[quote name='Anythingoo1']Okay, I'm not saying anything about Blu-ray, but I've had alot of friends and people tell me that there's no/little difference, and from what I've seen, I have to agree with them.
Currently, I watch tv on a HD sony 35" tv, and I find the quality to be just perfect, but if Blu-ray is as good as it says on the tin, then can someone please let me know, so I can invest in it, as I'm quite a movie fanatic.
OPINIONS???[/QUOTE]
Blu-Ray is alone atop the A/V quality mountain at this point.
But to enjoy it you must first and foremost have an HDTV. Second, apply this chart:
See if you're sitting at a range where the additional resolution is of a benefit to you. You should be.
Now assuming you cable everything up with HDMI (when possible) you'll see quality stacked in the following fashion:
1. Blu-Ray. 25MB bit rate and the best audio formats (up to and including uncompressed streams) at 1080p. Nothing touches it (except the defunct HD-DVD standard).
2. 1080p online streaming/digital download. These are the movies offered by Microsoft on the Xbox Marketplace or Sony on PSN. Amazon, iTunes, etc. offer 1080p versions of movies but the bit rate will not come close to blu-ray. At best you'll probably see something around 5MB because the bandwidth needed to transfer a movie that big in a stream or even in a straight download is not feasible for 99% of the U.S. consumer base.
3. OTA broadcast with a strong antenna. Your local networks (NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC, PBS and possibly a few others) all broadcast over the air. If you have a quality antenna this will get you superior quality to what any cable provider will offer as this is an uncompressed 1080i (or rarely 720p) signal.
4. Cable or Dish HD television programming. The same as the OTA programming, but compressed by your service provider to make it easier and more reliable. Most forms of service (coax, dish, etc.) are really fighting bandwidth limits now that they're dealing with primarily HD programming, compression helps fight this (but worsens the quality of your product). Like above, 1080i or 720p, though a lot of times you'll find service provider set top boxes defaulting to one or the other and converting.
5. DVD through an upscaling DVD player. 480p jumped up to 720p. A nice upscaler makes them tolerable.
6. DVD through a non-upscaling DVD player. Your TV will pick up the upscaling work if the player doesn't, but a dedicated upscaling DVD should give better end results than having your TV do it. Also if it isn't HDMI (or a minimum component) it'll be a poor upscale by the TV.
7. non-HD television programming. 480i typically. Also not even reliably 16:9 aspect ratio. Your TV will hate this and make it look coated in Vaseline. It is to be avoided if at all possible.