Sony: The Dumbest Guys in the Room

[thismeintiel]

ironman said:

thismeintiel said:

So you say I was wrong about not needing a new drive, but then concede that all it would need is a firmware update? Ok. And why wouldn't people upgrade their firmware? It's free. And easy as most Blu-ray players have Wi-fi capabilities for firmware updates and BD Live. But I guess you never update your PC or 360 when it's time, huh? And there's more money in making cheaper products at a larger profit then spend millions/billions backing new hardware, which will have a much smaller install base. Especially this early in Blu-rays life. That's why Blu-ray is around to stay for awhile.

*Sigh* did you not read what I wrote earlier, most people will not update their firmware. They will either not know about it, they will feel it is too much work, or they may be intimidated by it. So companies will begin pumping out Bluray players with the update and it will be seen as a new drive. unfortunately, the benefits of such and upgrade will not be seen by many, and it will never catch on in the mainstream. in this sense, it DOES require a "different" drive If you understand people at all, you would realize I am right.

I once had a DVD player where the sound and picture would get out of sync everytime you played a movie, so I looked it up, turns out there was a firmware update for it. Well during my search I saw many people complaining about the issue in comments, then, when presented with the solution, a quick download and burn, they decided to just ditch the DVD player, and buy a different one where they did not need to do that. now tell me, do you honestly think the same won't happen with the bluray. 

Why the hate for 8-track? It was a success. Ask anyone growing up in that time period and they will tell you they had an 8-track player. Tapes came out the same time in the U.S. as 8-tracks, but were of worse sound quality, and were mostly used for dictation/voice recording. Starting in 1965, most cars were being installed with 8-track players, not cassette tape players. It wasn't until the early 70's that cassttes started to equal 8-tracks in sound quality. And not till the early 80's when it began it's huge boom, mostly thanks to the release of portable players, such as Sony's first Walkman in 1979.

I don't hate the 8track, it was before my time..and actually, given the fact that it has better sound than tapes, I would actually prefer it. however I did research on the issue. Now, your history is a little off, you are correct that 8tracks really picked up popularity around 1965, but the early seventies gave way to the tape, most people didn't notice the decrease in sound quality, and the tape was just easier to carry around. * tracks stuck around, for a little while but 1973 is about the time their popularity dropped. 

And think of this, why would major retails and music companies keep 8-tracks on its shelves from 1965-1982, if it was such a failure? Must have been making money off of it, otherwise it would have just replaced them with cassetes. Now, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you are referring to Quadraphonic 8-tracks, as those only saw moderate success in the early to mid 70's.

Why would major retailers continue to sell VHS tapes for about three years after their popularity wained? Just because something isn't mainstream does not mean it isn't going to sell to a large amount of people, it just means it's not selling to the greater portion of the population. 

Blu-ray may not have the same market share that DVD once had, but it has had more competetion, as well. DVD didn't have to compete against a new format (HD-DVD), as well as an old and very popular one. It just had VHS to battle with. Blu-ray also has the increase of DLC to compete with. However, in the next few years Blu-ray will have a majority share, again smaller than DVD's but still majority, over all formats. DLC is here to stay, and it will become more popular, but so will Blu-ray.

Yes, and this is exactly why Bluray will not be as popular as you seem to think, it has too much going against it. 

Another thing to think about is that Blu-ray is BC with DVD. This explains why Blu-ray hardware is being adopted faster than DVD was, but the software is not (though it is still rising). If a movie is released that doesn't show off the capabilities of Blu-ray, you have the option to just purchase it on DVD and it will still work on your player.

That is not enough. Think of this. If a person has a large collection of DVDs, and they can purchase an up-converting DVD player that will give them almost the same picture quality of the Bluray, do you honestly think they will replace their entire collection of DVDs with Bluray? No, they will not

 

Your whole argument for firmware is ridiculous.  People update firmware, or update products on a regular basis.  You act as if the majority would rather buy a new product rather than upgrade the one they have, which is just not true.  People don't buy a new computer or 360 or PS3 anytime it needs an update.  Nor do they go out and buy new games or software when it needs updating.  To do so would be not only be idiotic, but would also bankrupt you.  I mean you would buy a new product every few months, even weeks, if that were true.  I think it is you that does not understand people.

BTW what kind of DVD player did you have?  I have never heard of DVD player having upgradable firmware via the internet.  Only one I can think of that was upgradable at all was the PS2.  But that was through either random games or demo discs.

I'm sorry to say it, but your history is the one that is off alittle.  True, in the early 70's, cassettes did start to gain ground, due to the increase in sound quality.  However, 8-tracks were still popular, and didn't truly start to lose popularity until the late 70's, when companies wanted to decrease the number of formats for music.  Cassetes proved to be cheaper to make, coupled with their increasing popularity, so they were chosen as the format of choice.  However, as I stated before, cassettes hit their larger boom in the 80's, thanks to the introduction of portable players.  Keep in mind also that both 8-track and cassettes were released in the same year, 1964, and it was 8-track that came out on top for more than a decade, so definitely not a flop.

But just for the sake of argument, let's take your history into consideration.  Even if cassettes took over in '73,  that's still 9 years 8-track dominated.  And considering it wasn't until late 1982 that they were completely removed from shelves, that's another 9 years they stuck around.  Now you said VHS stuck around for 3 years after DVD was released, and DVD is looking to stick around 4-6 more years after Blu-ray, I would have to conclude that 8-track was bigger than them both.

Just because Blu-ray has more to compete with doesn't mean it will fail.  It only means it will not gain the huge market share DVD had, as it had barely any competition.  But I still feel confident it will rise to having a majority share in the next year or two.  And the fact that not everyone will replace their DVD's with Blu-ray is why Blu-ray will be succesful.  Simply put, you don't have to.  You can keep your old movies and just buy new ones on Blu-ray.  Now I don't know how well upconverting DVD players have done, as I have yet to see any published sale numbers for them.  But considering my last trip to Wal-mart I saw one as opposed to the 6 or 7 Blu-ray players, I doubt there is that much demand for them.