Blu-ray's Chances Against DVD

[J_UNTITLED]

From CNet.com

- Besides interactive menus feature on Blu-ray, is anyone doing anything that's a really creative use of the medium that we don't know about yet?
Glasgow: There's so much I have no idea about, because we're going to have to open this up as a social network--not just contributions of Sony and other Blu-ray partners. There are going to be contributions from actual customers.

If we had a dream (for) Blu-ray, it would be much more interactive than it is today: No. 1, where you could interface and change things as you want to see them on the screen. No. 2, you could socially interact with other people, it's connected through the Internet...but theoretically you and your friend could watch the same movie, and you could change themes, change endings, all sorts of strange things in the future. Some type of social interaction in the future....And yes, we'll have a lot more (Blu-ray) product out in the next couple of months.

Looking ahead, you're only just getting into Blu-ray. How do you see the future penetration of the format compared with DVD?
Glasgow: That's a good question. DVD took 10 years to really penetrate. We're now in the second year of Blu-ray. My guess is it will probably happen a little quicker in terms of penetration. The pricing is already coming down more quickly than DVD came down. I don't think it will take as long as 10 years, but I don't think it will penetrate to the same percentage because there's a couple of conflicting forces. Certainly, people that want the best picture are going to want it, without a doubt. People that are OK with upconverting DVD players, which is somewhere close to 600, 650, maybe 700 (lines of resolution)--that's not a bad picture either. So a lot of people may be happy with an upconverting DVD player. And (Blu-ray) may not turn over, it may not penetrate to the same extent, because (DVD) was such a big medium change from tape.

But I see it being the major format. It's won the war, that's done. Now it's a matter of: Can we provide an exceptional experience? Can we provide a social part? And can we involve the overall community in, let's say, designing applets and coming up with new things that we can't even think of today?

For the full interview, click here. For one Engadget user's take in particular on the whole thing, click here.

[R3DRUM]

Thanks! that was a good read, my opinion is that in time Blu-Ray will surely be the format of choice in most people's homes. I'd guess in five years or so blu will pretty much be where DVD is in popularity.

[Bobby Henderson]

Sounds like more ever boring FUD garbage to me.

Anyone who tries to claim DVD is going to live on indefinitely is a freaking stupid idiot. Simple as that. Doofus Exemplar.

DVD is mired in the muck of low resolution standard definition has-been baloney. It is old format TV movie viewing. Nothing better.

Blu-ray is the only native high definition movie disc format supported by Hollywood movie studios. Low resolution, old televisions are on their way out and low resolution DVD is absolutely tied to that. DVD is doomed.

Once anyone upgrades to a decent HDTV monitor then they surely want native HD material. Ordinary DVD does NOT deliver that. DVD will NEVER deliver that either. Even with some phoney baloney Toshiba SUC upconversion.

C|Net and all of these other idiotic techno-news organizations desperately needs to pull their heads out of the deep depths of their backsides and stop with all the FUD crap. It sounds like they're trying to keep doing FUD against Blu-ray even with this new interview. They need a rude slap to realize DVD isn't going to live forever.

[sleazypig]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Sounds like more ever boring FUD garbage to me.

Anyone who tries to claim DVD is going to live on indefinitely is a freaking stupid idiot. Simple as that. Doofus Exemplar.

DVD is mired in the muck of low resolution standard definition has-been baloney. It is old format TV movie viewing. Nothing better.

Blu-ray is the only native high definition movie disc format supported by Hollywood movie studios. Low resolution, old televisions are on their way out and low resolution DVD is absolutely tied to that. DVD is doomed.

Once anyone upgrades to a decent HDTV monitor then they surely want native HD material. Ordinary DVD does NOT deliver that. DVD will NEVER deliver that either. Even with some phoney baloney Toshiba SUC upconversion.

C|Net and all of these other idiotic techno-news organizations desperately needs to pull their heads out of the deep depths of their backsides and stop with all the FUD crap. It sounds like they're trying to keep doing FUD against Blu-ray even with this new interview. They need a rude slap to realize DVD isn't going to live forever.

Cnet has allways pushed downloads. During the format war cnet was trying to scare people away from both formats. Most online tech magazines are in the download cheering section.

[sleazypig]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Sounds like more ever boring FUD garbage to me.

Anyone who tries to claim DVD is going to live on indefinitely is a freaking stupid idiot. Simple as that. Doofus Exemplar.

DVD is mired in the muck of low resolution standard definition has-been baloney. It is old format TV movie viewing. Nothing better.

Blu-ray is the only native high definition movie disc format supported by Hollywood movie studios. Low resolution, old televisions are on their way out and low resolution DVD is absolutely tied to that. DVD is doomed.

Once anyone upgrades to a decent HDTV monitor then they surely want native HD material. Ordinary DVD does NOT deliver that. DVD will NEVER deliver that either. Even with some phoney baloney Toshiba SUC upconversion.

C|Net and all of these other idiotic techno-news organizations desperately needs to pull their heads out of the deep depths of their backsides and stop with all the FUD crap. It sounds like they're trying to keep doing FUD against Blu-ray even with this new interview. They need a rude slap to realize DVD isn't going to live forever.

Dvd will allways be around for content that can't be remastered in high definition. I am talking about old tv seriese that where shot on tape instead of film. It would be pointless to bring stuff like that on Blu-ray. And its not like those Dvds won't work on Blu-ray players.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by sleazypig

Dvd will allways be around for content that can't be remastered in high definition. I am talking about old tv seriese that where shot on tape instead of film. It would be pointless to bring stuff like that on Blu-ray. And its not like those Dvds won't work on Blu-ray players.

I don't agree, with all due respect!

DVD will eventually die and it has nothing to do with old content that can't be remastered in HD. What you'll see is multiple seasons on one BD (remember 4.7GB compared to 25Gb or 50GB) and no doubt other content inclusions relating to that show. Additionally, manufacturing costs regarding production, inventory, shipping and the savings on materials are a huge bonus and relate directly to more profit for the powers that be. And lets not even bring up the point of less physical material in our landfills!

If you're saying that it would be a waste from a purely A/V quality perspective, then your point might be worth considering. Especially in these early days of BD development and price points.

But that is just my humble opinion.

[sleazypig]

Originally Posted by John72953

I don't agree, with all due respect!

DVD will eventually die and it has nothing to do with old content that can't be remastered in HD. What you'll see is multiple seasons on one BD (remember 4.7GB compared to 25Gb or 50GB) and no doubt other content inclusions relating to that show. Additionally, manufacturing costs regarding production, inventory, shipping and the savings on materials are a huge bonus and relate directly to more profit for the powers that be. And lets not even bring up the point of less physical material in our landfills!

If you're saying that it would be a waste from a purely A/V quality perspective, then your point might be worth considering. Especially in these early days of BD development and price points.

But that is just my humble opinion.

Yea but remember the movie companies do not want to put a whole seriese on one disc they will want you to buy a few disc sets at a time. So they will put Sd only material on dvd. But Dvd will become rarer and rarer as the years go by. Also this is going to take a decade before Dvd becomes rare remember there are alot of people still using analog tvs. I was at A walmart and I saw a family buy 4 converter boxes for the switch to digital so we have a ways to go.

[Bobby Henderson]

Sounds like C|Net is trying to put some kind of a FUD spin on things, despite the good things Sony has to say about Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is the only native high definition movie disc format supported by Hollywood movie studios. Low resolution, old televisions are on their way out and low resolution DVD is absolutely tied to that. DVD is doomed.

Once anyone upgrades to a decent HDTV monitor then they surely want native HD material. Ordinary DVD does NOT deliver that. DVD will NEVER deliver that either. Even with some phoney baloney Toshiba SUC upconversion.

C|Net and all of these other techno-news organizations desperately needs to pull their heads out of the deep depths of their backsides and stop with all the FUD crap. The format war is over. It is time for them to move on. And if they can't bring themselves to do that, then I just wish I was there to give them a very rude slap upside their faces to get reality restored to them. I'm TIRED of this crap!

[J_UNTITLED]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Sounds like C|Net is trying to put some kind of a FUD spin on things, despite the good things Sony has to say about Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is the only native high definition movie disc format supported by Hollywood movie studios. Low resolution, old televisions are on their way out and low resolution DVD is absolutely tied to that. DVD is doomed.

Once anyone upgrades to a decent HDTV monitor then they surely want native HD material. Ordinary DVD does NOT deliver that. DVD will NEVER deliver that either. Even with some phoney baloney Toshiba SUC upconversion.

C|Net and all of these other techno-news organizations desperately needs to pull their heads out of the deep depths of their backsides and stop with all the FUD crap. The format war is over. It is time for them to move on. And if they can't bring themselves to do that, then I just wish I was there to give them a very rude slap upside their faces to get reality restored to them. I'm TIRED of this crap!

... Didn't you just say all of that more or less above?

[BluRay2344]

bluray will take over there is no way around it! low resolution media is going right out the door!

[Teazle]

To add to what Terjyn said on market share and the economics of the move away from DVD.

DVD right now is relatively low margin. So the only way it's worth anyone's time and effort is through big volume. (DVD has almost become commoditized.)

Now what happens when Blu, with its higher margins, starts to erode DVD's market share significantly? Two-part answer: (a) in a few places you'll see the prices of some DVDs climbing back up slightly, but mostly (b) you'll see major retailers trying to phase it out altogether.

So I suspect that there will be a "tipping point" where retailers' motivation to keep stocking cheap DVDs will evaporate extremely rapidly.

It might look as though the law of supply and demand would dictate that as fewer people buy DVDs the price will drop or at least stay low. I think that instead, where DVD sales continue at all, it will generally be in the pricier outlets. (As happened in Vinyl vs. CD.)

Hence as far as the consumer is concerned the price of DVD will start to go up. And when that happens, from the consumer's point of view what's the use in clinging to the old technology?

[Anthony P]

Example: When sales figures go out they usually use sale price not amount. So when they says for instance that BD has 10% of the market, they only look at total saleprice and discards the fact that average sale price for DVD is only 30% of Blu-Ray (I am talking about all movies sold, not the new releases). In the same way, they don’t use total sold movies in some statistics, only the most sold movies.

1) many references are units sold. (at least the ones I have seen)

2) Market share has often been determined by $ as much as units so it is a legitimate reference point so it is not some kind of BD conspiracy. The reason is that it equalizes stuff if studio X release a few box sets that cost 100$ while Y decided to have a 3$ sale on old titles to decrease inventory Y would need to sell a lot more to equal the sales in X.

3) I don't know about Norway but here the vast majority of sales are relatively new titles (i.e. not the cheap bin titles) and those are just a bit more expensive (i.e. 30% more expensive or less)

[blu2]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Sounds like C|Net is trying to put some kind of a FUD spin on things, despite the good things Sony has to say about Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is the only native high definition movie disc format supported by Hollywood movie studios. Low resolution, old televisions are on their way out and low resolution DVD is absolutely tied to that. DVD is doomed.

Once anyone upgrades to a decent HDTV monitor then they surely want native HD material. Ordinary DVD does NOT deliver that. DVD will NEVER deliver that either. Even with some phoney baloney Toshiba SUC upconversion.

C|Net and all of these other techno-news organizations desperately needs to pull their heads out of the deep depths of their backsides and stop with all the FUD crap. The format war is over. It is time for them to move on. And if they can't bring themselves to do that, then I just wish I was there to give them a very rude slap upside their faces to get reality restored to them. I'm TIRED of this crap!

Seems like this is an over-reaction to a straightforward interview.

Or you disagree with Sony's comments?

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Didn't I read aomewhere recently that Blu-ray hardware is already outpacing DVD hardware? And I definitely remember reading that DVD hardware production could be phased out by the end of 2009. I think that Blu-ray will take over the percentage of software sales by 2012 and phase out DVD by 2015. DVD took 10 years, Blu-ray will take 8.

[J_UNTITLED]

One thing to always remember to take into account is that a vast number of your average consumers (i.e. not video/audio/technophiles) do not care about having the best available picture and/or audio quality.


Until prices are extremely lower than they are now, DVD (along with any interest that digital distribution manages to gain) will remain in the game.

[Deciazulado]

testa rossas everywhere!

[theprophecy247]

good read, in due time it will reign

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by J_UNTITLED

One thing to always remember to take into account is that a vast number of your average consumers (i.e. not video/audio/technophiles) do not care about having the best available picture and/or audio quality.


Until prices are extremely lower than they are now, DVD (along with any interest that digital distribution manages to gain) will remain in the game.

DITTO!

For you and I it's about quality...that's why we're here. Most consumers can't afford to spend the kind of money we do on A/V equipment. And until the prices for BD's, BD players and HDTV sets are reduced in a very significant way, the DVD will co-exist alongside quite well.

[bhampton]

Hi,

Just thought I would mention another thing.

Most people seem to want very low quality entertainment so long as it's easily accessible and portable.

Mp3 is very popular. Many people pay for them. Many people just steal them. Either way ... it's everywhere. It doesn't compare well to CD or Lps but people don't care because you can load them up on the cell phone and take it with you.

People watch video on ipods or in a postage stamp window on youtube... high fidelity is in danger from this type of craziness.

It was refreshing to see the better HD format (Blu Ray) beat out the cheaper inferior format (HD DUD). Maybe there is hope for hifi yet.

-Brian

[J_UNTITLED]

Originally Posted by John72953

Most consumers can't afford to spend the kind of money we do on A/V equipment. And until the prices for BD's, BD players and HDTV sets are reduced in a very significant way, the DVD will co-exist alongside quite well.

True, and just to stress it again, many people simply do not care about having truly fine picture and/or audio quality. As long as they can see it and hear it, they're content.