Yahoo: "Is Blu-ray the new Laserdisc?"

[CrabbyAzz]

Originally Posted by Dotpattern

What the hell kind of player does the author of that article own?? I've never heard of any player being that complicated to load a movie.

Sounds like my Sony S300....

[masob98]

My Ps3 is not that complicated and that's the first I have ever heard of them being that complicated. The one thing I do agree on this article is the feature on DVD players remember where you were in the movie. My PS3 will remember but only on certain titles. I dont know about any other players having this feautre. Please correct me if Im wrong.

[Michael.Schinke]

I have to wonder if the people writing in with their obviously uninformed comments are actually seeing Blu-rays in their applied format or if they are seeing some poor in-store displays. I notice at Target the Blu-ray demo they have running is usually running on a maching connected with composite video cables. That and the monitors they use are crap.

[AllenA]

Originally Posted by CrabbyAzz

Sounds like my Sony S300....

It does sound like the S300, if the guy has never done a firmware upgrade.

It's funny how on some blogs I read that blu-ray is doomed, and then on others it's the hot gift this season.

[EuLoGY]

I just read this article and was gonna post it. I love the line where it says Blu-ray isnt that much better than an upscale DVD. i fell out of my computer chair when I read that.

What the hell is this ??

"It doesn't remember where you were in a movie if you stop in the middle. If I quit at the 1 hour mark while watching a DVD on my bargain player, it picks right back up there the next time I turn it on. "

I can unplug my PS3 in the middle of a movie and it will pick up right where it left off........Did Sarah Palin write this article????? I mean for real!




WTF is ZDNet anyway......never heard of ya kid....NEXT!!!!

[cravnsn]

I was in a Target store today, and there were two different (LCD) displays showing how and why Blu is superior to standard DVD. Also, every time I see a commercial for a movie that’s being released on DVD, it also is being released on BD. I kind of doubt movie studios & retailers would be promoting a dead format.

[supersix4]

lmao high prices, prices are no more high then when dvd came out actually I think they are better as when dvd sets started coming out they were all 90-120 now you can get spidey,potc,res-E, exc. for like $40-60.... some people are just funny to listen to, maybe thats his angle.

[redboxcar]

From Yahoo! News: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/108657 ... well, actually it's a blog.

Next-gen optical format promises to revolutionize the industry with features unavailable to previous formats... but it runs afoul of corporate infighting, high prices, and consumers uninterested in changing formats. Eventually they decide, en masse, to stick with what they already know.

Sound familiar? That's what relegated Laserdisc to an oddball obscurity back in the 1980s, and it's an uncanny description of the current situation with Blu-ray today.

ZDNet's Robin Harris is now taking the bold step of calling Blu-ray "dead" and "in a death spiral," saying that in 12 months the format "will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product." While it may be early in the game to make such a prediction, Harris has some good points in his screed. Among them: That after its gruesome, 18-month battle with HD DVD, no one has the energy to care about high-def players any more. Probably a bigger issue: That upscaled DVD players, which can be had for $50 or $60, look almost as good as content played on a Blu-ray player. Consumers just don't see the value proposition in upgrading their hardware, particularly given that players are still over $200. What's a little better picture worth? With Blu-ray pegged at a four percent market share, most people seem to be saying not that much.

I've got my own problems with Blu-ray, having been giving it a fresh shot over the last few weeks. The player I have is a real pain vs. my cheapie DVD player. Startup time is ungodly, and I'll never understand why the player can't automatically figure out to play a Blu-ray disc if there's one in the device when it starts up. Instead it goes to an aggravating "home page" after a 30-second wait, and then it's another button press and another minute-long wait before I can get to the Blu-ray disc's home screen. Fast-forward and reverse is jerky and difficult to finely control, and that's a problem because I have to use them all the time due to the player's biggest annoyance: It doesn't remember where you were in a movie if you stop in the middle. If I quit at the 1 hour mark while watching a DVD on my bargain player, it picks right back up there the next time I turn it on. I understand that different model players will have different features, but this is standard on even the cheapest DVD gear. It's unfathomable that a $300 Blu-ray player can't get the job done.

Is Blu-ray dead? When people like me who have both units sitting side by side actively prefer using DVD instead of BD whenever they can, you've definitely got some trouble ahead.

Your thoughts?

My thoughts are that this guy is an idiot. The way he describes not being able to fast forward, rewind, pick up in the middle after stopping... it sounds like he doesn't even know how to use a player, in general. In addition, I work in electronics retail, and I see more and more people picking up on blu-ray every single day. Even when I, myself, tell people about the superior quality of blu-ray over dvd, they are intrigued... I don't really ever get the, "ehh, I don't care" response.

Yes, they're still expensive, but that's something we're workin' on. ...

[Crim122]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/108657

[xander]

Another nitpicky artice predicting the demise of Blu. Laserdisc, really?

In the past 6 months, I have seen the media areas in all of my local Best Buy, Target, and Walmart retailers expand dramatically the amount of product carried and selection available for Blu ray product. I'm talking 4 to 6 times over expansion. These aren't niche retailers nor is Blu-ray going to be a niche product.

I'm tired of all these "the writing is on the wall" articles when all legitimate and obvious ways of seeing growth and market penetration show otherwise. I can only opine these writers are bitter about something involving an alternate agenda. Not quite tinfoil hat territory I'm trying to drift into, but you get the idea.

[Terjyn]

Blu-Ray is already past where Laserdisc ever was.

No LD ever cracked 200,000 sales.

No LD ever got remotely near 10% of the market share for a title, Blu-Ray is already pushing 20 on select titles (Hulk got 19%).

Note to bloggers: If you must, feel free to try and make the case that Blu-Ray is failing.

Comparing it to laserdisc is a terrible analogy though.

[werewuf]

Christopher Null, the author of this piece obviously has an agenda. Some people want Blu-Ray to fail and will do anything, say anything to try to get that to happen. Some people haven't gotten over the demise of HD-DVD and they may never and will trash talk forever. So many of the points in the article are just bogus that it's plain irritating, I consider this article Null and Void

[quexos]

There will always be here and there articles to criticize this format. Maybe we should not worry about those, at least not systematically. Only when there is something new in their argument.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by xander

Another nitpicky artice predicting the demise of Blu. Laserdisc, really?

And what does Null choose as his cite source?--Why the earlier ZDNet article, of course, and its fine researched journalism!
(Which has already been expounded upon in detail, on these very forums...)

And actually, laserdisk was just starting to enjoy a rennaissance in the late-90's, once Siskel & Ebert started championing them on national television, and people finally figured out they were for the "snooty" home theater fans. (Ohh, so THAT'S why they "didn't record", I get it now!)
Just that DVD came in at that very '96-'97 moment, bypassed LD, and sold itself to the mainstream in a smaller package--Some longtime LD users weren't even impressed by the first corporate DVD demonstrations, as they agreed some pictures looked better but they didn't see what the point of the whole new separate format was...

[Crim122]

I think its weird that there has been so much bad things wrote about BD lately. Well I just got my player so I am just really noticing it, but to me it seems as if BD is getting bigger and really expanding. So I dont get the articles either.

[quexos]

Like I said elsewhere, don't concern yourselves with these articles. Let us see how Blu will do regardless of opinions. We are this week at 12% for Blu If by January we are around 20% then BD is doing good, again regardless of pessimistic bloggers.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Crim122

I think its weird that there has been so much bad things wrote about BD lately. Well I just got my player so I am just really noticing it, but to me it seems as if BD is getting bigger and really expanding. So I dont get the articles either.

Half of the HD-format bashing (at least the half that didn't come from M$) seemed to be psychologically rooted in old traumas about having to buy both that first CD player fifteen years ago and first DVD player ten years ago--and throw out all those VHS tapes and vinyl records--and people who were determined "not to be fooled again! "

Which subconscious psychological grudges usually accounted for old favorites like:
1) "It's a fad!--Only flashy people want it!"
2) "Just watch, there'll be something else along in five years!"
3) "Yeah, and by the time we all buy the hardware, downloading will be the new craze, and disks will be dead!"

(As we can see, corporate wars can be fought and lost, but old traumatized peasant grudges will burn for generations...
Especially when they're frustrated their complaints "don't seem to be heard", and they can't understand why the "bad people" won anyway.)

[upswiseass]

Yet another blogger that uses one of the talking points that HD DVD pundits used to throw out at every chance. I haven't seen a fresh reason as to why these people think that BD will fail in, well, ever.

[Crim122]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Half of the HD-format bashing (at least the half that didn't come from M$) seemed to be psychologically rooted in old traumas about having to buy both that first CD player fifteen years ago and first DVD player ten years ago--and throw out all those VHS tapes and vinyl records--and people who were determined "not to be fooled again! "

Which subconscious psychological grudges usually accounted for old favorites like:
1) "It's a fad!--Only flashy people want it!"
2) "Just watch, there'll be something else along in five years!"
3) "Yeah, and by the time we all buy the hardware, downloading will be the new craze, and disks will be dead!"

(As we can see, corporate wars can be fought and lost, but old traumatized peasant grudges will burn for generations...
Especially when they're frustrated their complaints "don't seem to be heard", and they can't understand why the "bad people" won anyway.)

Glad my family did not throw out all their vinyls, got a nice collection

[Crim122]

Originally Posted by arush5268d

So I see that this is your useless thread of the day.

awwww its ok arush, I have been moved to a new office where I wont be in front of a computer...so starting monday I wont be posting