Microsoft executive says,” Who needs Blu-ray?”

[davidthenikonuser]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Microsoft executive says,” Who needs Blu-ray?”

http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comm...needs-blu-ray/

Looks like they are still mad the HD-DVD failed. They just need to get over it.

[partridge]

I just posted in another thread something that someone posted here; that MS are creating problems for themselves if they continue to argue that physical media is dead.

There's no way they can release a console that doesn't support disc based content, so that either means DVD or their own format (I can't see them ever supporting blu-ray even though it would be a perfectly sensible thing for them to do).

They want you to pay THEM for digital downloads and streaming and cut out the retail point.

It won't happen any time soon, even ignoring the internet not being up to the job yet, the fact is consumers like to buy actual stuff. We like our libraries of books, music and film. We don't want to have to rely on an internet connection to access our stuff!

MS are deluding themselves if they really believe consumers just want a box in the corner holding all their media. How dull does that sound? No cover art, no extras, no limited editions? Have MS really thought about how boring their future is? No, of course not, because "their" future fills their bank account with our money.

They know the PC market is on the wane, people are moving to portable devices where MS have virtually no product. At some point business will realise they don't need Office and then MS will really be in trouble. I can see it happening, in the next ten years MS will need to significantly reposition itself or they are gone.

MS have always been short sighted and slow to adapt to what people actually want and that will be their undoing.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by partridge

MS are deluding themselves if they really believe consumers just want a box in the corner holding all their media. How dull does that sound? No cover art, no extras, no limited editions? Have MS really thought about how boring their future is? No, of course not, because "their" future fills their bank account with our money.

Yeah well,... not my money. At some point I read Bill Gates was among the richest people and at the same time Microsoft puts out some of the most consistantly un-reliable products the world has ever known.

Many people buy them because they have used them before and they always think the next version is actually going to work.

The last M$ product I bought was Windows 95 and even that was a bit of a mistake. They won't get more of my money. I don't think anyone should be supporting them.

[PaulGo]

I think the people at Microsoft are living in a world of their own! They are such a large company that they think they know what is best for the consumers. They have had some spectacular flops because they misjudged what the public wants. There was this one guy Amir on the AVS forum who worked for Microsoft that was arrogant and talked down to everyone who did not agree with him. Sometimes when I hear some of the BS that Microsoft puts out I think of his attitude and how it symbolizes the company.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

I think the people at Microsoft are living in a world of their own! They are such a large company that they think they know what is best for the consumers. They have had some spectacular flops because they misjudged what the public wants. There was this one guy Amir on the AVS forum who worked for Microsoft that was arrogant and talked down to everyone who did not agree with him. Sometimes when I hear some of the BS that Microsoft puts out I think of his attitude and how it symbolizes the company.

No, no, no, no!!!

Be gone.JPG

[threefiftyrocket]

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

-Bill Gates-

This quote may be in here somewhere but I wanted to post it anyway, because I think its funny.

[Mr. Al]

"Who needs Blu-ray?"

My sister says the same thing.

[FinalEvangelion]

My days with my Xbox 360 are ending next week, most likely as I will be selling it. MS just didn't provide enough interesting games for me. I was hoping for more games like Alan Wake and Lost Odyssey. Now, they just seem to be going with Fable, GeOW, and Halo - and very little else. My interest in Forza is going to drop like a rock come November 2nd.

Sorry MS, you can preach about not needing Blu-ray all you want. Some customers may agree. But for me, Sony clearly had the better value proposition this generation in both features and software quality.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Mr. Al

"Who needs Blu-ray?"

My sister says the same thing.

I bet she also said - who need DVD when she had VHS tapes to view.

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by partridge

MS are deluding themselves if they really believe consumers just want a box in the corner holding all their media. How dull does that sound? No cover art, no extras, no limited editions? Have MS really thought about how boring their future is? No, of course not, because "their" future fills their bank account with our money.

That's EXACTLY what I want! And who says there can't be cover art, etc? How elegant would it be to be able to sit your company down on your comfy sofa and then scroll through your entire movie collection, cover art and all, so they can choose what movie to watch? With a click of a button you could sort your entire collection by genre, release date, film rating, quality rating, or any combination of the above. Once a movie is decided upon, just click play and go. Much better than asking all of your guests to crowd around your blu-ray shelf and strain to see the tiny titles on the spines if you ask me.

That day WILL come, and if the blu-ray people were more forward thinking it could have been two years ago. All it would take would be a simple firmware update to network capable players. Add a "coverflow" type app, and an app to transfer films to a network connected drive. When you insert a new blu-ray for the first time, it would ask if you want to watch from disc, or copy to a networked drive. How simple would that be AND it would offer the best of both worlds. Those who still have an emotional attachment to physical media could STILL stroll over to their shelves and browse the spines and insert the disc. Those who long for a purely digital solution (and that number would increase TREMENDOUSLY if a system like this that offered full video and audio quality were created) could be satisfied as well.

[Jeff Kleist]

That day WILL come, and if the blu-ray people were more forward thinking it could have been two years ago. All it would take would be a simple firmware update to network capable players. Add a "coverflow" type app, and an app to transfer films to a network connected drive. When you insert a new blu-ray for the first time, it would ask if you want to watch from disc, or copy to a networked drive. How simple would that be AND it would offer the best of both worlds. Those who still have an emotional attachment to physical media could STILL stroll over to their shelves and browse the spines and insert the disc. Those who long for a purely digital solution (and that number would increase TREMENDOUSLY if a system like this that offered full video and audio quality were created) could be satisfied as well.

Actually it takes more than a firmware update, there's hardware involved. It's already designed and ready to be implemented, but certain turtlenecked people with virtual monopolies on portable media devices refuse to play nicely with the other children. With the new "UltraViolet" system supported by literally everyone else coming in the fall, hopefully the little troll will get what's coming to him.

You also greatly overestimate the number of people who care that much, and own enough media to make this a big issue

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Actually it takes more than a firmware update, there's hardware involved. It's already designed and ready to be implemented, but certain turtlenecked people with virtual monopolies on portable media devices refuse to play nicely with the other children. With the new "UltraViolet" system supported by literally everyone else coming in the fall, hopefully the little troll will get what's coming to him.

You also greatly overestimate the number of people who care that much, and own enough media to make this a big issue

And yet it IS a segment of the market that is not being served when they easily could be. Don't underestimate the potential growth of such a delivery system either. How many of your friends didn't care a bit about 1080P, or lossless audio until they saw and heard it in operation at your house?

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

How elegant would it be to be able to sit your company down on your comfy sofa and then scroll through your entire movie collection, cover art and all, so they can choose what movie to watch?

You call it elegant, I call it annoying like hell. This has nothing to do with BD or DL or anything else. If you don't have a collection, then I can understand that it appears as paradise. I have a reasonable collection (over 600) not even big by some of the people here (who have more then twice what I have). Imagine inviting some friends for a movie, (or it might be just you but I will continue to go with your example of elegant) having to go through 60 pages of cover art (let's say 10 movies per page, you don't want them too small or else they are useless) , each page taking 1-2 and even maybe 3 minutes ("I hate that one", "why did you buy it", "that one is OK, but let's see what else you have" ......) to go through. What happens if you have a collection worth mentioning ( not just a handful of movies) Now my 60 pages means an hour or 2hours or 3 hours are wasted deciding on a movie, maybe even making it impossible to watch one or the one that was picked. And what happens if you want to watch more then one movie, like 2 or 3 for a marathon, you can't get the disk ready to flip it between showings, it will mean going through the interface again?


When I bought a multidisk DVD player, I got tired of it fast because eventually it was filled with movies and going through 300 was a chore on screen. When I got my remote I thought, it would be different, having the art on the remotes screen will make it better, it did not, flipping through pages of cover art was just as annoying.


The good thing about a shelf is three fold, anyone interested in being proactive can look through it, different people can look at different titles, people don't get their jollies by looking on letters on plastic, glance fast or ask "do you have..." when they just want to watch a movie.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

And yet it IS a segment of the market that is not being served when they easily could be. Don't underestimate the potential growth of such a delivery system either. How many of your friends didn't care a bit about 1080P, or lossless audio until they saw and heard it in operation at your house?

such systems exist now and have existed for some time both server based and disk based. the first DVD jukebox I saw, was probably 10 years ago and it could hold 20 DVDs. tHere are several that have 100, 200, 300 and even 400 disk players with many of them taht can be daisy chained (i.e. for example if you bought 2 300disk players you could connect them and then it would work as one 600 disk player). You also have BD mega changers, like the Sony BDP-CX960. And then there is Kaleidescape.

I can't see where you think this segment is ignored. The issue is anyone with no collection (under 50 movies) does not care, anyone with a real collection it is a pain (as I explained before) so what is left is the people in the middle. Add t it rental (which many do) and it gets even worst (the first megachangers just played from the collection, so just wanting to watch a movie was a pain until they also added playuback from the tray.)

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

How elegant would it be to be able to sit your company down on your comfy sofa and then scroll through your entire movie collection, cover art and all, so they can choose what movie to watch?

Say you have two friends over, we'll call them A and B. The three of you are sitting on the couch and A says "go to the next page" and B responds "not yet, I can't read that fast". A replies "you should have finished 3rd grade", followed by B throwing his drink at A but hitting you instead. No, I'll just point them in the direction of my cabinet full of movies and grab a beer while they pick a couple.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

That's EXACTLY what I want! And who says there can't be cover art, etc? How elegant would it be to be able to sit your company down on your comfy sofa and then scroll through your entire movie collection, cover art and all, so they can choose what movie to watch? With a click of a button you could sort your entire collection by genre, release date, film rating, quality rating, or any combination of the above. Once a movie is decided upon, just click play and go. Much better than asking all of your guests to crowd around your blu-ray shelf and strain to see the tiny titles on the spines if you ask me.

That day WILL come, and if the blu-ray people were more forward thinking it could have been two years ago. All it would take would be a simple firmware update to network capable players. Add a "coverflow" type app, and an app to transfer films to a network connected drive. When you insert a new blu-ray for the first time, it would ask if you want to watch from disc, or copy to a networked drive. How simple would that be AND it would offer the best of both worlds. Those who still have an emotional attachment to physical media could STILL stroll over to their shelves and browse the spines and insert the disc. Those who long for a purely digital solution (and that number would increase TREMENDOUSLY if a system like this that offered full video and audio quality were created) could be satisfied as well.

You're right in a way, but film will be one of the last kinds of media to be truly available in this form. It's already possible with music and literature, but people still buy CDs and books. And they'll keep producing these physical products so long as people buy them. And they'll keep buying them for the foreseeable future.

Your solution of ripping discs to a network drive would have the studios suing the pants off anyone producing hardware/software for that function though. But hey, if you wanna do it, you can. Even right now. You just need the right software and a BD drive on a computer. It's illegal, but hey, it's possible!

I'm still waiting on the studios to come together behind a unified file container format for licensed digital copies. Not just of movies, either, but entire contents of BDs, the menus, the extras, everything. They need to stop with what they're doing with digital copies on separate DVDs, and come up with a way to create a licensed copy from the BD itself, allowing for up to 1080p quality digital copies which could play back on HTPCs or even portable devices. Maybe make the discs come with one-time-use codes for creating such copies, and ensure that the copies can be transferred to different hardware.

tHere are several that have 100, 200, 300 and even 400 disk players with many of them taht can be daisy chained (i.e. for example if you bought 2 300disk players you could connect them and then it would work as one 600 disk player).

lol we'd need like 9 400 disc players connected to cover all the movies at my house

I don't even want to think about what that would cost, especially since we're getting more and more movies all the time too.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Rob71

Say you have two friends over, we'll call them A and B. The three of you are sitting on the couch and A says "go to the next page" and B responds "not yet, I can't read that fast". A replies "you should have finished 3rd grade", followed by B throwing his drink at A but hitting you instead. No, I'll just point them in the direction of my cabinet full of movies and grab a beer while they pick a couple.

Impeccable foresight my friend!

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by robinandtami

That's EXACTLY what I want! And who says there can't be cover art, etc? How elegant would it be to be able to sit your company down on your comfy sofa and then scroll through your entire movie collection, cover art and all, so they can choose what movie to watch? With a click of a button you could sort your entire collection by genre, release date, film rating, quality rating, or any combination of the above. Once a movie is decided upon, just click play and go. Much better than asking all of your guests to crowd around your blu-ray shelf and strain to see the tiny titles on the spines if you ask me.

That day WILL come, and if the blu-ray people were more forward thinking it could have been two years ago. All it would take would be a simple firmware update to network capable players. Add a "coverflow" type app, and an app to transfer films to a network connected drive. When you insert a new blu-ray for the first time, it would ask if you want to watch from disc, or copy to a networked drive. How simple would that be AND it would offer the best of both worlds. Those who still have an emotional attachment to physical media could STILL stroll over to their shelves and browse the spines and insert the disc. Those who long for a purely digital solution (and that number would increase TREMENDOUSLY if a system like this that offered full video and audio quality were created) could be satisfied as well.

It's a good idea but the demand for this is not as big as think. Just from the reply on the thread, you want it but 5 different users told you it would not be practicle for them. So one out of 6 people would actually want this. The demand might not be as high as you think.

[Uniquely]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

It's a good idea but the demand for this is not as big as think. Just from the reply on the thread, you want it but 5 different users told you it would not be practicle for them. So one out of 6 people would actually want this. The demand might not be as high as you think.

I think in a more general electronic entertainment forum you would see a much more balanced reaction. I think that a lot of the opposition on this particular forum is because it can be viewed as a threat to the blu-ray platform. However, if blu-ray were the first to offer a truly good implementation of a system like this, I believe it would help blu-ray last LONGER. It would "train" the buying public to continue to purchase the physical media long after the need for physical media has ceased to exist. It would be seen as an advantage to many to still have the physical disc as a back-up and ensure they ALWAYS have access to the media they have purchased, unlike the doubts that exist with many download only options; if it were marketed correctly.

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

You call it elegant, I call it annoying like hell. This has nothing to do with BD or DL or anything else. If you don't have a collection, then I can understand that it appears as paradise. I have a reasonable collection (over 600) not even big by some of the people here (who have more then twice what I have). Imagine inviting some friends for a movie, (or it might be just you but I will continue to go with your example of elegant) having to go through 60 pages of cover art (let's say 10 movies per page, you don't want them too small or else they are useless) , each page taking 1-2 and even maybe 3 minutes ...

I have a spreadsheet file on my PDA listing my BDs alphabetically by title, with columns for release year, director, run time, genre(s) and aspect ratio. The discs themselves are in mini file boxes (from Ikea) to save space, so it's easier to navigate the file on the PDA than flipping through the contents of the boxes. I decide what to watch on the PDA, then go to the boxes only to retrieve the disc. Kinda like a librarian going into the "stacks".

However I admit this is way too geeky for most people.