I started buying Blu-ray discs about a year ago, slowly building a library of the titles I knew would be worth having in HD. I invested in a couple myself, and included some on my holiday wishlist, figuring I'd eventually actually get the player to go with it. (I also included that on the wishlist.) My parents sent a couple of Blu-ray movies for Hanukkah last year, but no player. :-)At first, I'd been waiting for HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc to finish fighting it out, but by a year ago that fight was long since over. Then I was waiting for BD players to come down in price, but without the competition from Toshiba's HD-DVD, the BD folks saw no need to lower their prices. I didn't want to buy the oldest models, and I didn't want to buy a no-name player.
Well, Woot finally had a Blu-ray player for sale last week that was a name brand product, had the features I cared about, and was a surprisingly reasonable $129. I grabbed it. It showed up yesterday, and I finally hooked it up after the game tonight.
First movie? "The Dark Knight." A brilliant film, way better, way darker, than "Batman Begins" -- which I also loved. The picture and sound are terrific, though I found it distracting that the movie keeps switching back and forth between letterboxed and full-screen. After I decided I wasn't seeing things, I looked at the box, which says it's "Variable 2.4:1 and 1.78:1 (IMAX Sequences)." Sheesh. Did anyone see this on an IMAX screen? Did they switch back and forth there, too?
I've also got "The Godfather" trilogy and two three-movie James Bond sets in Blu-ray. Those should all be fun to watch, though I suspect they'll gain less from being in HD than "The Dark Knight" does.
I think it's bedtime.
