PI-provided DVD and Blue Ray

[LindaH]

I've seen mention a lot recently about Blue Ray DVDs. I have no idea in the world what Blue Ray is or how it differs from any other type of DVD, but it's made me wonder if the PI-provided DVD (ours is a Curtis DVD6041) will play a Blue Ray DVD...or should we buy DVDs that aren't Blue Ray? I'm not really interested in going out and spending money on a new DVD player since we rarely watch DVDs.

[ChiefJohn]

Linda,
Your current DVD player will not be compatible with the new Blue Ray technology. Our current DVD players will be going the route of the cassette and 8-track players -- guess that means we're becoming 'vintage' ourselves??

[Dutch_man39]

I believe blu-ray dvd's are HD for viewing on an HD equipped TV set.

[ChiefJohn]

Blu-Rays are HD and can be viewed on an HDTV. However, it's my understanding that you cannot use the current HD DVD players for Blu-Rays. Is this correct?

[Marty & Yani]

BluRay is for HD TV it sends a 1080P HD to a HDTV. You can't play BluRay CD's on a regular DVD player you can play regular DVD's on a bluRay player.
BluRay players have anupconverter that will play regular DVD's in a 1080i mode.
Marty

[LarryGodby]

Everthing you are about to read I found on the Internet and pieced it together. DO NOT think I know this stuff, I just researched it.


Blu-ray Disks are mastered in 1080p, while all DVD's created are recorded in 480i.

1080p is the shorthand name for a category of display resolutions. The number represents 1,080 lines of vertical resolution, while the letter p stands for progressive scan (meaning the image is not interlaced). 1080p is considered an HDTV video mode. The term usually assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels. This creates a frame resolution of 1920×1080, or 2,073,600 pixels in total.

480i is the shorthand name for another category of display resolutions. The i, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines. The aspect ratio of 4:3 gives us a display resolution of 640 × 480 (VGA); that is standard-definition television (SDTV). So using the above example 640 x480 is 307,200 pixels in total.

A pixel is a dot so the more pixels you have the clearer the picture. That is why actors and actresses do not like HDTV because it shows all or their flaws in their skin, which we could not see on regular TV. Think of it like the sound difference between AM radio and FM radio.

A dual layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 GB, almost six times the capacity of a dual layer DVD.

Blu-ray Disc was locked in a format war with HD DVD until Blu-ray Disc's victory on February 19, 2008. On that day, Toshiba"” the main driving force behind HD DVD"” announced it would no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. Some analysts believe that Sony's PlayStation 3 video game console played an important role in the format war, believing it acted as a catalyst for Blu-ray Disc, as the PlayStation 3 used a Blu-ray Disc drive as its primary information storage medium. They also credited Sony's more thorough and influential marketing campaign. More recently several studios have cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of the BD+ anti-copying system as the reason they supported Blu-ray Disc over HD DVD, an opinion supported by Paul Kocher, Cryptography Research's president and chief scientist.

Blu-Ray discs will not play in a standard DVD player. They will only play in a Blu-Ray player. However, regular DVD discs will play in Blu-Ray players. Just remember the VHS and Beta wars of years back.

[LindaH]

Larry, I didn't understand a word you said!

However, I looked at the Technical Specifications in the Curtis DVD6041 Operating Instruction Manual to see if any of those numbers appeared anywhere. They didn't. The only thing I could find that said anything about "resolution" was that the Resolution Ratio was "greater than 500 lines." I guess since it didn't say "1080," that means it's not compatible with Blue Ray DVDs.

How long has it been known that Blue Ray was going to be the "only" standard? I don't pay much attention to this kind of stuff, and it's only really been within the last month or so that I've started to see lots of references to Blue Ray.

I sure hope that PI is installing Blue Ray compatible DVDs in their new rigs!

[LarryGodby]

It probably would not have made sense for PI to install those in the rigs because if they picked Blu Ray and HD DVD won the marketing war then the Blu Ray would have been worthless and visa versa.

Also, HD is not quite the standard TV viewing for most people yet. You may have an HD TV but you would also need to have HD service to get the HD programs.

I have a 1080p HD TV but just normal service so all I see is the standard-definition television. If I wanted to spend all the money for the receiver and the service from DISH to get HD then I would be able to view it on my HD TV.

Most campgrounds do not have HD cable and most rigs do not have a satellite to receive HD, not all, but most.

You will probably see PI and all manufacturers going to Blu Ray and HD TV with HD satellites in the next few years but honestly it is to expensive right now.

[LindaH]

Quote:

Originally posted by LarryGodby: I have a 1080p HD TV but just normal service so all I see is the standard-definition television. If I wanted to spend all the money for the receiver and the service from DISH to get HD then I would be able to view it on my HD TV.

We, too, have an HD TV, but just regular DirecTV service, so we don't see any programming in HD, either.

DirecTV is making a lot of changes to their HD services...adding new satellites, changing from KA to KU signals (or is it the other way around?)...so I'm certainly not going to do anything at the present time to upgrade to HD.

At some point in time, when DirecTV gets all of their ducks in a row, we "may" decide to switch out our dome to one of the multiple-LNB roof-mounted automatic dishes from Motosat that are able to "see" all the satellites at the same time and upgrade to HD programming.

The only thing that might stop us from doing so is if, by upgrading to HD programming, we'd loose our DNS service...something I'm not willing to give up.

[Highgturn]

Linda,

When you are located in an area where you can receive local channels on your crank up antenna, you should be able to watch HD TV. Almost all of the stations have started transmitting in HD, at least that's true here in the DFW area. Note: You will have to select antenna and digital TV in the TVs menu and have it auto tune in the available channels.

[LindaH]

Bob, we can receive programming on our batwing and watch HD TV, and we have done so on a few occasions when we've been parked in a spot where our dome is blocked by trees.

However, we're seldom in an area where we can receive local programming, or it's a poor signal, at best (we're usually off in the boonies someplace).

Plus there's the fact that, while we can get the major networks with the batwing, we can't get other channels that we watch often like CNN, USA, ESPN, or FSAZ. I also like to know what comes on when...I use the DirecTV on-screen guide a lot. With the batwing, I don't know what channels are where or what programming comes on when.

We usually watch programming out of NY, so we're done with primetime programming by 8 or 9, depending on whether we're in Pacific or Mountain time zone.

[rockintom]

Call me whiny......you guys are talking about all this rassel-dassel high tech stuff. My goodness, I just wished our rig had a entertainment system that plays CDs and DVDs for more than 2 weeks at a time. I've given up. The RCA and Jamos are junk (and I'm being nice!) Haven't heard great things out of the Curtis unit either. We have a cheapy aftermarket DVD player we run thru the TV and it works good. Theater system with the surround sound is just sitting there waiting for a decent unit to play them! Kinda sad don't ya think? Tom

[Highgturn]

I agree, the DVD/CD player portion of the RCA unit is very poor; however, for around $40.00 you can slave in a DVD/CD player only (use the existing amplifier). It will work well, but will only play one CD at a time.

[rockintom]

Quote:

Originally posted by Highgturn: I agree, the DVD/CD player portion of the RCA unit is very poor; however, for around $40.00 you can slave in a DVD/CD player only (use the existing amplifier). It will work well, but will only play one CD at a time.

Bob,

Thanks.....you are so right. I guess I've gotten so emotional over this thing, I've forgotten to think practically on the fix.

Later,
Tom