The BLU-RAY format will never replace the DVD format unless BLU-RAY recorders appear.

[Cevolution]

IMO you can't assess the jump from VHS to DVD as a whole, you have to separate it into 2 completely different categories. 1 category being picture and sound quality, and the 2nd being the convenience change from large tapes to a disc based format. In terms of P/AQ Blu-ray is a much bigger jump from DVD than what DVD from VHS was. As for the convenience factor, yes DVD offered a big jump here, however I don't consider it as all that impressive, because I don't believe that DVD tech deserves or can take credit for it, compact disc/laser disc tech takes the credit there. DVD tech just copied the same principles from CD technology. The convenience factor between VHS and DVD is really irrelevant when comparing the jump from DVD to Blu-ray, because it didn't matter what the next technology after VHS was going to be, whether it was DVD or some other technology, it just would have copied other already establish disc based technologies, ie compact discs. It was inevitable. With that being said, bringing the changes in convenience with VHS to DVD into a DVD vs Blu-ray debate is kind of ridiculous if you ask me. What did we expect blu-ray disc technology to be, something different again, changing from a disc based format to some other new physical format which was even more convenient? Imagine if that was the case, then none of our DVD's would be backwards compatible with any Blu-ray player. If you think about it logically, Blu-ray technology offers the consumer a great jump in convenience, something the DVD couldn't offer, because unlike the jump from VHS to DVD where you could no longer use your VHS tapes, with Blu-ray you don't have to upgrade your entire DVD movie collection.

[MacinMan]

I've read a few posts here, and this looks like a dated, but interesting thread. It's interesting that Europe, Asia, and the US are all mentioned here in this thread, basing different opinions and markets for the technology. I am someone who has been a Mac User for many years, and I have supported Apple as a company for years as well. I always year people in the mac community say that blu-ray is a dying format, and that optical media as a whole is dying, Apple has stopped selling stuff on optical disc, and i think all new macs , or at least notebooks don't have an optical drive. If this has been brought up before, I apologize, i just didn't read every single post in the thread.

Iive also noticed in many places like walmart, best buy, etc, the DVD section is larger then blu-ray, it may be half and half today. I was curious as a format, is blu-ray doing as well people say it is? i've heard conflicting feedback, some say it's good some say it, and all optical media is going to die. It's 2012, and DVD still seems to be going strong, e.g. even though many titles have been re released to blu-ray, and all new releases come to both now, it doesn't seem like DVD sales are becoming any less, as a whole.

I was wondering if someone could comment on this.

Thanks

[Icemouth]

Macs not having bluray drives (or drives in general) is basically irrelevant because apple fans aren't the people who keep up with technology (otherwise they would buy the superior hardware at half the price) they'd prefer minuscule updates and flashy adverts.

As for DVD, you're comparing a format that had a 17 year shelf life and vastly changed home video, to something at 6 years which is also more of an upgrade than a complete new thing. It was also easier to get people to switch, you said "it's better" and people could see why immediately. Right now you have a bunch of people who have no idea what HD is and think they can just buy an HDTV and now their TV is HD. It's obviously going to take far longer to get a mass switch.

As for digital, no, not going to happen. With the ridiculous pricing for internet, the fact that a large majority of the world doesn't have appropriate connections (and this includes many areas in countries like the US), prices, lack of actually having anything, it's not going to take over.

[Icemouth]

Originally Posted by Cevolution

If you think about it logically, Blu-ray technology offers the consumer a great jump in convenience, something the DVD couldn't offer, because unlike the jump from VHS to DVD where you could no longer use your VHS tapes, with Blu-ray you don't have to upgrade your entire DVD movie collection.

This is also a huge negative, it leaves the average person feeling "that's it?". I mean, how many people call it "blueray dvd"? So you have to convince these people to now buy new TV's, a new player, and pay more for movies. That's a lot harder than marketing a non-rewinding, better picture and audio, smaller, last longer format.

[Cevolution]

Originally Posted by Icemouth

This is also a huge negative, it leaves the average person feeling "that's it?". I mean, how many people call it "blueray dvd"? So you have to convince these people to now buy new TV's, a new player, and pay more for movies. That's a lot harder than marketing a non-rewinding, better picture and audio, smaller, last longer format.

I don't see that as a negative, because HD as a standard has become the norm, as people have no choice but to upgrade to it, at least here in Australia anyway. There is no convincing needed, if you want to continue watching tv that is. Our Government have started switching off SD analogue networks to selected areas, by mid 2013 SD analogue broadcasting is going to be completely shut off altogether.

This means people either have to go and buy set top boxes for their existing CRT tv's or upgrade their tv to an HDtv. Most people aren't bothering with seeking out the set top box option, instead they are accepting the fact that their tv's are dated and are buying new tv's. With that being said at the same time many are also being sold not only on HD for their daily tv viewing, but on blu-ray for the their physical disc movie viewing as well, at extremely low prices. Often people don't even have to purchase a blu-ray player, as they are being thrown in for free with the tv as a part of promotional deals all the time here.

As for Blu-ray movies being more expensive, that depends on the movie. New release blu-rays are generally about $5au more than their DVD counterpart, however many catalogue blu-ray titles or titles that are no longer considered as new releases are cheaper here on blu-ray than they are on DVD.

Edit: Free to air television with 4-5 minutes of commercials every 10 minutes is how most Australian's watch tv. With analogue SD broadcasting people have only ever had 5 channels available to them, but our digital broadcasting services offer 15+ channels. So that's a big positive and incentive for many Australian's to want to upgrade to new equipment just there.

IMO it makes no difference what people call Blu-ray, they can call them Blu-ray DVD's all they like, all that matters is that more and more people are becoming aware of Blu-ray and are choosing to buy them over dvd's, and that's exactly what is happening here in Australia. Our biggest physical media retailer here is JB HIFI, and often their DVD aisles are deserted these days, with the exception of the tv season DVD area. It has now become common to only see 1 or 2 people in the DVD section at one time, compared the 6-8+ in the Blu-ray aisles.

[MacinMan]

Originally Posted by Icemouth

Macs not having bluray drives (or drives in general) is basically irrelevant because apple fans aren't the people who keep up with technology (otherwise they would buy the superior hardware at half the price) they'd prefer minuscule updates and flashy adverts.

As for DVD, you're comparing a format that had a 17 year shelf life and vastly changed home video, to something at 6 years which is also more of an upgrade than a complete new thing. It was also easier to get people to switch, you said "it's better" and people could see why immediately. Right now you have a bunch of people who have no idea what HD is and think they can just buy an HDTV and now their TV is HD. It's obviously going to take far longer to get a mass switch.

As for digital, no, not going to happen. With the ridiculous pricing for internet, the fact that a large majority of the world doesn't have appropriate connections (and this includes many areas in countries like the US), prices, lack of actually having anything, it's not going to take over.

Well believe it or not, i'm more of a fan of the mac os then the hardware itself since mac os has always been good for people with special needs and meeting accessibility needs with little to no extra cost then the os itself, at least for me. As far as blu-ray vs DVD, i'm someone who doesn't have a lot of friends who are in the production business, or even know a lot about technology, so to most of them it wouldn't matter. I find myself in a unique position because I both have professional video training, and a good technical background but am limited in dealing with the public as a whole, so what i've learned is through my own experiences, what i've gotten through school and reading on the internet forums, reviews, whatnot even some articles.

When I ask questions, or respond to threads, i typically respond based on what info i have, and how I'd used the technology specifically. For example, blu-ray, and DVD players range in low end to high end with varying features like fine adjustments or different forms of video processors. My thinking from a video professional would be, for some circumstances the adjustments are important and legit, others would be in my mind an excused for the studios to do bad work and leave it up to the consumer to clean up at home. For me, a calibrated display, a good processor, properly mastered and encoded content should provide most people a good accurate reproduction of the presentation in home. Some areas i could see where being able to adjust video output, would be to bring out highlights, say in dark scenes, or maybe other situations where a little enhancement is needed, say if someone has vision loss, and needs to adjust the video to accomodate for that. However, from a professional prospective, properly calibrated displays and mastered material should elmina a lot of need for that because I would think in many cases those items should be taken into mind durring production.

Anyway i wasn't intending to tangent, just share some specific thoughts and insight i would personally respond to when it comes to chosing a setup equipment etc. even the way i would feel about different formats in some cases.