Pingmeister @ May 31st 2008 12:14PM

I just recently decided that even though I have a Blu-Ray player (PS3) that I will continue to purchase regular DVDs since upscaling does a decent job on our big HDTV.

Until more of our friends get Blu-Ray players it just becomes too inconvenient to only be able to watch Blu-Rays at our house.

WebDev511 @ May 31st 2008 12:28PM

It depends on the movie and the transfer.

I replaced a lot of DVD's with HD DVD at bargain prices, but not so much with Blu. I've got an HD-XA2 with a HQV Reon, so one might say my upscaler is a bit better than the $70 unit being sold in big box stores. (In fact IS there a better upscaler? My PS3 does a good job, but not Reon good.)

For future releases, a great transfer and good price on a title I've already bought will likely mean a double dip. If the Blu version doesn't stand out in picture and audio, then I'll pass.

StylerEX @ May 31st 2008 12:28PM

Old movies that I already have DVDs for that I watch over and over, I will buy Blu-Ray versions as soon as they come out. There is enough of a difference between upscaling DVDs and Blu-Ray, for me to go ahead with Blu-Ray. I won't go over board with Blu-Ray though, probably rent new movies on Blu-Ray before actually buying my own copy.

Jim Mallory @ May 31st 2008 12:47PM

I have been replacing them but only if the title I want to replace is one sale.

Darryl @ May 31st 2008 12:50PM

I have replaced some, but not all. Mostly just my favorite films like the Matrix (I know HD DVD not blu-ray) & Die Hard. Or if the original DVD version was not widescreened properly. When HD DVD got dumped I picked up a bunch on cheap.

dman @ May 31st 2008 1:11PM

I haven't yet purchased a BD player yet, but when I do I have no intention of buying old titles. I didn't repurchase a single DVD on HD DVD and I won't on BD either. Why? Well tell me why I should. If the movie wasn't recorded in HD, they're basically doing upconversion. So why should I pay $25-$20 per disc for a pre-upconverted disc when I could just use an upconverting player and keep my old library. Doesn't seem to make sense to me. It's one thing for titles that were shot in HD, but older titles, no thank you. They haven't convinced me to pay $25 for a new title, I certainly won't pay it for an old one.

Jon @ May 31st 2008 1:17PM

I backup blu ray and play them on my Popcorn hour from my 4tb server (which will fill up very quickly i fear)

Andy @ May 31st 2008 1:30PM

I haven't bought a single DVD since blu-ray has been out.

DrXym @ May 31st 2008 1:38PM

Depends on the movie really and how the transfer compares to the DVD version.

DeadPlasmaCell @ May 31st 2008 1:38PM

Just Netflix for me. I only watch movies once usually, So I don't have a need to spend $20+ on something I'll likely only watch once. So renting is where it's at.

Pingmeister @ May 31st 2008 3:10PM

I love when people try and justify stealing. Friend, it's not the big studios you're hurting. They just throw a percentage of their bazillions at some lawyers to try and knock out as many bittorrent sites as they can.

The ones you ARE hurting are the independent filmmakers who are struggling to fund their movies with next to no profit margins.

Do me a favor and just post "I like to download movies so I don't have to pay." That's honest. I respect it more than when you try and point at a handful of actors who make way too much money ignoring the vast majority of movie actors who need second jobs to pay their bills.

MI @ May 31st 2008 3:13PM

I've replaced a few that were my favorite titles, but only a few. Haven't bought anything on DVD since I got the BD player though. Looking forward to Transformers and hopefully Bourne at this point...

gparris @ May 31st 2008 3:17PM

I replace only the DVDs I can sell, or those that highdefdigest recommends as a good "upgrade" or a similar reference source.
As for DVDs, I don't buy them anymore, just Blu-ray Discs, but I buy fewer BDs because even with sales, coupons and the like, these are more expensive to DVDs:
3 DVDs at $19.99 (a typical off-sale price) equals 2 BDs at $29.99, unless the store wants to gouge me at $34.99, which I refuse to buy, unless I got a Best Buy $5 reward certificate and really, really, want it.
New movies we never got to see are primarily the BDs I get to buy (with permission from the spouse), provided these are what my family (or even it if it's just me) wants to watch and we missed these at the theatres.

T-bone @ May 31st 2008 3:55PM

only full screen or non-anamorphic movies I really like. :)

Still waiting for a first time purchase of the Back to the Future Trilogy.

kcmurphy88 @ May 31st 2008 4:09PM

I think Nick makes too much money. So let's enslave him so we get his work for free.

kcmurphy88 @ May 31st 2008 4:16PM

I buy new blu-rays, watch some things on HD movie channels, other things on Netflix. I buy NO DVDs.

Now and then, I will replace a DVD of a particular film that I've watched several times (and will watch again). Blade Runner, Stargate (movie), 5th Element, etc. I am waiting for LOTR, Godfather I&II and a few others. But mostly not.

I also have several TB discs hooked up to my DirecTV DVRs, so there's quite a library of movies captured legally there, too.

kcmurphy88 @ May 31st 2008 4:17PM

Oh, I am really likely to replace a DVD if I can get the Blu-ray under $10 on an Amazon BOGO. But at $27? No.

The Aggie CEO @ May 31st 2008 4:22PM

depends on the movie........

for example.........I have all 6 Star Wars on DVD, and you better BELIEVE I will buy them when they are released on Blu-ray.........Same thing with The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, and damn near all the Pixar Movies........

but something like "Friday", "How High", "Anchor Man". or "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" I wont buy on Blu-ray........that is unless of course they are under $10.......lol.........

basically if its something that will have a BIG difference in quality due to all the special effects in it or something like Planet Earth with all the bright colors I really dont see the point.......most dvds look good enough up-converted.......

Spiza @ May 31st 2008 5:01PM

None of the classics I have on DVD are on blu-ray yet. Give me some LotR, braveheart, star wars, etc, and I'll probably bite.

mikejonas @ May 31st 2008 5:22PM

I've always been picky when it comes to buying DVDs, at least for Hollywood titles anyway, so the movies that I liked enough to warrant buying a DVD of are going to be the ones I'll want on Blu-Ray.

Truth Teller @ May 31st 2008 5:39PM

I agree Nick.

Anyone would think (from the way some posters comment) that we had never had video recording.

If you pay a TV licence here in the UK you are contributing to the movie & music business - and recording that content is legal.

If you buy cable or satellite TV you are contributing (handsomely) to the movie & music business - and recording that content is legal.

All downloading does is give the consumer the choice of when and how they view the material.

It is not a matter of getting something you would other-wise not get.
It is not 'stealing'.

Downloading for non-commercial personal usage is not a criminal offense here in the UK (or EU Europe).
At best it's a civil matter of copyright infringement......and area where the law is far from tested or clear.

Even in the US they have recently found in court cases that sharing files in a shared folder is not a crime.

The US might have leapt willingly into the pockets of the big corps but not everyone has and as the Pirate Bay always says those Americans who imagine that US law applies everywhere are just mightily deluded.

Just because the industry & their lawyer pals wish to pervert & corrupt the law is no reason for everyone else to fall in line with their absurd limitless greed and stupidity.

Up the sharers!

Leonardo DiCrapio @ May 31st 2008 5:58PM

The only Blu-Ray that I own that is a replacement is Blade Runner, and I have replaced my HD DVD copy of Blade Runner (which ironically I sold on EBay for more than I bought the identical Blu-Ray version). I have a Blade Runner DVD that is almost ten years old, but all the versions (including on DVD) that have been recently released in the last year or so are far superior to the old copy I have on DVD.

There are a few movies I would consider re-buying on Blu-Ray, but right now I am not really even tempted if the titles are on sale for $15. At $10 I would probably take the plunge, though.

AzaMcWazza @ May 31st 2008 6:22PM

I have a PS3 connected to a 100" screen on a projector, and I am not upgrading my DVD collection (Apart from 1 or 2 films that I will like Lord Of The Rings) for a number of reasons.

1) DVD's still look pretty good.
2) If it's a drama, romantic comedy or some low FX movie, the benefits of HD are lessened considerably
3) I can buy DVD's for NZ$8-15 here. BluRay Cost NZ$44.

If BluRay come down to about $8 a disc, I might replace a number of my sci-fi and action movies, but that's it.

h0mi @ May 31st 2008 7:49PM

I am replacing some HD-DVDs with blurays but I have few DVDs to replace with blurays. (Havent yet purchased Spiderman/2 and Im unsure if I ever will. Same with FF.) Other than those DVDs, none of the DVDs I own (TV shows mostly) are available on blu-ray. When Firefly comes out, yes I will definitely rebuy it but for the time being, of Blu-rays' 500 or so titles that I do not own, there are none I'm willing to buy (though Im willing to rent a lot of them). Its just a matter of my specific tastes in movies and what's available. If Enchanted & Juno could be had for under $15, I might buy them but I'm not actively interested in buying either film atm.

JoN @ May 31st 2008 10:41PM

u forgot my option....

"Replacing on a case by case basis"

which basically means - it all depends on sale price, movie, reviews of disc (is it just ok, or mind blowing), extra features, will i watch it now or put it on the shelf...

etc etc.

Hehaw @ Jun 1st 2008 12:04AM

I'll replace some, but not all. Just the good ones like Shawshank Redemption, Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, American History X etc. But not things like Zoolander, Hollow Man, After the Sunset etc.

Leroy Vargas @ Jun 1st 2008 12:49AM

So far I have only bought a Blu-ray title, Initial D, only because I once rented it two years ago on DVD and liked it. I had no plans to buy it after renting it and quickly falling in love with it, but when I saw it being announced on BD, I quickly pre-ordered it at an Amazon-ianly-low price and thus I have it. My other DVDs are just anime series intended for TV (not anime movies once aired on the big screen), so I have no plans to replace them with BDs (that is, if BDs are made out of them). I am still holding off on a Japanese movie titled "Speed Master" (now available on DVD in Japan, but not yet premiered in US theaters and I don't know if Geneon plans to bring it to US since Geneon North America went out of business shortly after bringing here the 2004 remake of Tetsujin 28); if a BD [at least with English subtitles] is made, then I'll buy it.

tom_the_engineer @ Jun 1st 2008 11:29PM

No offense guys but how many times should I pay for the same content?
I will put up with the slightly poorer pix quality from my old DVDs and buy only high-def content for new movies. After all, I only play them on an 80" 1080p system and my eyes are well past their prime.

To the movie studios, musicians, and actors all I can say is: " I wish I was paid for every part, product, or system derived from MY intetellectual property! Maybe I should join actors' equity?"

Joe T. @ Jun 2nd 2008 9:11AM

There hasn't been a whole lot that I've seen lately that's worth buying. There'll be a couple upcoming that I'll replace, like Starship Troopers. I've already replaced The Thing and Blade Runner.

I was at Best Buy yesterday, and I picked up the Syriana Blu-Ray-- It was priced at $35. One shelf over, the same movie on DVD was priced at $4.99. I bought the DVD.

Pzizzle @ Jun 2nd 2008 10:49PM

I am replacing my DVD's and plan to continue to do so, but I am not replacing all of them. I am being much more selective about both what I replace and newer releases that buy...I don't plan on building a ridiculous collection of Blu-Ray's like I did with DVD (over 600 titles), especially at the current prices.

Nick @ Jun 3rd 2008 1:18PM

This is really off topic, so appologies, but I do not know of another easy way to continue the discussion.


@Pingmeister: Comments duly (sp?) noted. It has made me think, which is a good thing. I do respect and think about your counter argument seriously.

>I love when people try and justify stealing. Friend, it's not the big studios
>you're hurting. They just throw a percentage of their bazillions at some
>lawyers to try and knock out as many bittorrent sites as they can.

It is stealing. You are right. Read below in reply to kcmurphy to see why i think it shouldnt be a big deal though. And why I WOULD and DO pay for stuff, at the right price and service level.

>The ones you ARE hurting are the independent filmmakers who are
>struggling to fund their movies with next to no profit margins.

This is likely true, although I do not know details in indie industry. I am unsure what to think and respond to here. You may have just convinced me to pay for indie content more often. How do I define indie content though, or movies that are not indie but made with indie actors? If that is the case, studios and labels are again making off with too large of profits. I def was not just targeting actors who make too much. I guess that indie actors and staff are going to suffer, partly at my hand. But I think its more so the entire systems hand, and big business unfairly controlling the marketspace. Indies can't distribute like these mamoths. But oh, hey, wait.... theres this thing called the INTERNET. And ppl like me, wanting to download HD content, for a few bucks.... hmmmm. Can we say business opportunity waiting to happen? I have even thought of opening a business that serves indie and sign-up HD content at rock bottom prices, and super high-tech. To make sure I stayed at respectable pricing levels, I would employ a business architecture more like a democracy, taking into appropriate account the 'votes' of employees, customers, and potential customers. There are a couple companies out there that do that in other sectors.

>Do me a favor and just post "I like to download movies so I don't have to pay."
>That's honest. I respect it more than when you try and point at a handful of
>actors who make way too much money ignoring the vast majority of movie
>actors who need second jobs to pay their bills.

I like to download movies so I dont have to pay AN UNFAIR PRICE. If I was given the pricing and service level that I think is fair... or at least even MORE fair... I would be buying a whole lot more content. Again, the level has to be more convenient than it would have been for me to go and pirate it. Sorry, your content just isnt worth any more than that.

One interesting question for myself that I have not answered though is, where does that price-at-convenience level stop. Pirating convenience will approach zero, and with a business there has to be sales over your expenses. I think again I would turn to the community as above, and ask what their view of 'fair' was. That definitely does not happen today. If it did, and they truthfully set prices to average fairness, I would buy a lot more and pirate a lot less.

=======

@kc murphy88: I think that I understand how you are trying to compare. I dont think its quite accurate. I am in IT contractual for example. What would be more equivalent to what I am doing with entertainment industry, would be a company saying to themselves "Damn, Nicks prices are outrageous, and for service that is not to the level of our liking. Lets instead use some of Nicks former public/leaked work, and then go out and hire indiaIT.com which is a company that does IT contracts on huge number levels (and oh yeah happens to also hire Nick here and there), but is charging much lower comparative prices b/c they are giving us 80 IT projects for a overall average price that is much lower. 80 projects for $80 dollars, instead of Nicks 1 project at $15-$30. If Nick had tried to charge us $1... or heck, even $3 (3 times that of IndiaIT.com!) we would have gladly paid it, and many many times over."
Would I consider it stealing? Yes, I suppose so initially when they used my public/leaked works. Would I go after them? Hell no. I need to focus on what is happening and alter my strategies, business direction, quality of service, and mostly... prices. I would have to come to a realization that I have to do one off jobs for $1-$4, and do many more of them, instead of my old ways. Either that or look into new avenues of earning money. Would I be able to handle it? I dunno. I think so. One can amazingly learn to live on less resources when put to the test. I wouldnt like it. But I wouldnt blame it on the company taking my public/leaked stuff here and there. Id blame it on economics, and globalization, and Id come to a realization.

Get real entertainment industry.

max mcleod @ Jun 3rd 2008 4:00PM

The reason it was stuck for a few weeks, is because shitty movies were released... it would be different if better flicks were coming out, plus it didn't help that specials and sales, abruptly stopped for two weeks, my guess in anticipation for the raping stores are getting during fathers days with the mega sales on blurays then... walmart is going to have 15 dollar blurays... that's when to buy!

JBDragon @ Jun 4th 2008 12:02AM

I'm not a fan of Blu-Ray, but I guess I'm now forced to use it if I want true HD. I'm going to hold out for as long as I can though. DVD's look pretty good and can be played everywhere, not to mention cheaper, so no rush. If/When I do buy any Blu-Ray's, it won't be to replace my DVD's except maybe on a few really, really good movies that I like and the Blu-Ray Disc was cheap! It would also still be only a few new releases also, most I would still continue to buy on DVD. DVD is just far more flexible then the DRM infected Blu-Ray format. Right now though, I have ZERO plans to get a Blu-Ray player. I just could care less about it at this time.
Maybe late next year I change my mind, or buy a PS3 because there's finally a game on it that I want to play. Besides I have to many DVD"s to deal with.

casey @ Jun 5th 2008 9:50AM