Blu-ray First Impressions

So I got my fancy new Blu-ray player yesterday. Here is a bit of advice from this early adopter for any who make the plunge in the next couple of months (I hear Black Friday will have Blu-ray players for under $200, and Best Buy has some right now for $199).

Installation
Installation was not the snap I imagined it to be. First off, you need some extra stuff that I almost totally anticipated. Aside from the player, you will need an HDMI cable (make sure it's 1.3 compliant so you get maximum data rate), an SD card and an ethernet connection. I had an HDMI cable that I accidentally broke while putting the Blu-ray player back in my cabinet. Must have been a pretty cheap cable, so be careful when you connect them. That was a quick trip to Radio Shack! The SD card is to store data regarding your discs for optimum use. The ethernet connection could be tricky. I don't have my cable modem sitting next to my TV, so I bought a Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming Adapter (WGA600N) to get the job done. It was a bit of a hassle initially connecting the adapter to my wireless network as the setup instructions didn't exactly work perfectly. I quickly figured it out though. Then, my desired placement in the cabinet didn't get a strong enough wireless signal (which was hard to determine until I used trial and error method of placement). So I had to hide it behind the TV. Then I was up and running.

Playback
This will take a bit of getting used to. Each Blu-ray disc is like a computer program. It takes a little time to load, kind of like with a Playstation or XBox. A little concerning given how fast DVDs load, but the little message warns you. It probably takes a 30 seconds or so. I didn't actually time it, but it seems like a long time. I haven't figured out the nuances of stopping play, and restarting as it kept going back to the main menu when I stopped play. Probably some dumb quirk that I couldn't figure out yet. Once the disc is loaded and running, the images are stunning. Think about the first time you saw HDTV compared to regular TV. That is the difference from standard DVD to Blu-ray. If you have previously used an upconverting DVD player with HDMI connection to an HDTV (like I used to have), you will notice significant improvement, but not the awe-insporing leap that you saw going to HDTV initially. I can't comment on the supposedly amazing sound. I have an old-school AV receiver that only supports Dolby Digital 5.1 and a surround bar speaker. The sound is great, but I am not getting the Dolby True Digital 7.1 sound that Blu-ray offers. I bought Sleeping Beauty, Casino Royale and Iron Man to start. Sleeping Beauty and Bond look AWESOME. Iron Man is up for tonight!

Blu-ray Live
The verdict is out here. This was my main reason for waiting for a Blu-ray. The new 2.0 standard allows an internet interface on the Blu-ray. The 2 discs I tried both required online account creation. The Disney disc had a ton of special features like chat, trivia, online games and such. The Sony disc (Casino Roayale) had movie trailers and downloads, but I didn't see a lot of content that was worth the hassle of creating an account. To be fair, it was late and I didn't look at the second disc, so there may be more. Anyway, as of now, it was a real hassle to sign-up and login tot Blu-Ray Live without much benefit. Everything I have read says this is a brand new technology, and it will change as new discs come out. Hopefully, it becomes more useful in the future. I'm talking downloadable extra features and interactive movie stuff. We'll see.

Conclusion
My current conclusions are that this is pretty amazing technology. I am not taking full advantage right now, and the next electronic purchase I make will be a fancy new AV receiver. That will wait until I get surround speakers again in my next house. Until now, the digital sound as well as 1080p images are totally worth it. The Blu-Ray Live is as advertised, a bit of a pain and inconsistant utilization on different discs. I need to take some time to check out all the special features (there are hundreds) on the different discs to see if any are worthwhile. I also need to get used to a new way of watching movies as Blu-ray has some basic differences in playback compared to standard DVD. As with any technology, it is pretty simple to make it work, but there is a whole other level of complexity that you can get into if you like.