BluRay owners: Do you still buy regular DVDs?

Blu-ray uses "original aspect ratio". This means the bars will be there if the aspect ratio (width:height) is OTHER than 16:9 on an HDTV. So old 4:3 TV will have bars on the sides, and widescreen movies (1.85:1 or greater) will have bars on top and bottom.

As to quality, if the original TV show was on film it can be very high quality since film has higher resolution than 1080p. If on video it might or might not look great. But basically results vary since mastering can be done well or not so well.

As to whether I still buy DVDs ... yes. I choose Blu-ray when the subject matter and price warrant, but DVD (on a good upconverting player) is quite good enough for many dramas or comedies.

I have not purchase any DVD movies for well over 4 years now. Those bargain price DVD player do not do a good job up converting the signal to 1080P. Since I watch them on a 106" screen you can see a major difference from a DVD and Blu Ray disc movies. Keep in mind that you can not really see the difference between 720P and 1080P in screen smaller than a 46". I purchase my Blu Ray disc movies on Tuesday when they are release at Best Buy for around $19.99. Hope this will help you out.

You have actually asked several questions so let me try to answer them in order:

* No - I tend to not buy DVD's any more.

* DVD's carry the 70 year old TV standard. An old TV show shot in standard def will be in 4:3 ratio so there will be black-bars on the sides unless I use the zoom feature of my television. The image quality, after being used to HD video, looks 70 years old.

BUT: you get used to the image after a few minutes. I tend to not buy older TV shows but watch them on NetFlix which is compressed/below DVD quality. But I still enjoy the shows. I bounce between a 9" Android tablet next to my computer and my 43" bedroom system. I do see macro-block in dark areas of the screen on the big TV, but it's not horrible.

My advice is that you try Netflix streaming first instead of disk-buying.

Hope this helps.

Yes I do sometimes as some movies are not on blu ray yet or hard to find and any blu ray will upconvert the signal to the highest res possible.It doesnt look as good as blu ray but it looks real good on my 65in. I also have an oppo93 which has an amazing scaler but I do try to keep BR as my primary if possible.To be honest I rip alot from my brothers collection on my PC and it looks and plays amazing.That is the future,thats why Apple & ultrabooks dont have or soon wont have an optical drive.Im not calling BR dead yet,but streaming is as good and easier if you know what your doing when converting BR rips.

get the up-conversion dvd participant, it's going to make your videos look a lot nicer than they could on a established dvd participant. and yeah a hdmi cable will be mandatory in case you favor to demonstrate screen it in 720p, you need to actual get element plugs yet they arnt as solid as hdmi.

Yes. My blu ray player's upconverting is quite good, so the quality is acceptable.