You once again run into bandwidth issues. Satellite, wireless and backbone systems are all running into foreseeable issues. Even though it is just software, there is a hardware limitation that is simply not being upgraded (not that you can upgrade wireless spectrum) Moving a single 1 terabyte chunk in one second across the word is not a big wonder. Doing it continuously with multiple users is the challenge. Even though LTE can go 100mbs, it can't handle massive amounts of users at one time at those speeds.
More Americans own HD-DVD players than Blu-ray machines ... Ouch. _____ Americans Cool To Blu-ray American have shown little interest in Blu-ray disc players, an indication that the high-definition movie format is losing out to alternative technologies. U.S. consumers have given Blu-ray a lukewarm reception, despite buying an increasing number of high-definition TVs, according to Harris Interactive. The percentage of American adults who own HDTVs stands at 47% today from 35% in May 2008. However, Blu-ray players have yet to see such market strength. In an April survey, Harris found that 93% of American don't own a Blu-ray player, down only a bit from the 96% in May 2008. By comparison, 11% of Americans own a machine that plays the now-defunct HD DVD format, which movie studios abandoned in favor of Blu-ray. So why has Blu-ray failed to excite Americans so far? Milton Ellis, VP and senior consultant for Harris Interactive, believes Blu-ray adoption is being hampered by competition from alternative technologies, such as cable and satellite TV and the Internet, all of which offer HD content. "Consumers today can easily watch high definition TV channels or use the Internet or video-on-demand to access high definition movies," Ellis said in a statement. "In the near future, access to high definition movies may be a download or streaming delivery of one's favorite movies to a home media server that eliminates the need for a Blu-ray player and Blu-ray disc." Such a wide variety of emerging choices appears to have dampened interest in Blu-ray. Only 7% of of non-Blu-ray players surveyed said they were likely to buy a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, down from 9% in May 2008, Harris said. Another indication that Americans are getting their movies in ways other than discs is the drop in purchases of standard format DVDs. On average, consumers bought about six standard DVDS in the last six months. However, consumers plan to purchase half that amount in the next six months, Harris said. In trying to boost sales, manufacturers have been dropping the prices of Blu-ray disc players in the United States. The average selling price for players fell nearly 34% in the first quarter, to $261 from $393 a year ago, according to the NPD Group. Prices, however, may have to fall even further to lure more customers. NPD found that consumers likely to buy expect to pay $214 on average. link
I personally have only bought 1 blue ray. Everything else I watch is Digital, where I have a copy of it on my HD's / DVR's or watching it streaming via the internet or On Demand service.
End of the format war and future prospects On January 4, 2008, a day before CES 2008, Warner Bros., the only major studio still releasing movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format, announced it would release only in Blu-ray Disc after May 2008. This effectively included other studios which came under the Warner umbrella, such as New Line Cinema and HBO, though in Europe HBO distribution partner the BBC announced it would, while keeping an eye on market forces, continue to release product on both formats. This led to a chain reaction in the industry, including major U.S. retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Circuit City, and Canadian chains such as Future Shop, dropping HD DVD in their stores. A former major European retailer, Woolworths, dropped HD DVD from its inventory. Netflix and Blockbuster—major DVD rental companies—said they would no longer carry HD DVDs. Following these new developments, on February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would end production of HD DVD devices,[40] allowing Blu-ray Disc to become the industry standard for high-density optical disks. Universal Studios, the sole major movie studio to back HD DVD since inception, shortly after Toshiba's announcement, said "while Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc."[41] Paramount Studios, which started releasing movies only in HD DVD format during late 2007, also said it would start releasing in Blu-ray Disc. Both studios announced initial Blu-ray lineups in May 2008. With this, all major Hollywood studios now support Blu-ray.[42] According to Adams Media Research, high-definition software sales were slower in the first two years than standard DVD software sales.[43] 16.3 million standard DVD software units were sold in the first two years (1997-1998) compared to 8.3 million high-definition software units (2006-2007).[43][44] One reason given for this difference was the smaller marketplace (26.5 million HDTVs in 2007 compared to 100 million SDTVs in 1998).[43][44] Former HD DVD supporter Microsoft has stated that they are not planning to make a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360.[45] Blu-ray Disc began making serious strides as soon as the format war ended. Nielsen VideoScan sales numbers showed that with some titles, such as 20th Century Fox's Hitman, up to 14% of total disc sales were from Blu-ray, although the average for the first half of the year was around 5%. Shortly after the format war ended, a study by The NPD Group found that awareness of Blu-ray Disc had reached 60% of U.S. households. In December 2008 The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc sold 600,000 copies on the first day of its launch in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.[46] A week after launch The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc had sold over 1.7 million copies worldwide making it the first Blu-ray Disc title to sell over a million copies in the first week of release.[47] According to Singulus Technologies AG, Blu-ray is being adopted faster than the DVD format was at the same period of its development. This conclusion was based on the fact that Singulus Technologies has received orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer machines during the first quarter of 2008, while 17 DVD machines of this type were made in the same period in 1997.[48] According to GfK Retail and Technology in the first week of November 2008 sales of Blu-ray recorders surpassed DVD recorders in Japan.[49] According to the Digital Entertainment Group the total number of Blu-ray Disc playback devices (both set-top box and game console) had reached 9.6 million by the end of 2008.[50] According to Swicker & Associates Blu-ray Disc software sales in the United States and Canada were 1.2 million in 2006, 19.2 million in 2007, and 82.4 million in 2008.[50]
I've bought about 25 Blu Rays in the past 2 years. Compared to the 55ish DVDs I used to own....in a 7+ year period. The Fry's/Best Buy 10-15 dollar sales are nice. I think I buy about 2-4 Blu Rays a month now. Edit: I'm actually contemplating buying Rocky "I thru Senior Citizen" collection, and a Pack with Man On Fire, Street Kings, and Hitman for 80 bucks, and getting a 25 dollar GC back.
I just can't get on the blu-ray express. The players are still too expensive and so are the movies. Not to mention they are harder to find to rent. To be honest, the only way I can tell the difference between blu-ray and a dvd is if they are side by side. That isn't enough increase in clarity to warrant me spending the extra money only to be unable to get new releases in blu-ray. I know I can play a regular dvd on blu-ray players but it just seems like a waste to me.
around christmas i was gonna pick a couple up on sale for like 17 bucks, but when I got to the checkout, they told me they were marked wrong and they were actually 34.99.
It is a waste if you don't have the TV for it. Playing a BRD on a PS3 with a 25 inch CRT is obviously a waste of time. Now...you take that same thing and put it on a 56 inch 1080p television... :O~~~~
it's already happening, Walmart Frys and Best Buy all have 10 dollar, or less, Bluray movies for sale, back catalogue stuff but still great deals. I've probably got about 60ish Blurays now as I've converted from DVD, don't even buy regular DVDs. I was an early adopter of DVDs and the price points back when they first came out was almost exactly the same as new release Blurays now a days. Prices eventually come down. For those that can't tell the difference between regular DVD's and Blurays, man what are you looking at, even my wife how is totally oblivious to this kind of stuff can see the difference. As for the downloadable stuff, most still only comes in 1080i resolutions with a few exceptions. Bluray is the main place you can get 1080p resolution on films plus I'm a dinosaur who actually like to own the movie on a shelf.
agree with above at first i thought i wouldnt have too many hd media but i have around 100 blu-rays/hd-dvds combined, i would say maybe around 60 or so blu-rays...I have somewhere like 200 dvds though and the difference is no contest on that at the same time i would watch a HD movie on hbo/starz if its on but if given a choice of owning a blu-ray or having a movie recorded in HD on my dvr i go blu-ray all the way. the 1080 content on the movie channels look great but there is still some pixelation and detail that goes missing because of the cable/sat bandwidth restrictions. You can find a lot of great blu-ray disc deals too now, I think I've payed only like 30 bucks on 3 or 4 of my blu-rays everything else was 20 bucks or cheaper.
This is why I'm not getting into blu-ra: the Blu-ray reorders, burners, and blanks are way too expensive. Honestly the blu ray disks and players have dropped in price to where DVD used to be (~$200 for a player, ~$20 for a movie). But I wont be getting into until the blanks and burners are dirt cheap. And I own a 52" LCD HDTV.
I got a BluRay Xmas '07, and have about two dozen titles right now. For me: 1) I'm not willing to rebuy titles I already have, unless it is one of my true favorites and the BR image quality >>> the DVD counterpart (upconverted). 2) The price point for most BR titles are out of line with the max I'm willing to spend to own a movie (~ $22). I don't rewatch more than a few films 3+ times in general, so why throw my money away? 3) Netflix has curbed my need to buy discs as much as iTunes has for CDs. 4) The gain in going from (upconverted) DVD-->BR depends greatly on the movie and cinematography. The gain is always there, but it varies from transcendent (a few) to noticeable (most) to slight (many). With prices double that of DVDs, I'm going to be judicious in which titles I choose. Evan
Blu-Ray is a beast. I do agree that it is too expensive, but DVDs were too when they first came out. Hopefully, they'll end up coming down in price. I don't like have movies on my DVR because it takes up space if they're on there for any length of time. I'll download rentals in HD only if I really want to see a movie, but don't want to buy it. Plus I don't buy every move I want on Blu-Ray. I tend to get the ones that look great like Iron Man, Dark Knight and the Planet Earth Series. I guess to each their own, but I like the tech.
for these..its rare for me to "double-dip" i did recently for "a bugs life" because the PQ on pixar blu-rays is immaculate. most of the other times when I did double dip it was when there was a substantial increase in quality or I got the blu-ray for 7 bucks or under. I think i've double dipped 10 times now, but i've stopped buying DVDs altogether unless its something i cant own on blu-ray (tv shows etc) will double dip when the LOST blu-ray comes out as a complete series..i bought seasons 1 and 2 on dvd but havent bought 3,4 and soon 5 since they were released on blu-ray and i didnt want to buy the dvds and i didnt want to have a mixture of blu-ray and dvds for a tv series (i am weird like that). i know seasons 1 and 2 came out on blu-ray last week but i want to buy the complete series on blu-ray when the series finishes next year so will double-dip again then. (probably will double-dip when the LOTR extended series comes out on blu-ray) as for netflix i used to subscribe but more often than not i would get a movie and wouldnt watch it that night and it would just sit at home for weeks if not months...that happens a lot still when i buy a blu-ray...I buy it when it comes out since it will generally be the cheapest then until like a black-friday sale or it becomes one of those clearance items the following year. i dont see the movie right away i will probably watch it like a month or two from the purchase date. but i only buy movies when: a) i know i would watch multiple times or b) the cost of the blu-ray/dvd is just about the same of a cost of rental (4-6 bucks)
