News Blu-Ray 8 percent of home video market

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09...video-market/1

The high-definition video disc Blu-Ray accounts for just eight percent of home video sales and rentals in the US, trailing far behind predictions.

[clumsy_culhane]

I think the problem with Blu-ray is that to your average consumer, there is little difference between it and DVD. Most people dont have huge enough tv's to bother spending more dough on blu-ray, and also then fork out for the blu-ray player on top of that.

[bubsterboo]

I have started purchasing them, And i have that nice cheap LG blu-ray reader in my HTPC. I'm not exactly your average consumer. But i think you're crazy if you compare a DVD to a quality 1080p film. Or if you say there's little difference. There's a world of difference. I don't believe in Upscaling either. My DVD experience has been completely ruined. I just wish blu-ray would catch on sooner.

[cjoyce1980]

I enjoy high-def as much as the next person, but I enjoy it in console gaming.

DVD's are still fine for viewing any movie with 5.1

[Ninja_182]

The only merits I can see at the moment with the format is that of picture quality. As much as I like the better image, we only have a 720 tv as do many people so I will never see 1080 and after 5 mins of watching. I tend to be paying more attention to whats going on in the plot and not how detailed the faces look. Its a bit like Unreal, the newer ones look nicer but after a while they dont have that much over UT99.

[whisperwolf]

I'm just not surprised. When people upgraded to dvd they only had to buy a new player and had immediate benefits that dvd could offer, smaller packaging, quicker fast-forward and rewind, bonus features. To upgrade to bluray people need new tv's, upgrade to 7.1 sound systems and get yet more commentaries that people don't listen to. Its a much more expensive outlay, and with the current economic environment people might not be dashing out to get 50" 1080p tvs anytime soon. My up scaling dvd player works perfectly with my 720p TV and I currently see no bonus in upgrading, I might just wait and see what the next format is and skip the current hd generation altogether. Vast amount of public do not want quality, they want quantity the fast numbers of compressed music players shows us this

[Silver51]

Everyone had to wait too long for the format war to declare a victor, and the cost of entry is still too high. I'm not replacing perfectly serviceable equipment because it lacks an HDMI port.

[1ad7]

I love my bluray but I dont see most people grabing it soon, and I still only really rent and even then only certain movies

[MajestiX]

when sony finally won they never really won anything

problem is when you making things too interoperable there isn't that much of a push to change. Look at vista and xp for instance, might be better but it's not much of a new experience.

it'll kick off soon though, when burners and disc high the right spot

[mmorgue]

Also don't forget that the leap in "media" technology isn't drastic enough to warrant an entire industry swap so quickly. The example I'd point to is DVD vs VHS. VHS was clunky, large, analogue tapes that required time consuming forward/rewind and had very limited quality.

The release of DVD was a huge leap forward -- compact media, much higher quality, immediate forward/rewind, digital, etc.

Now with Blu-Ray. Thing is, it doesn't "seem" like such a huge leap forward because you have, essentially, just plain old DVDs but with a better visual quality. Kind of like VHS tapes but instead of crappy LP play only, you now have Super SP mode. Which requires a new type of player, so most people will think, well, it's not all that different interms of media, it only "looks" better.

Hence why i figure the adoption of BD is so slow. Now, if a new media like single, small flash cards of 64+gigs that were a) univeral interoperable between various media systems and b) drm free, it might have a much bigger impact.

Shame tho, as I buy only BD now -- I've acquired a taste for full 1080P films

EDIT: as I am sure people will love to point out, the idea of small universal media cards (also cheap!) isn't new or a complete solution, but having such media that all major film/media industries, as well as manufacturers could agree on would certainly allow for a better consummer experience.

[reflux]

You need a really big TV to make the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray noticable sitting six feet away on your sofa.

[p3n]

Hardly suprising considering most people think having a HD tv will help with normal quality sources etc..

[shigllgetcha]

i have a 32" 720p and dvds look great on it (play through my xbox with a HDMI cable)
I have absolutely no interest in buying blu ray, cant see enough benefit

[Phil Rhodes]

Too expensive.

Too picky about what I can play them on.

When the opensource guys sort out a player that will run them on any suitable display, as opposed to any suitable display that Sony happens to like, I'll be more interested.

[TreeDude]

Honestly the only Blu-Ray movies I would buy would be visually stimulating ones. Transformers, The Matrix, Batman Begins, ect. I really don't see the point of watching a dialog heavy movie in HD. At least not for $30.

[Project_Nightmare]

I agree with Phil, Blueray is too expensive! I'm insulted that they would try to rip off people to pay large sums of money for a sightly better product. From what I can tell, they just upgraded the lazer to improve data density, so it should be cheap to get. I would love to get a blueray burner/combo drive for my computer, but at >$100, that is unexceptible.

[Burnout21]

upscaling DVD's on my 24in Monitor, no worries, tempt by blue ray, but even the cheapest readers are £60 so i am waiting. Would perfer to wait and get a blue ray writer as a single rw-writable blue ray disc could back up alot of my stuff!

Have watched alot of HD trailers in 1080, look great but its not enough to jump yet. When i can set up a decent HTPC and home theater with a projector... (dreams)

[shigllgetcha]

some films just dont justify HD/Blu Ray. A visually spectular game justifies blu ray but they are kinda far between

[Rich_13]

People are so confused about HD resolutions and formats and versions of blu-ray players that they have no idea what to go for.

The Blu-ray hardware manufacturers could make things quite simple by saying things like:

"Blu-ray will play all your old DVD's!! Future-proof and buy these players and you can still buy DVD's which will also look better on our hardware with upscaling technology. When Blu-ray discs are cheaper, switch to buying them!"

Ok the price is still high for the players but if points like this are pushed then people might op for it.

Media prices won't come down fast enough if there is not the demand and retail will always support what the mass market is buying... not whats best...

It's rather like the minidisc. Nice idea, rubbish execution.

[TreeDude]

Originally Posted by Project_Nightmare

I agree with Phil, Blueray is too expensive! I'm insulted that they would try to rip off people to pay large sums of money for a sightly better product. From what I can tell, they just upgraded the lazer to improve data density, so it should be cheap to get. I would love to get a blueray burner/combo drive for my computer, but at >$100, that is unexceptible.

New tech is always more expensive, regardless of manufacturing cost. The reason is they have to make up for large amount of R&D that went into creating the product. They also take into account the fact that the demand just is not there yet because there really are not a whole lot of titles to buy yet. It all takes time. Once the demand rises the price will fall.