difference and say their TVs are 1080i-capable, despite only having a native resolution of 1366x768. Those TVs are able to accept a signal coming in at 1080i, but they shrink the image to fit their reduced pixels (probably the biggest weakness of LCD technology, as this process always results in an extremely noticeable drop in quality). IMO, it's this quality that renders probably 90% of the "HDTVs" on the market today completely useless beyond maybe 5 years; which is a pretty pathetic useful life for a television, particularly considering ones that cost so damn much, and the fact that LCD panels are supposed to last quite a long time before burning out. When 720p is removed from the HD standard (and it will be, I'm quite sure), none of these televisions will even be considered HD anymore.

Also, what's with the bias against computers? Personally, I'm moving to the point where I hope to just own a single display (or two, for a dual-monitor computer setup) that can be used as both computer display and television. This would require a rather large screen, of course, to make an appropriate full-time television. The only reason I'm still waiting is that there isn't a single consumer LCD display I know of capable of the resolutions I prefer my computer to occupy. One of the current HDTVs would essentially throw me back to the 1024x768 days, and I haven't used a computer at that resolution for 5 or 6 years.

Computer monitors have always had more capabilities than their television contemporaries, except for the fact they're usually a bit smaller. I'd certainly watch a Blu-Ray movie on my 24" Dell LCD before I'd play it on a regular HDTV; at least the computer monitor is truly capable of displaying 1920x1080 pixels without screwing around with its sizing.

And I don't know about most computers, but the sound card in mine is capable of supporting 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channels using Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS Digital Surround, DTS-ES, and Neo:6. You won't find many receivers for a television set-up able to decode all those standards in one unit.

[kbehm29]

I will agree that the sound system on my computer sounds better than my home theater speakers in my living room.

And...TM2 Megatron? Will you please come with me to buy my HDTV next month? LOL - I would really appreciate it because you make it sound like it's near impossible to get a true HDTV with a screen bigger than a computer monitor.

At least talk me through it on the phone? Seriously - if money were not an option, and you wanted a true 1080p HDTV....with a screen in the 40"+ range, what would you buy?

[kbehm29]

I got an official phone call from the manager of my local Wal-Mart. His response was that because of the forthcoming holiday season, there isn't display room for the Blu-ray Discs / HD-DVD's anymore so they stopped carrying them. He couldn't say whether it was temporary, and could not confirm if they'd be back after the holiday season.

I still can't believe it. What a waste. Seriously - what a lame response.

[Mr. Toad]

Why is it a lame response? It is a very good one. Why use shelf space for something that only 1 in 200 people own when you can use it to reach 2/3 of people for a regular DVD(just guessing here).

Retailers will make more money in the next 8 weeks than any other time of year. This is make or break time. No time to fool around with something that simply isnt catching on.

As for the temporary/permanent thing it may be possible they simply have not made up their minds yet.

[kbehm29]

Have you ever seen Target's display for their HD-DVD / Blu-ray disc selection? Very small, but yet - very eye-catching. I find it hard to believe that Wal-Mart can't come up with the shelving for 25 different cases when other similar stores can.

Wal-Mart's discontinuation of these products may be based on their poor store layout/display system. Up until now, I've found their BD/HD-DVD's just sitting on footrests of display aisles - no prices, no signs, nothing. Of course they're not selling if you can't see or find them!

Target and Best Buy are being very smart about their display of this product. Mark my words that Wal-Mart will catch on and realize the error of their ways within 6-12 months.

[memnv]

My Wal-Mart has about 30 hd and 30 blue rays, They have a endcap set up and also a section in the middle of one of the dvd isles

[kbehm29]

So I'm back at the local Wal-Mart today for a Sponge Bob DVD Player for my son's birthday - and guess what I see in the DVD dept?

More Blu-ray Discs at the bottom of a display, unadvertised. They didn't have any Disney ones, but they had Monster House and Click. I picked up Monster House for only $24.96.

So, either the manager and dept. employees don't know what the heck they're talking about....or the store really doesn't know what inventory it has coming in. Regardless, I'm glad I found it at such a low price.