More Blu Doom & Gloom

[Bobby Henderson]

Physical media as retail product is always going to be around in some form or another. The notion that downloading is somehow going to kill Blu-ray or other disc-based media is just silly.

A company can do more to dress up a physical product and add more value-added content to it than what can be done with any download-only product.

Here's an added analogy to go with this.

Over a decade ago I was hearing all this nonsense about how the Internet was going to kill all physical book and magazine publishing. That hasn't happened. People are still buying books, magazines and newspapers in physical form. That's despite the fact technology like PDF-X makes is very possible and practical to deliver an electronic equivalent of that publication that is identical in appearance. Same graphics, embedded fonts and the photos are usually high enough in resolution to look good if you print out the PDF. And with a decent high speed connection you can download that PDF in a few minutes. Nevertheless, book stores like Barnes & Noble are still in business regardless of that fact.

[Heart_Collector]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Physical media as retail product is always going to be around in some form or another. The notion that downloading is somehow going to kill Blu-ray or other disc-based media is just silly.

A company can do more to dress up a physical product and add more value-added content to it than what can be done with any download-only product.

Here's an added analogy to go with this.

Over a decade ago I was hearing all this nonsense about how the Internet was going to kill all physical book and magazine publishing. That hasn't happened. People are still buying books, magazines and newspapers in physical form. That's despite the fact technology like PDF-X makes is very possible and practical to deliver an electronic equivalent of that publication that is identical in appearance. Same graphics, embedded fonts and the photos are usually high enough in resolution to look good if you print out the PDF. And with a decent high speed connection you can download that PDF in a few minutes. Nevertheless, book stores like Barnes & Noble are still in business regardless of that fact.

Exactly. I download songs, but mostly to sample the band. If I like it, I track down the album. I'll probably do the same with some games when I get my PS3.

[kknight]

Disc will always be around. I would hate to d/l a movie and I'm stuck with it and I can't sell it to anyone. I just feel that digital d/ls has too many loop holes and flaws..

[J_UNTITLED]

Originally Posted by kknight

I would hate to d/l a movie and I'm stuck with it and I can't sell it to anyone.

... Why do you want to sell them?

[Grisle]

Originally Posted by J_UNTITLED

... Why do you want to sell them?

Sometimes you don't care for the movie if it's a blind buy or maybe you just don't feel the need to keep it. It is why we have a trading forum here.

[tron3]

Ya know being annoyed by these "last slap" efforts by Toshiba is just as childish as them making the statements. It's like someone putting the horn fingers behind your head and you know it. Sooooo?

HD-DVD couldn't beat blu-ray. So now a LESSER technology of Toshiba will beat blu-ray by upconverting DVD? That shinola will fly with some ignorant people, but most will come to see the light in time. Any person with half a brain knows this is all posturing.

D/L movies & BD serve two different market segments. Blu-ray and d/l will co-exist. D/L'ing of music has existed for about 10 years, yet I still see CD's being sold in stores.

As of right now, blu-ray is in NO DANGER. NONE!

[Salinger]

I don't think there's much to fear from the third option. The guy himself said he has zero studio support, at least so far. It seems studios have committed to Blu-ray and I don't really see them doing anything to jeapordize that. Until Blu-ray is more solidly entrenched as a format, I don't think you're going to see much studio support for other competing alternatives. ...and we all know how important studio support is to the success, or failure, of a format.

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Over a decade ago I was hearing all this nonsense about how the Internet was going to kill all physical book and magazine publishing. That hasn't happened. People are still buying books, magazines and newspapers in physical form. That's despite the fact technology like PDF-X makes is very possible and practical to deliver an electronic equivalent of that publication that is identical in appearance. Same graphics, embedded fonts and the photos are usually high enough in resolution to look good if you print out the PDF. And with a decent high speed connection you can download that PDF in a few minutes. Nevertheless, book stores like Barnes & Noble are still in business regardless of that fact.

I remember when people said that computers were going to make people work less - what actually happened - people work more because the computer has allowed them to do things faster, etc....

Also people always compare downloading music to downloading video. It's not the same, it's an apples and oranges comparison. Music lends itself very well to downloads as the files are very small. A lossless music download is about 15-20M, a video download to rival BD is between 30-50G - just a small difference in file size....

[kramer2067]

You guys need to go over to digitalbits and read their peice on Toshibas announcment. They basically call it bull!$#@ and state their is no way upconverting can match the true quality of 1080p that blue-ray has.

[skrill]

I sure hope that BR player prices hit sub $200 by Xmas. I honestly think Blu could lose out to downloads if they don't get the player prices (and media prices to a lesser extent) down, and down fast.

I love real HDM (whether HD DVD or Blu) -- but I would hate to see both formats get plowed under by inferior quality downloads because Joe consumer won't adopt the format due to price of entry.

I tell you -- there threat from downloads to HDM is very real.

[bdrex28]

Originally Posted by skrill

I sure hope that BR player prices hit sub $200 by Xmas. I honestly think Blu could lose out to downloads if they don't get the player prices (and media prices to a lesser extent) down, and down fast.

I love real HDM (whether HD DVD or Blu) -- but I would hate to see both formats get plowed under by inferior quality downloads because Joe consumer won't adopt the format due to price of entry.

I tell you -- there threat from downloads to HDM is very real.

Completely disagree. People like having a physical copy of their movies that they can loan out, borrow, etc.

People enjoy having a library of movies. Are people going to all of a sudden have 3-5 terabytes of storage in their home for the movies? What about download speeds for the average consumer.

I just don't see it happening personally, maybe a select % of people but the average person isn't going to have some home theater pc with tb's of storage next to their television.

[skrill]

Originally Posted by bdrex28

Completely disagree. People like having a physical copy of their movies that they can loan out, borrow, etc.

People enjoy having a library of movies. Are people going to all of a sudden have 3-5 terabytes of storage in their home for the movies? What about download speeds for the average consumer.

I just don't see it happening personally, maybe a select % of people but the average person isn't going to have some home theater pc with tb's of storage next to their television.

Read the article I linked above. I don't think it would be folks with HTPCs. I think it would be set top boxes (like Apple TV). The capability of downloading a 1 gig movie file is very real today for Japan and S. Korea.

Again -- downloads are a real threat to HDM (BR).

[ajc68]

So if I'm going to build a HD video library from downloads, how do I archive them and what will be their usage limitations? It's one thing to archive your music collection; it will be a whole different ballgame trying to archive a video collection. And at this point (with today’s download speeds), there's no way the quality could possibly match Blu-ray or what I see on the HD channels. With all the people that say once you go HD you can’t go back, are they actually going to be satisfied with something that will be reminiscent of DVD quality?

[bighitter]

Originally Posted by skrill

I sure hope that BR player prices hit sub $200 by Xmas. I honestly think Blu could lose out to downloads if they don't get the player prices (and media prices to a lesser extent) down, and down fast.

I love real HDM (whether HD DVD or Blu) -- but I would hate to see both formats get plowed under by inferior quality downloads because Joe consumer won't adopt the format due to price of entry.

I tell you -- there threat from downloads to HDM is very real.

Not for the next 8-10 years.

[Luis_A51]

Originally Posted by skrill

I sure hope that BR player prices hit sub $200 by Xmas. I honestly think Blu could lose out to downloads if they don't get the player prices (and media prices to a lesser extent) down, and down fast.

I love real HDM (whether HD DVD or Blu) -- but I would hate to see both formats get plowed under by inferior quality downloads because Joe consumer won't adopt the format due to price of entry.

I tell you -- there threat from downloads to HDM is very real.

If you think that downloads will be here by christmas then you've lost your mind. Once you realise that you'll realize your post is completely without merit.

And do you realise you would need specialised hardware for downloads? Or that people like physical products? People still buy books/magazines/newspapers! Exactly what the internet was supposed to kill a decade ago!

[BluRayExplosion]

I shit my pants laughing when I read the last sentence....

“There was once a debate about whether the living room would be dominated by televisions or computers,” Nishida said. “Clearly, televisions are dominant, but computers can now be connected to them.”

LMAOROFL.

[pro-bassoonist]

Indeed. The doom and gloom scenarios as of late have been very, very popular.

For a reason of course!!!

Pro-b

[MatrixS2000]

Originally Posted by skrill

But to the average consumer -- that is good enough. Again -- we'll just have to see.

Originally Posted by MatrixS2000

I am an average consumer and I don't think it is good enough. Where are you getting this information?

From a poll done by Home Media Magazine:



Looks like the average consumer is more like me than you think....

[Mobe1969]

Do these *******s say digital downloads are going to mean the end of Standard Def DVD? No? They aren't that stupid. But for some reason they think that half resolution overcompressed medium def 720p downloads are supposed to make HD buyers worried?

Yeah! Let's take a step back.

[Anthony P]

I have been reading HMM exhaustively for a long time and I don't find fault with its coverage. They have been very balanced and reliable. They report what comes their way. TK Arnold wrote a couple very strong editorials calling upon Toshiba to concede.

even though I agree that their coverage has mostly been good, I do have to disagree on reliable. They have made a few (big) mistakes over the last year

- miscounting combo HD DVDs
- adding up the running totals for 2005 and pretending that was the number of HD DVDs that would be released.
just to name two of the very big ones.