You're right. There's not *that* much difference between Sky HD movies and Blu-ray, either. I think you might see more of a difference on a larger panel, such as a 65".

The key difference is probably the sound. You tend to get uncompressed audio on a Blu-ray, whereas it's standard Dolby Digital 5.1 in a compressed downloadable movie.

Mind you, I wanted IronMan the other day, on a standard definition disc, and the video and audio quality made me wonder if Blu-ray discs were absolutely necessary? IronMan on SD was £3.98, whereas it's still £13 on Blu-ray.

i agree re blu ray , i've actually stopped buying them as the last few were mediocre at best in regards to picture quality

i downloaded a few sd , not even hd , apple movies the other day and was very pleasantly surprised , all came with numbered thumbnail chapters , rather good picture and very good 5.1 audio

On a 40" television, I have to agree, the difference in picture quality is not very important, but can easily be seen with fast movements or light variations of color such as smoke, where the image always gets pixelated.
But when I turn on the videoprojector, Itunes HD is just poor quality compared to Blu Ray.

Concerning sound, Blu ray wins hands on, it's a totally different experience.

The problem with iTunes movies is that it's also extremely expensive when you compare to a video rental shop which rents blu ray for 1 to 2€ here.

Now : why spending so much on a B&O cinema system just to see iTunes movies on it? It's like listening to 128kb/s MP3s on Beolab 5!

Maybe I have amazing super eyesight and hearing (doubtful), but you have to be kidding, right!  There is a *big* difference in both picture and sound quality between Blu-ray disc and iTunes "HD" movies. Even discounting the argument that iTunes movies are 720 (not "full" HD) resolution (in any case my 42" Pioneer plasma TV is only 768), the higher bitrate of Blu-ray means noticably better picture quality. And the sound is uncompressed on Blu-ray, the difference in sound quality very evident even with non-HD soundtracks. I have a very nice Blu-ray player, Pioneer LX71, and a nice TV, but the difference should be clear on any reasonable setup (unfortunately I haven't yet seen the BV7 Blu-ray, I gave up waiting for it and went with non-B&O!).

iTunes is very convenient, and slick, and definitely meets a need (and I use it sometimes) bit nowhere near Blu-ray in quality terms. I suspect that's why Apple are reportedly about to embrace the "bag of hurt" and include Blu-ray playback on future machines.  

Blu-ray will likely have a limited lifespan (as has been discussed on BeoWorld before), as it'll be irrelevant once full resolution, high bitrate, uncompressed files can be practicably downloaded. But that won't be anytime soon, at least not in the UK!

Hello All

Just my 2p!

I have been watching blueray movies on my BV7 for a while now and i was ripping my DVD collection to HDD for streaming to Apple TV when the other day i watch an SD DVD.

After and during this film i was shocked at how i had become so used to the blueray quality that i will never go back to SD now.

The difference amazing.

The only problem i have with the 9K bv7 is that you get panning on the screen and projector when in cinema mode.

Greg wrote:

Maybe I have amazing super eyesight and hearing (doubtful), but you have to be kidding, right!  There is a *big* difference..

You are right, there's a difference for fast-moving objects. Some of the so-called 'HD' TV programmes are far worse than the same TV programme on BBC HD. Colours a lot more washed out. However, get a very good very recent SD DVD and on my BV7-40 MKIV, the internal Blu-ray player makes a very decent job in upscaling.

However, there's also a *big* difference in price. How many times do we watch movies? Rarely more than 3 times, even for the best movie. With this in mind, spending £14 for 'top quality' is ridiculous. Worse, Blu-ray discs are rarely discounted below £10, whereas most SD DVDs are £5 within 6 months of release. I often see SD DVDs for a fiver, whereas the same Blu-ray is still nearly £15 - three times more expensive.

I must have about forty Blu-ray movies and released that's about £600 of discs sitting on the shelves. Unless you're a footballer or won the lottery, Blu-rays are just overkill.

I don't agree :

You can rent blu rays for a very low price, and more importantly, you can RESELL blu rays, or buy them second hand... So the price can be LOWER than crappy HD on iTunes!

thing i like aboot the dloads is the lack of so called special features and the uber complex interfaces that most bd's exhibit

i just want to see a film - nothing more

no interviews with the second lighting cameraman in swahili in 4 x 3 from 1974 thank you

What do you have against swahili?

Maybe worth checking the settings for the projection connection.

A cinematographer I know, and who is very critical of image quality, connected the best of the InFocus projectors to his AppleTV, via HMDI, and decided not to build a Blu-ray library. Sound is vastly superior on BD - IF the movie company has taken the bother and not just upsampled from a regular mix.