Page 1 of 9 reasons why Blu-ray will succeed - Interesting article worth a read!!

Interesting article on CNET (its from an American viewpoint, but still valid!)

Makes some very interesting points against digital downloads, and for once its some positive press on BD`s rather than the usual pointless negative comments i tend to read on google news on my lunch break!

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-10142913-82.html




I don`t want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying.
Woody Allen

Nice article. But you will still find people (some on here in fact) who will argue that DVDs are still `good enough`.

Anyway, with a UK spin on it, I can see BD succeeding (over downloads/streaming) because our broadband connections are predominantly ADSL based and not good enough to get a decent (HD) based show/movie down the little copper wires.

Virgin`s cable infrastructure can probably (may already be?) cope with it fine, but I`m sure that they will not be happy about the bandwidth such services would consume (unless they provide the content servers on their own network of course).

Then there`s the killer factor - most people like a physical product. If you buy to own of course (rather than rent).
Especially when spending over a certain amount (e.g. £5). For example, I`m happy enough to spend £3 on Amazon getting a MP3 album, but when it gets to £7 I would just rather have the physical CD. Its that feeling of value for money - which you probably won`t get from downloads over that certain value.

I can also see it taking over from DVDs when ....like all good supply/demand graphs show...the price drops a little more (as its already doing and as they mention in the article). And as it does that and adoption of BD over DVD gets stronger, the price drops a little further and so on.

Anyway, let`s get ready for the posts arguing that upscaled DVDs are perfectly fine and that there`s "no point" in buying into BD.

"Build a man a fire, and he`ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he`ll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.

This item was edited on Thursday, 15th January 2009, 13:46

Cue Mr Basebat...

The only time I`ve seen a blu ray player was in HMV playing Spiderman 3, and it did look ace, and I`d agree that it looks miles better than an upscaled dvd ever could.

However, my personal opinion of blu ray is that whilst it looks great, at the moment for me it`s not worth the cost.

I don`t doubt BD can`t be amazing, it`s just that besides the new films (and the ones they remaster), how many are going to take full advantage? How many DVDs have you got in your collection that truly get the most out of the DVD technology?

And whilst there are still releases like T2 where common consensus is that it`s not much better than DVD, it`s only going to dissuade the public further.

Prices can be cut as much as they like, if (at present) it costs £12.99 for Run Fatboy Run on BD but it`s under a fiver on DVD, then I`d get the DVD, even if I had a BD player as I wouldn`t really care about picture and sound quality on a comedy to spend nearly triple the price on it.

UQ Web Design ¦ Offensive 101

I don`t know what you`ve been reading, but T2 is much better than the DVD.

Every review I`ve read of it (since it`s my fave film it was one I looked at to tempt me to buy a player) stated it was a very disappointing transfer and not much better than the DVD, same goes for the HD-DVD version that had previously been released.

Looking at the pics here if they`re a close enough representation (I know they`re not full res etc but just as a guide) then I`m not as impressed as with other comparisons I`ve seen.

I`m just trying to give an unbiased view and maybe a sense of what the general public thinks with regard to BD in general. If you`ve got a player and know better then you`re obviously in a different position to me and the majority of the public.

UQ Web Design ¦ Offensive 101

This item was edited on Thursday, 15th January 2009, 17:00

Hmm, I`ve just scanned three reviews from the leading US HD sites and they all gave it positive reviews in the video department. There`s also more than one version of Terminator 2 and the UK release looks better than the US disc. Those screen shots you linked to aren`t really a good example, because the black levels are completely off, although personally I still think they`re a big improvement over the DVD. Trust me, I reviewed the UK release last year and it`s a very nice, film-like transfer with few artefacts and the DTS-HD Master Audio is great. It doesn`t look like it was made yesterday, but then again it wasn`t.

This item was edited on Thursday, 15th January 2009, 18:28

I`d say, as I did way back when they both first released the units "BluRay will succeed, HD DVD will end up dead"
HD DVD because it was a seperate player or an add on, and didn`t seem to have as much upgradeability (issat a word!? lol) as Blu Ray (that may have changed after I left, I didn`t keep up)
BluRay was installed in every PS3.
You couldn`t buy a PS3 without BluRay so it in itself would ensure a customer base.

If HD DVD or streaming HD media was going to overtake BD then I`d bet Sony would just hammer down the price of the PS3 to ensure BD wins each time.
I would never have gone out and bought a BD player but I did buy a PS3, one of the major factors being it had BD playback.
That and it was now sub-300. In my case, £350 got me PS3, 2 games, Guitar Hero Legends pack, 3 movies and a BD controller.

Oh, and I didn`t read the article, but I`d say that should top the list as to why BD will succeed.... I`ll go read it now though ;)

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

Have to laugh at on of the first comments on the article. He`s bought a PS3 and is not happy.

But then starts ranting

Quote:
The PS3 games suck. This is supposed to be an entertainment unit right? Not just a video game console? When I have guests over, I would like to enjoy some local multiplayer games with them. Most of the multiplayer games are the same old console deathmatch garbage that has been around for years. This is fine for kids playing the game console daddy bought them, but for an adult to shell out $400 or more for the system, $200 for accessories and another couple hundred for games this is not the type of game you`d want from an "entertainment unit". To this day the best "entertainment unit" I`ve ever seen is the old Amiga computer system. This had games for multiplayer, sequential (or turn based) multiplayer, split-screen multiplayer and awesome games for multiple people to play in a living room. Even the old Nintendo and Atari systems did a better job. I don`t know about you, but my guests don`t bring a PS3 system with them when they come over.

So basically he wanted an Amiga that was also a Blu Ray player instead? :D


It`ll be interesting to see what happens with prices though. I`ve still not got interest in Blu Ray because of the prices of discs. General consensus seems to be that 2 for £20 is still a good deal (well they are always posted on deal forums).

Dvd`s are just to cheap in comparison for me, as I never buy a dvd new (would say I`ve only ever bought 3dvds out of 500odd within the week of release). This is because they have always been half the price in months. Now they are getting even cheaper, even quicker.

No Country For Old Men and quite a lot of other new films have been £4 over christmas.

I think it`s when the older releases start to come down in price that that will make a big diffference. New dvd releases are still about £10/13 at the moment so paying £16 for a brand new one doesn`t seem like a big price increase for the improvement in quality etc.

To spend rhat much though I`d really have to want to see it or actually thought the film was brilliant, which doesn`t happen often each year and all the old films that I like I would already own on dvd.

As soon as they reduce Blu Ray though, you`d expect a decrease in dvd prices, increase in offers etc. which does mean that although Blu Ray will be here for the long haul, it is going to be a slow transition.

The lack of knowledge by general public is also a big thing that is brought up in the article, as people don`t know what Blu Ray actually is apart from it`s some kind thing for HD films. I agree that HD-DVD was probably a better name in the fact that everyone now says I want a HD ready telly etc so the connection is easier to make.

Plus I`ve been asked loads of times if Blu Ray players will play still play normal dvds. I`ve heard of someone who`s been advised in Curry`s that they don`t :o

www.last.fm/user/1mills

Quote:
I`ve heard of someone who`s been advised in Curry`s that they don`t

Just the same old s*** advice that `some` (and its not all of them) of the DSG Group/Currys employees give.
I`ve had a few people now ask me whether the PS3 is backwards compatible with the PS2 games because the people in GAME (They should know better!) and Dixons/PCWorld etc. have told them they are (we`re talking new 40GB models).

Its rc[at]p advice like that which makes adopting new technologies a real struggle for a lot of people.

Saying that, they (Joe Public) could easily find the information they needed with a simple & quick Google search ;)

"Build a man a fire, and he`ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he`ll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.