well I've always had one, still with my parents, and they got a Sony Bravia LCD 52 inch 1080p back in Sep, I'm never home enough to buy my own. I got the HD-DVD add-on for my 360 on "Black Saturday" at Fry's for $25, bought Transformers for it, and its freaking beautiful. I'm holding out for a BluRay player probably till next month when I get my bonus and hopefully I'll be lucky enough to find a Sony one for $200 or less. As for the Netflix streaming, I've only watched a couple of movies and episodes of Heroes. Looks fine on a regular TV I have in the game room, but probably look better if I have it hard wired since I have it wirelessly. I've got other things to store on a hard drive like pr.. seriously, I just have some fascination owning the media. I'm a DVD collector with over 300 movies, and recently stop buying them and holding out till I get a BluRay player and start buying BluRay movies. I currently buy HD-DVDs since well their cheap and if i don't own it on DVD, why not? (Heroes Season 1 $10 @ Fry's ftw )
Over time Moore's law has snowballed to include many physics in IT, from CPU's, memory, storage space and even the internet. The internet was one of the latest developments to hold true to this law and is one of the first to fall out. I believe over the next few years we will start seeing a slow down in the IT world. Back on topic, we simply do not have the infrastructure to push out that much data on the internet.
Blu-ray is dead to me right now. It isn't a compelling enough upgrade over DVD, yet. Secondly, I think owning video media is just silly. Why pay $15-$20 for a DVD when I can rent one for $4 (save for the occasional great movie). Building up a library of DVDs or Blu-rays makes no sense to me. If/when I start using Blu-ray, same principle will apply.
I don't believe true blu-ray streaming is even possible with our infrastructure, whether its demanded or not. You simply don't see the difference on smaller screens and unless you have very large screens, there will not be a world of a difference. Going back to the VCR/DVD comparison, it was't so much of the DVD quality that made a difference but more of easy of use (no rewinding, ect..), going from analog to digital and less storage space. DVD to Blu-ray only offers eye candy.
Blu-ray will go the way of the CD. People will still buy them but more people will choose the convenience of downloading content. People would just rather have it in soft copy without having to go to the store to buy it. I do a lot of Tivoing of my PPV's and its much more convenient. Eventually broadband will be fast enough to handle HD content where it can be trully on demand.
Can you take your PPV's to watch over with your relatives or friends on THEIR PC's or TV's? This is the reason for the 'hard copy.'
I agree and disagree with you. Quality music is much easier to obtain versus video. I don't expect ultra-fast video streaming to come easy in the near future. Plus anyone would have to imagine that the movie studios would try and prevent much of the video streaming services IF that type of format is determined to ease piracy (would it not be possible to simply convert o "unlock" the video file, versus having to take the extra step of ripping the file from the hard copy?). On top of that, what happens if internet goes down? Having the hard copy is that much more reliable. Granted, I've used Comcast's DVR service to record HD movies and television programs and it's fairly easy to use and more than adequate. Not spectacular. There are times when signal interruption shows through on the programs and when cable is out I'm unable to obtain my recorded media at times. However, multi-terabyte storage is feasible with these types of movie-streaming services in the coming years. However, can bandwith issues be resolved? I wonder if the abundance in the broadcast spectrum with the DTV signal will play any role in the streaming of digital media? Here's the biggest thing, in my opinion, that will prevent the end of DVDs/BRDs as opposed to CDs with MP3 devices: What if you want to watch the movie on another television? What about a friend's house? You won't be able to do that with streaming media. Even today, who realistically brings his or her XBox 360 or PS3 to a friend's house on a normal basis?
First off your numbers are off a bit. Rental is 4.99 for one week plus tax at blockbuster. You can buy most Blu-rays 12.99 no tax free shipping right now and in a year will be cheaper than that. For people saying they prefer the download versions, our bandwidth is not large enough to download movies this size to be fast and easy. Plus storing will quickly be a problem. The smallest HD movie I have is 5.5 gigs and only has DD 5.1 not any of the PCM audio that blu-ray offers.
Yeah. I meant many people are perfectly fine watching a DVD unpconverted to 1080i on a 42+" HDTV. Perhaps BluRay is a luxury most people don't know what they're missing, but the arguments havent been too compelling. Maybe they should release more boxsets with Crackerjack prizes to boost collectability.
I think this is the problem. BR just doesn't offer a compelling reason for most people to change. I have it now through PS3 only because of someone else buying it for me.
Its not just Bluray you need to have a complete package, a HDTV, receiver, speakers. how many people take advantage of bluray? I don't, but I enjoy it. I have 720p sony grand wega, and my bluray looks great. I don't care if its 1080p, cause its really not that big of a difference (i have friends with 1080p top of the line stuff). I'm using DD5.1 and DTS. for the person who really maximizes it. they needs a great 1080p TV (no crap brand), calibrated video, a receiver with the next generation Dolby and DTS and 7.1 speakers. And it has to be a decent brand. My 5.1 sounds better than a 7.1 with crap speakers and receiver. however, I like HD stuff so I have it. Its true, on some instances, upconvert DVD works fine. But certain Bluray discs show the best details - Dark Knight for example. The big issue is price and availability. Nobody is going to stop watch DVDs, if they don't have it on bluray, i'll watch it on DVD.
the only blu rays for 12.99 are the ones that no one really cares about. My average cost of blu ray so far has been about 20$ a movie. so yeah, if you do know where i can buy good new movies on blu for 12.99- dont hold out on me man! watching batman in IMAX and planet earth in blu are 2 of the greatest things I have ever watched on a tv.
also, my screen is over 130", so anyone could tell the difference between blu and dvd, no comparison (even with ps3 upscaling).
the only BD I have paid over 20 bucks for was batman DK. All the other ones I buy on amazon. I just bought American Psycho for 13 bucks.
More fuel for the fire... ____ Netflix streaming comes to LG TV this spring: Instant movies, no messy set-top box required link
According to some gamestop employees, Blu-Ray discs are more resistant to scratches because of some kind of coating. You might have just had bad luck with some crappy renters.
