Confusion about Blu-ray

Hey guys

Do you actually need a blu-ray player to play blu-ray movies that is download online and if not does that mean every laptop can play blu-ray? Are blu-ray movie even made as digital or is it only use via disc? I bought the blu-ray thinking that it is needed to play all form of blu-ray but I believe I am wrong. I would just like to get that clarify.

Thank you.

 

What? What is Blu-ray? (Blu-ray, Blu-ray Disc, not Blue-ray or Blu-ray DVD)

Blu-Ray is a type of disc. It can hold more memory than a standard DVD can. You would need a Blu-Ray player to play Blu-Ray discs as would you need a DVD player to play DVDs or a CD player to play CDs. Blu-Ray has nothing to do with video files, but can hold them. Blu-Ray isn't like a type of video file that only Blu-Ray players can play.
Blu-Ray movies are HD IIRC.
Hope I cleared everything up
(GW2 FTW )

 

So your saying I could play blu-ray movies and didn't even needed to buy a blu-ray players?

Darn it

 

All movies are eventually digital. But blu-ray refers to the storage medium.

Despite all the hullabaloo and hype concerning downloadable content, the blu-ray disc is still current king of high quality consumer content available. It is noticeably superior in picture quality and sound to anything you can download.

You can only access that quality via a blu-ray player. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking otherwise.

 

What? I'm saying you can watch HD movies online, but if you want to watch blu-ray movies you need a blu-ray player because blu-ray is just a disc that needs a certain diode to play them.

But aren't blu-ray discs like video files burned on a disc? can't they just be ripped and still have the same quality?

 

Yes, that is true. But they end up around 15GB or so which isn't very practical.

There's nothing to stop you from playing even higher quality content than what a blu ray disk would normally offer, you'd just have to store it by other means. Blu ray is only high quality because it has the space for it.

 

It's not that simple. You can improve the quality through deinterlacing, but you can't turn a DVD into a blu-ray any more than you can turn a Honda into a Ferrari. The blu-ray natively has a much higher range than a DVD.

 

From a North American point of view I'd agree with you two, but Blu-ray sized video downloads are quite common in Asia. If you know what to look for, you can even find legal American TV shows and Hollywood movies, with the original English audio track.

So it really depends on where the OP lives.

 

So what is the general consensus? Did I make the right choice by purchasing a blu-ray player?

I'm still confuse.

 

Yes if you wanted to play Blu-Ray movies (discs from stores and such), but if you wanted to download movies online, you didn't need a Blu-Ray player.

I meant that can't you just rip a blu-ray disc to your PC and it would have the same quality? (question already answered so no bother answering) When I said disc, I was referring to a blu-ray disc LOL.

 

Yeah, you could rip a blu-ray to your PC. If you keep the video file in it's original format, quality would be the same. As the others said, you need a BR player to play the disc itself. If it is in digital format, you don't need the disc but the size of the file will be huge which makes it a bit impractical for digital download depending on where you live.

 

Ripping blu rays would be horrible. Unless you compress them you'd spend more on storage than you would on a player eventually.

Even ripping DVD's as iso images chews through space pretty quickly.

 

I think you made the right decision by getting the bluray player. Most bluray movies that you download will have been heavily compressed - some done extremely well, to the point that you won't notice. You'll mainly see effects of compressed HD video in blacks being pixelated.

When you want to watch something truly smooth, crisp, and clear, then you watch from your bluray disc. Or, if you're planning on connected to a HDTV, then uncompressed bluray will most likely look better.

I've got small collection of bluray discs, for viewing on my friends TV through my laptop, since she doesn't have a player. I also have a library of compressed bluray for viewing on my 1600x900 screen, where full HD is less of an issue.

 

There's a lot more to blu-ray than a great picture. There are also commentaries, outtakes, alternate endings, director's commentary, interactive content and a wealth of other enjoyable, useful learning and informative material that comes with the disc.

 

So in the end can digital ever have the same quality as blu-ray?

 

Wrong choice. Unless you are getting the physical blu-ray disks and putting them in your computer, you wasted your money on the blu-ray player.

Yes! There is no difference between a DVD, Blu-ray, a video CD, or a movie you downloaded except in the size of the file. Larger file sizes using the same encoding means higher quality. Blu-ray just happens to store a lot of data per disk, so the movie files can be much larger and thus higher quality. Blu-ray is just the highest quality you can get. You can rip a Blu-ray disk onto your computer and keep the original video file that was on the disk.

 

Blu ray is digital, or were you using it to refer to digital download?

 

A Blu-Ray is just a digital file stored on a disk. The only thing you need a Blu-Ray player for is to read that disk.

If you have a digital file encoded at the same bitrate as a standard Blu-Ray, the quality will be the same. Blu-Ray is just the storage method.

 

That is as long as it's not copy protected which all commercial blu-ray discs are.

Hmm, I'm not sure what you mean by this but the quality is not the same. There is quite a noticeable difference between HD content downloaded and that achieved via a blu-ray disc. In the case of every commercial content I've viewed, the blu-ray version is significantly better.

 

That's simply because downloaded files don't have the same amount of space as blu ray. ISP's would go beserk if each HD video download was 40gb. The point is that if you wanted to, it is entirely possible to have footage of the same quality as blu ray or better. There's no sort of black magic about blu ray, it can just hold a lot of information.

 

Possible maybe, but not practicable. At least not for some time to come. Data stream/data rate and data limits are the blu-rays greatest asset right now. Until those limitations have been overcome or eliminated, blu-ray will be alive and well.

Incidentally, there is also additional content that you get on a blu-ray disc that is not available at any rate via download

 

I was speaking hypothetically because there is no difference between the file on the disk and the file on your hard drive, but in either case it isn't like that stops anyone.

 

What devilry is this? What foul magics have Sony wrought upon yon disks that allow the quality to surpass where mortal men dare to tread? Verily, it is witchcraft! To arms, men, slay these foul dogs and rid the world of their taint!

Seriously though, it's bitrate and compression. If you download a movie and it doesn't look as good as the Blu-ray, it's because it was compressed more or encoded at a lower bitrate. It's not hard to grasp what I'm saying.

 

Wizardry by any other name? The end results are just as poor.

 

It still doesn't change the fact that it's all about bitrate and compression. There's nothing inherent in Bluray that makes it look better, it's just that you're able to fit video files onto with less compression. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

 

There are some "artistes" out there who do absolutely wonderful compressions of full HD movies. Most of the compression happens in the blacks, where it can be quite noticeable.

It seems like you two are arguing the SAME side of the coin. Bluray discs provide the best quality, though very good quality can be downloaded, but it's rare to find true bluray quality as a download due to its cumbersome size.

I usually rip my bluray movies to a hard drive, so I don't have to bother with the actual discs. Some I compress and just a few I refuse to compress at all. i don't want to tarnish the amazing viewing experience.

On a side now... I've seen a copy of The New World (such a slow movie) that's amazingly well compressed.

 

Right, I understand what he's saying, I'm just not sure why he's arguing.