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

[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.