| Blu-low me

I made the Blu ray dive about 6 months ago. Yeah the movies are more expensive and the available movies are still pretty limited, but for those movies that really shine in Blu ray, it is totally worth it. Sleeping Beauty is a great example. Disney did an amazing job restoring a 50 year old classic. It also helps that Disney shot this movie with extraordinary high quality film for the 50s.

I find quite a bit of variance in the quality of the Blu ray transfers. Obviously some older films suffer from poor film stock/camera technology and/or degradation of the originals. More important though, is how much effort the film studio goes through to restore and remaster the original. Some recent movie can look like crap if not properly transferred. Issues like compression artifacts from poor compression, grey or uneven blacks, muddled colors, dust/scratches on the masters, halos from over sharpening and blurriness from the scan can really impact the quality of a film. As a result I never buy these blind. I frequent High-def digest and High Def Disc News as a resource to determine if the quality is worth it.

The prices of Blu ray are sort of ridiculous at brick & mortar stores ($25-45/movie). I find Amazon has much more reasonable rates ($16-25/movie), no tax and if your willing to wait, free super saver shipping is often available.

D>M>