Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Wolverine1980

Jeff, how long will it be till we start seeing new blu-ray releases coming out on day one for lower than DVD prices AND how long till DVDs start coming out as only bare bones releases?

I think your expectations are unrealistic. Bluray is not a charity.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

I think your expectations are unrealistic. Bluray is not a charity.

I don't think he's saying the day will come any time soon. It will, however, probably arrive one day.

[Jeff Kleist]

Jeff, how long will it be till we start seeing new blu-ray releases coming out on day one for lower than DVD prices AND how long till DVDs start coming out as only bare bones releases?

Almost certainly never, and 2-disc DVDs are already being phased out.They'll come out at the same price, and then you'll see DVD skipped for nichey releases, but it's not going to purge out like VHS did. DVD is here to stay at least through the late 20-teens.

[Bobby Henderson]

I don't think anyone knows for sure what will happen several years in the future.

I doubt new movies on Blu-ray will ever be priced cheaper than DVD. However, I do believe the day will come in the next few years when Blu-ray overtakes DVD as the preferred mass market format for watching movies.

DVD is stuck in the SD realm and that is a very bad strike against its future survival. HDTV will eventually be the standard for TV viewing and just be known as "TV." Networks will eventually drop that "HD" garbage from their logos when enough people are watching only HDTV. And that will leave the old SD format dying and soon to be dead like black and white TV and those strange oval-tubed wood paneled TV sets from decades long ago.

10 years ago I specifically remember people saying DVD would never supplant VHS. "It doesn't record, it's too expensive, the general public is happy with the VHS decks, etc., etc." By the middle of this decade video stores were rapidly clearing VHS stock off their shelves.

Over the past few years I was surprised how DVD-based optical drives pretty much completely replaced CD-R/RW based computer drives. Blu-ray optical drives could end up doing the same thing again since they can also write to CD and DVD media too. I was more surprised at how DVD grew to dominate the blank media space in stores. Blank CD-R discs are now a little hard to find. I guess we can thank the popularity of iPods and other MP3 players for that.

I think Blu-ray player hardware will shove DVD-only players out of retail stores within the next couple years. Blu-ray players also play DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray player prices have dipped into mass market brackets of pricing and we'll see new lows in pricing set this fall. By the end of 2010 new DVD players will become rare on retail store shelves. By the end of 2011, I think new DVD players will be confined to Dollar General stores and maybe a little dark corner in Wal-Mart. Blu-ray players will be so cheap by then there won't be any point for manufacturers to make an optical disc device that lacks Blu-ray capability.

[DenonCI]

Bobby,

I think you're right. On an unrelated note, my father bought 2 VCRs recently because he was afraid if his crapped out, the hundreds of movies he owns on VHS would be useless (he doesn't realize they already are ).

He does have a Blu-ray player though and basically skipped the "DVD Generation" with only 50 movies or so, but he is buying more and more Blu-ray's when they go on sale. He still complains about the pricing versus the equivalent DVD.

[Jeff Kleist]

DVD vs Blu-ray in the eyes of J6P is a much smaller jump Remember huge numbers of people claim they can't even see a difference (they're blind but....)

You have to have name-brand Blu-ray players at $79.99 before you're going to see the start of a DVD purge

[Constitution 101]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Plus, I think the PS3 is now going to be pushed harder as a gaming system for the reasons you mentioned. Sony has a lot of ground to make up in the console race, eventhough they are not doing as bad as many 360 fanboys will have you believe, they are still in 3rd.

They're THIRD in the console race, which in English puts them in LAST...

[Weirded Wonder]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

DVD vs Blu-ray in the eyes of J6P is a much smaller jump Remember huge numbers of people claim they can't even see a difference (they're blind but....)

This could not be more true. If you do hear someone mention that they see no difference, they may seriously need to have an eye exam. My sister does 'just eyes' for a living and says this is quite common for people who have vision problems and may not realize it. The HD vs DVD may be a great way to get people to the eye doctor.

[SOA]

Jeff do you know if The Turdors will come out in the States anytime soon on Blu?

[mark antony]

Originally Posted by SOA

Jeff do you know if The Turdors will come out in the States anytime soon on Blu?

I know some thought this series was crap, but have they really changed the name for season 3 to reflect this?!!

M

[MerrickG]

Kinda fitting that Transformers: RotF was announced for Oct 20th. Almost 2 years to the day after the first one was released exclusively on that "other" format. Whatever happened to it?! :-P

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Constitution 101

They're THIRD in the console race, which in English puts them in LAST...

Third, yes. Distant third as many 360 fanboys will have you believe? No. For all the things that PS3 had going against it (higher price, year after 360) Id say its done OK.

But nevertheless, third is still third and its doubtful that they will be able to close the gap with 360. If they did, imagine the shitstorm that would go down at MS.

The Wii has won this generation as far as console sales are concerned.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

I don't think anyone knows for sure what will happen several years in the future.

...

DVD is stuck in the SD realm and that is a very bad strike against its future survival. HDTV will eventually be the standard for TV viewing and just be known as "TV." Networks will eventually drop that "HD" garbage from their logos when enough people are watching only HDTV. And that will leave the old SD format dying and soon to be dead like black and white TV and those strange oval-tubed wood paneled TV sets from decades long ago.

...

So, running with this thought, the answer is that DVD will be the underdog within half a generation. That is, wide screen 16:9 TVs and wide screen 16:9 HD source material (Blu-ray) are available now. There will soon come a point where that is all a baby will see. Then, when faced with some SD 4:3 material in their "purchasing years", their reaction will be "Eeewwww," or "Not cool."

Put it another way:
Sales of 4:3 TV shows will start dying just because they are not 16:9 HD.

-Jim
"Daddy, was everything black and white when you were growing up?" -my 10yr old daughter.

[MerrickG]

Jeff,

Can we now say that Paramount has officially moved to DTS-HD MA from TrueHD?


Kinda cool, but means little to me.

Afterall, lossless is lossless right?

[MerrickG]

In regards to the previous post....

Is it really a good idea for all these studios to be moving to DTS-HD MA?

I mean many of the first gen players cant decode or bitstream it.

Seems like a problem it could cause for many of the first gen buyers.

Of course many of them couldnt support TrueHD either....

[Jeff Kleist]

Can we now say that Paramount has officially moved to DTS-HD MA from TrueHD?


Kinda cool, but means little to me.

Afterall, lossless is lossless right?

No, not yet. The Scott Bros have a long term DTS relationship, and DTS has a habit of ....being persuasive on releases on non-member studios (see Watchmen).

When you start seeing non a-level catalog shipped with DTS, then yes

In regards to the previous post....

Is it really a good idea for all these studios to be moving to DTS-HD MA?

I mean many of the first gen players cant decode or bitstream it.

Seems like a problem it could cause for many of the first gen buyers.

Of course many of them couldnt support TrueHD either....

The vast majority of players will decode TrueHD. I feel the same way that Peter does in that dialnorm and DRC are excellent features to have in a codec, especially when well over 50% of people (probably a lot more) are plugging these sets right into the TV. For the home theater enthusiast crowd, it doesn't really make that much of a difference which is used. Mostly I'm concerned that facts, not rhetoric or religious fervor are fed to the newbies coming into the scene, and equally importantly that those facts penetrate the kids who are selling the machines at Best Buy and Frys and whatnot so they can help to create educated consumers.

[Scorxpion]

Hello Jeff, Paramount is going to release Transformers 2 with DTSHD master audio in Europe and middle east like it's release in North America.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Is it really a good idea for all these studios to be moving to DTS-HD MA?
I mean many of the first gen players cant decode or bitstream it.
Seems like a problem it could cause for many of the first gen buyers.

Merrick, a little reminder –
1. Go here…..
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=99791

2. Read the actual link given for “Per Penton’s Post here”, paying particular attention to what I said in the last sentence of paragraph two, i.e. “bent out of shape”.

3. Go back to the subtitle poll, read every post and count how many people actually complained about that potential predicament amongst all of the 1,751replies - despite the fact that I highlighted that as consideration for us.

[Penton-Man]

You know I kinda am in the mood for another poll.
Anyone up for that VC-1 vs AVC video poll I alluded to back a couple weeks ago?

Or do folks think, so to speak, that the horse has already left the barn with that.

[DarkDune]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

You know I kinda am in the mood for another poll.
Anyone up for that VC-1 vs AVC video poll I alluded to back a couple weeks ago?

Or do folks think, so to speak, that the horse has already left the barn with that.

VC-1 always seems "softer" to me -- that is, not as crisp...