Blu-Ray and the End User - Blu-ray Forum

tronotized22 · 05-28-2015, 08:35 PM

Hello everyone. I have been thinking about Blu-Ray and why it has not caught on like DVD did. I am not saying that Blu-Ray is in a bad place, but the expectation of it being the successor of DVD has been challenged by the likes of digital streaming services and digital downloads, as well as the continued popularity of DVDs themselves. I personally dig Blu-Ray as a format mainly because of the tech side of things. But I do think that some people who post on these forums may be missing a vital piece as to why Blu-Ray has not caught on like DVDs.

One of the big reasons is how the user experiences Blu-Ray. When DVDs came out, the advantages of having a digital format over a analog one were huge. Menus, scene searching, special features, audio commentaries, no tracking, vast image quality improvement. The list goes on. Now lets think about Blu-Ray and DVD. Some Blu-Rays started the movie as soon as the distributor logos were done playing, but that feature was dropped. BD-Live was supposed to be a big deal, but it has largely been abandoned. Blu-Rays certainly in general look better than DVDs, but I would argue that the difference between DVDs and Blu-Ray in terms of image quality is not as vast as that of DVD and VHS.

So we are left with a few things here. There are still previews in front of many Blu-Rays, which I remember people that I would watch movies with complain about when DVDs and to a certain extent VHSs were used. Another thing that I find to be very problematic is that so many menus on Blu-Ray movies feel really sluggish and unresponsive to the user's input from their remote. I don't know if I just have a bad Blu-Ray player, but I feel that many DVD menus feel more responsive in comparison.

This matters to consumers. Technology, convenience, and user experience all matter if Blu-Ray wanted to get popular. Blu-Ray got the tech specs right on, but the user experience and convenience factor has been trumped in many respects by Netflix and digital downloads. With Netflix and iTunes, I can just start a movie or TV show, and it just goes straight to what I want to watch. No menus or previews, just press play and go. The interface of Netflix is also very user friendly and responsive, at least on the Roku 3 that I have.

Here is a video from a video game website that gets across what I think many people feel about Blu-Ray: http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/play...-04/2300-8238/

I know, it is a video game website, but I think that while they might not be as knowledgeable as people on these forums are about the Blu-Ray format, I think that they still make valid points. Play the video around the 2 hour and 8 minute mark.

05-28-2015, 08:35 PM	#1
tronotized22 Member Member since:May 2015	Blu-Ray and the End User Hello everyone. I have been thinking about Blu-Ray and why it has not caught on like DVD did. I am not saying that Blu-Ray is in a bad place, but the expectation of it being the successor of DVD has been challenged by the likes of digital streaming services and digital downloads, as well as the continued popularity of DVDs themselves. I personally dig Blu-Ray as a format mainly because of the tech side of things. But I do think that some people who post on these forums may be missing a vital piece as to why Blu-Ray has not caught on like DVDs. One of the big reasons is how the user experiences Blu-Ray. When DVDs came out, the advantages of having a digital format over a analog one were huge. Menus, scene searching, special features, audio commentaries, no tracking, vast image quality improvement. The list goes on. Now lets think about Blu-Ray and DVD. Some Blu-Rays started the movie as soon as the distributor logos were done playing, but that feature was dropped. BD-Live was supposed to be a big deal, but it has largely been abandoned. Blu-Rays certainly in general look better than DVDs, but I would argue that the difference between DVDs and Blu-Ray in terms of image quality is not as vast as that of DVD and VHS. So we are left with a few things here. There are still previews in front of many Blu-Rays, which I remember people that I would watch movies with complain about when DVDs and to a certain extent VHSs were used. Another thing that I find to be very problematic is that so many menus on Blu-Ray movies feel really sluggish and unresponsive to the user's input from their remote. I don't know if I just have a bad Blu-Ray player, but I feel that many DVD menus feel more responsive in comparison. This matters to consumers. Technology, convenience, and user experience all matter if Blu-Ray wanted to get popular. Blu-Ray got the tech specs right on, but the user experience and convenience factor has been trumped in many respects by Netflix and digital downloads. With Netflix and iTunes, I can just start a movie or TV show, and it just goes straight to what I want to watch. No menus or previews, just press play and go. The interface of Netflix is also very user friendly and responsive, at least on the Roku 3 that I have. Here is a video from a video game website that gets across what I think many people feel about Blu-Ray: http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/play...-04/2300-8238/ I know, it is a video game website, but I think that while they might not be as knowledgeable as people on these forums are about the Blu-Ray format, I think that they still make valid points. Play the video around the 2 hour and 8 minute mark.

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