News Fox announces Blu-ray titles

Twentieth Century Fox have announced they will support the Blu-ray high definition format. Films will include Alien, Die Hard and X-Men series, and TV shows like 24, The Simpsons and Family Guy will appear.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/08/04/fox_blu_ray/

 

Man I don't even have a TV, just my TV Wonder tuner.

 

The concerns I raised in the story are ones that apply to me personally: I'm considering an Xbox 360 from launch, despite the likely high price. I'm also a big movie buff, so ignoring the task of replacing my 150-strong DVD collection, I would be very keen on movies in HD.

However, those costs are easy enough to appreciate and save up for. But the fact that I need to first spend maybe £500 to £3000 on a HD display is the kicker. Naturally, a 50" plasma is more than just an HD-capable upgrade from my 28" widescreen CRT telly, but it's a little bit like buying a Skiing holiday: you don't just need flights & accomodation, but lift passes, snowboard hire, goggles, gloves, jacket, pants etc etc

When you end up having to spend £1000 on an LCD to get the most out of your £300 console, something ain't really right.

 

hmm this is a pain in the bum, I want a new tv for my room, and i dont have 1k to buy a huge plasma/lcd mostrocity(sp). All i want is a 25 or so inch tv so I'm all geared up for the 360 and these new films. The problem is, the UK isn't really going to see cheaper sets untill sky get their finger out and start broadcasting hdtv, which, IIRC is end of 06.

 

This is one problem of format upgrades its out with old and in with the "new".
Its too bloody expensive, hopefully, as the films are filmed in HD there isnt going to be much of a change apart from the media its on and maybe a new protection sceme, so there isnt much of a price increase.
Well fingers crossed you dont need to take a loan out, and spend a few weekends at carboots flogging your dvds off to pay for your new collection.

 

Pirated DVDs are a big problem for studios, so expect some sort of greater security for HD DVD / Blu-ray movies. Of course, only a fool would bet against it being cracked given time, but consider the figures for a moment.

DVDs hold 4.5-9GB of data. Strip out extras, un-used soundtracks etc etc and you can compress it to either fit on a single 4.5GB DVD-R, or strip it down even further and compress to fit on a 700MB CD-R. Most people are familiar with this.

Now, consider the HD version of the same film, in either 15/30GB HD DVD or 25/50GB Blu-ray format. Again, you can strip it back, but will you shoehorn it onto a 4.5GB DVD-R? or will the pirate community move to 9GB DL DVD-R?

Broadband is getting faster AND cheaper, but downloading that many gigabytes is rather different to a 700MB film. That's your internet piracy - what of the Far East counterfeit DVD market? Will they be able to copy this new, higher density media in the same way they crank out dodgy DVDs for next to nothing?

Sord_Fish: you suggest, quite correctly I believe, that HD games might cost a little more because of the increased production costs involved - super-high-res texture art etc etc But I disagree that the extra cost will increase piracy. Console games have always been more expensive than PC games, so when your market is accustomed to paying £34.99-39.99, moving them to £44.99 or maybe £49.99 isn't so hard. Sure, some will be put off, but the main catalyst for piracy is opportunity.

OK, so it's a generalisation, but basically even if games were only £20, certain people would still pirate them IF given the opportunity. Conversely, if all games were £50 but piracy was essentially impossible, people would just pay more for games.

 

Not that many people have TV's capable of displaying higher than 600*800 resolutions. I think it is the future definetly.... but not yet. The market should not blast like DVD's did. That's what I think.

 

Penetration of DVD is something silly like 75% of households these days - I remember reading it reached that mark something like twice as fast as VHS did. The transition to HD is going to be slooooow

 

I see your point, people would still pirate even if it was only £1, But think of teenagers on paperboy/girl wage. Buying new game takes 6 weeks of saving up or they can warez it for free. it the extra time added that, imho would sway more people.

well as you mentioned the dodgy dvds, look at all the newer dvd-players, they all have mpeg4 xvid divx playback, why? the interweb/piracy made the formats famous, so, if needed they could possible follow that route and counterfeit to dvd9 cheaply and keep the HD quality.

"Is this technology moving too quickly?"
i have mixed judgement, for the UK its going to be uber slow but the US having had HDTV for a while now, should pick up quite quickly epecially once the ps3 hits.

 

or 'shoehorn' it onto single layer Blu-ray disc, burners wont be too far behind the player drives

 

Am I right in thinking there is no way of running these discs on non HD screens? ie can they be run with less quality? (such of a dvd)

 

I bloody well wouldn't. £50? Absolutely barking! No matter how amazing a game is, it wouldn't be worth £50 in my eyes.

No they wouldn't.

£19.95 - there's a sensible price. People would 'impulse buy' a darn sight more if the price was around that figure.

 

MIRC costs about a pound to register and there are keygens for it.

It's more conviniant to use a keygen then enter your details to pay.

 

its more convienent to just click continue when you start it up everytime than look for a keygen

 

Well, I can see Blu Ray going the way of the laser disc and mini disc. For one don't you need a blu-ray player? Or will they run on standard dvd players. Aside from that, most people already have the main fox movies on dvd, people who want them of course. And whats all this about hd? I own a 65 inch mitsubishi diamond widescreen tv, which runs 480p and it looks just as good as what I see at the movie theater. Only 10% of people in America have HD tvs in the first place. Then only a fraction will move to the new media, it's just not going to happen. Plus to be honest, games don't look that much better in HD.

 

I have to say the quality of HDTV is amazing! I was in Dixons the other day and there was a £8000 (!!!!!!!) LG 60" or maybe even 70" (IIRC) HDTV and the picture was AWESOME. I'm not sure if it was a DVD playing or TV or what but if a DVD was THAT good why go to Blu-Ray and make people either begrudginly upgrade or not upgrade at all.

 

480p is not HD, try watching some stuff in 1080p its so ********ing awesome
and you need a new player for HD-DVD too, im hoping blu-ray wins this just because it has more capacity

 

Blu-ray will eventually come through, but it will take a very long time. At the moment I get some of the benifits of HDTV by using a set top box on my SDTV. I'm still trying to convert my 100+ VHS collection to DVD. Many of the classic titles just haven't been released yet.

There is no reason why blu-ray players should not be exactly the same price as DVD players. It's the exact same technology with a higher frequency laser.

Having to lash out $1000s to buy a new plasma/LCD tv is just out of my price league. I can happily watch my new DVDs without a problem. Until HD tvs become the standard (equals cheap) blu-ray will be pushing the proverbial sh!t uphill with a stick to try to make it in the marketplace (except amongst those who have to have the biggest/latest/best).

 

See thats where your wrong 480p is HD 1080p is ultra hd. And if you have ever watched a movie on a Mits. Diamond or Pioneer Elite then you would know what I am talking about. They are the best crt sets you can buy and run around 6-7k. Crt projection is the finest quality you can get with little to no visual distortion, and the truest blacks. The only thing better is a true projection system using crt tech. LCD and Plasma have visual flaws, decay, and minor tearing. DLPs are almost as good as a crt, but again the blacks aren't true. And the cheapest 1080p tv is a Samsung DLP running (I believe) around 4.2k for the 42 inches.

 

i watch 1080 stuff on my monitor as its the only device i have that comes even close to being able to display it fully
ok whilst 480 is technically HD compared to normal tv its nothing compared to 1080 which is what i would consider 'proper' HD
im not too bothered about HDTV's, i would probalby watch it on my monitor anyway