AThreat To Blu-ray?

[Carlsberg19]

My friend who is all for HD Downloads sent me think link, where as im all for blu-ray, what u think

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328416,00.asp

[Augustine864]

I think if they do what they say, they could most certainly be a serious hurdle for BluRay. We have to remember, it's not whether or not we will be swayed by these voodoo devices, but whether or not the common consumer will be.

[Driver_King]

Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah. I suppose some refer to it as FUD.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Carlsberg19

My friend who is all for HD Downloads sent me think link, where as im all for blu-ray, what u think

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328416,00.asp

Cries of desperation from a stubborn child-like company that can't see the light. At least they didn't throw a temper tantrum.

I have absolutely no worries. People are seeing the Blu light in drove... and this Christmas is only going to prove exponentially beneficial as everyone who have bought new HDTVs will be acquiring the technology to support that HD capability by some means (gifts, gift cards, gift cash, etc). And as for HD downloads? They can't compete with HDM. Not for another 5-10 years when the internet providers finally spend BILLIONS of dollars to rebuild their ENTIRE infrastructure to support the information transfer speeds necessary. Until then it will be digital downloads of SEVERELY GIMPED QUALITY material (1080i - which is often a disguise for 760p since that resolution doesn't have commercially viable recognition, and highly compressed audio codecs that are riddled with problems).

[owa]

I think consumer ignorance is the real obstacle. Sure, another option provides more confusion and being cheaper helps but I think the real issue is just educating people about hi-def in general. I know people that have HDTVs but are using standard def signals and they think they have the best available picture or have a standard def TV with digital cable and think that's the best available picture. A lot of them play 4:3 shows stretched to fill the whole screen and think that looks fine. Not to mention, some can't seem to see a difference between a DVD, upconverted DVDs and blu-rays. Anyway, I think those type issues are the real obstacles and that sort of covers all the latest buzzwords.

[ThePhantomOak]

The only way Blu-ray does not dominate DVD in the next 5 years or less if if somehow the world runs out of Oil, Coal, win and water and we are stuck trying to push Nuclear power against the "green" brick wall... then maybe there will not be enough power to power our TV's.

On the one hand

Consumers, on the whole not the most discerning bunch when it comes to quality, could very well be charmed by Toshiba's promises of 1080p images and enhanced color and image quality from their existing DVD collection

Consumers are easy to trick with clever advertising. All Toshiba has to do is make some ad claiming

"1080P and surround sound output from already owned DVD's on a $150 player"

and BAM half the world thinks what they said that DVD's can put out 1080P picture and that the sound is the same as Blu-ray, when really all they said is that the thing can output to a 1080P TV.

It is nothing new to know how dumb consumers as a whole are. How else would you explain the people who STILL say Blu-ray is just trickery, and DVD is already equal!




Bottom line is it WILL make it harder to explain to the average fool, but that is all.

[dialog_gvf]

Consumers, on the whole not the most discerning bunch when it comes to quality, could very well be charmed by Toshiba's promises of 1080p images and enhanced color and image quality from their existing DVD collection

They have to be discerning enough to want to buy another DVD player, but not enough to want full HD?

How much did the target consumer pay for their DVD player?

Funny thing is, if this really does work, the most likely source for sales would be those videophiles wanting to squeeze a little more out of their DVD collection. In other words: Likely Blu-ray owners.

Gary

[JadedRaverLA]

Did Rob Enderle change his name... because the complete lack of logic in that article -- along with the insane belief that Toshiba acting alone, and with no marketing skills whatsoever, can take on the entire CE, PC, and film industries -- leads me to believe he is the ONLY one that could have written it with a straight face.

But, yes, DVD upscaling will RUIN Blu-ray. It's really a shame they didn't come up with DVD upscaling 8 years ago... oh, wait, they did.

[Charles3669]

There Is No Threat To Bluray!!! Bluray Dominates!!! Blasphameeeee!!!!!!!!

[Anthony P]

anyone that thinks a new model for a DVD player is a threat to BD should get their head examined. Like Gary said people already have DVd players and if they are4 happy with it then they won't buy a new player and if they don't think the PQ or AQ is good enough then why buy yet an other DVD player?

[ThePhantomOak]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

They have to be discerning enough to want to buy another DVD player, but not enough to want full HD?

How much did the target consumer pay for their DVD player?

Funny thing is, if this really does work, the most likely source for sales would be those videophiles wanting to squeeze a little more out of their DVD collection. In other words: Likely Blu-ray owners.

Gary

All Toshiba has to do is run one more silly mess of ads like they did with HD DVD (anyone who educated themself knew Blu-ray was better, and somehow HD DVD still caused trouble and had a HUGE mess of ingnorent followers who said it was BETTER!

It only takes a lack of education to get that kind of mass delusion. Toshiba could make a big size push again to trap that kind of person again. They will lose, but to say it would not be a PITA is not true IMO.


I think you are missing that A QUARTER people who own HDTV's THINK they are watching HD already, and are watching SD. Another 25% have an HDTV and KNOW they are not watching HD... These people were silly enough to buy HDTV's but not HD. (If I can find the link to the study I will post it)
http://www.tvpredictions.com/hdwatching121006.htm
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=6521



Now these people who have no idea what 1080P is (but own one) will be looking for a way to use it, and will start to look at every ad that says "1080P" and WHAM, they will find out that an upscaler will give their TV "1080P" at half the price of a fancy "blu-ray" and they can still buy much cheeper DVD's!


FLAT OUT, there is not enough education about HD, and Toshiba has 50% of the market just sitting WAITING to be fed lies to get them to buy cheep "HD" content.

The most likely people to buy it are the people who had no idea they were not watching HDTV who just need a slight push, and the other 25% who KNOW they dont have HD, but have an HDTV for some reason.


There is a HUGE section of the market just waiting to be lied too. There is a company who is about to make a big push into feeding them what they want to hear ("1080P!" "HDTV!" and "Keep your DVD's" "No need to buy expensive Blu-rays!")... The only way this does not hurt Blu-ray is if Blu-ray puts out ads that counter the half-true claims; "Only Blu-ray gives true 1080P, they just use a gimmic to trick you" "Get the most out of your HDTV" and "Blu-ray players upscale your current DVD's and play Blu-rays!"

In other words, Blu-ray needs to make the stupid consumer a smart consumer, because they wont do it on their own.




To think about it, 50% of people who own an HDTV dont have any HD! Most people underestimate the idiocy of people, it seems.

[ThePhantomOak]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

anyone that thinks a new model for a DVD player is a threat to BD should get their head examined. Like Gary said people already have DVd players and if they are4 happy with it then they won't buy a new player and if they don't think the PQ or AQ is good enough then why buy yet an other DVD player?

Advertising. Tell them they get close to 1080P picture "5 times better than a regular DVD player" and they will buy it like sheep.

If they are happy with SD, what made half of the buyers of HDTV buy an HDTV without paying for HD content? People do crazy things when given an option.

I can assure you that Toshiba will use every trick in the book to fool people into buying one of these... Just like they did to drag out the format war with 1080i movies They wont win, and they might not make money, but they will sell a lot of them, and cause a lot of headaches.



BTW, I am only advocating education, not Toshiba.

[prerich]

Originally Posted by owa

I think consumer ignorance is the real obstacle. Sure, another option provides more confusion and being cheaper helps but I think the real issue is just educating people about hi-def in general. I know people that have HDTVs but are using standard def signals and they think they have the best available picture or have a standard def TV with digital cable and think that's the best available picture. A lot of them play 4:3 shows stretched to fill the whole screen and think that looks fine. Not to mention, some can't seem to see a difference between a DVD, upconverted DVDs and blu-rays. Anyway, I think those type issues are the real obstacles and that sort of covers all the latest buzzwords.

Excellent post! I don't think this player is a threat. The real threat is consumer acceptance.

[blu2]

Originally Posted by ThePhantomOak

Advertising. Tell them they get close to 1080P picture "5 times better than a regular DVD player" and they will buy it like sheep.

If they are happy with SD, what made half of the buyers of HDTV buy an HDTV without paying for HD content? People do crazy things when given an option.

I can assure you that Toshiba will use every trick in the book to fool people into buying one of these... Just like they did to drag out the format war with 1080i movies They wont win, and they might not make money, but they will sell a lot of them, and cause a lot of headaches.



BTW, I am only advocating education, not Toshiba.

This player will sit on the shelves along side all the other upconverters, and and an uneducated buyer would surely pass it by for a cheaper upconverter.

The market for this is likely more as a niche product that would appeal to someone who has a large DVD libary and wants to get the most out of it in terms of PQ. If Toshiba manages to make the world's best upconverter, then there would be some kind of market for that, just not mass market. The likes of OPPO should be more concerned than anyone (until they finally release a Blu Ray player).

[Achilles3]

The only way to beat Toshiba to the ground and keep it down is to lower prices on Blu players and Blu movies. It's kinda ridiculous that the price hasn't gone down that much. Blu isn't technologically THAT new anymore (2 years old now) so why can't companies mass produce yet? If people are gonna switch give them a reasonable price so they can ditch DVD easier. As for HD downloads, wayyyyyyy too early for that $h!t to take place. Not a lot of people will wait for hours to download with the kind of affordable internet speed we have right now.

[UKTruBlu]

Blah Blah Blah Blah BLAH!!!!!!!!!

[Rob71]

How are they planning on marketing this? Are they going to buy airtime on TV and radio? Are they going to buy endcaps or pay to have their own section set-up just for this player? My guess is it'll get lost in the upconversion DVD players. Today, who exactly would pay $150 for a DVD player? If anything they may leach a few purchases from Oppo, but not many.

[arush5268d]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah. I suppose some refer to it as FUD.

+1


I'm so sick of hearing about this "threat."

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by ThePhantomOak

FLAT OUT, there is not enough education about HD, and Toshiba has 50% of the market just sitting WAITING to be fed lies to get them to buy cheep "HD" content.

Fear not. Retailers and Madison Ave. will step in and take care of this. Just watch. This holiday season we'll see boatloads of Blu propaganda, principally from the likes of Best Buy, Wal-Mart et al, in all major media. The consumer cannot help but experience a sound re-education in what he thinks he needs. It's just business.

[bhuyanp]

Its like plain water with little sugar but still far far behind from the real tequilla(BLU).

kthxbai