Sony: "Blu-Ray discs cost too much", lowers expectations on player sales

[Comrade Tovya]

Kasz216 said:

leo-j said:
Download a 1080p movie? Sure lets wait 20 hours for it to download..

Well they could always stream it.

Not that most people even want a 1080P movie... which is kinda the point.

HD really only matters to a very small group of people... and the gap won't be bridged until

A) Blu-ray stuff costs no different then DVD stuff

or

B) Most consumers are forced to jump ship due to declined DVD support.

 

 

I agree.

I actually was an early HD DVD and Blu-ray adopter and have TONS of movies on both formats... but I am an audio/videophile.  That, unfortunately for Sony, I am in the minority.  Most people don't care about Blu-ray's benefits.

I'll use my dad as an example. 

He's 50-years old, has a home theatre that almost anyone would kill for.. 73" 1080p TV with a $30,000 7.2 surround sound.  It's a killer setup.

His problem, as with a lot of people, is that they don't know what HD really is.  They might have the setup to view/hear an awesome movie experience, but they don't know how to make it work.

For instance, I setup my dad's system for him, and his Blu-ray player, and he was amazed.  But, within a few days, one of my younger brothers jacked with the controller and changed the TV settings to 480i, and of course the movies he watched (including Dish Network) were coming through in standard def.

I think a lot of people out there have never calibrated or setup their TVs correctly, and therefore their first experience with "HD" is often SD.  And therefore, they think that standard and high-def are no different.

The problem is with the industry that has been introducing high-def.  It's just too complicated for a majority of the generation of folks who grew up with a black & white TV.  The jump to color was easy for them.  They plugged it in and turned it on... wham-o, an instant upgrade over B&W.

Yet, with the latest tech jump, it's all about A/V vs Component vs HDMI and 480i/p vs 720p vs 1080i/p and it's just too complicated for a generation who are used to simple plug-in upgrades.

HDMI is the worse culprit because it's so finicky when you set it up. 

I remember the grief I got when I first bought my PS3.  It took awhile to get the TV to recognize the 1080p signal feed... I had to do a lot of work to get it right... and I actually know what I am doing.  Imagine the 98% of folks who don't have a clue. 

The answer is simply making it easier for that 98%.