View Full Version : Is Blu-ray doomed to fail
Media sales are dropping double digit percentages week-to-week and stand-alone unit sales have been in the toilet since the format was announced. On top of that is the fact that Sony is just sitting on their *** being as lazy as possible about cutting costs and lowering prices. 18 months ago the best Blu-ray player for the money was the PS3 and as I type this right now the best Blu-ray player is still the PS3. When the best Blu-ray player has been $400 for well over a year there is a serious problem.
I can't imagine Blu-ray being the dominant format five years from now. Ever since Toshiba threw in the towel on HD-DVD Sony has done pretty much nothing. They declared themselves the winner of the next-gen format war and called it quites completely forgetting about the 800 pound gorilla that is the current format, DVD.
I'm calling it. Meet your true next-gen media format. Access speeds are on the slow end right now which would probably make for choppy playback but they will get better. Intel has some really cool technology in their SSD's that could be useful in this arena to dramatically increase read speeds.
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/7131_Ultra%20II%20SDHC_%5Blo%5D_32GB.jpg
hunterbunter
11-15-2008, 01:15 AM
BluRay dvds are too damn expensive. They need to start lowering prices.
jtk1519
11-15-2008, 01:29 AM
SSD should have been the technology of the future from the very beginning. Disks are becoming increasingly obsolete.
FWIW, on "Black Friday", Wal-Mart will be selling a Magnavox Blu-ray player for $128.
hunterbunter
11-15-2008, 01:41 AM
Even when you're renting BluRay dvds you end up paying more! Its freakin ********
SSD should have been the technology of the future from the very beginning. Disks are becoming increasingly obsolete.
FWIW, on "Black Friday", Wal-Mart will be selling a Magnavox Blu-ray player for $128.
The sad thing is that not only is that an awful player with really crappy load times but Walmart was selling $99 HD-DVD players last year (with two free movies in the box, five free in the store, and five free in the mail mind you) before AND after black Friday.
Disks are becoming obsolete but Blu-rays outrageous price has completely crippled it. Had HD-DVD won the "format war" I think they would actually be giving DVD a run for their money.
slorch
11-15-2008, 11:12 AM
BluRay dvds are too damn expensive. They need to start lowering prices.
This.
The price is just freaking stupid.
slorch
11-15-2008, 11:12 AM
SSD should have been the technology of the future from the very beginning. Disks are becoming increasingly obsolete.
FWIW, on "Black Friday", Wal-Mart will be selling a Magnavox Blu-ray player for $128.
and for the same amount, you can get 4 movies to watch...:rolleyes:
jtk1519
11-15-2008, 11:17 AM
You can rent Bu-Rays through Netflix.
slorch
11-15-2008, 11:26 AM
You can rent Bu-Rays through Netflix.
probably at RedBox too, for $7 a movie...:rolleyes:
( just kidding, but damn they gouge you on the blue-ray)
Firebird
11-15-2008, 11:35 AM
The problem with Blu-Ray is that it isn't enough of an upgrade. To the average person, DVD looks pretty damn good and sounds pretty damn good, and you aren't going to spend the premium for a relatively minor upgrade. I see Blu-Ray as going the way of the Laser Disc (remember those?). People will stick with DVD the way they did with VHS forever until the next true breakthrough comes about.
RocklandDragon
11-15-2008, 12:02 PM
The sad thing is that not only is that an awful player with really crappy load times but Walmart was selling $99 HD-DVD players last year (with two free movies in the box, five free in the store, and five free in the mail mind you) before AND after black Friday.
Disks are becoming obsolete but Blu-rays outrageous price has completely crippled it. Had HD-DVD won the "format war" I think they would actually be giving DVD a run for their money.
I think that's true. HD-DVD's were cheaper and I did see a signifigant difference in color and sharpness in the presentation of the movie. But, HD-DVD just didn't catch on and the fact that the PS3 has an installed Blu-Ray player hurt the HD-DVD format badly.
Blu-Ray discs are way too expensive. There is no reason for them to be this high when the DVD's cost so much less. Even though I do think there is a good difference between Blu-Ray and DVD images, it is not worth $10 or $15 more!
A 32GB Disk card would be cool.
:cool:
The problem with Blu-Ray is that it isn't enough of an upgrade. To the average person, DVD looks pretty damn good and sounds pretty damn good, and you aren't going to spend the premium for a relatively minor upgrade. I see Blu-Ray as going the way of the Laser Disc (remember those?). People will stick with DVD the way they did with VHS forever until the next true breakthrough comes about.
The problem is with diminishing returns. Pixel densities and resolution are a huge jump from DVD but they are so dense already that you need a large 1080p television to truly see the difference and even then to some people is isn't worth the extra money.
VHS Resolution: 330x480
****Super VHS: 560x480, not ever really a standard format.
DVD: 720x480
Blu-Ray: 1920x1080
Optical media needs to go. You are stuck at a certain resolution until a new format comes out and then you need to buy all your favorite movies all over again, optical media is fragile and prone to scratching and becoming worthless, and the load times suck pretty bad and always will when compared to SS media.
I think that's true. HD-DVD's were cheaper and I did see a signifigant difference in color and sharpness in the presentation of the movie. But, HD-DVD just didn't catch on and the fact that the PS3 has an installed Blu-Ray player hurt the HD-DVD format badly.
Blu-Ray discs are way too expensive. There is no reason for them to be this high when the DVD's cost so much less. Even though I do think there is a good difference between Blu-Ray and DVD images, it is not worth $10 or $15 more!
A 32GB Disk card would be cool.
:cool:
HD-DVDs were cheaper because they were so much cheaper and easier to produce. Not only that but most HD-DVDs had a DVD version on the other side to entice people who didn't yet have an HD-DVD player to go ahead and buy the movie on HD-DVD because if you flip it over there was a DVD version. It was a really good idea.
The PS3 having a Blu-ray player is what did it in. Gamers bought the PS3 to play games and having Blu-ray was an added bonus so they went out and bought Blu-ray movies. HD-DVD absolutely clobbered Blu-ray in terms of stand-alone player sales. When you are counting on a gaming machine for your movie sales you have a problem.
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