3. I really dont see any problem with blu-ray at the moment. Its still new. and no, its not a waste on computers. People said the same when DVD drives started to show up on computers, Watching videos on the computer? thats what the tv is for" but look at them now. Like I said, it will get better as time goes on, not only for the TV, but for the computer. We will start to see more blu-ray burners. And guess what? The ones complaning will be the ones getting it. Its always end up like that. They will also say "nope, that won't happen" but just watch...
So explain something. Those screaming :"blu-ray will die soon!" are you saying it will die as a whole or just on computers? because if you are saying as a whole, then look back at what you said about DVDs, VHS, etc.. Those took almost 10, 15 years to end up "dieing" and VHS, just died not to long ago, after more then 30 years. DVD is still in its mid years...
Yes, it will die, but not anytime soon... I think blu-ray may be the longest living formatt, with small improvements here and there..... HD is the thing now, weather you like it or not
Hi Chris,
I think BR is going to die as a whole...very soon unless prices drop incredibily. I will attempt to write a short column so here goes:
Personally, I think if BR doesn't take off by mid 2009, it will die a death similar to Sony's MiniDisc in the 90's.
I bought a PS3 in Jan 2008 mainly because it had a BR drive built in. It came with 4 free movies which was nice.
I feel the following problems are huge and need to be rectified:
1)Movie prices too high: The BR movie titles are like $18-24 since about June 2008. Prior to that date, I was able to buy them all over the place for about $14 as they tried to lure people into choosing BR over HDDVD. So now that BR has won, they jack the prices up?
2)Only movies created after 1999 AND THAT ARE ACTION PACKED are really necessary on BR format. Think about it...are you gonna plunk down $24 for a BR version of When Harry Met Sally when your $8.99 DVD on your $89 up-converting DVD player is already as good as it will ever get? If the films weren't recorded in high def, then essentially there is no reason to buy high def (better than dvd quality) versions of the film. It just doesn't make sense.
3)The players are still too expensive. Let's see, $299 for the bottom of the barrel player. BR has been out for years yet Sony (and essentially their patents) and friends are charging way too much to simply play a movie. Oh, and likely they do not include HDMI cables in the box (which many stores rape you $100 or more for an HDMI cable that you can buy for $20 online)...without HDMI, what's the point? So the up front cost is quite high when you factor in the unit and the cable. Then consider that you will need/want to update your movies which are all very expensive (again, compare an old 80s or 90s movie on dvd format vs. BR...not the latest release blockbusters where the dvd and BR will be closer).
I think Sony's in a heap of trouble as they won "the war" a year ago almost to this date and yet I know nobody (I mean that quite literally) that owns a BR player. Prices are too high for both movies and a player (especially considering the movies were cheaper during the BR HDDVD war AND that a year has passed), there is a recession, and generally I think people feel that this is just another format scam like the music biz has been doing for the past 80 years (vinyl, 8-track, cassette, cd, minidisc, hi-def audio)...as you point out about upgrading from VHS to DVD...think of all the reasons to upgrade back then from vhs to dvd...no more tape, thinner, no accidental erasings, more durable, etc...just like cd over cassette. So you have all these people who converted from cassette to cd and the same benefits exist if they upgrade from vhs to dvd. Now you are asking the consumer base to upgrade from dvd to bluray...on the surface, there are far FEWER reasons to upgrade. Quality of the picture is the only reason. Now factor in all the pricing, the expensive tv that must be there to show the new quality, the $100 HDMI cable that they will need to buy, etc. Oh, and throw in a world recesssion and the fact that 368 days after "the hi def war" was won, Sony still has the same players at the same expensive prices with $25+ movie pricetags. Take all of these points into consideration.
I believe the picture quality combined with the simplicity of HDMI are huge wins for BR...but time is ticking...it's only a matter of 2-3 years before movies will somehow stream to your television (which brings up an interesting topic of how well that will take off since people like to "own" physical things). Netflix has joined forces with some company that offers a $99 set-top-box that will stream high def movies to your tv. I may look into that...I didn't like Netflix because 60% of the movies I rented looked like an adult skated on them down a 50 foot driveway. But hey, if I can stream them at a great price, cya later BR.
-Eric
