newb questions. please help me for business presentation

[technewb]

Ok. I am completely new to the blue ray technology and I know that all the information i possibly need is all here, but I am in a very bad time crunch. The questions im about to ask are very repetitive im sure but I have a presentation coming up and I dont really have time to weed through all the scattered information. If you could answer any of my questions or have any input, it would be greatly appreciated.

I am doing a presentation on an article about toshiba surrending hd-dvd and blu-ray coming out on top. This is for my strategic management class (business mgt. major) and I will be using Porter's five forces as a base for my presentation. A few questions I had are....

1) Time Warner switched to support blu ray, which was the main reason for toshiba dropping hd-dvd. What are the main causes for blu-ray to get such great support? I am only aware that the only major difference was the size of the dvds were larger with blu ray. I read that it might be because of royalties and blu ray has much better security features that will prevent china from illegally distributing. Is that true?

2) Can you burn blu ray dvds? What kind of security features does blu ray have?

3) Why did blu ray come out on top? Anything to do with marketing? It seems to me that blu ray and hd dvd were on level playing fields.

4)Why are people shelling out the money for blue ray? You can get an upconverter for under 100 bucks and it seems that the difference in quality is minimal. Do all dvds upconvert?

5) Blu ray defeated hd dvd. What now? What else are they competing against? Upconverters? Cable/satellite are showing movies in high def and i think some websites are going to directly stream movies in high def. Is this true?

6) Does blu ray now have a monopoly? I read that there are 10 companies producing blu ray but a month after tobshiba dropped out, blu ray prices increased 10%.

7) technology is changing so fast, do you think majority of people will switch over to blu ray? Many people are waiting for the right price but do you think something better could come out and take out blu ray? How long do you think blu ray will have this technological advantage?

8) Is there anything you dislike about blu ray? What would you change about it?

Please answer the questions from a business stand point. I am not here to take sides or anything. ( im actually looking to purchase a blu ray player for my dads birthday to put into his media room) Im looking for unbiased answers. Any extra input or important things that I might add in to my presentation; feel free to throw out there.

[rragland]

Originally Posted by technewb

Ok. I am completely new to the blue ray technology and I know that all the information i possibly need is all here, but I am in a very bad time crunch. The questions im about to ask are very repetitive im sure but I have a presentation coming up and I dont really have time to weed through all the scattered information. If you could answer any of my questions or have any input, it would be greatly appreciated.

I am doing a presentation on an article about toshiba surrending hd-dvd and blu-ray coming out on top. This is for my strategic management class (business mgt. major) and I will be using Porter's five forces as a base for my presentation. A few questions I had are....

1) Time Warner switched to support blu ray, which was the main reason for toshiba dropping hd-dvd. What are the main causes for blu-ray to get such great support? I am only aware that the only major difference was the size of the dvds were larger with blu ray. I read that it might be because of royalties and blu ray has much better security features that will prevent china from illegally distributing. Is that true?

2) Can you burn blu ray dvds? What kind of security features does blu ray have?

3) Why did blu ray come out on top? Anything to do with marketing? It seems to me that blu ray and hd dvd were on level playing fields.

4)Why are people shelling out the money for blue ray? You can get an upconverter for under 100 bucks and it seems that the difference in quality is minimal. Do all dvds upconvert?

5) Blu ray defeated hd dvd. What now? What else are they competing against? Upconverters? Cable/satellite are showing movies in high def and i think some websites are going to directly stream movies in high def. Is this true?

6) Does blu ray now have a monopoly? I read that there are 10 companies producing blu ray but a month after tobshiba dropped out, blu ray prices increased 10%.

7) technology is changing so fast, do you think majority of people will switch over to blu ray? Many people are waiting for the right price but do you think something better could come out and take out blu ray? How long do you think blu ray will have this technological advantage?

8) Is there anything you dislike about blu ray? What would you change about it?

Please answer the questions from a business stand point. I am not here to take sides or anything. ( im actually looking to purchase a blu ray player for my dads birthday to put into his media room) Im looking for unbiased answers. Any extra input or important things that I might add in to my presentation; feel free to throw out there.

Blu-ray offers a scratch-resistant hard-coating that HD-DVD does not.
Wide acceptance of the Sony Playstation 3 can be attributed to Blu-ray's victory.
Software/Content. Blu-ray garnered more studio support early in the format war.
Hardware support. More manufacturers supported Blu-ray over HD-DVD.
Blu-ray is compatible with BD-Java discs and HD-DVD is not.
Blu-ray is competing against digital distribution (online downloads).
I do not like the long delay for the disc tray to open, or the delays encountered in disc-load time. I do not like having to watch previews before the feature begins.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

ok I can just give you what i know but i am far from the most knowledgeable person here. I can at least give you some basics and a direction.

1. The specs overall on Blu ray were better not just the disc size. The available bandwidth on blu ray is much larger than that of HD dvd. I believe the max bandwidth of blu is 40 mbps and hd dvd is 20. this gives you the benefit of having a much higher bitrates for the video while still having room for lossless and uncompressed audio tracks. as of right now the best pictures are averaging about 25 mbps any more and its not worth it because of diminishing returns. but because of the 40mbps max there is room for future changes. im not sure about the china part sorry.

2. yes you can burn blu rays. and the best security for blu ray is called BD+. Fox is the only studio to use this form of security at the moment but since they adopted it NONE of their movies have been pirated. and if they do succeed BD+ is flexible and the studios can implement a completely different form of BD+ and the pirates will have to start from scratch.

3. Im not sure about this one but IMO i think the PS3 helped blu ray because it gave a lot of people who ordinarily would not have bought a standalone player the opportunity to play blu rays.

4. Its true that upconverters make regular DVDs look muck better but it isnt going to add the detail that wasnt there to begin with. with blu ray you start with a much higher resolution and you see many details that you wont see on an upconversion (mainly on 50" tvs and up)

5. None of these examples are really competition. Cable/satelite companies have fixed bandwidth issues as well. im dont know as much about this issue but i know it does affect them. I dont think any brodcasts are over 1080i. The internet in its current state cant handle streaming HD movies because of bandwidth issues again. When you do get streamed HD content is it of lesser quality and youd better hope not too many other people are using the net at the same time as you.

6. I would think they are the only HD optical format right now. I havent noticed any increases in prices since HD DVD died.

7. the main reason why i think blu ray will be a format to stay is because it is flexible enough to change in the future. I know they have 100+ gig prototype discs so any new format that would come out in the coming years would have to compete against an already established format that IMO could handle any changes in the first place so no one would be compelled to change to a new format. With Digital downloads you face a myriad of obstacles before you will convince the public that it is viable as the next "format". DRM (digital rights managment), bandwidth issues at home, time issues with downloading (when was the last time you downloaded 50 gigs in one go? how long did it take? 2-3 days maybe?), HDD failures, resale aspect (you cant walk into a pwn shop etc and sell your download). There are many more issues as well that you would have to solidly overcome in order to instill confidence in the consumer that this is a safe, easy, logical step to take. Technologically i think blu ray can easily last as long as DVD.

[Blu boy]

IT IS NOT blu ray DVD it is blu ray disc or BD. the ps3 was a major factor in bluray's victory. the only people making hd dud players were toshiba and microsoft's addon for the 360. most companies were already on blu rays side before warner joined but them joinning was the beginning of the end.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

I just barely scratched the surface in each of my responses but if you look in this direction you will find info and sources to back up your presentation.

[technewb]

Originally Posted by rragland

Blu-ray offers a scratch-resistant hard-coating that HD-DVD does not.
Wide acceptance of the Sony Playstation 3 can be attributed to Blu-ray's victory.
Blu-ray is competing against digital distribution (online downloads).
I do not like the long delay for the disc tray to open, or the delays encountered in disc-load time. I do not like having to watch previews before the feature begins.

Great info, I cant believe I forgot about the ps3. Thanks for your time!

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by DeathByAsh'aman

ok I can just give you what i know but i am far from the most knowledgeable person here. I can at least give you some basics and a direction.

1. The specs overall on Blu ray were better not just the disc size. The available bandwidth on blu ray is much larger than that of HD dvd. I believe the max bandwidth of blu is 40 mbps and hd dvd is 20. this gives you the benefit of having a much higher bitrates for the video while still having room for lossless and uncompressed audio tracks. as of right now the best pictures are averaging about 25 mbps any more and its not worth it because of diminishing returns. but because of the 40mbps max there is room for future changes. im not sure about the china part sorry.

2. yes you can burn blu rays. and the best security for blu ray is called BD+. Fox is the only studio to use this form of security at the moment but since they adopted it NONE of their movies have been pirated. and if they do succeed BD+ is flexible and the studios can implement a completely different form of BD+ and the pirates will have to start from scratch.

3. Im not sure about this one but IMO i think the PS3 helped blu ray because it gave a lot of people who ordinarily would not have bought a standalone player the opportunity to play blu rays.

4. Its true that upconverters make regular DVDs look muck better but it isnt going to add the detail that wasnt there to begin with. with blu ray you start with a much higher resolution and you see many details that you wont see on an upconversion (mainly on 50" tvs and up)

5. None of these examples are really competition. Cable/satelite companies have fixed bandwidth issues as well. im dont know as much about this issue but i know it does affect them. I dont think any brodcasts are over 1080i. The internet in its current state cant handle streaming HD movies because of bandwidth issues again. When you do get streamed HD content is it of lesser quality and youd better hope not too many other people are using the net at the same time as you.

6. I would think they are the only HD optical format right now. I havent noticed any increases in prices since HD DVD died.

7. the main reason why i think blu ray will be a format to stay is because it is flexible enough to change in the future. I know they have 100+ gig prototype discs so any new format that would come out in the coming years would have to compete against an already established format that IMO could handle any changes in the first place so no one would be compelled to change to a new format. With Digital downloads you face a myriad of obstacles before you will convince the public that it is viable as the next "format". DRM (digital rights managment), bandwidth issues at home, time issues with downloading (when was the last time you downloaded 50 gigs in one go? how long did it take? 2-3 days maybe?), HDD failures, resale aspect (you cant walk into a pwn shop etc and sell your download). There are many more issues as well that you would have to solidly overcome in order to instill confidence in the consumer that this is a safe, easy, logical step to take. Technologically i think blu ray can easily last as long as DVD.

WOW! Do you need an asprin after that?

[DeathByAsh'aman]

no.. i took 2 exedrin before

[rragland]

Originally Posted by technewb

Great info, I cant believe I forgot about the ps3. Thanks for your time!

You are most welcome. I edited my post, so maybe there is some more useful information you can use. Good luck with your presentation.

[crackinhedz]

I'll try to take a stab at it...

Originally Posted by technewb

1) Time Warner switched to support blu ray, which was the main reason for toshiba dropping hd-dvd. What are the main causes for blu-ray to get such great support? I am only aware that the only major difference was the size of the dvds were larger with blu ray. I read that it might be because of royalties and blu ray has much better security features that will prevent china from illegally distributing. Is that true?

Security is great, but I believe Warners decision was based soley on consumer demand...simply put, Bluray was outselling HD-DVD and it only made sense to go with the obvious choice to consumers. 2 formats competing was not good for business, Warner waited until it became obvious.

2) Can you burn blu ray dvds? What kind of security features does blu ray have?

Yes, you can burn Bluray discs (for home movies or personal use)...but you cannot rip copyrighted movies...security is too good.

3) Why did blu ray come out on top? Anything to do with marketing? It seems to me that blu ray and hd dvd were on level playing fields.

Bluray simply put, has the better specs. Higher bitrate, higher storage capacity, higher Studio support. Also they were smart and did not lowball the player prices...yeah, it made for expensive bluray players but Toshiba sold their crap so low that no outside companies were willing to take such a loss in sale. Instead, Bluray had wave after wave of "Buy One Get One Free" disc sales, that in the long run saved consumers money while keeping manufacturers happy that they could sell a player and still make a profit.

Now that Bluray has won (only one format) and demand is higher, Bluray Player prices will inevitably come down.

4)Why are people shelling out the money for blue ray? You can get an upconverter for under 100 bucks and it seems that the difference in quality is minimal. Do all dvds upconvert?

"Difference in quality minimal"?

quite the contrary. Upconverting DVD's is nothing more than the dvd player making up information that is not even really there. Basically a gimmick. You can add all the enhancements all you want to a 480p image...but its still a 480p image.

5) Blu ray defeated hd dvd. What now? What else are they competing against? Upconverters? Cable/satellite are showing movies in high def and i think some websites are going to directly stream movies in high def. Is this true?

No competition. The same fools who trumpeted HD-DVD are now saying digital downloads are the future. Which it very well could be...but not any time soon. Especially not with todays download speeds...it would take HOURS to download a movie in HD. I could run down to Bestbuy in 20 minutes and buy a bluray disc.

6) Does blu ray now have a monopoly? I read that there are 10 companies producing blu ray but a month after tobshiba dropped out, blu ray prices increased 10%.

the optical disc industry is sorta unique...I wouldn't call it a monopoly per se. Its just better for the consumer and manufacturers to have one standard...like DVD. Bluray is comprised of many different companies, so monopoly is not what I would call it.

7) technology is changing so fast, do you think majority of people will switch over to blu ray? Many people are waiting for the right price but do you think something better could come out and take out blu ray? How long do you think blu ray will have this technological advantage?

no one knows. But I do not see a rival for quite some time. Digital downloads are unrealistic and probably will be for many years to come. Especially with talk of Internet Service Providers talking about capping downloading rates.

8) Is there anything you dislike about blu ray? What would you change about it?

the sticky residue on the packaging I could do without. But they have been getting better about it. But I guess it depends on where you buy it from?

Other than that? not really.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by DeathByAsh'aman

ok I can just give you what i know but i am far from the most knowledgeable person here. I can at least give you some basics and a direction...

man I type slow.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

Looks like i forgot question 8. The only thing i dont like about blu ray is that i like it so much more than DVD that ill end up buying all my movies again.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

lol.. I was juggling my son too. I guess i type fast

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

man I type slow.

Originally Posted by DeathByAsh'aman

lol.. I was juggling my son too. I guess i type fast

Funny.

[technewb]

Originally Posted by DeathByAsh'aman

I just barely scratched the surface in each of my responses but if you look in this direction you will find info and sources to back up your presentation.

Thank you for all that info. That is going to be extremely helpful. I feel like im finally making some traction now. Thanks again!

[tommyboy81]

Originally Posted by technewb

Thank you for all that info. That is going to be extremely helpful. I feel like im finally making some traction now. Thanks again!

He wants his name mentioned in you're presentation to.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

didnt you see my disclaimer? i reserve the right to 10% of your yearly gross wages for life after you get your degree! my help doesnt come cheap!! kids arent cheap so neither am i!

[technewb]

Originally Posted by tommyboy81

He wants his name mentioned in you're presentation to.

ahaha ya, I think i might have to put him and crackinhedz in my sources slide.

Wonderful input crackinhedz. Tremendously helpful.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...roduction+line

This thread discusses some of the difficulties some smaller studios and replicators have because of the cost of blu ray discs and investment in replication lines.

Yeah i dont have much to do... and ive always loved research, call me crazy.

[Anthony P]

1) Time Warner switched to support blu ray, which was the main reason for toshiba dropping hd-dvd. What are the main causes for blu-ray to get such great support? I am only aware that the only major difference was the size of the dvds were larger with blu ray. I read that it might be because of royalties and blu ray has much better security features that will prevent china from illegally distributing. Is that true?

I think from a buisness perspective the main reason is that BD disks where highly outselling (2:1) HD DVD for a whole year. I think most also understand that dual formats also fgragment the market and so stagnate growth.

2) Can you burn blu ray dvds? What kind of security features does blu ray have?

yes you can, there are BD drives in all the world and BD PVRs in Japan. Actualy the first incarnation of BD was in PVRs in Japan, long before the movie format was completed.

The main encryption scheme is called AACS (and every replicated disk must use it) which was also used by HD DVD

BD also has
BD+: that can determine if aplayer was hacked or not and what to do
BD-RM: a mark on the BD disk that can be used to determine the replicator
Region coding:


not security related, but all BD disks require a special coating that makes them much harder to scratch.

3) Why did blu ray come out on top? Anything to do with marketing? It seems to me that blu ray and hd dvd were on level playing fields.

I am sure no matter how many you ask you will get a different reason, so here is mine

The HD DVD proponents made all the wrong moves before either came to market.

People need players to buy movies and people need interesting movies to make it worth buying a player. HD DVD assumed that studios will just join them, so when they asked for RC they said we will look at it later, but for now it is no. When asked for larger capacity and BW to fit the movies better, again a response of “No”. When studios pointed out that CSS was cracked and so will AACS and something better is needed BD added BD-ROM and BD+ but HD DVD said no.

Once you add that BD had much more studio support and you add that BD had the PS3 (an easy way to gain market) it was impossible for HD DVD to win, so what did Toshiba have as its only means of counter attack? Cheap players, which also ended up killing all the CE interests (Sanyo and NEC where co developers from the beginning but where were their players?)

4)Why are people shelling out the money for blue ray? You can get an upconverter for under 100 bucks and it seems that the difference in quality is minimal. Do all dvds upconvert?

because =the difference is not minimal, the difference is quite large, you also get lossless (or uncompressed) sound so every aspect of the experience is much better.

5) Blu ray defeated hd dvd. What now? What else are they competing against? Upconverters? Cable/satellite are showing movies in high def and i think some websites are going to directly stream movies in high def. Is this true?

yes it is true there is a lot of different crap in the works, but what now? Taking over from DVD as the distribution for bought movie media

6) Does blu ray now have a monopoly? I read that there are 10 companies producing blu ray but a month after tobshiba dropped out, blu ray prices increased 10%.

pure BS. Some players at some retailers did have a pre/post Christmas sales and then the prices went back to normal. If you compare MRSP it did not go up for any player. As for monopoly, how can there be with so many manufacturers? Also HD DVD was no competition and there is still all the other stuff that you asked about in 5.

7) technology is changing so fast, do you think majority of people will switch over to blu ray? Many people are waiting for the right price but do you think something better could come out and take out blu ray? How long do you think blu ray will have this technological advantage?

I think everyone will be on BD. DVD does not make sense once BD becomes mainstream enough. As for anything that might take over from BD, yes most likely one day, the same way that DVD took over from VHS and BD is taking over from DVD. What will it be? No one knows because it is not developed yet and won’t be for a long time

8) Is there anything you dislike about blu ray? What would you change about it?

dislike is a strong word. But would I like higher BW (for better pics) and more capacity? Yes, would I like it to have some extra features (like 3D) yes.