Upgrading To Blu-Ray?

[hp_fa]

Hi folks. I have been upgrading our mid-level home theater and did come across something that may benefit a few of you. If you, like me, had a HD-DVD machine and movies for it than you watched the format die and had a nice player and no future material for it. That happened to me and frankly I was mad at Sony for quite awhile after that.

Anyway, I just bit the bullet and bought a very nice LG Blu-Ray player. I have been exceptionally pleased with it. However I had to think about software for it and even though it does a very nice job as an upscaling DVD player, it does not convert HD-DVD to Blu-Ray. Now I had not lost my HD-DVD it is still attached to the system but I thought Blu was better, especially the sound with True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, so look at upgrading those discs to Blu. Well, most of those discs retail for $18.99 each and up at Amazon, but I found some sales at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics, but still not great deals. However, then I found the great deal...

If you have Warner Brothers HD-DVD discs most of them can be upgraded to a Blu-Ray version for $4.95 per title, with the Harry Potter 1-5 set and the Matrix Ultimate sets going for $19.95 each. You need to send them the cover art, or in the case of the Harry Potter set the sleeve from disc one. The total shipping for pre-paid shipping to them of the art and then the return discs is the total sum of $6.95, period. (They send you an e-mail when you place your order and it includes an attachment with a unique mailing label with a tracking code which you print and use on your outbound artwork.) You may do this with a total of 25 discs and obviously it is best to do them all at once and save on the shipping. They e-mail you when they receive your art and they e-mail you when they ship. (They e-mailed me within 24 hours of the shipment having shown received and two days later they e-mailed me when the actual shipment was sent via UPS Ground.)

I don't expect many of you to need this, but if it saves a few of you a few bucks, then it was worth the time to share it.

The site is Red2Blu.com and you can find it here.

 

[tech2101]

Thank you for the info. I have been eying blu-ray players for some time now. Did you do research into which one is the best value, quality, etc...? Maybe you can save me some trips to the electronics stores.

Thanks.

 

[Seatacus]

I will someday buy a BluRay player but will never again buy a DVD. Rent them and watch them then give them back. I must have given away 200 VHS tapes and now have about 150 regular DVDs that I hardly ever watch. Besides, there are not a lot of movies out there I think are worth watching more than once.

 

[hp_fa]

Thank you for the info. I have been eying blu-ray players for some time now. Did you do research into which one is the best value, quality, etc...? Maybe you can save me some trips to the electronics stores.

Thanks.

Sure, I can help.

To start my basic premise is I don't want the cheapest thing I can buy, I want quality and a degree of future-proof worked into the equation. I made a mistake three years ago when buying a AV receiver which didn't have HDMI. Others in the line did, but I saved $150.00, but didn't really save. I just replaced it at the same time and will lose money on the deal.

As alluded to, I replaced two components. I replaced my AV reveiver and bought a refurbished Onkyo 806 receiver directly from Onkyo at their Shop Onkyo site. Link Notice the price of $699.00? Now go ahead and join ClubOnkyo and the price becomes $599.00. The receiver's performance has been absolutely outstanding. It can deliver the Dolby TrueHD and the DTS HD-Master Audio along with everything else. Oh, and one other big point, the Onkyo 806 includes Audessy MultEQ technology that runs a program that discovers your speakers (including subwoofer) and their capabilities and then figures out how far the speakers are from your listening area and then programs everything, including timing, so that the sound arrives at your seat at the correct time. The results were unbelievable.

I now have all my AV inputs running via HDMI cables, which are very inexpensive via Monoprice.com. Link The cables have lifetime warranties and I have not had one bad cable from these folks, so feel free to forget all about the over-priced Monster Cables and the other ones at retail outlets.

Finally, I spent heavily for my Blu-Ray player. I bought a LG BD-390 player from Amazon.com. Link It works as an upscaling DVD player, can stream YouTube, NetFlix, CinemaNow and a few other things via a built-in wireless receiver or an ethernet connection. This also allows the Blu-Ray player to get updated firmware quickly and easily. That was a splurge, but I think it was a good one. However, if you ever think you are going to want a Sony Playstation 3, just buy that. It costs about the same and has a built-in Blu-Ray and has been well-reviewed. I didn't want a PS3, but I did think that this would meet our needs for years to come.

Finally, if you get really serious, check out the AVS Forum. Link There are areas for just about everything and you should be able to find or ask a question on just about anything you need. It even has classified ads where you can find stuff.

I'll check back here to see if any questions need answering, but that is what I did and how I did it.

 

[southwind]

Love my Blu-Ray player, an 80 GB PS3, which I seldom game on, use my notebook for that ! But what I like about the PS3 , as a Blu-ray player is it's wireless network connectivity, which downloads all new firmware , automatically, watch Movies, download movies, play games and surf the net on my 61" HD-TV ! You can also upgrade the hard-drive with a standard notebook Hard-drive !
Kind of an all-in-one entertainment center ! Now if I could just upgrade my 400+regular DVD's to Blu-ray ! Anyways, I feel only certain movies are worth buying in the Blu-ray format, i.e. The Dark Knight, Total Recall, The Fifth Element, I am Legnd, etc.

*Warning* What ever you do DO NOT buy 300 on Blu-Ray ! Looks like crap ! :down:

BTW , I also have a Panasonic up-convert DVD Recorder, which makes regular DVD's look better !

 

[tech2101]

Love my Blu-Ray player, an 80 GB PS3, which I seldom game on, use my notebook for that ! But what I like about the PS3 , as a Blu-ray player is it's wireless network connectivity, which downloads all new firmware , automatically, watch Movies, download movies, play games and surf the net on my 61" HD-TV ! You can also upgrade the hard-drive with a standard notebook Hard-drive !
Kind of an all-in-one entertainment center ! Now if I could just upgrade my 400+regular DVD's to Blu-ray ! Anyways, I feel only certain movies are worth buying in the Blu-ray format, i.e. The Dark Knight, Total Recall, The Fifth Element, I am Legnd, etc.

*Warning* What ever you do DO NOT buy 300 on Blu-Ray ! Looks like crap ! :down:

BTW , I also have a Panasonic up-convert DVD Recorder, which makes regular DVD's look better !

Thanks for the info SW and HP!