I blame internet downloads.

This is not a good economic time to try to convince people to buy an expensive TV, and expensive DVD player and expensive discs.

Yeah it's not like $4/gal gas, high commodity prices, inflation, recession, have anything to do with that....

I have an HDTV, and I'm sure Blu-ray would look really nice on it. I just don't rent enough movies to justify the player price, and the only discs I buy are for my kid.

We ended up getting a DVD player with 1080p upconversion. It's a Toshiba, and was under $100 at Costco. The picture is excellent. For now, I'm very content to wait until prices of Blu-Ray reach the sub-$200 mark.

I would think that most technophiles are bright enough to know that Blu-Ray will be around about as long as the 8-track.

The future is some sort of AppleTV type device.

/no an endorsement of AppleTV
//just an example

shiat. I'm happy with shaky-cam bootlegs days after the movie premiere. I'll be watching Ironman later, and don't care how it looks. It's about the story.

StinkyFiddlewinks: shiat. I'm happy with shaky-cam bootlegs days after the movie premiere. I'll be watching Ironman later, and don't care how it looks. It's about the story.

Watch yourself. There are people out there that have dedicated their lives to making animated hair move more life like. They will not be happy with you.


thief.

Nestea Plunge: I hate Apple products.

I knew there was something wrong with you.

Looks like the market is finally weighing in on the format war.

I see what you did did there.

Blu-Ray is stupid, everybody was just getting used to DVDs then this crap comes along. fark it.

A) DVD is good enough for anyone that doesn't have a HDTV 42 inches or larger.

B) Physical media is quickly going extinct.

gee maybe people got tired of having to change formats and repurchase all their music and movies?

\meanwhile vinyl staggers on like a zombie
\\and Dr. Who video tapes from the 80's still play

Couple weeks ago my wife and I purchased the SONY PS3...not for games but for movies.

The box runs very hot and must constantly be rebooted...and then there are the issues with the console machine.

/still drunk
//so sorry.

800 MB avis from Demonoid are good enough for me :)

tphillips: A) DVD is good enough for anyone that doesn't have a HDTV 42 inches or larger.

B) Physical media is quickly going extinct.

Oh God. Here we go again.

B) Physical media is quickly going extinct.

This, this, and more this.

Recession? Nah...

downloadable/on-demand content in hi-def is definitely NOT just around the corner. most people don't have a connection that can handle that sort of bandwidth (at least not at desirable speeds), nor do they have DVR-esque storage devices that can hold terabytes of information

IgG4: Looks like the market is finally weighing in on the format war.

Indeed. (recalling statements that "the market has spoken")

FTA: Blu-ray player prices are going to have to drop dramatically, to around $200 probably, to make themselves more attractive to consumers outside of the early adopter/home theater enthusiast crowd.

More like sub-$150 if you ask me. Oops. That's where HD-DVD was when they killed it.

Only Sony could be losing a war they won...

This has nothing do do with $35 discs and $500 players, does it?

As seen on Yahoo! Answers:

Can I feed my hamster teh strawberries?

1)Yep.

2)Nope.

3)Feed it teh motor oilz!!111!!

4)fuxor lulozorz

Colonel_Debugger: I would think that most technophiles are bright enough to know that Blu-Ray will be around about as long as the 8-track.

The future is some sort of AppleTV type device.

/no an endorsement of AppleTV
//just an example


/got nothin

Derwood: downloadable/on-demand content in hi-def is definitely NOT just around the corner. most people don't have a connection that can handle that sort of bandwidth (at least not at desirable speeds), nor do they have DVR-esque storage devices that can hold terabytes of information

You mean most people in the USA don't have that kind of connection. Even here cities are reaching the point it is possible. I have a 20/20 line which costs 49.95 a month. It is only people who live in middle america who are stuck in internet backwards land.

You don't need terabytes of storage. Just give people the option to save/stream their media. The disney movie your kids watch 100s of times you'll save, the movies you'd watch once or twice you stream.

TeddyRooseveltsMustache: Blu-Ray is stupid, everybody was just getting used to DVDs then this crap comes along. fark it.

Thats why I still use VHS tapes.

/no not really.

"Looks like the market is finally weighing in on the format war."

The market first weighed in on the format war when it was Laser Disc Vs. VHS with VHS winning because you could record on that format. Along came DVD recorders but with "copyguard code" written in to protect against "dubbers" and protect Sony's movie rights. The only way to do this is switch from analog to digital. Big Brother has won.

I found this out the hard way. I wanted to transfer all my VHS movies to DVD strictly for storage space reasons and found that I could not transfer many movies due to "copyguard signal". If I wanted a certain movie in DVD format I had to buy it a second time.

I'm assuming it has to do with people realizing that quality only has to be so good. There is no need for blue-ray

Woo, when did Demonoid come back up?!

I never saw a reason to upgrade, other than trying to keep up with my friends and neighbors. I'll wait until Blu-Ray players are under $150 and I can get a pack of blanks for under $30 bucks.

One word.

RAPIDSHARE.

That is all.

Derwood: downloadable/on-demand content in hi-def is definitely NOT just around the corner. most people don't have a connection that can handle that sort of bandwidth (at least not at desirable speeds), nor do they have DVR-esque storage devices that can hold terabytes of information

This assumes people value definition over convenience. Some do, but the majority do not.

Comparing Blu-ray to downloadable is like comparing fine dining to McDonald's. Sure, there's folks for both, but guess were the masses eat?

Bluray is doing fine. What's not doing fine are the standalone players. They take a minute or two just to load the disc, and that's not counting FBI warnings and fancy animated intros. In addition, spec 2.0 is going to be released soon, and most players on the market are incapable of being upgraded to 2.0. Finally, both of the first two problems are solved by the PS3, which is cheaper than most standalone players. The PS3 boots bluray discs very quickly, and it can easily be upgraded to the 2.0 spec over the internet. Those who actually want a Bluray player are just buying PS3s.

sn0wblind: I'm assuming it has to do with people realizing that quality only has to be so good. There is no need for blue-ray

It's more about the fact that the average person doesn't know if they'll have a job next week, and doesn't want to drop $2000 on a HDTV, Blu-Ray player, and $35 disks.

Or, it could just be you're one of those blind folks that can't see the difference between HD and SD.

/has glasses
//can still see the difference between 720p and 1080p

OnmyojiOmn: Woo, when did Demonoid come back up?!

April 14th.

I'm going to wait until I can buy a decent quality blu-ray rewinder.

DVD is fine for my purposes. As for the future, I'm not too keen on the download model - there may be a pay-per-play DRM thing going on, which is no better than a rental. Put films on SD or micro-SD cards. That would save a lot of room.

Others have already said it, but I'll put it together:

People are finally used to DVD, and it's now the "standard" media. (even if some people still use cassettes)

DVDs are a proven standard because it was a world of difference from cassettes. (Higher res. better sound, not degradation, no rewinding, smaller, menues, etc.) What does HD really offer? a higher res., more sound options and a fancier menu?

That's not really much to be worth a "switch", especially for those that already have a decent DVD collection, if anything HD is almost an insult when they kept saying how DVD were going to be around for quite a while, etc.

And the whole new "menu and options"? nothing that an upgrade to DVDs couldn't have done.

Have them set up a switching plan, as in for every DVD one brings in, they can trade it for the HD for 1$ extra, and maybe then they'll get HD adopted.

Unless you have a huge TV, and have a need to see every pore and makeup mishap on the actors,you're not going to care all that much.

I can see that in time I MIGHT switch, but for now, there isn't much reasons. I don't want to spend on another player, the ones I have are quite fine (Upscaling, dual DVD/VHS, HDMI machines with DivX), and the way things are going, there's going to be something better within a very short time.

THe most stupid part in this is the actual media. After dealing with DVDs that ended up with rot and scratches, I really don't want to invest in a new media that has a predisposition to the same flaws. Once the industry gets to the point of using some sort of flash media I'll consider a switch a lot more.

OnmyojiOmn: Woo, when did Demonoid come back up?!


About a month ago.

Their servers are in the Ukraine or somewhere in that region now.

Fark Sony.

/That is all.

.... and in the news from Econ 101 today....

When a firm gains a monopoly from a prior duopoly situation, there is no incentive to reduce price in order to increase volume. In fact, the firm does quite the opposite. However, when the firm manufactures complementary goods, this can be a little bit complicated.

Shadowknight:
/has glasses
//can still see the difference between 720p and 1080p

No one is saying there is no difference between 720p and 1080p (on a large hdtv). We're saying it isn't worth the price premium to watch "Hollywood crappy blockbuster #83" in 1080p bluray vs 4.99 720p download.

I must be getting old.

I remember when CDs made music better.

I remember when Nintendo 64 made video games better.

Not so long ago, HD made TV better.

Now we have PS3s, XBOX360s, Blu-Ray disks and who knows what but it's all sort of 'Blah'. It's like all the creative energy used to overcome the technical limitations took their millions and went home.

The only thing left are a bunch of hacks listening to MBAs and catering to greasy 14 year old boys.

Why would I want to buy something to preserve any of this?

BuzzBoy:
I found this out the hard way. I wanted to transfer all my VHS movies to DVD strictly for storage space reasons and found that I could not transfer many movies due to "copyguard signal". If I wanted a certain movie in DVD format I had to buy it a second time.

You're absolutely SURE you can't get around that? But you're right about the asinine copy protection otherwise.

fark this High-definition noise. I still use a 19" CRT monitor as my main TV, and have a 25 dollar Magnavox DVD player. DVD's were about 3 dollars a piece at Target last Christmas season, and they'll only get cheaper as more and more people get to the blu-ray camp. I'm not adopting Hi-def until well after the technology is a) only thing available b) my current shiat is worn out c) backwards compatible d) cheap e) easier to figure out than all this crap about p's and i's and blue and HD and HDMI and all that garbage.

For those of us that enjoy a good porno, is Blu-ray worth the investment?

I watch movies on my PC. I moved up to a very nice 24 inch monitor and quickly realized just how crappy DVD's look. I bought a Blu-ray optical drive and realized that this is how movies should look. The difference in quality is amazing. I find it very hard to go back and watch standard def movies from my collection anymore, they just look fuzzy and blurry to me.

I watch almost all my Blu-ray discs from Netflix--still too expensive to buy, unless there is a killer sale.

Smart people never go out and buy the lastest and greatest techmology. Let the "I must have this new toy!" crowd pay for the R&D cost. If one waits a couple of years, one gets improved technology and a fraction of the original hit-the-street price.

BuzzBoy: "Looks like the market is finally weighing in on the format war."

The market first weighed in on the format war when it was Laser Disc Vs. VHS with VHS winning because you could record on that format. Along came DVD recorders but with "copyguard code" written in to protect against "dubbers" and protect Sony's movie rights. The only way to do this is switch from analog to digital. Big Brother has won.

I found this out the hard way. I wanted to transfer all my VHS movies to DVD strictly for storage space reasons and found that I could not transfer many movies due to "copyguard signal". If I wanted a certain movie in DVD format I had to buy it a second time.

Do you not have a PC?
VHS player -> TV capture card -> burn on DVD.

Crazy_horce: This is not a good economic time to try to convince people to buy an expensive TV, and expensive DVD player and expensive discs.

Yeah it's not like $4/gal gas, high commodity prices, inflation, recession, have anything to do with that....

We are not in a recession you twat. Jesus Christ, learn to economics.

TossedSaladMan: For those of us that enjoy a good porno, is Blu-ray worth the investment?

Probably too much of a splurge, leaving you a little deflated in the aftermath.

1080p looks to require about a GB per hour of content if you use H.264. The performance of new CPUs has slowed in recent years, but storage space continues to grow. And the bandwidth to push HD is already here, otherwise your cable would have no HD channels. Admittedly, though, those channels are rarely if ever 1080p.

The quality is definitely worth it. The difference between 480i and 1080p is ridiculous. 480i is only 240 lines of actual resolution. So to get an idea of the difference compare early 80's 320x240 monitors to modern 1920x1200 monitors (though it's actually 1920x1080, most monitors don't support this).

Crazy_horce: This is not a good economic time to try to convince people to buy an expensive TV, and expensive DVD player and expensive discs.

Yeah it's not like $4/gal gas, high commodity prices, inflation, recession, have anything to do with that....

Hig gas prices are good for the economy moran. The higher the price of gas goes, the better off this country will be.

Now STFU and GBTW