Extreme Tech: Who cares about Blu-ray and HD DVD?

[T2000lange]

I just read a snippet of an article that posits that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are based on older legacy systems and should go by the way of the dust bin.
Its replacement - downloadable movies. If there were no issues with compression and we had the pipes to properly download an uncompressed picture and sound of course I'd be for it but that's not what's going to happen. This writer apparently is not concerned with the quality of the picture and sound and wants to utilize an itunes perspective with movies in general. Let me know what you all think about this. Personally, I'm dumbfounded that someone at Extreme Tech would state this without truly understanding the technical ramifications of their statements.

[Slapper]

Word. Unless they develop some higher quality compression techniques, Hi-def on disc will be the only way to go. Right now, almost all Cable/Satellite companies do not even offer true 1080p hi-def and are stuck in the 720p/1080i range and that's with a crapload of compression. We're talking a need for an all-new plumbing system to handle the enormous amount of data transfer to get the same quality as, let's say, POTC on Blu-ray.

Why settle for something of lesser quality down the road when Blu-ray can bring us these great high-quality movies right now?

Not to mention the cost of having a storage device able to accomodate true 1080p HD movies. We're talking big bucks. I see alot of people here have 50 or more movies on Blu-ray. That's alot of MB. We're no longer talking single hard drive requirements. Movie buffs would have to have multiple hard-drives in order to accomodate their needs. Where's the convenience in that? HD "itunes" is ludicrous right now and for the foreseeable future.

[IamNhobdy]

iTunes is a great idea for some. Yes right now, it's not worthwhile IMO to move into downloading just yet. And for me, I could never fall into the download game because, as a half classic analog guy who accepts digital equally, I (and I assume many others) would always prefer to have physical media than a bunch of 1's and 0's running around my computers HDD. I need that space for recording, mixing & producing(and storing) high resolution audio for clients and myself.

[scott87]

i will always be one for physical media!im not too concerned with music and dont mind downloading that! But as a movie buff i like to have that physical media and show off what i have!!! Plusi would need a whole lot of hard rives to store all my films!!

I really dont see it taking off unless you get quicker downloads!!!imagine how long it would take for a 50gb download now? so i think its complete and utter nonense at the mo!

[caliminius]

It's a pretty weak list of cons against either HD format: Storage, Environmentally Unfriendly, Dust, and Format Replacement.

I can't even believe he listed the fact that the cases collect dust as an argument against HD formats. He was clearly grasping for straws.

And even if downloaded rentals were $3 each, I'd hate to imagine how much money I would have spent for Aliens or the T2 special edition over the years. Probably $300-500 at the least. Even at $25 each (which they weren't), I more than got my money's worth. Factor this with all the other movies I've watched countless times and DVD (and now Blu-Ray) comes out to a bargain. If you just want to watch a movie one or twice, it's cheaper to just subscribe to Netflix or one of the premium movie channel packages. I'd much rather at some finally own the movie.

[phil]

Personally being an xbox live user, and seeing the downloadable films (I've used them once) And I've realized that these Blu Rays are 48 gigs for a reason, the average downloadable film is 7 gigs.You know as well as I do, that the best films are long! LoL I love long films, 2 hours somewhere in there give or take. Spiderman? 6-7 gigs please. How are you gong to have the highest PQ and SQ in such little space, and not the average user much less movie-goer is going to want to download 6-7 gigs to begin with, day in and day out.

[Wondermaker]

Originally Posted by Jim Lynch

As annoying as the HD-DVD dingdongs are, I find the Sony fanboys slightly more aggravating. Quite a lot of them own PS3s and, as I have pointed out in the past, the PS3 is really nothing more than an over-hyped, over-priced piece-of-junk-trojan-horse designed to help Sony push Blu-ray onto consumers. Thankfully Nintendo is beating the crap out of Sony and the PS3 with sales of its Wii console. Take that Sony fanboys! But I digress...

Gee, he seems to take an unbiased, objective stance on the whole situation... And this is just below a paragraph in which he proclaims how sick he is of format war fanboys duking it out. So obviously the mature approach would be... to bash Sony in your next paragraph! >_<

[radagast]

the PS3 is really nothing more than an over-hyped, over-priced piece-of-junk-trojan-horse


How stupid can you get? It it the least expensive Blu-ray player, so "overpriced" is BS. Piece of junk? It uses the Cell microprocessor which is more advanced than anything Intel or competitors have.

[JTK]

the PS3 is really nothing more than an over-hyped, over-priced piece-of-junk-trojan-horse

^^ Look ma! Another stupid person on the Internet!

[KenThompson]

The guy is a twit. His opinion is just that and should be kept to himself. I had bought a 1,000 music files from Bonfire and Puretracks and when I got a new computer and tried to transfer to new one, songs could not be played because of DRM. Can you bring that movie over to a friends? So its one good reason to have the actual disc. I personally want a disc and a case with art. Who wants to spend hours downloading a movie and then watching a crappy picture.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Jim Lynch

As annoying as the HD-DVD dingdongs are, I find the Sony fanboys slightly more aggravating. Quite a lot of them own PS3s and, as I have pointed out in the past, the PS3 is really nothing more than an over-hyped, over-priced piece-of-junk-trojan-horse designed to help Sony push Blu-ray onto consumers. Thankfully Nintendo is beating the crap out of Sony and the PS3 with sales of its Wii console. Take that Sony fanboys! But I digress...

A piece of junk? Are you sure you don't mean the XBox 360 boyo?

And if it is over-priced, doesn't that make it HARDER to push onto consumers? If Sony dropped the price $200, that would make it all good for you?

Whenever it is Wii kills PS/3 with no mention of Xbox 360, you know that it is a bought and paid for Microsoft mouthpiece.



Looks like Nintendo is beating the crap out of Microsoft (presumably the pusher of the not expensive not piece of crap) too. Where's the mention of that?

Incidently: The Trojan Horse worked. Calling something a trojan horse indicates belief in its power. You should call it a "trojan-horse-attempt" if you're bad mouthing it.

[erowe83]

Originally Posted by scott87

i will always be one for physical media!im not too concerned with music and dont mind downloading that! But as a movie buff i like to have that physical media and show off what i have!!! Plusi would need a whole lot of hard rives to store all my films!!

I really dont see it taking off unless you get quicker downloads!!!imagine how long it would take for a 50gb download now? so i think its complete and utter nonense at the mo!

I agree, I will always want my collection sitting next to me, and not on some random harddrive.

[Scorxpion]

"the PS3 is really nothing more than an over-hyped, over-priced piece-of-junk-trojan-horse"

Because of PS3 i can watch BD from what earth are you living on