IGN: Why DVD's better than Blu-Ray....

[Ail]

twesterm said:

Ail said:

twesterm said:

dbot said:

I have been waiting for someone to post this article.  I've read the article and all I can say is wow.  This is the best argument the DVD writer at IGN can make against Blu-ray?  It's pretty sad, I'm not sure why this is considered an interesting read.

Here are his points:

• It's Cheaper Than Blu-ray:  No kidding.  Really, the original xbox and PS2 are cheaper than the 360 and the PS3, but I bought the more expensive systems because they offerred the features I wanted. 
  
• Mo' Technology, Mo' Problems:  Mo' really?  I guess we shouldn't progress with technology because it may not work correctly 100% of the time.  HDTV's have "Mo' Technology" as well, I guess people shouldn't buy them either?
• You Already Own A Ton of DVDs:  God, it would be great if a Blu-ray player could play your DVD library and perhaps improve the quality in some way, oh I forgot that's what a Blu-ray player does.
• Up-Conversation Really Works:  Really, as opposed to it not working.  Good thing all Blu-ray players upconvert.  But you know what's 4x better than upconversion a native resolution of 1920x1080 with a 40.0Mbps bit rate.
• You Can't Get That on Blu-ray: It's a good thing your Blu-ray players can play your DVDs.  There is no reason to buy an older movie on Blu-ray.  If the native film is of low quality, then obviously you aren't going to take advantage of Blu-ray.  I remember some dumb author complaining about the Planet of the Apes wasn't any better on Blu-ray.  Why would it be?
• Blu-ray is A Stop-Gap:  Really.  It's a stop gap for the next 12 years.  I fully expect another optical format to replace Blu-ray, because we are light years away from a digital distribution model that can actually work using Internet technologies.

 

 

I should start with I like BluRay and I buy BluRay when possible but:

• It's cheaper-- Your argument is just bad.  There are huge advantages with the PS3 and PS2 or Xbox and Xbox 360, there are not huge advantages with the move from DVD to BluRay, especially ones that justify the price.  Like I said, I like BluRay because I like shiny new things sometimes but most people can't notice the difference and even less notice it when you have an upscaled DVD (even I can barely tell the difference).  So yeah, to a large amount of people it's hard to justify spending $10-20 extra on a movie that only works in (likely) one of their players and that is only marginally better.
• Which brings me to a point that didn't get listed DVD's are more portable-- It's hard to find something nowadays that doesn't play DVD's but how many things play BluRay?
• Up-Conversion-- As I said, to most people, it really does make it just as good as BluRay.  You can see the difference but you've been trained to see the difference.  MY parents couldn't tell a normal DVD from a BluRay movie and my wife the same age as me (27) can't tell the difference from an upscaled DVD and a BluRay.  We as gamers can see these things, other people don't see them as easily.
• Not all movies are available-- This is more of an annoyance and one that bothers me.  I want to support BluRay but there are so many movies (even new ones) that don't come out on it.  It sucks.  As long as this keeps happening it will continue to be impossible for BluRay to really gain a heavy hold.  Why would I spend so much money on a BluRay player when my favorite movies coming out don't take advantage of that player when the much cheaper DVD player would?
  
• Stop-Gap-- It could last for the next 12 years or the next big thing might come along.  Things like Netflix and movie streaming are becoming really popular.  There's no garauntee that BluRay will be as popular for DVD's and for as long.

So yeah, it's fine to love you some BluRay movies but don't let fanboy blinders keep you from seeing the actual problems with BluRay.

 

 

And DVD has become so mass market these days that most retailers hardly make a profit selling them these days and as a result have started to reduce the shelves space they devote to it....

2 years ago the DVD area was the biggest space in most Best Buy stores. Have you been to a Best Buy recently ?

Yes?  The DVD section is still pretty huge. 

Besides, shrinking the DVD section due to less of a market would mean the small BluRay section would get even smaller too.

 

So the BR section is the same in your Best Buy as it was two years ago and hasn't expanded at the expense of DVDs ?

Lol that is real bad faith...And "is still pretty huge" seems to imply it is not as huge as it once was.

 

My local Best Buy DVD space has been divided by two. Half of the freed space is now BR, the other halves is games..