Sony had 'no choice' but to include Blu-ray in PS3

[joeorc]

moondeep said:
How can you argue that Bluray is a standardized format when it's constantly in flux? Do you realize that they have realized numerous format updates since the launch of the first players? Many of the latest movies won't play on the original players because of this. Some studios were so concerned about piracy that they forced the BR coalition to change their standards mid-stream. On the flip side, when someone buys a DVD player, it works with all movies. I still have my first 5-disk carousel DVD player from 1999, and it works great with every single movie. Now THAT is called a standard configuration :)

Thanks for the amazon link, but I hardly think a $700 player is something that people will buy for their kids to watch in the backseat of the minivan. Also, no mainstream car manufacturers offer imbedded BR players in their vehicles. I think I still win on this one :P

As for sales and BR eventually absorbing DVD's, I think you're really stretching it. Most articles I've read imply that BR adoption is FAR behind what anyone predicted, especially after HD-DVD folded.
http://hothardware.com/News/Bluray-Adoption-Still-Sluggish-HDTV-Sales-Up/
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/pubs/Harris_Poll_2009_06_18.pdf

http://www.cringely.com/2009/06/is-blu-ray-a-failure/comment-page-1 /> When Toshiba decided to cut its loses on the HD-DVD format, it wasn't because it was losing to Sony. It had sold more players and more movies. In fact, the above article states that HD-DVD still has a significant lead over BR stand-alone players, which I find fascinating given how long it's been since the BR fanatics declared 'victory'. Anyhow, Toshiba decided to discontinue HD-DVD because they saw the writing on the wall, that people weren't ready for HD conversion. Those that were ready, were also the ones that were adopting digital distribution. The trick is to get to the 'mainstream' market. BR and HD-DVD were both targeting a very niche group, the audio and videophiles who also bought the failed DVD Audio format and the original movie disk, the Laser Disc. The price wasn't coming down fast enough and the regular DVD market remained incredibly strong and thus Toshiba cut their loses. It's hard to compete against $4-5 DVD at Walmart (and good movies no less).

On a technical side, DVD's have a thicker layer of coating to protect the disk (and yes, I know that BR has a 'harder' coating, but it's still extremely thin).

I also like to point to one of my all-time favorite sites, IGN, and their interesting article back in early 2008 titled "Why DVD's Better than Blu-Ray".
http://dvd.ign.com/articles/963/963916p1.html
Their most compelling reasons that DVD is better is that BR is a stopgap measure and that many must-haves simply aren't available yet. (ie: Star Wars & LotR)

BR simply missed its chance to supplant DVDs. With the current adoption rate projected, DVDs will maintain their dominance until either digital downloads take over or until the next best physical medium arrives. I wouldn't count out a new version of HD-DVD coming out in the next few years. Remember, Laser Discs were commonplace in the late 80s and 90s, but never achieved critical mass, due to price mainly (and because they were HUGE). Unless BR comes down to the price of regular DVDs, their market share gains will stall indefinitely. From my understanding, the licensing fees associated with BR are part of the cost problem.

Au Revoir

Once again Moondeep i respect your OPinion but there are many thing's you may not know about the Optical drive manuf. biz. and if you did you would not be stateing what you did.

 

for One you do know ALL optical drive format's are being upgraded all the time..that includes DVD and even CD there is no ammount of "one is more of a standard over the other" outside of the manuf. if the largest optical drive companies all agree on a format it's a standard pure and simple Blu-Ray is already a standard. and that Standard does indeed get updated. you mention "other format come's along" well the only other optical format is Holographic which some in the industry are and have been investing into , but here is the snag on that "BLU-RAY" is also a HOLOGRAPHIC technology. by the Time the HOLOGRAPHIC technology get's cheap enough which will not be for a very...very long time Blu-Ray will already be ahead but by that point Blu-Ray would even be eclipsed by Cloud Computeing and Digital downloads

you keep saying "targeting a niche crowd" that's not true at all ESP. since the digital transition has just now happened in the US. think about this for a sec. all those Movies people love to go see at the Movies and on home DVD player's. what were majority of those film's filmed in SD..now do you see the people that make film's are going to keep filming in SD. that the point, the DVD standard will not be enough soon to cover that  yes you can use compression like MPEG 4 but the film industy has been useing MPEG 2 and Mpeg 2 is the standard the film industry has been useing for years mainly for the BIT rate. both HD DVD and Blu-Ray is able to take advantage of that higher Bit Rate and have the storage to store it while DVD will not.

the very fact that unless you use HD DVD or Blu-Ray with standard DVD you have to lower the BIt Rate because of the storage limitation's.

this is not just about trying to target a "niche" as you say they were created because DVD as a format is getting past it's prime due to the cost of :

example

DVD18

120 mm disc size

side's:double

layers: double

data capacity: 17.1 GB

MPEG-2 VIDEO CAPACITY : 8 HOURS

now that's 8 Hours in SD resolution yes you could do HD but it would be reduced in the amount of video it could hold.Less and Less film studios are filming Movies in SD resolution's that means they Need a HD format platform to record in.

would cost way to much vs' a Blu-Ray Disc that's even a DL-BR 50 thre is a point that DVD has reached with it's price and storage capacity vs the HD FORMAT'S PRICE AND STORAGE CAPACITY.

that's the reap problem just in one area that's needed that does not include the software market but when a big market such as the movie industry needing a format like HD DVD or Blu-Ray than its going to get made and Blu-Bay since 2002 was picked by the majority of optical drive manuf. to be that format standard. which it IS