| DKII said: If the Blu-Ray player I'd gotten with my 50" HDTV hadn't been free, I'd say it was a waste of money. You can recite all the stats you want at me, but the Blu-Ray discs are at best a tiny marginal upgrade over the upscaled DVDs it plays, with little to no functionality improvements that I've noticed (in fact, it's worse, since my player apparently can't play all BR discs even though all DVD players I've ever had can play all DVD discs). There's no reason for me to pay anything for it (no I don't have surround sound, either, and neither do most people, that's an even smaller niche than HD usage). |
You sound like an ex-HD DVD supporter. The bold statement is complete non-sense. I have close to 500 Blu-ray (and over 2000 DVD) titles and ALL discs play just fine. I, also, own a Sony DVD player from 1997. It doesn't play dual-layered DVDs and only see Dolby Digital audio (DTS wasn't part of the standard at that time). NO DVD players from 1997 plays dual-layered DVDs or DTS audio.
Sound sound is "niche"? Someone needs to tell the audio/video receiver manufacturers, that sell MILLIONS of these things a year in the US per year, that surround sound is a "niche" market. Obviously, they aren't aware of it. In fact, some of the audio difference on Blu-ray can be heard via halfway decent TV speakers (I've tested that theory).
Movie studios won't continue to lose profits as DVD revenue continues to take a dive year after year. They WILL move you over to Blu-ray as they moved people over from VHS. Blu-ray is only around $5 more than the DVD version per released movie title. If one has an HDTV (if not you will in the future), one would have to be a cheap skate not to pay $5 more for 6x the picture information and 10x the audio information. Plus, it takes less space to store with the cases.
In the end, the majority of video and audio philes determine the fate of things like this for the masses. That's why it will happen much like it happened last time. It's already been decided. It will only be slower due to the current recession.
