My first HDTV and Blueray experience

Published on January 12, 2008 By CharlesCS In Gadgets & Electronics

While I know HD TV’s have been out for a while and Blueray for a little while, I hadn’t really gone to any stores to truly see what these 2 systems can do. I’ve always been more of a PC person so I usually tend to go straight to the computer sections cause I just know I won’t be seeing any of the current selection of TV in my house any time soon.

Yesterday, however, was a different day. I got out of work early and had an hour to myself before I had to pick up the kids and my wife so I decided to browse the local electronic stores. I will be getting some money back from my tax return and will fix my credit in the hopes of being able to enjoy some of the finer things in life without having to save for 500 years and then drop a large stack of bills in one shot just to enjoy today’s latest electronics, or at least last years models. Anyways, after browsing the Laptop and video game sections, I thought I would take a stroll around the TV section before I left and that’s when it happened.

As I walked by this one TV that was set up with surround sound and a chair, I could not ignore the images on the screen. For a moment I thought I was looking at a soap opera, the scene looked clear, as if watching it live. Then I realized the who the characters on the screen were. It took a few seconds to realize I was watching a scene from Spiderman 3 where MJ went to talk to Peter and tell him if he needed someone she was there for him but he was too upset to care. I couldn’t believe how sharp and clear the movie was. It was like watching it in 3D. I don’t mean coming out of the screen, but you could actually see the separation of the characters from the background. It was as if I was watching a live version of the movie. I could see the characters pores in their faces, the lines in their eyes, the details of the Spiderman clothe. The light reflecting off the surfaces looked like reflections as oppose to CGI. The detail was so amazing I could not help but thinking this was some kind of soap opera based on the Spiderman movie. I always understood the idea of how different HD TV is from regular TV’s when watching them; I just never thought it was so visible that it felt like looking thru a window rather than a picture. An employee walked over looking to help me and explained what I was looking at.

According to him I was looking at the most advanced HD TV model in the store, made by Samsung. It was a 46” yet it seemed like I was watching a movie in the theaters. I can’t remember the model well but I believe it was the Samsung 46" LCD HDTV Model #: SAM LNT4665F. A very impressive TV I have to say with enough featured to keep you busy for a while. But my experience was not all done by the TV alone. The movie was being played on one of the newest DVD players in the market, the Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray and HD DVD Player Model #: SAM BDUP5000. Similar to one posted on this site, this DVD player can play DVD’s, CD, Blueray and HD DVD. Talk about a Swiss Army Knife. Throw in a bottle opener and this baby could be every man’s dream machine (thought it probably is already). The combination of this player with the TVs incredible resolution made the experiences mind blowing to me. While I would love to go into details on what these 2 monsters can do, I don’t have a lot of time to write it all so I figured I would like to the specs of these 2 modern marvels so you can see and judge for yourself. Links will be at the bottom.

I have to say, without a doubt, that I am in love with this combo. Throw in a PS3 and a Bose surround sound system and I’ll be in heaven. Now that I have experienced the latest in TV technology that I can afford and with my addiction to Satellite TV and movies, I look forward to giving myself a great Father’s Day gift that I have worked so hard to earn. I say Father’s day cause I will need some time to allow my credit to get better and also to save money. It has been years since I have give myself something worth while, I have worked hard for many years and I believe I deserve something nice for once. I may not happen, but there’s no harm in hoping, right?

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Comments

terpfan1980

on Jan 12, 2008

A good Blu-ray disc transfer can be quite impressive, but then so too is the experience on HD DVD when the job is done right.

Personally I'm still a bit sad that Warners has abandoned the HD DVD format in favor of Blu-ray exclusivity. In the past the HD DVD releases that Warners -- as an example -- had done were many times far better than Blu-ray, with lots of neat extra features that Blu-ray didn't yet support and for some users may never support because the Blu-ray specs (actually they are called profiles, with at least 3 different profiles involved in Blu-ray players you could find on store shelves at this point, Profile 1.0 - the most basic spec, no internet, no picture-in-picture features; Profile 1.1 - requires support for picture-in-picture features; and profile 2.0 that adds internet connectivity on top of the Profile 1.1 spec).

It does seem like Blu-ray is going to be the winner though, and eventually we'll see most everything we would ever want to, or hope to, buy available in that format. In a few years we'll look back at the early days of these new toys and think of how expensive they are, and how much they've come down in price in the time since.

Hopefully those of us that have bought early will enjoy them a lot.

CharlesCS

on Jan 12, 2008

It does suck to see how 1 movie can be found on blue-ray but not on HD DVD. I guess this new series of players will allow us to enjoy them without having to pick one in particular. I'll tell you this much though, When it comes to things like features, menus and stuff like that; I'm more interested in the movie itself.

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