Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[thecalm_7]

It is surprising that people don't want the best. When BR first came out, I still collected DVD unless the BR was cheaper (BB sold the Public Enemies BR for 18/DVD SE for 23) as a nice example.

The problem today is people do not understand BR I feel. To appreciate HD/BR, people kind of need to know a bit and the average consumer does not. I help coworkers and I am baffled by people's setups. They will have an HD set, HD cable box, no HDMI... I advise them to use HDMI and when I tell them cable is 10ish dollars they freak out. Spills go on about $$ to they don't understand to calls about why the picture has bars on the sides and people just do not understand HD. We get questions like "why does it look like this in BB/HHG but not at home.
With BR it should be simpler, HDMI does it all! But no, people F it all up. These are not all trashy people, but average people to doctors.

Price commands people's decisions in the grand scheme of things. Lack of knowledge doesn't help either.

A fine example of this is my neighbor (mid 30s) just bought a PS4, asked me to help set it up, she couldn't figure it out. PS4 now, PS3 is sitting there connected to a 22-24" CRT TV via R/W/Y cables... This is not common as it once was, but its still there, and until the standard is out there the problem will continue. She has no understanding for HD. She thought that the PS4 would be a miracle, making all things look HD, not that a TV is required to be HD to have HD

[mredman]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I'm not surprised about convenience winning out. I am surprised about how low the bar is for audio though. Considering how music CAN sound, many of the younger generation will never experience that. To me, that is tragic. 128 Kbps is horrific yet the young ones don't seem to notice. My nephew was playing songs on his latest music service on his smartphone. I noticed the sound kept getting louder and then quieter every few seconds. Hideous, but he didn't even realise until I pointed out.

We have lost the battle I'm afraid. The next generation coming through have no appreciation of quality and I fear that the bar will just go lower and lower. Maybe 56 Kbps? The same applies with movies, I have been laughed at for this prediction but I think the future (say fifteen to twenty years from now will be people watching movies on their two inch smartwatches.) tablets, laptops and TVs all long dead as movie/tv watching devices.

is this a joke you honestly think this will happen

MOST people always want bigger. Yes there will be smartphones with tv but i can assure you most people want to watch their movies on a big screen

[baghdadlion]

Originally Posted by thecalm_7

It is surprising that people don't want the best.

The problem today is people do not understand BR I feel. To appreciate HD/BR, people kind of need to know a bit and the average consumer does not.

Perhaps the average consumer cares more about other things - especially in this economy? Maybe the average consumer just wants some entertainment to pass the time when they put on the DVD player? Maybe the average consumer is fully satisfied with DVD sound/picture quality and not interested in higher quality?

Sure, a Lexus is a great car if you can afford it but a Toyota is good enough for most average consumers. Not everyone is a movie fan or audiophile. Most people are happy with their TV speakers.

No need to fuss. As long as there's enough HD enthusiasts willing to pay for HT set-ups and buy BDs, blu-ray will thrive together with DVD for the average consumers for the next 10-15 years or so.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by mredman

is this a joke you honestly think this will happen

MOST people always want bigger. Yes there will be smartphones with tv but i can assure you most people want to watch their movies on a big screen

Steed has a way of being over dramatic. Things change. But the problem with low data rate music is that once a certain limit is hit it is hard to distinguish it from CD quality. I rip my CDs at 320kbps and I would have a hard time doing an A/B comparison test for most tracks. Even 192kbps is hard to distinguish at times. With video streaming it is still very easy to see its shortcomings on even average sized sets. I don't think it will be any time soon when a stream looks on par with a HD disc.

Steed also is overlooking the fact that the younger generation doesn't always carry their habits over to later in life. Those tablet hungry teens will eventually have families of their own and will want a device that can be used for a communal experience with their families. The picture Steed is painting is like we are all tied into the Matrix.

[RyanPom]

Originally Posted by mredman

is this a joke you honestly think this will happen

MOST people always want bigger. Yes there will be smartphones with tv but i can assure you most people want to watch their movies on a big screen

Agreed. Why would ANYONE pay to watch a big budget movie on a screen the size of a 8 by 10 envelope?

[baghdadlion]

Originally Posted by RyanPom

Agreed. Why would ANYONE pay to watch a big budget movie on a screen the size of a 8 by 10 envelope?

The kids who grew up with Youtube?

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by LegacyCosts

Consumers still seem to think they're incredibly expensive and the picture upgrade isn't noticible.

And we're almost in 2014. Yet so many members here are talking about the next physical format. If the average general consumer is reluctant to switch to blu ray 8 years after its release, can you imagine how hard a new format would have it breaking through. Also, keep in mind that the jump in quality from blu ray to a 4K format wouldn't be as big as the jump from DVD to blu.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by mredman

is this a joke you honestly think this will happen

MOST people always want bigger. Yes there will be smartphones with tv but i can assure you most people want to watch their movies on a big screen

Kids today couldn't care less mate. They will have grown up watching pokey screens.

[dib2]

Originally Posted by mrr1

Well what else am I going to do with it?

It doesn't matter what the fine print says - when I own the disc I can watch what's on it, whenever I want.

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Nothing new here, been that way for a long time with music and movies.

But you do own the physical media the content resides on to do with as you wish, i.e., view as much as you wish, sell, rent, chop-up, etc. There are some restrictions, like no public performance for profit. Same can not be said for licensed content (non physical).

The point was the original comment was that they 'owned the movie' and you really don't that is the point.

[Tok]

If Blu-ray was struggling then why did I see so many door buster BF deals on big titles as an effort to get people in their stores.

This topic has played itself out. It's best to wait a couple of years and then reevaluate the state of home media entertainment.

As others have stated, digital sell through has been an abysmal failure in the US. The streaming market that everyone talks about killing BD is comprised of low cost services. Hollywood is not going to be able to continue making large budget movies if their main revenue is cheap streaming.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Tok

Steed has a way of being over dramatic. Things change. But the problem with low data rate music is that once a certain limit is hit it is hard to distinguish it from CD quality. I rip my CDs at 320kbps and I would have a hard time doing an A/B comparison test for most tracks. Even 192kbps is hard to distinguish at times. With video streaming it is still very easy to see its shortcomings on even average sized sets. I don't think it will be any time soon when a stream looks on par with a HD disc.

Steed also is overlooking the fact that the younger generation doesn't always carry their habits over to later in life. Those tablet hungry teens will eventually have families of their own and will want a device that can be used for a communal experience with their families. The picture Steed is painting is like we are all tied into the Matrix.

Communal experiences are dead Tok. Too many personal devices have seen to that. It's true that kids have always had portable stuff but they have never had so many options on one device. I'm not convinced their habits will change.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Communal experiences are dead Tok. Too many personal devices have seen to that. It's true that kids have always had portable stuff but they have never had so many options on one device. I'm not convinced their habits will change.

I still see people going to movies and attending events. The way you paint the future is that no one will pull away from a a device.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Tok

I still see people going to movies and attending events. The way you paint the future is that no one will pull away from a a device.

It's like that now. People mess about with their phones as they walk. Irritating!
I hope most people are right and I am wrong Tok.

[connect42]

Originally Posted by Trevorriley

Blu-ray may be popular in some ares but it is still not widely used. Compared to DVD, it is a little more expensive and there are very few players to play it.

My Mom and my Grandmom both have blu-ray players. When that happens, yea, it is "widely used".

[KRW1]

To give Steeldeel something cheery to think about, I was queuing in a very long line for my PS4 this morning and pretty much all the 'mums' in the queue ahead of me were picking up consoles and also adding 2 or 3 blurays to the pile for Xmas. It was pretty clear by the excitement this caused, that the PS4 is going to be the first stealth bluray player some households will have. It might well end up doing what the PS3 was meant to do.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by nec1912

Why did blu ray not take of like DVD's ? When DVD's came out it was like wow we need to get all these movies and TV shows on DVD ASAP. Not the same with blu ray .

The movies are slowing catching up to blu ray but the TV shows what a disaster. Could this be because of the recession or the people spent so much money and time going from VHS to DVD that they burned out . In other words if blu ray came out in the next 2 or 3 years from now it would been okay DVD been around for long time now that go to blu ray.

Many say Ultra high-definition 4K UHDTV (2160p) or 8K UHDTV 4320p is the next thing of the future . But with blu ray having such hard time I think 4K UHDTV or 8K UHDTV is doomed . May be in 15 or 20 years from now.

So is this public getting tired switching evey 5 or 10 years ?

I think it is a combinations of factors.

When Blu-ray launched, you had the whole downloading and streaming thing beginning which appealed to the potential younger generation customer who prefer watching movies on 3 inch screens. Many older folks really didn't see the appeal to Blu and felt DVD was fine.

The format war with HD DVD put a lot of people on the sidelines and by the time it was over, we soon had an economic disaster where we never truly fully recovered from. I do think if it would have just been Blu-ray launching as the sole HD format it would have had greater traction than it did.

This, in addition to people getting tired of upgrading all play a factor.

[JavaJulien]

Part of it was that it required consumers to also invest in HD TVs to actually get the fullest out of the format. Investing in those, which were insanely priced at the time on top of blu-ray players which ere also insanely priced.

[RyanPom]

Originally Posted by baghdadlion

The kids who grew up with Youtube?

My experience with Youtube is that it's people trying to make videos to promote themselves. YouTube isn't the pace for clips of TV shows it once was.

[Packerfan75]

Originally Posted by JavaJulien

Part of it was that it required consumers to also invest in HD TVs to actually get the fullest out of the format. Investing in those, which were insanely priced at the time on top of blu-ray players which ere also insanely priced.

I agree. When dvd players came out, all you had to do was buy the player and hook it up to the same t.v. Bluray requires a new t.v.which puts some people off.

I think dvd was also a bigger upgrade over vhs than bluray is over dvd. With dvd's there was better picture, sound, no more rewinding, no more messed up tape, scene selection, extras, and smaller cases. Bluray is a little more for the enthuiast category. Some people just don't care about HD audio and video like the people in these forums. It's not worth the extra investment to them.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by JavaJulien

Part of it was that it required consumers to also invest in HD TVs to actually get the fullest out of the format. Investing in those, which were insanely priced at the time on top of blu-ray players which ere also insanely priced.

By now I think most people have HDTVs so the only investment anymore is simply buying a BD player, which can be easily found for under $100 and also serves multiple purposes as a replacement DVD player and a media hub for streaming channels.