05-05-2008, 07:09 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,076
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I'm in the camp that doesn't see sufficient difference between a standard DVD and Blu-Ray to justify the extra cost. It's not just the cost of the player, but the movies are also quite a bit more expensive.
When we transitioned from VHS to DVD, I saw a huge improvement not only in picture quality, but also in convenience. The discs didn't have to be rewound, you didn't have to worry about poor or worn tape that had tracking problems, they were smaller and easier to store, etc. All of these made the DVD experience worlds better than tape. Blu-Ray can only provide a better picture along with increased add-ons or extras. Most people I know don't even look at the extras on standard DVD's. Having more of those certainly isn't going inspire someone to spend the bucks necessary to change. Also, I think a lot of people classify a better picture as a nice to have, rather than have to have. I've shown lot's of friends HD channels on TV, but it hasn't always inspired them to go out and buy a new TV or to subscribe to HD programming.
I also think that there is a trend among the generation Y crowd to rely more and more upon online downloads. With Apple providing HD content via download, and announcing release the same time as DVD's I think more and more people are going to look at the convenience of downloads and move away from the hardware/disc model. In the past, it was often 20-30 year olds that would push new technology trends, now those people are downloading their content and probably aren't as interested in paying $300 for a player.
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05-05-2008, 07:29 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,781
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BD is stalled for three simple reasons:
1- Pricing: consumers saw HD-DVD players go for well under $200 last fall and movies for well under $20. Sony and co saw fit to raise prices back up to $400 and $35 respectively in one fell swoop. And then let it be known they won't come down to $200 until late '09. If at all. Way to rub it in guys!
2- Spec-mania: the BD Spec is still not a finished product. And most players on the market are not upgradable. By now the word on the street is either get a PS3 or wait for BD 2.X players. Which, not coincidentally, likely won't show up until '09.
3- BD is stalled. Sony has lost format wars against zero opposition before. So when the press reports that BD isn't selling, wise consumers decide to wait until it sells. So BD stalls because BD is stalled. Which is a nice bit of turnaround cause BD was winning because the press said it was going to win, not on any technical merit.
Self-fullfilling prophecies run both ways.
It is not impossible that the real winner will turn out to be CH-DVD...
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05-05-2008, 10:36 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 124
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I have my PS3 and a handful of movies. I am doing my part.
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Dilbertism: I don't have an attitude problem, you have a perception problem.
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05-05-2008, 10:41 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 849
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I disagree about needing 1080p for Blu-ray. In fact, I would argue just the opposite - 720p is more than sufficient to notice a stark difference between DVD and Blu-ray (we're talking a 3x increase in overall resolution), but moving to 1080p for most people won't result in any appreciable difference over 720p. If you have a large enough screen, of course, you will see the difference, but I don't think a 50" set is going to take advantage of the extra resolution.
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05-06-2008, 02:23 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 23,595
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Blu-ray is dead. Long live Blu-ray! 
It's funny how this all played out. I think one of the reasons I preferred HD-DVD was that it was the format that had to work harder to win because it was the underdog, and for that reason I think it ended up being a better overall format in terms of price, performance, etc. But it's dead, and in it's place we have Blu-ray, where:
- The players are still quite expensive
- The DVDs are still quite expensive (the REAL killer)
- The spec isn't finalized
So, like many of you here, I'm going to wait a bit before throwing my $$$ into the ring - the player and movie prices need to come WAY down before I'll plunk down my cash.
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05-06-2008, 06:17 PM
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05-07-2008, 03:29 PM
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05-12-2008, 07:55 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 89
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 I think the future of disks will be blu-ray.
Once it becomes cheap, I think it will defeat cds and dvds
I heard that blu-ray is also coming in dual layer, Am I right ??
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