Why Blu-ray or Hd-dvd will not be supported even with low player costs (1 Viewer)

[Damian Howard]

Once again it's that age old question. Will Joe Public buy HD? The answer at the moment is a resounding "no". Most people don't even know about HD/Blu-what? And even if they know they aren't bothered because the prices are to high at the moment. Not just players but the actual movies.

Also one major thing is unlike upgrading from the VHS tapes to DVD the quality of the picture/audio of HD although better than DVD is NOT nearly the leap of quality that DVD provided over VHS.

Simply put DVD has to much of a stranglehold on the market for HD on any format to push past the enhusiasts. Maybe if there was one format there could have been some progress in phasing out DVD's but this "war" is simply making most people thing "huh".

Besides although a lot of people are getting HD-Ready TV's how many are actually FULL HD-Ready. If you want people to see the benefits of HD then you need a TV what shows the transfer at it's best. Not just slightly better than SD.

 

[Bryan X]

I think so too. I think at the earliest, it will be 10 years before the technology is there and enough people actually have it to make it a viable alternative to physical discs.

This is why I also think Microsoft is not out to kill both HD DVD and Blu-ray in favor of downloads. They know, that at least in the near future, the download bandwith will just not be there for the vast majority of consumers. There's plenty of time for a format to fill the void between SD DVD and HD media.

I think Microsoft is in this to make sure Blu-ray fails. If Blu-ray became the defacto standard, when Microsoft releases their next generation of Xbox, they'd end up having to put a Blu-ray player in millions of game machines. They'd end up paying royalties to Sony for every Xbox they make. Not a pleasant thought, I'm sure.

If Blu-ray became the standard, what are they going to do? Put out an Xbox that can't play movies while the Playstation can?

So it's in their interest, I think, to back HD DVD and do everything they can to make Blu-ray fail.

 

[Brian L]

I agree completely. Any newbie that maybe had heard of HD Media would have a look at this Sunday's Best Buy ad in think, NO THANKS.

Cheap players will help, but I like to think that content is king, and cheap content rules all.

But what do we have today? The cheapest title of either format in the BB circular is $24.99. The most expensive (excluding box sets) $34.99! Surely, we can all get better prices online (I tend to favor Amazon with my 10% discount and free shipping), but not everyone lives an online existence.

The problem is that prices like that send the wrong message to the buying public, and do nothing to help the adoption of HD media.

Brian

 

[DeanWG]

Oh yes . . . anyone also remember 800.com? They ran a promo of three DVD for a buck. Since it was early enough in the process, I think I found about a dozen people that would allow me to have discs orders under their name and shipped to them. It's amazing to me that nearly 10% of my library might have come from this promo. (And obviously for them, it didn't work too well.

 

[Dan_Ohio]

I know a flipper disc will never be adobted by the consumer. Flippers were used in the past for DVDs and failed. People don't know what side to play, kids have trouble. Flippers are a step backwards. It be better to include two discs than have a flipper.

If people are hoping that flippers will end the war they better not hold their breath.

 

[Dan_Ohio]

Brian, I could not agree more. This war has nothing to do with which format is better and has everything to do with two battling companies that want us to choose. The majority will sit on the sideline and choose neither. If they do choose then they will use the player as a DVD player mainly and might buy some of the titles.

Here is an opinion back from June 2006 and we are no further along. http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...lready-failed/

 

[Jason Seaver]

Maybe "biding time" wasn't the right term to use, and I don't doubt that Toshiba, Sony, etc., all really want to establish their formats as the standard, but I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand. Within a few years, flash memory will be cheap enough to be competitive with optical formats, SD is already pretty close to a standard, and it's in everything. If the dust hasn't settled here, why wouldn't some enterprising distributor start seeing if there's a market for movies on a chip, what with the portability and interoperability advantages it offers? Especially independents. You already see a few music groups offering their albums on flash drives.

So instead of "biding time", say "marking time"... The next medium might not be disc-based or download-based, and flash memory might be the sort of conceptual leap that DVD was, and thus more convincing than the mere incremental upgrade that the two optical formats appear to be.

 

[troy evans]

One point, the leap from VHS to DVD= 2x the standard resolution of VHS. The leap from DVD to HD DVD or Bluray=4x to 6x the resolution of SD DVD. That's a big difference in picture quality alone, not to mention the sound improvement, which is more arguable to some as far as a difference.

 

[Paul_Scott]

doesn't matter if it isn't percieved as a 'need'. Which at this point in time, it isn't.
I forgot about the fact that replacing catalog titles on DVD also meant getting them in widescreen for the majority of consumers. Having come from LD, this was a standard for me already, but it was something new for most other people (a sizable protion of whom didn't want it either).
But ultimately I think it was a plethora of convienences that propelled the transition from VHS- things like space savings (especially huge for 20 and 30 something buyer who may be relocating more frequently), no rewind, immediate access, etc etc.
Studios may think that next gen features are going to sell these things, but I doubt it. Eventually average people will come to appreciate the improved pic and sound, but that is going to be after a thourough soaking in HD content via broadcast/cable/sat for several years post the 2009 change over.
Nothing is going to accelerate this. HDMs are just not going to be a compelling draw beyond the enthusiasts and quasi enthusiasts for the next several years.

So in that sense, I agree that low priced players aren't going to make a big difference. Low priced & larger displays are going to have a much bigger impact, and we are talking about sales over the next couple of years, not just this Christmas. This is the one area where Blu-ray has ...not a dis-advantage, because by the time the general population is ready and interested...they will be at sub $200 price points.
HD DVD will have been there first though, and fopr a while which would make Bd at that point irrelevant (from their standpoint of course).
Low priced players now, and day and date combos only for big new releases from here on out could make that happen

Bryan, is that a Tunisian Koo in your sig?

 

[Bryan X]

Yes, that is Koo. Too bad Camie's scenes got cut, she was a cutie.

 

[TravisR]

I don't know if I'm frightened or impressed that someone else even knows who Camie is.