House of Flying Daggers and Blu-Ray

RainbowRaven

At work right now with a random story and some questions. I won't get to ask at home because my laptop adapter rebelled against me and I won't be getting a new one until next week.

I was food shopping yesterday with my mom who is visiting me up at college. We were at Wal-Mart because it was the best choice money wise at this time. I rolled past the DVD section and I see Curse of the Golden Flower which I've been dying to see so I pick it up. Then I see House of Flying Daggers, another movie I really wanted to see but as I reach for it, there is this strange symbol and blue border. Blu-ray. And no House of Flying Daggers DVD to be seen and none in stock either when I inquired. What is Blu-Ray? And what does it play on? Secondly, has anyone seen Curse of the Golden Flower and what did you think of it? My mom hates it.

Josh Bytes

Not to sound like a jackass but Blu-Ray plays on a Blue-Ray disc player. And example of a blu-ray player would be the highly regarded gaming console PS3. Blu-Ray, to put it simply, is a blue laser that write more data on a disc. It also enables HD. High Definition video. Which gives you lots and lots more color dots on the screen. There is a competing format called HD-DVD which also use a blue-laser.

RainbowRaven

Hmm... so will they be phasing out DVD for Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD (or whoever wins)? Is this going to be the same situation as what happened with VHS and DVD? That would be annoying unless all CD formats were could be played on one player and even then that require buying a new player. I feel that sometimes new and "better" things are created and "old" things tossed out simply for the sake of creating an artificial need in order to create a profit. Sometimes "advance" is not advance but rather wastefullness and avarice. If it ain't broke...

Josh Bytes

I'm in no hurry to buy either one yet. But yeah the industry on both competing formats are pushing for phasing out the DVD in favor of their format. The new players that are out are backwards compatible, so your old DVD will still be playable. Even still, it's irritating as a consumer. Betting those hard earned dollars on which format you think will be the winning standard.

Rym

In brief, DVD was a revolution compared to VHS, and has achieved near-total market penetration. Blu-Ray is not only at best marginally better, but ludicrously expensive and in direct competition with a similar and non-compatible format called HD-DVD.

Neither has any substantial market presence, although Blu-Ray is doing slightly better at the moment.

It is my opinion that both formats are fairly useless, as far superior ones are on the horizon and, unlike VHS, DVD is still good enough for most people.

Kidder

House of Flying Daggers isn't such a great film anyway. It is very pretty, visually, but it's fairly standard story of love and betrayal. The martial arts is what you'd expect from a big budget Chinese movie.

Curse of the Golden Flower is more of a political drama (set in Ancient China). It revolves completely around the royal family. I was told that it is the largest budget Chinese film ever and you can definitely tell. Huge settings and of course, visually spectacular. Worth checking out.

Jason

Rym has it to a T. Plus, we've just been milked for about the last five years on a format switch-over, and I, for one, do not welcome our new HD/BR overlords if it means having to shell out more cash to update the existing collection.

Josh Bytes

That's another thing , moderate to serious movies collectors can't be to pleased with having just replaced their VHS collection to DVD. Of course this may be a good time to start a serious DVD collection. With all the folks that have to have the latest newest whatever, will be trading in their old DVD's for the slightly improved Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Hitman Hart

I'm still grabbing VHS from FYE $2 a pop. I found an old Streamline tape of Dirty Pair, and AWO said they liked it, so I'm gonna check it out.