Indian Movies on Blu-ray

Folks,
Looks like Saawariya is finally going to be the first indian movie on blu-ray with a release date of 6 May 08.
Here is the link:
Blu-ray.com - Saawariya (Blu-ray)

That's right.

EROS is also planning to release 500 titles on BluRay starting with "Heyy Baby" (don't ask me why this movie ).

I read somewhere that even Om Shanti Om is expected on BluRay soon.

Thanks,
Sharad

The clarity on a blu-ray is only as good as the source material and the mastering process ( give or take video processing from chips like Realta, Reon etc). If Eros uses old VHS tapes to master films onto Blu-ray media.. we all know only too well how good the clarity is going to be.
Even with our existing DVD media, we can easily make out the picture/sound quality difference between indian made DVD's and western prints on DVDs..
Folks in the western world take as much processing care for their dvd's as they would for their movies.
Unfortunately, i need to see that on the Indian movie world. This not intended as bollywood bashing.. We earnestly pray that bollywood, tollywood, kollywood whatever improve on their technical commitments to their consumers.

Finally, since Saawariya was extensively draped in " Blue"( pun intended).. it is only appropriate that it gets the honor of the first blu-ray :-)

1400 bucks for a movie & that too Saawariya?
Scratch, scratch !!!!! ( on the head,guys!!!)

EROS Says:
Driven by its mission to provide the greatest quality... HEYY BABYY has been mastered directly from the negative digital source...

So the scene is not all that bad, but I would still keep my expectations low.
The disk is already up for sale for Rs999/-. So someone who has a BluRay player can try it out and let us know.

Thanks,
Sharad

I hope Indian companies will take the initiative to release not just new titles on Blu-ray but also the classics like Sholay, Pyaasa, Shree 420, etc. I don't care for any of the new movies so it would be a pity if this is not done.

I could not agree more. It feels like a gamble whenever I buy indian DVDs (usually I buy from Music World (Hyderabad) or Food World or Trinethra super market). The quality of the DVD whether it is an old or a new movie is never predicatle.

Is there a good yardstick that I can go by, like all the DVDs from EROS are good, etc.

My problem is enhanced by the fact the I use a projector to view these movies (same HD70 mentioned by someone else in earlier posts) and the experience totally depends on the quality of the DVD.

Looking forward to Blu-Ray discs. But how much does a typical Blu-Ray player costs in India? (I know PS3 is around 25,000 Rs.)

Ravi

The Sony BDP-S300 costs about 30,000 (not too bad a markup from its US $500 MRP) and is probably one of the cheapest on the market but lacks Dolby TrueHD & DTS HD-MA decoding. Current blu-ray players are still plagued by painfully slow load times but firmware released by the manufacturer should solve this problem in future. It may not hurt to hold out for a while as improvements are made and problems solved.

PS3 is the best bet in terms of VFM. Plus points are less loading time, less depreciation [compares to other players] and capable of outputting LPCM 7.1 over HDMI.

And ofcourse as a bonus it's a gaming machine too

When are regular indian movies in high def going to be a reality?

I believe now the industry is leaning towards blu ray. HD-VMD is dead before it could get a headstart.
I bet Sony with its million dollar resources won't let any other format prevail.

Although once indian movies in good number are released in blu ray it should bring production costs down making it more affordable to the regular folks.