Stillwell said: MikeB said: @ Stillwell Everyone in their right mind should shy away from yet another one of Sony own "special" storage devices, because while it might not go as bad as the BETAMAX, the BR will not be a viable storage device for any lenght of time. Or it may be just as successful for the long run as Sony's introduction of 3.5 inch diskettes and Sony/Philips's introduction of Compact disc was. BR adoption is happening faster than DVD adoption took place. BR disc has an ensured long term future as the PS3 has one by default, using Blu-Ray discs to store games and movies. Even if in a worst case scenario the industry would drop its support (no chance of this happening) there's still Sony Pictures and its partner movie studios to pump out content. In any case if interested in Playstation gaming, it's a non-risk oppertunity. Blu-Ray disc is crucial for gaming in the long term, adding movie playback system software just adds a very interesting additional feature. What a complete load of bullshit. BR adoption is nowhere near DvD adoption. Faster? Hilarious, dude! Like I said, look at the standalone players to get the real picture of peoples intrest in this pos format. It's barely exsistant. And like I also said, analysts project standalone players to overtake PS3 players no sooner than 2016. Pathetic.

Same timeframe of availability. DVD hit the mass market in 1997. By June 2003, weekly DVD-Video rentals began out-numbering weekly VHS cassette rentals. That's 6 years, Rome wasn't build in a day. Please cool down, bought a HD DVD player or something?

I watch both Blu-ray and downloaded movies(internet based). At this point, the Blu-ray experience far exceeds the download experience. It takes too long for the downloaded movie to start to play and the compression kills the audio and the video. The quality is currently well below my standards.

Your cd/mp3 argument is flawed. iTunes allows you to buy individual songs rather than buying the whole album. If the service was album based rather than being song based, it would be far less successful.

You are comparing a purchase model to a rental model. The future of digital distribution is as a rental model. Meaning you will have 24 hours to watch the movie before it is deleted.

Most supposed Hi_def downloads do not come close to in quality to blu-ray (typically only 720p or very low bitrate 1080p)-
The analogy of MP3(at least variable or above 256Kbps) and CD is incorrect both of these produce excellent sound at 16bit 44Khz.
Comparing SD images to 1080p is more like the difference between AM and FM radio or a telephone at 8bit/8khz and CD at 16bit/44Khz it's a very noticable improvement in image quality by going to high bitrate 1080p.

DVD , Blu-ray and downloads all use compression. DVD is fixed to mp2 compression but blu-ray and Downloads are flexible and software upgradable. Most Importantly Blu is HIGH Bitrate 1080p not the Low bitrate noisy stuff you get off air or Download (my 3G internet costs $50 for 4 GB a month so it would be over $600 and 1 year to download a blu-ray disk of data !, If only i could get ADSL ).
Not a problem for me though With Blu-ray the 25 or 50 Gigabytes allows for a Crystal clear image with no Distortion and i can buy them from a shop.
Many Consumers (like myself) want quality 1080p viewing and So blu-ray and HD TV are just the ticket and will be the big Xmas sales item for Xmas.
PS3 is driving and riding the blu-ray wave all the way.
DVD is gonna get a sound beating from blu-ray and downloads this year it will encourage more producers to go blu-ray.

In terms of use for gaming, it is a very good thing.
I can't really see it being more popular than DVD's for watching movies though.
The only people that benefit from Blu-ray movies are those people with a decent home theater system.

and as for the future of gaming? Blu-ray is the future of gaming storage, to say 360 is holding the industry back is a lie unless you have ignored the great titles that have been released on the 360...

MikeB said: Stillwell said: MikeB said: @ Stillwell Everyone in their right mind should shy away from yet another one of Sony own "special" storage devices, because while it might not go as bad as the BETAMAX, the BR will not be a viable storage device for any lenght of time. Or it may be just as successful for the long run as Sony's introduction of 3.5 inch diskettes and Sony/Philips's introduction of Compact disc was. BR adoption is happening faster than DVD adoption took place. BR disc has an ensured long term future as the PS3 has one by default, using Blu-Ray discs to store games and movies. Even if in a worst case scenario the industry would drop its support (no chance of this happening) there's still Sony Pictures and its partner movie studios to pump out content. In any case if interested in Playstation gaming, it's a non-risk oppertunity. Blu-Ray disc is crucial for gaming in the long term, adding movie playback system software just adds a very interesting additional feature. What a complete load of bullshit. BR adoption is nowhere near DvD adoption. Faster? Hilarious, dude! Like I said, look at the standalone players to get the real picture of peoples intrest in this pos format. It's barely exsistant. And like I also said, analysts project standalone players to overtake PS3 players no sooner than 2016. Pathetic. Same timeframe of availability. DVD hit the mass market in 1997. By June 2003, weekly DVD-Video rentals began out-numbering weekly VHS cassette rentals. That's 6 years, Rome wasn't build in a day. Please cool down, bought a HD DVD player or something?

Haha, no. I wouldn't dream of getting either.

But it seems like you might have bought a BR player.

Blu-Ray may have a faster adoption rate than DVD but it also has a remarkably narrow demographic that it is currently selling to; mostly core gamers who are interested in the PS3 anyways. On top of this we won't see 50% of homes having HDTVs until 2010 (at the earliest), and it may take until 2020 before Every house has a HDTV in it; this means there is an absolute limit to how much of the market Blu-Ray can capture in the near future.

HDTVs are important to blu ray adoption but just because someone doesnt have the tv doesnt mean he wont get a blu ray, a lot of people have ps3's without having a HDTV and some of them buy blu ray movies.

The key to blu ray market penetration is price, once blu ray player costs the same as a dvd player even though someone might not have a hdtv they will still buy the blu ray.

As far as digital distribution i believe that it is many years off before being feasable and even when it takes off it will share the market with physical media rather then destroying it.

Both storage size and internet speeds are lacking for the masses to get high definition downloads, and people wont accept low quality movies though its debatable how high a quality is acceptable to the masses.

Maybe, but do you have an idea how long it will be before a "blu ray player costs the same as a dvd player" ... Currently you can buy a cheap DVD player for about $15, and at $25 they're pretty much as high quality and reliable as a DVD player gets; in contrast a cheap Blu-Ray player costs $400. It won't be until 2012/2013 before Blu-Ray will compete at these prices.

Usually, I have adopted new formats quickly and converted my libraries of media quickly... Tape to CD, VHS to DVD, CD to MP3, News on TV to Internet news sites, Magazines to Internet Magazines, etc... A funny thing is happening right now though, it seems to me that the market for HD movies is frozen.

I think the issue is in price. I bought HD DVD movies before because they were a small premium on the price of regular DVD movies, and because I have the equipment to make them look great I was willing to pay the price. But, once HD DVD lost I went to start buying blu-ray disks and noticed they were considerably more expensive then HD DVD. I have bought a bunch, but not at the rate I was buying before that. And then, I tried a few downloads, and now I don't care too much whether I will buy a another HD movie as it will save storage space in my home and if I want to watch a movie it is only 15-25 minutes away from digital download.

I really think the time for physical media formats is going and the world that has access to high speed internet is going to move to digital distribution of all media. I really don't see too much advantage to buying movies now. Guess we'll just have to wait for the outcome but my vote is Internet based media.