Blu-ray Disc player HELP!!!

Sandman1am

Hey guys I have been thinking about getting a Blu-ray Disc player. I have a Samsung 46 inch 1080p LCD. Knowing that cable is only broadcast in 720 I would like to put my TV to it's full potential. I do not know much about the Blu-ray technology and could use some help.
Is the picture quality that much different from a DVD player?
Is there a difference in the brand, quality, price, picture, etc?
Where is a good place to start looking for these?
I've noticed that the discs cost quite a bit more then DVD's even to rent. Are they coming down in price?
I saw some players that were on "sale" over the past few months. I know you get what you pay for is usually my motto but know that sometimes there really are great deals on certain items. Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

rwheelwright

Check out the Sony S370. It's newer and has some great reviews. Everyplace I looked has it for $99.99. I am thinking about getting one for my g/f. I have a S550 and I have no problems with it at all. The S370 doesn't do 3D but if you didn't get a 3D TV then it doesn't matter and for the price you can not beat it. Amazon.com, crutchfield.com, bestbuy.com, pcrichard.com, etc...


Now, I don't run I usually buy but a lot of blu-rays are coming down in price. I just got Clash of the Titans for $12.99 on Amazon. I got Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on blu-ray with DVD and digital Copy or $14.99 when the DVD by itself was like $22.99+. It depends on what you are buying. Rest assured that even if you get a DVD it will be upconvereted and look better, at least in my experience.

Now, with all that said there are more expensive blu-ray players that claim to use commercial grade upconverters. I would love to see one but given the price it's not going to happen any time soon. They are supposed to be the same chips that broadcasters use.

Hope this helps.

letsgowithbob

Alright, lets try to make this simple. Resolution is what all the numbers are. Lets start at the beginning. your old regular tube tv that you had when you were a kid was a 480i resolution. That means in a certain area, there were 480 different dots that could make the picture. Then 720 came, and there were 720 dots to make a picture with (think more detail, because you can use more dots to gain clarity) after 720 was 1080, and for now, that's the best thing going. Now the letters you see ( i and p) are how each dot gets changed to a new one. In (i) which stands for interlaced (as in 1080i) every odd line gets updated, then every even line gets updated) now there are 1080 of these, so 540 odd, 540 even, and so on. With the (p) as in 1080p, which stands for progressive, every dot gets updated every cycle. so you are constantly getting a new picture. now I will try to explain hz. as in 60 hz refresh rate, 120 hz refresh rate. hz is how often the dots are updated. 60 hz is 60 times a second, 120 hz is updating 120 times a second. so if you are playing video games or watching a fast moving movie or sports game, the faster the dots update, the less blurry your image will be. For myself I just bought a dvd player that upconverts to 1080, that means it takes the 480 lines of resolution, an turns them into 1080, it works pretty well for me, and I don't have to rebuy my 3000 or so movies as blue rays. I will in time get a blue ray player, but have not as of yet.....hope this helped

[Deleted User]

I bought a Sony last year, can't remember the model number and love it. The first movie I watched was the new Star Trek movie. It was fantastic on the t.v. You will notice some differences between DVD and BR but it depends on the movie and T.V. you have.

Sandman1am

Thanks guys for all of your help with this. I found it very informative and I learned quite a bit. I will be looking for a deal on these soon. Maybe I will wait until after Christmas as I am not in a rush. If anyone has an idea as to which particular model or if there is a deal I can't pass up let me know. Thanks again guys.

Vulchor

Sorry...wrong one.