Blue Ray closer to victory?

Warner left HD-dvd to embrace the blue rays only.... this brings the number of film companies and potential films to be BR only really ahead to hddvd. around 70% BR only, 15% HDDVD only, 15% both

is the war going to end?

 

we ll know in a couple of years, although BR seems to be leading

 

I bought Terminator 2 on Blu-Ray the other night. Amazingly crisp and much more 3D looking.

The only thing hampering the format is price IMO. If they dropped the price by $5, they'd see a lot more sales.

 

Bet Microsoft are feeling a bit foolish now and look at that the PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market like the PS2 was the cheapest DVD player for a while at launch. Although there isn't the big difference between tape / DVD and DVD / Blu-ray to make people want to go and buy.

 

I don't know. I'd say there is, but of course a lot of HD TVs will upscale the picture to match native res. of the screen. You could argue the difference between upscaled DVD and true High-Def is not much, but there is a difference and new movies make that difference more distinct. Older movies that have not been properly remastered for High-Def are not so impressive, but T2 looked fantastic.

I have both a upscaling DVD player and a PS3 now, but the max res. of our TV is 1080i. I'd imagine 1080p is even better.

 

I have two issues with HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, and it's the reason I don't think either will ever be more than "laserdisc"
1. As Taucias and Jamtex have said, the jump is not that big compared to VHS->DVD - most people are perfectly happy with DVD quality, and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD don't bring any new Features - e.g. DVD chapter navigation, no degradation with plays, smaller discs, more capacity (cheaply - you could add more tape to a VHS, but that would cost more. If you have a 8.5GB DVD you may as well fill it) AND better quality video/audio. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD only bring the quality
2. DVD improved the viewing experience and quality of even the oldest black and white films/TV programmes, as they wouldn't degrade over time. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD will only improve the quality where the source was good in the first place, meaning no films older than around 25 years (at most) and no TV series older than around 10years. Having worked in a shop that sold DVDs, you'd be surprised how many people buy old TV series' on DVD, as well as old films - neither of which would gain any advantage on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray

The market may well expand, but IMO it's never going to be more than a niche of people who want "The Best" quality.

In the same way that the successor to CD is MP3, which actually has worse quality, the successor to DVD will also be downloadable, just not for a few years until the connections are fast enough.

 

Looks like DRM is here forever...

 

You guys havent seen the new Bluray or HDDVD features then..

 

With profile 1.1 there are quite a lot more features Blu-ray/HD-DVD can do over DVD.

HD is here to stay and as more people buy into new TVs a format will need to be there to caterer for the needs. HD-DVD will probably lose the format war and maybe be seen as the "laserdisc" of this generation. A new format can't come along at this time as it cause even more confusion for the consumer, wouldn't offer anything new at all, would be extremely costly to develop and promote etc.

It's likely that there won't be another format for quite some time to come and the HD generation may very well outlast the DVD generation. 1080p looks great even at the extremely large screen sizes so what will be the need for another format?

 

Yes, I oversimplifyed by saying that it was just the Quality that was different. But at the end of the day there is no giant advantage as there was to upgrading from VHS - have you ever heard of people screaming for "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Also D-Box Enhanced, Games - "Who Dares Defy Galactus?" and "The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.")" - a couple of crappy mini games with their movies?

I certainly wasn't advocating a 3rd format outside HD-DVD/Blu-Ray, apart from downloads. I was suggesting both will turn into "LaserDiscs" as I don't believe there is the demand - Searching Amazon's best selling DVD and similar players list, out of 100, only 5 are HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players. ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/electronics/4085971/ref=pd_ts_pg_1?ie=UTF8&pg=1 ). People seem far more interested in hard disk recorders, DVD recorders, and upscaling players than HD technologies.
Also Blu-Ray/HD-DVD will not take off until average people start replacing their DVD players with an HD player, in the same way that people are replacing CRTs with LCDs. I think that people not doing this shows a general dis-interest in the technologies and that they are happy with DVD. Indeed, of all the people I know with HD TVs, none own an HD player, and haven't felt that DVD is not good enough. These are the average non-techy people, exactly those that the HD clans want to rush out and buy their players.

 

remember that HD videocameras are getting cheaper and cheaper, and might push even more the HD feeling of customers...

after trying 1080p it's hard to be satisfied with just dvd or less than dvd quality, right?

 

Blue ray or HD to early to tell. With players supposedly coming out that will play both the big question would be how well m$ HD Dvd player is selling. I know for me I find it easier to play blue ray on the PS3 than HD on the 360 since I need to hook up the external drive and half, ok most, the time I am to lazy/ tired to go get it out. As for dvd I believe it is here for a long time. With most consumers not having large high def sets there is no reason to buy anything better than dvd.

 

Maybe it's just me being crazy about picture quality and such but I really doubt anyone would pick DVD over a HD format if they were shown the difference. As prices are driven down and people replace equipment it seems like just a matter of time to me until HD becomes the standard.

 

Cost vs quality. I can buy a dvd on special for 16.99 or less. The same dvd in blue ray is 29.99 if you have kids the difference can be huge to your monthly budget.

 

Our family made the transition to dvds relatively late. It wasn't until we found that we couldn't rent movies at Blockbuster that we decided to get a DVD player.

The two formats are still relatively new so I don't think there will be a clear winner until prices go down.

My opinion on the whole format war is one of extreme annoyance. Why does there have to be two formats? It just bothers me that to watch certain movies in High Def I'll have to get another player. I don't know if it will happen, but I'm going to wait until one format or the other wins.

 

Just wait until companies like NetFlix and BlockBuster decide what media to carry for rental.

 

It's definately a move in favor of Blu-Ray... but I'm sure someone will find a way to continue the format "war" for at least a couple months after Warner stops producing HD-DVDs.

Blockbuster has been Blu-Ray exclusive for a while now. Netflix does carry both and they seem to be the bigger player nowadays.

 

Heres the thing: There are three markets right now: DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray. DVD is pretty much the king right now: It is cheap, easy to get a player for it, and is fairly decent overall. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have such a small market that it will be hard for either to dethrone the DVD market unless things change. They need to be cheaper, have players at a cheaper cost, and be able to offer stuff that DVD does not.

Blu-Ray has potential, I will admit. The size of the disc can be great if they start putting whole seasons of TV series or certain series of movies on one disc. However, what is the point when all there is right now are movies that can be bought cheaper on DVD?

Even though I have a HDTV, I see no point in upgrading until there is a better selection.

 

I agree with a previous point, the price is the current clincher as there are a pile of films I want to buy / see and if I am expected to pay £25 for a BR disc when HMV & what used to be Virgin, but is now some daft name like Zunna are in an open battle to gain customers and selling off loads of films for £5 / £10 then I'm afraid that bog standard DVD will be snapped up!

The price has got to drop to about the £16-20 mark before people (including myself) will be convinced to invest in the format. Remembering of course that a lot of consumers will be waiting to see how things land, because we've been here several times with different formats lately and I think consumers are wise to it now.

 

Lets not forget that the market was sort of forced on us instead of a natural evolution. VHS was around roughly 20 years before it was replaced, DVD has only been around barely 9 years and didn't even really catch on until 2001. People just don't want to upgrade their collections so soon for nothing.