Per The Verge:
Personally I've always loved the reliability of Apple products, but ever since Steve Jobs decided to refuse to acknowledge Blu-ray media there has been a sore spot festering in my feelings for the company.Jari K said:
In 2006, Blu-ray WAS a big whopping Bag O' Hurt. (Although I got in early with a PS3, and never had to wait 30 minutes for Pirates 2 to load.)Jari K said:
I know some kids in second grade who are younger than that quote.
The PS4 has been a HUGE success for Sony so far. It's selling like gangbusters. And Vita is doing pretty well, too. Unlike with the initial PS3 sales, the video games division of Sony is doing really well right now.Ejanss said:In 2006, Blu-ray WAS a big whopping Bag O' Hurt. (Although I got in early with a PS3, and never had to wait 30 minutes for Pirates 2 to load.)
It was Jobs' response at the time to why Apple didn't immediately leap on the Flashy New Trend on day One and make Blu drives standard on all iMacs, when even the standalone players couldn't get their act together for another two to three years.
And if a columnist has to dig up '06 comments about Blu-ray for appraisals of the '14 Blu industry, he's gonna pull a few arm tendons there reaching.
And I'm not sure why Sony's blaming Blu and 3D, when they already have the PSVita, the Playstation 4, too much 4K development for the industry's own good, and the fact that they haven't had a franchise or breakout movie hit in seven years. (It might, er, help if they stopped trying to push Resident Evil sequels as their own private action label, and it doesn't look like Spiderman's going to continue to be a longterm investment.)
Also forgot, if this was '06, think the quote would've been Jobs' response to industry frustrations of why Apple (and his new stake in Disney) were supporting Blu in the Blu-vs-HD war--since HDDVD would have given Microsoft the monopoly on movie coding, whereas Blu could be adapted to Apple's existing MP4--but seemed to be staying out of the hardware wars as conscientious objectors...Rather than give us the big news everyone was waiting and hoping for, ie. that Steve had "blessed" Blu by bringing in the new Apple killer-app that would win the war overnight.Ejanss said:
With redray now being used for filming some movies and the new televisions that will able to play redray on the horizon,it is no wonder that bluray will die out and be replaced.Dale MA said:Yeah, I've begun to look at Germany as a source for BDs.
To be honest, it's not the death of Blu-ray that worries me, it's more the thought that this is the death of physical media. There's also no decent replacement for it via digital means either. iTunes looks average in quality and you only "kind-of" own it once you've bought it, however the content pretty much dies with you. Netflix seems like the "go to" choice, however that's just rental at the end of the day, no ownership. I also kinda hate the idea that the average joe can access the exact same number of movies as us movies buffs, but that's the snob in me.
Here's a question, if Sony "pulled the plug" on Blu-ray would that mean the end of the format? I mean would other studios/independent labels be able to continue to release content on BD? Or do Sony have complete control of the format? I've never really looked into it and would be interested to know.
Also it's quite interesting that in the comments of that Verge article, the conversation has quickly turned to piracy. These people don't even want to pay for Netflix or an iTunes download. There's a thin line there, I think, and by that I mean that I think a large portion of the people who want BD "die", and for downloads/streaming to reign supreme, are also some of the people who are pirating movies. So you would think that the film industry would be a little more wary of a digital future. There's not much difference between a pirated digital file and a purchased one. However there's quite a massive difference between a pirated file and a Blu-ray Disc - one gives you the real sense of OWNERSHIP and I feel that's a good thing for both customer and studio.
