You can get decent DVDs for £3-5.
It's a 2 hour movie, a shot escape from life or whetever other pastimes you may have.
Why would more than a tiny % of the population want to pay the prices they ask for Blu-Ray.

Those saying that the general public won't want to get on the blu ray band wagon. Corporations won't give them a choice. Just like you have a hard time getting sd tvs right now for obvious reasons like being able to ship more hd tvs per truck and higher profits, the same will happen with dvds. They want you to buy blu ray and eventually they will stop making dvd players and stop/delay putting movies on dvd. With a struggling economy they don't want to antagonize people at the moment, but if the economy picks up next year and gets stronger in 2010, I could easily see the third Batman movie coming out on blu ray a week or a month earlier than dvd to push those blu ray sales.

cwbys21 said: Those saying that the general public won't want to get on the blu ray band wagon. Corporations won't give them a choice. Just like you have a hard time getting sd tvs right now for obvious reasons like being able to ship more hd tvs per truck and higher profits, the same will happen with dvds. They want you to buy blu ray and eventually they will stop making dvd players and stop/delay putting movies on dvd. With a struggling economy they don't want to antagonize people at the moment, but if the economy picks up next year and gets stronger in 2010, I could easily see the third Batman movie coming out on blu ray a week or a month earlier than dvd to push those blu ray sales.

 

That would be the stupidest idea they could possibily have. It would antagonize the people no matter at what point of time they decide to do that. Also, it's up to the studios whether and when they release DVDs not the corporations. Everyone has a DVD player in some shape or form so whether they stop being sold or not will not matter in the least bit. I know I have about 4 different ways to watch a movie off of a DVD, even if one breaks down I'm still left with 3. If a SONY pulls this off they would be digging their own graves since I can see a significant backlash.

because when they do that blu rays will be a lot cheaper and they already have done it with sd tvs and vhs. they want you to buy the new stuff, and they will start encouraging you to do it buy releasing it earlier on the new tech or only on the new tech. it isn't stupid, it is smart business and happens all the time.

Hey, if they get to about DVD player price sure thing, forcing customers to upgrade to something that isn't worth its money (currently) will not sit well with them. Bluray will do well if the prices fall significantly, otherwise I doubt it will sell so hotly.

Thats why I said 2010 in my original post.

cwbys21 said: because when they do that blu rays will be a lot cheaper and they already have done it with sd tvs and vhs. they want you to buy the new stuff, and they will start encouraging you to do it buy releasing it earlier on the new tech or only on the new tech. it isn't stupid, it is smart business and happens all the time.

Movie studios didn't force DVD adoption by releasing titles on DVD first or exclusively on DVD.  They waited until VHS was well on the decline, i.e. - a fraction of DVD sales, before limiting VHS title availability.

Blu-ray needs far greater penetration into the market before it can start to force DVDs off the shelves.  This includes livingroom players, mobile players in autos, portable players, computer drives, etc.

As much as I would like to believe this is going to happen, I know it's going to take years, if even then.

 

shams said: hanafuda said: The sound on a good Blu-ray is also significantly better than that available on DVD. Don't really understand why that rarely gets mentioned. Maybe Australians couldn't give a XXXX about sound quality. I really doubt this is a selling point. It must be a tiny percentage of people who have the right equipment hooked up to take maximum advantage of DVD quality sound - let alone BluRay quality sound. The people in my house are too lazy(?) to even turn on the stereo - just one remote click - when watching a movie. They are more than happy to settle for movie sound from the TV (rather then get full surround) - they just don't care. Its this same attitude that makes me think BluRay will struggle to convince the mass market that its worth upgrading to. DVD had significant "ease of use" advantages over VHS - BluRay has none over DVD. When BluRay has become the standard, people will happily blindly use it - as long as it works the same as the old DVD player did.

If no one cared then surround sound systems and high range TVs would not exist. Only they do. Anyway, I'm not talking about surround, I'm talking about overall sound quality. Furthermore, Blu-ray does have better ease of use than DVD. I take it you don't actually own a Blu-ray setup or you wouldn't have made such a comment. Your opinion is fine, but know where you should draw the line. Also. mod or not, you are a Sony hater, and this rather lame article is nothing more than flamebait. Why even post it if your opinion of Blu-ray is so negative??

hanafuda said: If no one cared then surround sound systems and high range TVs would not exist. Only they do. Anyway, I'm not talking about surround, I'm talking about overall sound quality. Furthermore, Blu-ray does have better ease of use than DVD. I take it you don't actually own a Blu-ray setup or you wouldn't have made such a comment. Your opinion is fine, but know where you should draw the line. Also. mod or not, you are a Sony hater, and this rather lame article is nothing more than flamebait. Why even post it if your opinion of Blu-ray is so negative??

 

You are absolutely correct.  You, me, and a whole lot of other people really care about audio and video quality when we're watching a movie... that's why we spend thousands building home theaters.

Sadly, we're a small minority compared to the people who don't care about widescreen, 5.1/6.1/7.1 sound, HD, etc.  Most consumers just want to click on the TV, switch channels, and watch a show.  My wife doesn't like watching TV movies in surround on our Yamaha receiver because the dynamic range is too broad.  She just wants the sound through the TV (fortunately I have our DVD/HD-DVD setup configured so we have to watch through the receiver ).

My sister-in-law used to complain when we would bring over laserdisc movies in letterbox, because it didn't use the entire screen.  Arrggg.

 

hanafuda said: shams said: hanafuda said: The sound on a good Blu-ray is also significantly better than that available on DVD. Don't really understand why that rarely gets mentioned. Maybe Australians couldn't give a XXXX about sound quality. I really doubt this is a selling point. It must be a tiny percentage of people who have the right equipment hooked up to take maximum advantage of DVD quality sound - let alone BluRay quality sound. The people in my house are too lazy(?) to even turn on the stereo - just one remote click - when watching a movie. They are more than happy to settle for movie sound from the TV (rather then get full surround) - they just don't care. Its this same attitude that makes me think BluRay will struggle to convince the mass market that its worth upgrading to. DVD had significant "ease of use" advantages over VHS - BluRay has none over DVD. When BluRay has become the standard, people will happily blindly use it - as long as it works the same as the old DVD player did.   If no one cared then surround sound systems and high range TVs would not exist. Only they do. Anyway, I'm not talking about surround, I'm talking about overall sound quality. Furthermore, Blu-ray does have better ease of use than DVD. I take it you don't actually own a Blu-ray setup or you wouldn't have made such a comment. Your opinion is fine, but know where you should draw the line. Also. mod or not, you are a Sony hater, and this rather lame article is nothing more than flamebait. Why even post it if your opinion of Blu-ray is so negative??

The vast majority of people can't even tell the difference between high and low quality sound.  That is way most people don't bring it up.

You mention that BluRay has better ease of use than DVD, please explain.  From what I know, the only ease of use benefit is the scratch resistance.