seti Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Americans have become susceptible to mediocrity. And the world knows it. You have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Mediocrity rules! Sadly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) Even with my DVD movies and concerts, (I haven't upgraded to Blu-ray yet) After everything you wrote about the lengths you go to for good audio and video, this really surprises me. For me to upgrade, it would be very costly, time-consuming, and it I'd have to figure out what to do with all of my DVDs. I have over a hundred DVD movies, several dozen T.V. shows on DVD, and several concert DVDs, all of which are VERY LIKELY available on Blu-ray by now (I basically have over 150 DVDs). My computer monitor is also not good enough for Blu-ray, and I also don't have a Blu-ray drive. Sure, replacing the monitor isn't a requirement, but it certainly makes an appreciable difference! I mean, it's just a Samsung 2253BW (1680 x 1050). It's 7 years old, and even back then, it was just a $300 monitor! The kind of monitor that I would want would cost at least $400, but likely more. You see, I know what I want now, and I don't want to settle for less because then it wouldn't be a noticeable upgrade over this one. Then there's the average cost of a Blu-ray drive. I can't justify spending $50 or more for a simple Blu-ray drive when in 2008, simple DVD drives were about $20. It kind of irritates me that Blu-ray drives aren't $20 yet! Then there's the cost of time and money of finding and buying the Blu-ray versions of every DVD that I own (or, at least the ones that are available on Blu-ray). It would be time-consuming because I most certainly can't replace all of them in one purchase; I'd have to purchase maybe 2-3 Blu-rays per month at the most on my budget. I'd also want to take the time to find the best Blu-rays possible rather than just blindly purchasing them, and I'd want to shop around for the best prices. So, replacing over 150 DVDs at 2-3 per month would take 4-5 years or more. In addition, I'd have to make room for these Blu-rays, so I would have to either learn how to sell things on eBay or on Craig's List or locally in order to get rid of my DVDs, or at least find a new home in my room for all of my DVDs because at present, my entire DVD collection is consuming up the entire space that I have available for DVDs - and I don't have anywhere else to put them. I'd have to make room somewhere. A few of these DVDs are laying down on top of the ones that are standing up, so each Blu-ray would have to replace its DVD counterpart (there's not enough room on top of the DVDs to stand Blu-rays up on top of them). So for me, the entire upgrade would be a very expensive and very daunting task (not to mention again that it would be very time-consuming). Worse than that, I'm betting that by the time I finish the work of replacing my entire collection with Blu-rays (or at least what's available on Blu-ray), the industry will probably have something that's even better than Blu-rays, maybe something where the standard release can finally have 100% lossless audio and video while still being fully loaded with special features. So, until I can afford to replace my collection in just a few months of time rather than 4-5 years or more, I won't ever feel up to going through with it. The thought of spending 4-5 years or more on that task alone overwhelms the crap out of me. So, I have to kind of pretend that Blu-rays don't exist in my world. Edited March 13, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Americans have become susceptible to mediocrity. And the world knows it. You have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Mediocrity rules! Sadly. we develop the technology - then we entrust asian manufacturing for a lower quality product for the masses - buy it 1 year - throw it out the next - in Asia - and Japan , they improve the concepts and make a Japan made product for their domestic sales that are gigantic , a 130 million population that are technology driven for the top quality - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 For me to upgrade, it would be very costly, time-consuming use your bluray player to play your dvd's. Purchase bluray discs instead of dvd's in the future. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 The thing with audio and video media though is (especially audio), the industry knows that the vast majority of us (Americans) can't tell a difference between the compressed and lossy garbage we're being fed and the awesome lossless stuff that we COULD have. The other problem is, the vast majority of us don't care or don't know any better and feel that it's not worth paying more for media that has higher quality audio and/or video. Those who don't know any better probably wouldn't even care if were shown the differences, provided that they could even be convinced that there are differences to be shown to them (and also if they could be convinced that it's worth their time to have those differences shown to them). So, some of them don't even WANT to know better because they simply don't care. To them, the lossy quality that we have today is good enough. To me, it's not. I'd MUCH rather have 100% lossless audio and video. I'm tired of things like the results of compression. Y'know? Most people don't care though, and that's the problem. Except you're talking about yourself and apparently don't realize it. You talk here like it's other people that are the problem then later admit in a wordy way that you don't think it's worth it to upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Americans have become susceptible to mediocrity. And the world knows it. You have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Mediocrity rules! Sadly. we develop the technology - then we entrust asian manufacturing for a lower quality product for the masses - buy it 1 year - throw it out the next - in Asia - and Japan , they improve the concepts and make a Japan made product for their domestic sales that are gigantic , a 130 million population that are technology driven for the top quality - Yep, whereas the rest of the world (especially here in the U.S.) really just cares about being able to watch their Blu-rays. As long as it doesn't skip or have distracting artifacts, they're happy. If suddenly the U.S. market were to get versions that have the greatly superior audio and video but were to cost twice as much (which they would), the sales wouldn't be very good at all because most people wouldn't spend more unless they were getting more, such as more special features or extra merchandise with their purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) For me to upgrade, it would be very costly, time-consuming use your bluray player to play your dvd's. Purchase bluray discs instead of dvd's in the future. I know, but would my DVDs look any better on a Blu-ray drive? (I use my computer for everything) The thing with audio and video media though is (especially audio), the industry knows that the vast majority of us (Americans) can't tell a difference between the compressed and lossy garbage we're being fed and the awesome lossless stuff that we COULD have. The other problem is, the vast majority of us don't care or don't know any better and feel that it's not worth paying more for media that has higher quality audio and/or video. Those who don't know any better probably wouldn't even care if were shown the differences, provided that they could even be convinced that there are differences to be shown to them (and also if they could be convinced that it's worth their time to have those differences shown to them). So, some of them don't even WANT to know better because they simply don't care. To them, the lossy quality that we have today is good enough. To me, it's not. I'd MUCH rather have 100% lossless audio and video. I'm tired of things like the results of compression. Y'know? Most people don't care though, and that's the problem. Except you're talking about yourself and apparently don't realize it. You talk here like it's other people that are the problem then later admit in a wordy way that you don't think it's worth it to upgrade. What? You're misunderstanding me. Let me make this extremely clear: If suddenly the U.S. market were to get these higher-quality Blu-rays but the price were to be twice as much as their lower-quality counterparts, then guess which one I'd buy. If you guessed the lower-quality one because it's cheaper, then you're not paying attention to what I've been saying about myself. I'd JUMP at the chance to get the higher-quality versions, almost regardless of their cost (meaning, if they were 3-4 times as much, then I'd have to think about it). Edited March 13, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 If suddenly the U.S. market were to get these higher-quality Blu-rays but the price were to be twice as much as their lower-quality counterparts, then guess which one I'd buy. If you guessed the lower-quality one because it's cheaper, then you're not paying attention to what I've been saying about myself. No disrespect intended but you say this yet you continue to buy DVD's because they're cheaper. Makes no sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) If suddenly the U.S. market were to get these higher-quality Blu-rays but the price were to be twice as much as their lower-quality counterparts, then guess which one I'd buy. If you guessed the lower-quality one because it's cheaper, then you're not paying attention to what I've been saying about myself. No disrespect intended but you say this yet you continue to buy DVD's because they're cheaper. Makes no sense. I'm not continuing to buy DVDs because they're cheaper. I have a low income. Besides, I'm done adding to my collection. It's about as complete as it's going to get (I'm not really interested in new movies, and I haven't been for a long time). So, it makes no sense to you because you're misunderstanding where I'm coming from. I know better, but I can't afford it. Edited March 13, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 Regardless, I just don't see it being twice as much. These things cost significantly more here because it's a gray market situation, where a bootlegger of sorts buys something overseas then ships it halfway around the world to us. Once it is recorded and mixed, the manufacturing process just shouldn't cost any more, its still pressed in the same manner. Like the Metallica movie, whether you press a 48 khz 5.1 recording or a 96 khz 7.1 recording, you're still pressing the things in the exact same manner. This is what I don't get. If the better versions were freely available here they simply wouldn't be twice as much. You can't correlate price to quality either. I mean I had to pay $27 for Big Hero 6 and it was only a 2D version. That's pretty danged expensive. There are plenty of 3D movies that could be sold for less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) Regardless, I just don't see it being twice as much. These things cost significantly more here because it's a gray market situation, where a bootlegger of sorts buys something overseas then ships it halfway around the world to us. Once it is recorded and mixed, the manufacturing process just shouldn't cost any more, its still pressed in the same manner. Like the Metallica movie, whether you press a 48 khz 5.1 recording or a 96 khz 7.1 recording, you're still pressing the things in the exact same manner. This is what I don't get. If the better versions were freely available here they simply wouldn't be twice as much. You can't correlate price to quality either. I mean I had to pay $27 for Big Hero 6 and it was only a 2D version. That's pretty danged expensive. There are plenty of 3D movies that could be sold for less. All I was doing was basing it on the price of the Japanese version vs. the lower-quality U.S. version. I'm not an expert on this sort of thing. I was assuming that if the higher quality version is $30 USD in Japanese Yen, then maybe it would be $30 here in the U.S. too. If I'm wrong, then that's ok with me. I don't want to be right about that. Edited March 13, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 I'm not continuing to buy DVDs because they're cheaper. I have a low income. Besides, I'm done adding to my collection. It's about as complete as it's going to get (I'm not really interested in new movies, and I haven't been for a long time). So, it makes no sense to you because you're misunderstanding where I'm coming from. I know better, but I can't afford it. No it makes no sense because you act like you'd pay a premium for a superior blu ray recording as opposed to a mediocre blu ray recording, even twice as much, then in the same breath say you only buy DVD's due to the costs involved. Yes I realize you have low income. Maybe you were speaking theoretically and saying if your income was higher you'd buy the high end blu ray recording but I didn't catch that part. What it boils down to is that if you're not buying blu rays at all right now due to costs then you're simply not going to spend twice that on an even better recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paducah Home Theater Posted March 13, 2015 Author Share Posted March 13, 2015 All I was doing was basing it on the price of the Japanese version vs. the lower-quality U.S. version. I'm not an expert on this sort of thing. I was assuming that if the higher quality version is $30 USD in Japanese Yen, then maybe it would be $30 here in the U.S. too. If I'm wrong, then that's ok with me. I don't want to be right about that. I have no idea what stuff costs over in Japan. When I get stuff from eBay it doesn't exactly come from Best Buy. A coworker recently spent two weeks over there though, and he thinks it would actually be cheaper due to the exchange rate and buying power. He felt that at the minimum any tech item would be at least 15% cheaper if buying there and bypassing the exporters. He definitely couldn't see it being significantly more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) I'm not continuing to buy DVDs because they're cheaper. I have a low income. Besides, I'm done adding to my collection. It's about as complete as it's going to get (I'm not really interested in new movies, and I haven't been for a long time). So, it makes no sense to you because you're misunderstanding where I'm coming from. I know better, but I can't afford it. No it makes no sense because you act like you'd pay a premium for a superior blu ray recording as opposed to a mediocre blu ray recording, even twice as much, then in the same breath say you only buy DVD's due to the costs involved. Yes I realize you have low income. Maybe you were speaking theoretically and saying if your income was higher you'd buy the high end blu ray recording but I didn't catch that part. What it boils down to is that if you're not buying blu rays at all right now due to costs then you're simply not going to spend twice that on an even better recording. I figured that saying that I have a low income was enough. Think about it: I would only be able to buy 2 or 3 Blu-rays per month, at the most. With over 150 DVDs, that would take 4-5 years or more to finish replacing my collection. In that amount of time, what are the chances of something significantly better than Blu-rays coming out? Then everyone will be on my case for being stubborn about not making the upgrade, and then I'll be having to deal with the same thing that you guys are putting me through today. Unless my financial situation changes (which it won't, I can't explain how I know, I just know - it's complex), I have to continue living in the past like this while doing the best that i can to get the best out of it. It doesn't mean though that I can't be ignorant about the fact that if I could afford it, then it would be more than worth my time, energy and money to make the upgrade. My parents have a Blu-ray player in their home theater system, and I've seen and heard the difference. So, let's be perfectly clear about it (and hopefully for the last time, because this isn't the first time that I've been this clear about it): if I could afford it, then I'd have no problem with spending my money (and time and energy) fully upgrading to Blu-rays. Also, if there were higher-quality Blu-rays that had superior audio and video quality (like that Metallica Blu-ray) but they cost twice as much, then I'd jump at the chance to buy them even if they cost twice as much - but only if I could afford it. I mean, I can't be spending money on something if that money needs to be spent on food instead. Edited March 13, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I know, but would my DVDs look any better on a Blu-ray drive? (I use my computer for everything) I may have missed it. What display do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) I have no idea what stuff costs over in Japan. I was just going by the price of that Metallica Blu-ray in Japan vs. the U.S. version. Converting the Yen price to USD, it is about $30. The U.S. version is about $15. If that's the average difference, then I would have to assume that their Blu-rays are all roughly about twice as much as ours are. When I get stuff from eBay it doesn't exactly come from Best Buy. Why are you talking to me like this? To me, it seems pretty rude. It makes me want to tell you that I'm not stupid, that I'm not 5 years old. Y'know? I don't get where this is coming from, but it's definitely rubbing me the wrong way. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say here. I don't know. A coworker recently spent two weeks over there though, and he thinks it would actually be cheaper due to the exchange rate and buying power. He felt that at the minimum any tech item would be at least 15% cheaper if buying there and bypassing the exporters. He definitely couldn't see it being significantly more. Like I said, I'm definitely no expert. All I was doing was saying that if the higher-quality version in Japan is ~$30 USD when converting Yen to USD, then maybe the higher-quality version would be about $30 here as well if we were to begin having these available to us. I'm not talking about exporting or importing or anything like that. I'm talking about getting them in the exact same way that we get the U.S. versions that we have now, only they'd probably be advertised as having superior audio and video quality. If so, then of course they'd probably try to charge a premium for them just because, hey, they're higher quality. Sure, they could just REPLACE the ones that we have now with these higher-quality versions without changing the price, but you know that they would want to take advantage of us and just have them as being a separately-available version that you have to pay more for. Of course, then question comes up of whether or not there's a market for higher quality versions. I think we already answered that. Edited March 13, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 I know, but would my DVDs look any better on a Blu-ray drive? (I use my computer for everything) I may have missed it. What display do you use? It's the Samsung 2253BW. It's a 1680 x 1050 monitor that's also 7 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 You may not see a huge difference then. The audio should be much improved however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) You may not see a huge difference then. The audio should be much improved however. Seriously?! Now you've got my attention. lol I can justify spending $50 for a Blu-ray drive if I can get better audio quality out of my DVDs. I'm not joking, either. I'd have to wait until next month at the earliest, but I think I can do it since it's more of a one-time purchase. Edit: Oh wait..... you're talking about Blu-ray audio. I wasn't thinking. Edited March 14, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCables Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) WAIT... If playing DVDs on my parents' Blu-ray player results in worse image quality than what we used to get on their DVD player (it's more pixelated), then wouldn't it be the same for a playing DVDs on a computer's Blu-ray drive? Edited March 14, 2015 by TwoCables Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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