FANFLASH: Blu-ray Vs. DVD – Is a Better Picture Worth the Extra Money?

By Jordan Tunney
April 8, 2009

Recently, I was discussing the differences between Blu-ray and DVD with a friend. I explained that although I have a HDTV and a small but growing Blu-ray library, I believe Blu-ray discs will not catch on for a while. He said they will because people are looking for the best picture and to save money from going to the theater. I told him that if that were the case, people would have stopped going to the movies since VHS and Beta came out. Because of three reasons, I believe, Blu-ray movies will become the standard as DVDs are now, but it won’t be as quick as DVD caught on.

1. Blu-ray movies require additional hardware - when DVDs were first released, all that was required was the DVD player and DVD movies. For Blu-ray movies, a HDTV, HDMI cable, and a Blu-ray player are all required. Our first DVD player was a 5 disc changer and my family was all blown away with the picture quality. My Dad kept asking if we need to rewind the DVDs before returning them to Blockbuster. My brother and I sprung for a PS2, the first videogame console that played movies. The price was a bit of a problem at the beginning, but when movies fell near $20 a piece, it wasn’t much of an issue. Considering a HDTV can easily run $1200 for a full 1080p 120hz picture, a standalone Blu-ray player is near $200, and a good quality HDMI cable around $70; a $500 DVD player was a much better deal especially considering the quantum leap between VHS and DVD.

2. DVD to Blu-ray is an aesthetic jump only - When picture quality on a VHS tape began to decay, the white lines and tracking would come up. On top of that, kids often could pull out the tape, like I did when I was a kid. DVD eliminated the tape problems that came with VHS, gave a much better picture quality, and only had to worry about scratches and fingerprints. Blu-ray is different from DVD simply in picture quality, for now at least. With companies like Warner Bros. pushing BD Live technology, like being able to webcam chat during a movie, there have been attempts to branch out and move forward with Blu-ray discs. However, for now, Blu-ray and DVDs are simply only differentiated by HD picture and sound. It is incredible, yet not enough to convince the market to move sharply to HD integration.

3. Not enough “bang for buck” – If I purchase Quantum of Solace on Blu-ray new at a retail store, it’ll run me around $30. For DVD, I found it for under $20. The DVD is next to bone dry with subtitles and alternate languages being the only features beside the film, but just like Casino Royale, a two disc set for under $30 has all the features the Blu-ray release has. In this market, people looking for the special features would probably lean towards getting the DVD set with the special features to save a few bucks. Blu-ray could edge out DVD sales from Blu-ray owners by offering special features exclusively on Blu-ray, but that won’t open the market up to people getting into HD.

The jump from VHS to DVD is not the same as the jump from DVD to Blu-ray has been. Eventually, I believe, the market will move to High Definition as the standard, but this will take more time as DVDs are still a good deal and offer a good picture quality, albeit not the best out there.