My First Blu Ray Experience

Other than probably casually seeing some Blu Ray on a TV in a store like Best Buy I’d never really sat down and watched a Blu Ray movie until last night.

My folks had given me little extra scratch as a Christmas present and I’d been wanting to pick up a Blu Ray player for quite some time. If you aren’t aware of what Blu Ray is, it’s the DVD equivalent of High Definition. Output of 1080i / 1080p (depending on the player).

After some research it appears that the Sony PS3 is still considered one of the best players out there as a function of picture quality and bang-for-the-buck. With the PS3 Slim 120 down to $299 you get a lot more function than from other comparable Blu Ray players. In short:

Blu Ray player w/1080i/1080p and BD Live
Video Game Console – and yes the games have HiDef output
Built in networking
Built in WiFi
Connects and plays media from servers (music / video)
And more!

Two minor complaints – it’s a little slow to load, and if you want to use your existing IR universal remote you will have to buy an adapter since the PS3 doesn’t support IR, only Blue Tooth (RF).

I then upgraded my NetFlix account to send me Blu Ray discs “automatically” for movies in my queue if they were available. Due to timing, DirecTV decided to increase their rates and drop all of my promo discounts – my DirecTV bill was now going to be almost $60 a month (almost double what it was)!!! So I cancelled DirecTV.

But last night I popped in one of my new Blu Ray discs from Netflix and fired it up. It only took a few moments to realize what I’d been missing and why I spent all the money I’ve spent on my TV, sound system, etc. It was quite impressive even if the movie wasn’t spectacular. Even the previews were sharp and clear. My other DVD player was an upscaling DVD player and while the picture was good this was far better.

So now I am hooked. If you have a few extra bucks and are looking at Blu Ray you should get one if your system can support it. Look into supporting features like Blu Ray Live (BD Live). You don’t have to spend $300 on a PS3 or other player, but if you were looking in that range I’d consider the PS3