Home Video Can Now Have
Movie Theatre Quality
“Digital Cinema,” HDTV and BluRay
technology
level the difference between going out
and staying home
(Revised and updated from articles originally
published in the High Plains Reader in 2008-2009)
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PAGES STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION --
CONTENTS:
Video Projector
Considerations
Movies to Show Off an HD System
MOVIES, TV, and HOME VIDEO
For the first half of the 20th
century, in order to see a movie, you usually had to go out to a movie theatre.
Television changed all that. While still experimental in the 1920s and 30s, it
has been available commercially since about 1939 now, and became widespread
enough by the early 1950s that many viewers chose the convenience of home
entertainment over going out to movie theatres. (Hollywood responded by
switching exclusively to various widescreen formats in the mid-50s and periodically
playing with 3-D ever since.) Then the rise of home video in the late 1970s and
1980s made it even more convenient to watch what you wanted whenever you
wanted.
However, besides the fact that standard TVs cut
off the edges of the movie’s picture, the quality of the image and sound from a
television set could never even approach the quality of film at even the
smallest local cinema. High-end home audio systems helped force more theatres
to install stereo sound, but even the smallest multiplex theatres always had
the advantage of wall-sized screens and the superior picture resolution of 35mm
film. That is, they did until the “digital revolution” leveled the playing
field. Now high-end home video can rival or surpass more than a few commercial
cinemas in picture quality as well as sound.
Television broadcast specifications standardized
in the late 1940s and modified for color in the 1950s, were made obsolete by
late 20th century technological advances and a higher definition
standard was devised in the 1990s was expensive and not immediately embraced by
the general population. The introduction of DVDs in the mid 1990s showed the
public that larger and higher quality TV sets using the already existing
standard could display a picture much sharper than they’d been accustomed to,
even if the 4x3 shape did not match most films. The so-called “High Definition
Television” standard that has slowly (very slowly) been gaining popularity over
the past decade changed the shape of the picture to approximate what is seen in
theatres for many movies. The HDTV format, besides including much more detail,
used a wider 16x9 picture ratio of width to height (1.78:1) that was a
compromise midway between the original 4x3 (1.33:1) format and the 2.35:1 “CinemaScope”
theatrical widescreen format. It was also very close the two other major
theatrical formats of 1.85:1 and 1.66:1, so minimal “letterbox” or “sidebar”
margins would need to be visible on most films.
By mid-2009, HDTV was theoretically supposed to
be everywhere by government decree. Its two megapixel picture is substantially
higher definition than what viewers have become used to watching at home -- six
times sharper than “standard-definition” broadcast television (and the best DVD
quality). However, this is still only a quarter to a sixth the resolution of a
good 35mm movie, which can contain the equivalent of 4000 to 6000 pixels across
the width of its image, although HDTV’s 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall is
close to the sharpness of a typical mass-produced film print shown in a modern
multiplex.
In 2005-06, the Society of Motion Picture and
Television Engineers established standards for digital cinema technology.
Movies were to be played from a computer hard drive in either a preferred 4K
format (i.e., approximately 4000 pixels wide) with an eight megapixel image, or
a secondary and cheaper 2K format (about 2000 pixels wide) with a two megapixel
image that is barely distinguishable from the new HDTV broadcast standard
everyone will eventually be getting at home. For highest quality, the top-level
Hollywood films are sometimes scanned to digital video at an 8K resolution and
downconverted for theatrical and HDTV/BluRay/DVD use.
Almost immediately after the digital cinema
standards were established, a major film equipment manufacturer named Christie
invested in digital projectors and made a deal with the large Carmike Cinemas
chain and some independent theatres to switch technologies, installing 2K video
projectors in place of the 35mm film equipment. Although only 100 screens
worldwide were equipped for digital projection in early 2005, there were over
1000 a year later and over 3000 by early 2007. It was in April of 2007 that the
Grand Forks theatres all converted to 2K digital projectors (although the
Columbia 4 switched back to film when it became a dollar theatre until it
closed for good some months later).
During this same three-year period both HDTV sets
and home/office video projectors dropped drastically in price, local TV
channels started broadcasting some HD programs, and cable companies added many
more high-definition channels to their premium packages. Then came BluRay DVDs,
which in early 2008 won the marketplace battle with the rival HD-DVD format,
and whose players now cost a fraction of what they did three years ago (under
$100 by summer 2009, about the same as high-end standard DVD players).
What does all this technology and price shifting
mean? It means that the simultaneous lowering of theatrical standards and
raising of home video standards makes it economically practical for the average
person to invest in a home theatre that will equal (and perhaps surpass) many
commercial theatres. And with a typical window of only three to eight months
between a movie’s theatrical release and home video release, it becomes that
much easier to pass up theatrical screenings that won’t look or sound any
better than you can see and hear at home.
And what that means, is that commercial theatres
must stress the service, environment, and overall experience that simply cannot
be duplicated at home, or they will evolve into places reserved for special
events rather than mass entertainment. There will always be certain movies that
require a group experience and the theatre-going ritual for their maximum
impact (like the big-budget summer blockbusters), but the average movie may
soon need to forego expensive theatrical releases to join all the other direct
to video or cable TV titles.
Of course all this is speculative, and depends on
a large number of consumers not only investing in decent home HD equipment, but
viewing it under optimum conditions. Even though the full HDTV picture is six
times sharper than standard television, the typical person with a screen
between 20 and 40 inches, viewed from across the room, may notice little or no
difference. Even on a standard definition set, from five or six feet away the
myriads of glowing dots that make up the TV picture all blend together, looking
virtually indistinguishable from a theatrical movie screen viewed from the last
few rows of the auditorium.
You can simulate a theatrical experience even
with standard television, by getting a bigger TV set or simply by sitting
closer to the screen – say one to three feet away, instead of five to ten feet
or more – but that creates a problem: you will then be able to make out the
individual colored dots of the image. What the HDTV format really does is make
it possible to have a screen six times larger than you’re used to before you
start to notice those little glowing dots. This much larger picture, viewed
from your previous standard viewing distance, is what increases the dramatic
impact to something closer to a theatrical experience.
Prices on high-definition television sets and
BluRay DVD players have been steadily dropping and electronics store
advertisements promise “we’ll help you build the HD theater of your dreams.”
But how many movie theatres have you been to, let alone dreamt about, where the
screen is a glowing LCD, LED, or plasma display hung on the wall? And do those
“giant” 52-inch diagonal screens they so lovingly describe (which are barely
four feet wide and a little over two feet tall) come even close to the theatre
experience where the screens are nearly wall to wall and stretch from two or
three feet above the floor almost to the ceiling? Watching a movie on a large
flat-panel video display is more or less equivalent to looking at a movie
poster turned sideways.
The term “home theatre” has been very loosely
applied to any living room or recreation room used for watching TV. A 52-inch
widescreen LCD, LED, or plasma TV is a definite step up from a standard 20-inch
to 32-inch TV and can look pretty impressive in a small room (just as it is
more impressive to have full-size 27-inch by 40-inch movie posters on display
than 11x14 lobby cards or 8x10 photos). A large flat-panel television may be a
good choice for an apartment, or if you have a relatively small room, or need
to get a viewable picture in a multipurpose room with windows that cannot be
completely darkened. But how many movie theatres have you ever seen with
windows in the auditorium? And how many movie theatres use TV monitors as their
screens? Even digital theatres project the image from the projection booth. A
true home theatre needs a separate projector and screen, and at least two or
more rows of seating, or it can really only be called a TV room, rather than a
“theatre.”
So if you want a home theatre, forget about
getting a big-screen TV set to watch movies on. Save that for watching TV shows
and sporting events in an all-purpose rec room, where it doesn’t matter if the
lights are on, light is streaming through the window, and people are scattered
around at random. A dedicated home theatre needs a standalone video projector
and as big a screen as the size picture it can show from the opposite side of
the room (from a shelf, table, ceiling mount, or through a projection port from
the adjoining room).
Using a projector rather than a big-screen
flat-panel TV provides both a larger image for the price and more film-like
look, but one of the biggest advantages is that you can keep the same screen
height for everything. A good zoom lens actually lets you make the picture
wider for widescreen movies (hence the term “wide” screen), instead of being
forced to watch it either shrunk to the “letterboxed” image or with the sides
cut off, as required on a fixed-size TV set. Note that if you use a projector
with anything less than “full 1080p” resolution, you will probably be
disappointed in the sharpness of its larger image. Projectors don’t have
built-in tuners, but they cost less than the large TV sets and can deliver a
much larger picture, larger than a wall in a house. If you need a tuner, just
use the one in your DVD recorder or VCR, and connect it to your antenna, cable,
or satellite box. Optimal viewing distance is roughly one to two screen widths
away from the picture, whatever the size of your screen.
Besides a good projector, to approximate a
theatrical experience it is necessary to have a decent-sized room that can be
made totally dark, a space maybe ten to twelve feet square, but preferably
larger. A basement or garage is often ideal for converting into a home theatre,
and a typical garage’s twenty-foot square space is roughly the size of the a
small auditorium in some commercial multiplexes!
The next step to make a room into a theatre is
providing seating for more than just a few people. Seating style is up to you
and your budget. Some prefer sofas and easy chairs (possibly with built-in cup
holders), while others insist on traditional theatre seats. Some people like
the flexibility of folding chairs (especially movie-style “director’s chairs”) so
the room can be used for other things. Still others do a combination of all of
these, perhaps with areas having small tables for drinks and snacks.
If desired, for a few hundred dollars worth of
lumber and a few days of labor, you can build platforms to give you “stadium
seating.” Get some three-quarter-inch plywood sheets and two-by-fours to frame
and brace it. Use carriage bolts to attach legs if you want risers on more than
one level. Depending upon the size of your seats and your room, the distance from
one seat back to the one in the next row (and thus the depth of each platform)
might range from thirty inches to four feet, and might be anywhere from eight
to sixteen feet wide. Depending on the height of your ceiling (a converted
garage will usually have more space), each row might rise in increments of four
to nine inches from the one in front of it.
It may seem too obvious to mention, but in a
theatre the seats should all be facing the screen, rather than each other as in
a living room. The center of the screen should be near the average eye height.
A very large, almost wall-size home screen (perhaps three to four feet tall by
eight to ten feet wide), should be placed a few inches to a foot below the
ceiling, and two and a half to three and a half feet above the floor. You’ll
need to consider sightlines and projector location to avoid heads getting in
the way of other viewers or casting shadows on the screen.
To achieve the theatre look rather than the home
TV room look, the amplifier, BluRay player, and other A/V equipment should be
out of sight. They might be covered by black fabric under the screen, located
at the side or rear of the room, or in an adjoining room with your projector.
You’ll obviously want a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system with a good subwoofer,
and may want an amplifier that can handle BluRay’s various uncompressed audio
options (through its HDMI inputs), besides the compressed Dolby and DTS
encoding that standard DVDs have.
In home theatres, video projectors are often
mounted to the ceiling (making it easier to avoid people standing up in front
of the lens), but you may prefer the flexibility of setting it on a table or
shelf so it can be portable. If your situation permits, you can cut a hole in
your back wall near the ceiling and use the next room as a “projection booth,”
just like a real theatre. You’ll need to take into consideration your lens zoom
range and projector size, as well as seating arrangement, before settling on
your installation spot. The projector should ideally be positioned flat, aimed
straight ahead at the dead-center of the screen, but most video projectors have
digital keystoning compensation adjustments if it must be slightly off-center
or angled up or down.
Commercial movie theatres have perforated screens
so they can mount the speakers behind the screen, but their screens are
typically ten to twenty feet tall and fifteen to fifty feet wide, with the
front row about fifteen feet back from the screen. At your home viewing
distance of only five to twenty feet you would be able to see the holes in the
screen, so you’ll need a non-perforated screen with the speakers set up on the
sides and/or below it. Some people like the speakers exposed to show off to
their audiences. Others prefer to hide them behind the screen masking (you may
need a lighter-weight black fabric for your masking if you choose this option,
to avoid muffling the sound). Surround speakers may be mounted on the walls
near the ceiling, or inside the walls, or inside the ceiling, depending on your
room and the type of speakers you get. They might even be placed on shelves or
pillars that are ear-level or higher, rather than permanently mounted.
Turning a room into a home theatre does not have
to be as expensive as many people (and “home theatre” supply companies)
believe. With a dark room and the increased brightness in today’s video
projectors, there is no need to invest hundreds of dollars for a premium screen
unless for some reason you need one that automatically rolls up and down. A
smooth wall painted matte white makes an ideal low-cost screen for any sized
picture. A good substitute is a four-by-eight or four-by-ten sheet of matte
white wall paneling, nailed or glued to a wooden frame to hold if flat. That
can be mounted directly to the wall or suspended from the ceiling by a couple
of hooks and chains. Just buy the lumber and hardware and do it yourself.
For a more professional look, buy some black
flannel or velveteen fabric to put up around all sides of the screen and mask
off its mounting framework, as well as your front speakers. Be sure that at
least your side masking is moveable, so you can adjust it to fit whatever size
image you are projecting (see below). If you have the inclination and money to
make it more fancy, add some motorized drapes, and/or motorize the top, bottom,
and side masking. Dimmers are a good idea for the lights, and you’ll create a
more theatrical feeling with wall sconces and by painting the ceiling a matte
black or navy blue (which also makes a black ceiling-mounted projector less
distracting). If your ceiling is not already acoustic tile, you’ll find a rough
textured surface better for your audio than a smooth shiny surface.
If you have the luxury of designing a home
theatre space into a new construction or unfinished space, it’s much easier to
hide wiring in the walls or above the ceiling. This includes speaker wiring,
audio-video cables, and any special power cable requirements. However, before
finishing the walls, be sure to look into soundproofing costs, or at least ways
to minimize sound leaking into or out of your theatre room. Soundproofing an
existing room is likely to be prohibitively expensive, but even minimal
acoustic treatment can improve your audio experience to some degree.
For the side and rear walls you can either spend
huge amounts for expensive acoustic paneling designed for home theatres, or you
could simply hang some drapes to help absorb sound. Partial or complete wall
carpeting is another option. If your room is large enough to include a walkway
behind your back row of seats, you might decide to install floor-to-ceiling
shelves on the rear wall designed to hold your projector, amplifier, surround
speakers, and/or DVD/BluRay collection. Drapes covering side and rear walls
will give your theatre the modern multiplex look, but incorporating decorative
wall patterns and architectural ornaments you like will give some distinctive
style to your theatre. Some like the clean and sleek art deco style of the
1930s and 40s, while others prefer the classical Graeco-Roman look, a more
elaborate Baroque design, or some theme like American West, Medieval Gothic,
Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, Mayan, etc. Many often also put up framed posters,
movie stills, a few old film reels, or other memorabilia around the room. Don’t
forget the popcorn!
VIDEO
PROJECTOR CONSIDERATIONS
HDTVs can provide a substantially sharper picture
than the old NTSC (North American) and PAL (European) video formats. However,
as noted above, their new 16 by 9 (or 1.78:1) TV format was a compromise to get
the most efficient pixel use for both the old standard 1.33:1 (4 by 3) images
and the theatrical CinemaScope wide format of 2.4:1, while almost fitting the
normal theatrical format of 1.85:1. There has never been theatrical standard of
1.78:1 (although the rarely used standard of 1.75:1 is very close). To display
as originally intended on a 16 by 9 video screen, every theatrical film format
must still either be “pillarboxed” on the sides or “letterboxed” on the top and
bottom to some degree, leaving some of the screen blank. Movies that fit a 16
by 9 screen exactly will either be cutting off image area originally seen above
and below (in 1.33, 1.66, or 1.75 ratios) or showing extra image not displayed
in theatres (in the 1.85 ratio or the “Super 35” 2.4 ratio). A CinemaScope
2.4:1 (or sometimes 2.35, 2.39, or 2.55:1) or a 70mm film’s 2.2:1 image
displayed on a 16x9 screen will have the sides of the picture cut off unless it
is letterboxed. A classic “Academy Ratio” 1.33:1 or a widescreen film in the
1.66:1 ratio will have the tops and bottoms cut off unless it is pillarboxed,
with very slight black sidebars for a 1.66 film and much wider black sidebars
for the old standard 1.33 (4 by 3) or the rarer and almost square 1.2 film
ratio.
With a video projector, all you need to do for
any ratio is zoom a letterboxed picture out (and pull out your side masking) so
the height stays filled. If your zoom lens doesn’t have enough range (a two to
one zoom range should be adequate), you may need to move the projector back a
few feet as well (thus ruling out a fixed projector mount). If your screen
surface is four by eight feet, you should permanently mask off the bottom so
that you wind up with a picture three feet four inches tall by eight feet wide
for your full “scope” picture. Then simply zoom your picture to fit the height
and pull in the black fabric you’ve hung on both sides to fit its width.
This will be anywhere from about four feet wide
for early sound films to almost four and a half feet for standard films, to various
widths between five and a half to six feet or so for typical widescreen movies
and about seven feet four for most 70mm productions. A few extra-wide format
films will still look letterboxed even at an eight-foot width with that
three-foot-four height, so a white wall will be more flexible than an
eight-foot wide screen, but that’s still better than being stuck with a pricey
80-inch 16x9 flat-panel screen (which would have the equivalent height and a
six-foot maximum width). Note that with picture ratios narrower than the
projector’s native 16x9 (1.78:1), setting the side masking to match a film’s
1.66, 1.33, or 1.20 ratio will cover up the sides of the disc’s menus if those
are 16x9. Likewise, zooming out the picture to fit a 2.4:1 screen will cut off
the top and bottom of the menus. Also note that there is a good chance you will
need to readjust the focus after zooming from one size to another.
Of course when you make the picture larger
instead of watching it letterboxed, it has a bigger visual impact but you can
also see the much lower image quality inherent in video, compared to actual
film. This is where a projector with a high-definition image really shows its
superiority over standard 480i television pictures. For regular DVDs, you’ll
want a projector capable of at least 1024 by 768 pixels of resolution (which is
a 4x3 image). Getting a native widescreen projector that is either 1280 or 1344
by 768, and one with progressive scan, will show noticeable improvement on
widescreen pictures or with BluRay DVDs. Those sizes are typically referred to
as “720p” high definition.
The best, naturally, is the “full HD” 1920 by
1080-pixel resolution, and you should look for a projector capable of displaying
24p, which will show BluRay movies to their best advantage, at the same
frame-per-second rate the films were photographed. (Otherwise, movies must be
converted to video’s 30 progressive frames or 60 interlaced half-resolution
fields per second, like standard-definition video and cheaper HDTV sets.) Then
you can see HD movies at home essentially the way they look in digital cinemas,
at least in frame rate and image resolution. BluRay discs and especially HDTV
broadcasts are heavily compressed to save on computer memory and processing
power, whereas commercial digital cinema installations use uncompressed video,
but most of the time the difference is barely noticeable, if at all.
Video and movies shot at 30 or 25 frames per
second will look best projected that way, and actually have smoother motion
than movies and video shot at 24 frames per second, but all footage will look
its best when shown at its original speed rather than converted to any other
speed, which can result in noticeable jerkiness and “ghosting.” Also, the
higher the image refresh rate (typically 60 Hz, 120 Hz, or 240 Hz, or cycles
per second), the crisper the image is likely to appear and the more future
advanced features can be displayed.
Some consumers may be reluctant to invest in
high-definition and BluRay equipment because they already have a large number
of DVDs and resented having to buy new copies of favorite movies on DVD after
they’d already bought them on VHS or keeping separate players for each
technology. A high-definition projector can display standard DVDs at their
highest possible quality, and the advantage to getting a BluRay player, is that
all BluRay players will also play BluRay discs as well as standard DVDs and CDs
(though possibly not VCDs).
There’s really no need to replace all your old
DVDs once you get an HD projector. On a high-definition projector, an
upconverting DVD player (which includes all BluRay players) can show
well-encoded DVDs, especially those made from recent high-definition masters,
with a picture that can look nearly as sharp as a genuine 1080p BluRay image.
However, all DVDs are not created equal. A poor or mediocre DVD that looks
acceptable or even pretty good on a standard TV set or a “medium-definition”
1024 by 768 projector, may look pretty ragged on an HD projector. Some
projectors and players with excellent high-definition pictures may handle
standard-def better or worse than others. Another advantage of a video
projector over a large flat-screen monitor, is that virtually all projectors are
designed to accept the North American NTSC video signals as well as European
PAL video, HTDV, and computer inputs, whereas most monitors tend to be for
either North America or Europe only. This lets you see foreign DVDs (with a
multi-region player) the way they were encoded instead of converted to the
American standard.
Currently (in 2009) a full 1080p video projector
costs in the $2500 to $6000 range, with some very good ones available near the
low end of that range. This is a price comparable to the large LCD, LED, and
plasma TVs but with a vastly greater image potential and portability. Decent
1344, 1280, or 1024-pixel wide by 768-pixel tall (720p) projectors are near
$1000. Don’t get an 800 by 600 projector unless you like small pictures or big
dots or prefer to watch everything in a 4 by 3 ratio.
Projectors may be either LCD (liquid crystal
display) or DLP (digital light processor) units. The DLP projectors often have
brighter pictures with wider contrast and more intense color for the price, but
unlike the three-chip theatrical versions, the single-chip home DLP projectors
produce a color rainbow strobe effect that many people find annoying. Some
people do not notice this effect, which is produced by projecting three
black-and-white images consecutively through red, green, and blue filters to
produce the illusion of full color. Others see it constantly, and still others
only when shifting their eye position to look across a wide picture. An LCD
projector eliminates this and the newer ones produce a picture just as good as
a DLP image.
Your projector may need some adjustment to
produce a more film-like image, since like flat-panel TVs many are preset with
artificial enhancements for daylight viewing that simply re-enforce their
“video” look. You can adjust the image by eye, or get hold of a DVD or BluRay
disc with test patterns for optimum calibration. The brightest picture will
probably not be the best. You’ll want dark blacks without shadows going murky
and bright whites that don’t burn out highlights or cause black levels to go
gray and lower contrast excessively. Nevertheless, contrast must be low enough
to reveal shadow details without flattening the overall image. Any “sharpness”
setting should be turned off, as it is really nothing more than an electronic
or digital edge enhancer, putting artificially-generated haloes around objects
to make them stand out from the background.
BluRay DVD players, sold for $1000 and up when
introduced in June 2006, dropped to the $350-$500 range a year later and down
to under $300 in 2008, and briefly stabilized in 2009 in the $130 to $250
range, with some models under $100. Player and disc sales increased drastically
after the competing HD-DVD format was discontinued in early 2008.
Still, many people are questioning whether they
should make the switch to BluRay from standard DVD only a decade after DVDs
started to replace VHS tapes. New movies are being released in both formats. As
in the early DVD days, so far only selected older titles have come out on the
new format, but this is changing monthly.
More and more “classic” films are gradually
hitting the BluRay market and astounding many viewers that a properly done
high-definition transfer from original 35mm film negative elements can make a
50-year-old picture look as good as a brand-new movie. The people surprised by
this fact simply don’t understand that today’s modern HDTV video technology is
finally catching up to sharpness standards that have already been possible on
correctly exposed and processed movie film for over a hundred years!
A few key classics already out on BluRay include
Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking “2001: a space odyssey” (1968), John Wayne’s
“The Searchers” (1956) and “Rio Bravo” (1959), the original “Adventures of
Robin Hood” (1938), several of the 1960s James Bond movies, the “Godfather”
collection, the original “Planet of the Apes” collection, a couple of Elvis
pictures, and a set of 1950s Ray Harryhausen sci-fi/fantasy films including
“The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958). In 2008, Warner Home Video’s
“Casablanca” (1942) and “How the West Was Won” (1962), and Fox’s “The Day the
Earth Stood Still” (1951) came to BluRay, as well as the Criterion Collection’s
BluRay version of “The Third Man” (1949). Early in 2009 came “Pinocchio” (1940)
from Disney, “The Robe” (1953) and “South Pacific” (1958) from Fox, and “Quo
Vadis” (1951), “An American in Paris (1951), and “Gigi” (1958) from Warners.
Upcoming announced titles include “It’s a
Wonderful Life” (1946), “Snow White” (1937), “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), “The
Seven Year Itch” (1955) “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), “Bridge on the River Kwai”
(1957), “King Kong” (1933), “Gone With the Wind” (1939), and many more.
Prices on BluRay titles are typically $5 to $15
higher than their standard DVD counterparts, usually running from $25 to $40
each, but that too is changing. Virtually every retailer sells BluRay discs
with at least a 10 to 30 percent discount off the “suggested list price,” some
more often at 40 to 50 percent discounts. After Thanksgiving 2008, stores
slashed prices on a substantial selection of titles to $15 each, and those same
movies can often be found on line in the $9 to $12 range. Many mass market
standard DVDs have plunged to the $5 to $10 range or less, yet the normal DVD price
is still in the $12 to $20 range.
Unlike the VHS to DVD technology revolution,
there is no need to replace old DVD copies with BluRay copies. Not only do
standard DVDs play in all BluRay players, but they usually (thought not always)
look better than they do in standard DVD players. Comparing the situation to
the audio recording industry, it is more comparable to the switchover from 78
rpm records to LP records (old players couldn’t play the new format, but new
players could play both formats) than to the more drastic technology switches
from LP records to tape cassettes and then from tape cassettes to CDs.
The question of compatibility and what is
available to watch is no longer a deciding factor. Prices have dropped
substantially since the BluRay format was introduced, but they are still
dropping as the format becomes more widespread. The only reason to spend the
extra money on a BluRay player right now instead of waiting, is if you already
have a full 1080p high-definition TV or video projector, or plan to get one
soon (especially one that is capable of displaying film’s 24 frames per second
as well as video’s normal 30 frames/60 fields per second). A BluRay disc cannot
possibly look any sharper than a standard DVD if it is played on a
standard-definition TV monitor.
On any TV set, whether SD or HD, if it is smaller
than 40 inches, the average person will probably see no difference in picture
quality from a typical viewing position several feet across the room on a sofa.
The picture must be very large and/or the viewer must sit within approximately
one screen-width’s distance away in order to see much difference.
On a 720p HDTV, especially one smaller than 40
inches, many people still will not notice a substantial improvement between a
BluRay disc and a standard DVD that is played through the component inputs with
progressive scan. Even on a 1080p HDTV it may be hard to see enough difference
to justify “going blu” on movies that are transferred to standard DVD in the
1.33:1 aspect ratio or in a 1.66 to 1.85:1 anamorphic 16x9 format. This is
thanks to the “upconverting” capability of BluRay players and many standard DVD
players, which electronically soften the jagged edges between scan lines and
interpolate picture information to make a well-authored DVD look nearly as
sharp as if it were actually high definition. (Ironically, they often look
sharper than the standard-definition content included on many BluRay discs!)
Some people apparently mistakenly believe they have HD-DVD players, when what
they actually have is an upconverting standard DVD player. These will not play the discontinued (and thus
often very cheap) HD-DVD format discs, nor will they play BluRay discs. But
they will make most standard DVDs appear sharper by doubling the existing scan
lines and sending out a 1080-line signal through an HDMI cable to an HDTV
monitor. People with 720p HDTV sets may be perfectly satisfied with their image
quality, especially if they mainly watch older movies in the 4x3 ratio. Those
who have 1080p HDTV sets, and who see what BluRay discs are capable of, on the
other hand, can quickly become spoiled by the much shaper BluRay image.
MOVIES
TO SHOW OFF AN HD SYSTEM
As people gradually upgrade their TV sets to high
definition models, those who get big-screen displays (40 inches or larger) at
the full HDTV 1080p standard, and especially 1080p projectors with wall-size
screens, will naturally want to show off their equipment at its best.
High-definition cable or satellite reception can provide a certain amount of
programming, but the convenience of DVDs means HDTV owners will ultimately need
to switch to a BluRay player and start collecting and/or renting BluRay discs.
And if movies are what you prefer out of all the HD channels now available, a
BluRay player is a cheaper option than subscribing to any of the HDTV services.
While the larger HDTVs are still moderately
expensive, there have been enough drops in prices on players and discs to move
BluRay products from high-end technophile luxuries into the standard consumer
realm. Many prices tend to drop even further just in time for Christmas, so
BluRay versions of favorite movies might make perfect Christmas gifts for
anyone with a 1080p HDTV set.
Many other recent theatrical releases and some
earlier catalog titles have recently dropped to half or less from their
original list prices on Amazon.com and other on-line retailers. These can
sometimes be found locally for the same or even cheaper rates by checking your
local BluRay dealers weekly (they often rotate titles on sale). Quite a few of
the heavily discounted BluRay titles include only the feature in high
definition, with few if any bonus features, and those they do have are often
only in standard definition. They’re still a bargain if you like the movie and
want to see it with the same quality seen in digital cinemas although any given
film may or may not demonstrate the full capability of your picture and sound
system.
BluRay home video technology has been on the
market since June 2006, but sales were unimpressive until the competing HD-DVD
format was discontinued last year. Now, as high-definition TV sales gradually
increase, not only are dropping prices helping BluRay to cut into standard DVD
sales of recent titles, but more and more older films are finally showing up in
BluRay versions. Many can now be found in the $10 to $20 range – comparable to
standard DVD prices a few years ago, and causing DVD prices from major studios
to plunge into the $5 and $10 range. Even though new releases on BluRay are still
usually marketed at substantially higher prices than standard DVDs, within a
few months of their release a surprising number of major titles drop to the $10
to $20 price range on BluRay, sometimes as part of box sets but often
individually. A website called Blu-ray.com keeps track of new releases and
daily price changes with a separate page for the latest top bargains. For
example, the same Hallmark made-for-TV movies that were once selling at the
“bargain” pricing of $15, are now as low as $4.99 on BluRay.
Unfortunately, except for the James Bond
pictures, Disney cartoons, and a few westerns and war films, it is rare for any
pre-1970 titles to be carried by retailers in a market this size, so local BluRay
player owners must order most of them on line (often at substantially lower
prices than local retailers have, anyway).
For example, in Grand Forks at least two stores carried the new BluRay
edition of “Woodstock” (1970) on its release date, yet the new BluRays of
Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”
(1957), or George Stevens’ multi Oscar-winning “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959)
were nowhere to be found.
Also, other than a few token major classics
(barely a dozen available by the end of 2009, including “Casablanca,” “The
Wizard of Oz,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” etc.), all of the older titles to hit
BluRay are from the widescreen era of 1953 and later. One reason for this,
besides a somewhat lower demand, is that many people with widescreen TV sets do
not understand why there must be black bars on the sides of the picture for
non-widescreen movies (the same people who don’t grasp the concept of
letterboxing on standard TVs). More important, however, is that the widescreen
films display the most obvious image improvement from BluRay’s hi-def
capability.
As noted above, a 4x3 image on a properly encoded
standard DVD can look nearly as sharp as the BluRay version when played with a
DVD player that upscales the resolution to simulate HD (which every BluRay
player can do); but widescreen films squeezed into the standard DVD format show
obvious degradation when blown up on a hi-def TV set, compared with their HD
versions. Hence, studios are choosing to put out fewer of the old film rarities
that DVD collectors have been enjoying the past several years, and are sticking
more to pop hits from the past 55 years for BluRay.
Still, it’s nice to get the chance to revisit
movies one saw while growing up (or never saw in theatres because one was too
young or not yet born) with a visual clarity and audio quality equal to, and
possibly better than they had in their original theatrical presentations. It’s
also great to catch up with films missed due to short runs or that never made
it to local theatres. Of course this has been possible to do for some 30 years
on tape, laserdisc, and then DVD, but never with the potential to rival a
commercial theatre’s presentation until BluRay and hi-def home projectors
became affordable.
Anyone who still has only a standard-definition
television or a hi-def TV that is only 720p resolution and/or is smaller than
40 inches really has no reason to upgrade to a BluRay player or replace DVDs
with BluRay versions. An upconverting DVD player with component or HDMI
connections will do just as well. However, people who have a 1080p
(so-called “full HD”) TV that is larger
than 40 inches, especially those with a 1080p projector, a wall-size screen,
and a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system, will quickly become addicted to the
theatre-quality experience they can get at home with BluRay copies of movies.
They’re also more likely to devote a room to a dedicated home theatre, rather
than watch movies “on TV.”
Below are links to reviews of a sampler of
above-average BluRay releases, plus few notable BluRay releases of older
“catalog” titles from the past three years, including “The Terminator,”
Robocop,” “Baraka,” and “Saturday Night Fever.”