The future of bluray

[Racer X]

I just wanted to get your opinions on the future of this format. I have been reading some outlandish articles on the net recently. Over on znet there were saying that Bluray will go the way of laserdisc. He went on to claim that the loading times were slow,(he also noted that he was using a "budget" player...hmmm.)I have never had this issue with my ps3. I think that bluray is great product( i own about 30-40 discs),but they do need to drop the prices. One other thing that the article claims that the players weren't selling that well. I disgree on two fronts. I'm a cable technican, i have seen more bluray players in peoples home in the last few months than when the dvd format was launched. Also, my wife is a manager at a Best buy in our area, she said that the players are flying off the shelves. Go figure. Anyway I'd like some feedback. :D

[Nick August]

I doubt they'll go the way of laserdiscs,the picture quality of Blu-ray is just too good,They do need to lower the prices though,most titles are still too high but when the prices drop more people will buy them.And they need to're-think' the cases too!,they're too flimsy!..I had 4 cases cracked so far that I had to exchange.I'm waiting for more classic releases this year.

[krammer]

Blu-Ray will likely remain niche ala Laserdisc status for quite awhile.

I have over 1000 titles now so I'm not worried about its future or net rumours likely coming from people who are disgruntled that their HD DVD format didn't take off instead. Now that that format is gone people are concerned BD needs to compete with DVD.

Rubish. Laserdisc did more than fine for 20 or so years next to VHS. I expect the same trend will continue here.

Unfortunately prices will also remain high until Blu gets more mainstream.

[jspartan]

Consider these important points...

Blu-ray was released in Late 2006. The format has been growing for two years. Every major and minor distributor now supports Blu-ray Disc.

DVD was released in Late 1996. Every major and minor distributor supported DVD in 2000.

Blu-ray Disc Players sell for as low as $150 just two years into the format.

DVD Players sold for as low as $399 two years into the format.

My problem with these articles is that you have people expecting too much from studios and manufacturers.

You want a reality check?

I was in a Goodwill and saw Betamax tapes with the original sticker price on them.

Were they $4.99? Nope

They had to be $19.99, right? Not a frickin' chance.

Okay, $24.99 has the most? Ha! Try again.

No, they couldn't be $39.99. Could they? Yep. $40.

VHS tapes sold to rentals outlets were anywhere from $79.99 to $99.99 depending on the title. Sell through tapes intended for consumers sold as high as $29.99.

When did we finally see $3.00 VHS tapes? About ten years into the format.

Laserdiscs hovered between $39.99 to $119.99 US.

Video CDs sold by Philips retailed for $24.99 to $34.99 US.

DVDs started out at around $34.99 to $39.99 US. A few sold for around $50 retail.

Blu-ray is actually doing better than so called tech writers say.

Let's face it...

Streaming instant video? Unless you got a high priced 5mbs or faster internet line, don't expect HD video. Even then, you get 720p max with digital stereo sound. No Dolby 5.1, dts, or lossless sound. No extras.

Download and own? $14.99 for an SD copy of the movie off PS3's store. Sorry, but consumers want a physical disc with better sound, multiple audio options, and maybe a few extras. Its not even possible to own movies on XBox 360, you only get to rent a 720p copy with Dolby 5.1 sound for 48 hours. Once you start watching it, you got 48hours to finish it or watch it again. And if you forget about it, after 14days you can't even start it up.

iTunes? Again, you can only rent HD movies through the Apple TV. Want to buy it? Sure, you get a near DVD copy with stereo sound.

People will always want the best stuff and only Blu-ray Disc can provide it at this time. Bar none.

[Altaira]

In my neck of the woods, Blu-ray is NOT selling like hot cakes. The discs and players are passed by quickly for less expensive options.

Most of my friends still have lo def TVs. It is hard for us on this forum to imagine, but some folks don't give a crap about Blu-ray when SD looks mighty fine to them.

I have a HD player, a Blu-ray player and a couple SD players. Depending on the film, I still buy standard discs.

[Nick August]

My main complaint with Blu-ray is that they need to make 'ALL' discs have 'resume' play!,this could be why the discs and players aren't selling faster!.People buy a few discs and realize they have to 'restart' the movie so they say what a 'pain' and stop buying them.

[J. Wolfe (MCharlie)]

Here in Reno, Blu-Ray was the only thing that was selling in great quantities this Christmas. Best Buy even dropped the price on most of their movies to $14.95 to $18.95.

I got a new Sony BDP-S350 player and much to my chagrin, it does not have reduced speed or freeze frame (Not PAUSE...I want to be able to advance the screen, 1 'frame' at a time.) capability. Very upsetting.

As for load times.....compared to my HD-DVD player, this machine is a rocket!

But...my HD-DVD player has many more options...like selecting between 1080 res's and lower, freeze frame, fast play, no resume, etc. For the money, Sony is sure not considering user friendly options.......I don't think the quality is all that good either....My son has a Sharp and his image quality is much better than mine. (Our TV's are the same)

Oh well.......

Hi all! Haven't been here for a long time......I liked the old forum much better....Everything posted was always forwarded to me...this one does not do that unless you are subbed to that topic. So...I miss everything and all the good info here......OK..of to tech to ask a question about audio...PCM Uncompressed vs. Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and which is closer or equal to DTS.

MC

[jspartan]

PCM and Dolby TrueHD are lossless audio and superior to DTS 768kbs & 1.5mbs found on DVD.

Blu-ray does offer dts HD Master Audio which again is lossless and equal to PCM and Dolby TrueHD.

If you don't have a receiver capable of those...

Then Dolby TrueHD will switch to a Dolby Digital track, usually 640kbs but can be 448kbs.

Then dts HD Master Audio will switch to a dts track at 1.5mbs.

You can play back the PCM track but it will be stereo sound only. If you want multi-channel surround sound, you have to select the Dolby Digital or DTS track.

To be honest, I have heard some Dolby Digital 640kbs tracks that are absolutely punishing. Kung Fu Panda, Cars, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Iron Man are pretty sweet in lossy Dolby Digital.

[krammer]

Yeah jspartan pretty much broke it down for ya nicely.

dts does do in house mixing of the master & some find it to be superior to TrueHD or LPCM. The numbers are insane for the dtsHDMA tracks. Movies with lots of action peak around 8mbps & even dialog hovers between 3-5 which is twice the average bitrate of typical TrueHD tracks. All & all thou each of the 3 codecs are lossless so you really can't say one is better than the other.

I will though say hehe, IF Warner encoded their TrueHD audio tracks at 24bit 96khz instead of 16bit 48khz the difference between their lossy counterparts would be night & day. Unfortunately Warner is sloppy with their encodes unless its a blockbuster movie which will have high sales ala The Dark Knight.

J. Wolfe,

Sorry to hear you are not satisfied with the BDP-S350. I think its a better player than every Toshiba HD DVD deck except the HD-XA2. I have played a few discs on the 350 with no problems what so ever with its "straight from the box" firmware. Enhanced BD-J discs load up fast & there are a few more features like resume play from non enhanced BD-J discs as well as video codec + audio codec display. It crushes my BDP-S300 in performance as well.

[Racer X]

Thanks for the input. At least everyone here in this thread is pro blu-ray.