Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[Steedeel]

The bigger question is will we still have tv sets to watch our movies on in the future. With the doomsday scenario of mobile phone and tablet movie watching taking over tv watching. Tv sales are down and mobile devices keep rising. My fear is that tv sets will disapear altogether in ten years or so. Then, we can all forget about enjoying movies at home whatever the resolution is. Tried to watch a film on a 4 inch device once and gave up after a few minutes.
I hear people saying they prefer the new ipad hd screen to their tv and similar stupid statements already. Watching movies on a two inch strip surrounded by black bars (that is what it looks like to me unless anyone can set me straight) is not my idea of movie watching. Worrying times for all home cinema fanatics.

[Tok]

Mobile devices fit a niche for young professionals, but they can't create a communal experience. When people start to prefer to watch things like the Superbowl on a mobile device then I'll worry. The reason TV sales are down is because a large number of consumers have already replaced their primary and some secondary sets. The CE industry incorrectly assumed that consumers are going to buy a new TV every two to three years. The cycle although getting shorter is still around ten years. A television is not like a computer where the hardware can no longer adequately perform tasks. A TV is viewed as a dumb device. Sure sometimes new service features are sometimes built into the the TV, but consumers can find other ways and much cheaper usually to get those newer features with add-on entertainment devices. Except for the barebones no name brands, most $100 and up BD players have all the latest streaming services built-in.

Also the industry incorrectly assumed that consumers were going to replace relatively new sets with 3D sets. I like 3D but the industry miscalculated due to a very tiny amount of available content and then many of the higher quality 3D titles became manufacturer exclusives. It might have helped one manufacturer over another, but in the end exclusives have hurt 3D adoption.

[vargo]

Originally Posted by CraigW

All formats die eventually, but that has usually been because the evolution of storage technology offered significant improvements over the one it was replacing.

Its because of money, technical improvements are just an aside.

There is billions of dollars to be made by selling you a new TV, new player...selling you the same movies all over again in a better format or in a silly metal tin.

[djkest]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...ntcmp=obinsite

This article was published about a year ago. Seems almost laughable really, even then, but especially now. Why is this even relevant?
1) It's still one of the top recommended stories on Fox News.com
2) It's been enough time to see if he was correct or not

Let's start with:

"I'm surprised DVDs have continued to hang on," said King, referring to the fact that player sales of over 20 million units in the U.S. last year were pretty much evenly split between DVD and Blu-ray models. His figures show that Blu-ray player sales will surpass DVD sales by the end of this year ... but only slightly.

How can something be the majority, and still fail to catch on? That makes about as much sense as: "Android has failed to catch on" or "GPS has failed to catch on".

DVD still hangs on I think for a couple reasons, but for new releases I think it comes down to a couple things: Frugality and lack of planning for the future. I knew I would get an HDTV so I started buying movies in Widescreen a long time ago. Many of my friends got FF movies because that's what their current TVs were. Later on, their collections were outdated. One of my friends now just bought a new release on DVD despite it being outdated technology.. she saved $3 over the BD/DVD combo pack.

Also, DVDs continue to be priced about $5 lower for new releases, SEEMING to be a better deal. But how much more would it cost you to later upgrade? Used DVDs are already pretty much worthless- try selling some on E-bay or to a trading business.

The real reason Blu-ray players never went mainstream? Quite frankly they were never that good.

There wasn't enough of a qualitative difference between the picture offered by an upconverted DVD and that of a Blu-ray disc.

I love how "cute" he is being by referring to blu-ray players in the past tense. But he also fails to understand that blu-ray discs really shine on 1080p displays of 32" or larger. I guess if you have small, crappy TVs this would be an easy assumption to make...

The catalog of BD movies grows larger every week, many classic movies have been restored and revitalized for blu-ray disc, and many excellent deals can be found with proper dilligence both on new and catalog titles.

[sycro]

As long as studios continue to release DVDs, they will survive. If studios cut off DVDs or went to BD+DVD only, DVDs would die quicker.

[zeze]

All I had to see was "Fox News" and I knew what to expect from this article.

[42041]

Originally Posted by sycro

As long as studios continue to release DVDs, they will survive. If studios cut off DVDs or went to BD+DVD only, DVDs would die quicker.

I don't see why the studios would want that to happen.

The article is hack journalism with a completely bogus premise straight out of the gate, hardly worth discussing.

[HyperRealist]

Joe Muto rules.

[MifuneFan]

Not much of anything Faux News publishes is worth repeating

[Gardenofstone10]

Fox proves their all knowing ignorance yet again. Disney switching to the combos is pushing a lot of the DVD market into Blu Ray and it will only grow as it continues to get cheaper. Once we see high quality BD players for 50 bucks, it will boom yet again

[MifuneFan]

More quality journalism here

Apr 19, 2011

- 3:56 -

Personal Tech: What's prevented Blue-Ray players from taking off?

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by sycro

As long as studios continue to release DVDs, they will survive. If studios cut off DVDs or went to BD+DVD only, DVDs would die quicker.

100% agree.

Unfortunately, it's still a Mexican stand-off between the Studios / Distributors / Retailers / Rental Houses / Consumers. And with every beautifully upgraded new Blu-ray master, the video market also gets better upscaling DVDs.

Vicious circle...

[MrHT]

Why do you want DVD to die? As long as Blu-ray doesn't die, then that's all that matters. I have no problem with both formats coexisting.

[MM Jester]

Originally Posted by zeze

All I had to see was "Fox News" and I knew what to expect from this article.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by MrHT

Why do you want DVD to die? As long as Blu-ray doesn't die, then that's all that matters. I have no problem with both formats coexisting.

I'm quite happy to support both formats, as especially here in the UK we just aren't getting the TV releases (in particular, we're missing out on a lot of movies as well). The general public does seem oblivious to some of BD's benefit's though. I can't remember how many times I've heard 'I can't tell the difference....'

I don't understand the reporters logic that because something is old it need to be discarded. I'm sure lots of people have multi-format set-ups where the content is the most important thing.

[Dark.Devil.21]

I wonder what this guy was thinking when writing this article? Not long ago I myself was a huge supporter of DVD, but then I bought blu-ray player and one blu-ray movie, the difference was huge. Now I own almost 60 blu-ray titles.

Even the advertisements for new releases on TV have gone from "Look for it on DVD and Blu-ray" to "Look for it on Blu-ray and DVD" or just "Look for it on blu-ray"

[K i r a]

Originally Posted by zeze

All I had to see was "Fox News" and I knew what to expect from this article.

This. Lol.

I read somewhere that they expect to see a big change in how stores' home videos layouts are starting in late 2015. Something that I'd agree with, as more and more BD player sales continue to rise, and the prices of yesteryear's models, still good, no doubt, lower and make it more accessible and tantalizing.

[darthrazz]

Originally Posted by zeze

All I had to see was "Fox News" and I knew what to expect from this article.

Yup, these are the same people that reported that OBAMA bin Laden had been killed!

[IMG][/IMG]

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by zeze

All I had to see was "Fox News" and I knew what to expect from this article.

All media is biased in some form or fashion.

[bkhage01]

Originally Posted by zeze

All I had to see was "Fox News" and I knew what to expect from this article.