Hardware Do we need Blu-ray drives?

So assuming it's legal to do as a backup, what software could I use to do it?

 

You can use something like MakeMKV to rip the disc and then use Handbrake to alter the size and quality of the encode ect.

 

But whilst that is true, there isn't much to say whether my amp is by wiring or bi amping. Either way, it sounds better as is now and it was noticable even though it is most likely passive bi-amping or whatever. But that could be that there was not a good bridge in there.

But that's the point isn't it. I could tell the difference... whether or not it's a placebo. YUMMy echinacea

 

I only bought into blu-ray for the films themselves, and after being beaten senseless by an endless barrage of condescending, unskippable adverts and anti-piracy warnings, DRM limitations and hardware incompatibilities, software woes (**** you, Cyberlink, eat a dick in space) and absurd usage restrictions (how the Hell is my screenshotting from a blu-ray going to hurt movie makers?), I now wish I'd stuck with piracy.

I know piracy is unpopular and against the rules to advocate, but I wish I'd just stayed a pirate, because the legitimate alternative is like paying to have your balls chewed on by a rottweiler. Sony and Cyberlink have proven so out of touch with the rest of humanity, and their customers in particular, that I'm not even sure they're on the same planet as us.

If there were a paid, legal solution to do what I'd been doing illegally - downloading 10-12GB well-compressed Matrovska versions of films - I'd be all over it. But one never emerged, because Sony owns Blu-Ray, and by extension Sony owns HD film production through a variety of mutual back-scratching manoeuvres, and Sony will never tolerate an online distribution equivalent of Blu-Ray, so it'll never happen while the format's alive.

I really hate Blu-Ray, now I think about it. I love HD films, I still watch them, but it's bittersweet, because the format is just an awful restrictive DRM-packed mess.

 

You make some good points - however you miss my point about the M-Disk backup. With the upcoming blu-ray M-Disks, you will be able to permanently backup any data on YOUR OWN disk that will last several lifetimes. You have no intermediary to depend on. As long as you have a blu-ray player you have access to your data. Cloud storage and HDDs / SSDs cannot offer this security. With the new M-Disks I would not be surprised if 1TB disk become possible. 100 GB disks will be available in the near future. Also, the new M-Disks are easier to store than HDDs. So it will be an interesting archive tool.

Also, at least with my blu-ray player, load times are about equal to DVDs (I have a really fast computer and a blu-ray player). You are right about the player having to "decode" the blu-ray but it only takes a few seconds on my computer (I-7 2600K with a 120 GB Corsair GT running the operating system).

Blu-ray disks in the USA have dropped to $5.00 - $10.00. I recently bought the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for $8.00 apiece at Costco Wholesale. Blu-ray movies are also very cheap on Amazon. New releases are more expensive but if you wait a few months, they drop dramatically in price. I can rent blu-ray movies of the new releases for $1.60 from Redbox.

When you consider that my entire blu-ray setup cost me $160, the cost is really not that much. The LOR looks absolutely stunning in HD. With such a beautiful movie I would be greatly disappointed with DVD resolution. Until streaming services are able to offer better sound and resolutions, blu-ray will be around if only just because it is by far the best quality tech to play and enjoy movies on.

 

Sorry I posted the wrong quote for my comments above. I apologize.

 

Hi, you probably need one maybe two things to fully appreciate blu-ray on your computer. First you must have a competent GPU (video card). I would recommend an AMD 6850 as a cheap, yet powerful card that will get you a good HD picture. The cheaper Nvidea cards are not as good as the cheaper ATI (AMD) video cards for HD picture processing. I have the ATI XFX 6950 but it is overkill. An ATI 5770 will get you a decent picture but the 6850 does not cost that much more and is much more powerful.

Second, you MUST have a high quality monitor. HDTVs are built soley for producing a good picture, most computer monitors are not. If you have a cheap monitor you will not see the beauty of HD.

At a minimum I would go with the Dell Ultra 2412 which has 1920 x 1200 resolution and great colors and blacks. You can get it for approximately $350 on sale at Dell if you watch for it.

Getting a great HD picture on your computer monitor is more tricky than with an HDTV. You need a good video card (a cheap one will give you pathetic HD quality), a high quality monitor, a blu-ray player and the software. You can get Power DVD Version 12 on Amazon pretty cheap.

I hope that this helps you.

 

Thanks

 

Blu-Ray drives are so cheap, you may aswell have one.

 

£60 ... that's not cheap. a drive and powerdvd cost more than a competent stand-alone player. That's just plain daft.

 

All it would do at my house is sit on a shelf, just like the dvd players do.

 

We live in a world where Apple thinks 1920x1080 isn't enough resolution for a 10" screen.
Yet the arguement here is " I don't see a difference up to 40"

I tested streaming, (Lovefilm and Maxdome) and the quality is like those DVD's ripped to .avi to fit on a CD.
(Remember those days? Quite common about ten years ago.)
Now that may look quite decent on a CRT-TV...it does not on a 1920x1080 tv.

Sure i could download an (illegal) BD-rip. But lovefilm sending me the physical disk the next day is actually faster than downloading 40-50GB.

As they say in Germany:
"The average transfer speed of a truck full of magnetic-tapes on the Autobahn is not to be underestimated"

Okay I go for quality, I do watch my movies on a 10 foot screen, that helps.