HD is dead – NOT

Just over a year ago, the home entertainment industry announced that Blu-ray disc had won the competition to be the delivery medium for High Definition video recordings. People who remembered the protracted competition between VHS and Betamax videotape breathed a sigh of relief.

Now, less than 12 months later, doomsayers in the business are predicting the demise of Blu-ray.

Why? Well it has nothing to do with the inherent quality of Blu-ray – the visual impact when you see your wedding video on Blu-ray is stunning – a real “blows your socks off” sensation. The reason DVD is maintaining its popularity appears to be a combination of technology and economics.

The economics are simple; whilst the least expensive Blu-ray disc players in the UK still cost around £120.00, DVD players are available for less than £10.00.  More importantly, Blu-ray discs are still significantly more expensive than DVDs for no reason other than the big players in the industry seem intent on squeezing every last penny out of their investment in Blu-ray discs. If films released on Blu-ray disc retailed at the same price as on DVD it would give the sale of Blu-ray players a huge boost.

If that wasn’t enough, the technologists have been improving the quality they can obtain from a DVD by “up-scaling”. DVD players with “up-scaling” circuitry convert the output from the DVD player so that it gives the best results when shown on an HD-Ready or Full HD television screen. And those results really are excellent, particularly if the wedding video has been recorded and edited using true High Definition equipment, as we at PHP Weddings always do.

But let’s be quite clear, “up-scaled” DVDs are not High Definition.

In High Definition on Blu-ray disc, the image quality of our programmes shown on a Full HD screen is truly amazing, the question is whether it’s worth investing in a Blu-ray player and Full HD television today.

Happily, it’s a decision PHP Weddings’ clients don’t have to make because as of 2012 we include one Blu-ray and four first generation DVDs in our single-price service. At the same time we archive all our programmes as High Definition so if, in a few years time, today’s pundits have been proved wrong and Blu-ray is still around, our clients can buy additional Blu-ray and DVD copies of their wedding programmes. With PHP Wedding Video Productions you get the best of both worlds!

Image quality too good!

We learned the other day that a wedding video company in South Manchester recently left one of its customers very unhappy – because the quality of their images was too good.

In fact their images are no better than anyone else’s, but they’d chosen to show the client her wedding video on their premises, played in from their editing computer on their TV monitor. The trouble arose when the programme was converted to a DVD and the client played it on her own equipment at home. Because it didn’t look the same she felt she’d been tricked.

It’s a story that underlines the importance we at PHP Weddings place on having all our programme viewings at our clients homes, on our clients’ equipment. We promise that our customers will not be disappointed and that means taking the trouble to burn a disk for the viewing and showing it on the equipment on which the client will eventually play the finished DVD.

That doesn’t mean our clients always have the latest gear, far from it. What it does mean is that if any question of image quality arises (and it never has, honestly!) we can explain the reason and, if asked, are able to offer some unbiased solutions.