Sorry but the question is whether BR will go mainstream... I think DVD was the last run for physical media and the next will be download - this transition will not happen completely this year but will have done soon. The simple presence of download (even if it is lower quality) will mean that people dont bother to upgrade their collections to BR and indeed will stop buying them. "whereas a film is already 'perfect' and can therefore be frozen on disc and shelved." untill you need to go out and buy it because DVD has come out, psp has come out, until BR has come out, until you get it as part of a rental package on download....
It just takes too long though. I dont want to wait 8 hours to (legally) download/rent a HD film when I could just pop out and rent it in 5 minutes. In terms of purchasing it then I absolutely prefer to have the physical medium. I dont buy the whole 'upgrading your collection' argument either as you can upscale (very well in fact with a good player) your current collection and add new titles in BD format. You dont need to bin your whole DVD library just becasue you have the ability to play BD.
Yeah, I'm not re-buying every DVD I own in BD, there's no point. I have bought a few that I already own, such as Blade Runner and The Matrix* on BD, but I watch those somewhat regularly and the extra res does them justice. The Bourne Trilogy is next on my list, but I guess that's about it from the collection. *did I mention that they never made a sequel?
+1 to both of the above - I won't be upgrading all my DVDs. No point. However, I'm not buying DVDs anymore, and have upgraded a few favourite titles. But thats it.
Download will NOT overtake DVD/BD in the next 5-10 years. Large parts of the planet are still 3rd world. There's no bandwidth for streaming HD there. I would know - i live in one of these countries. In fact, the fastest internet available to me is 3.6Mb HSDPA. That costs me 0.5 N$ a megabyte (that's up- and download combined, and translates to roughly 8 US cents). Given that a 1080 movie would run AT LEAST a gig, that's 500N$ it would cost me. Compared to the 250 N$ that the same would cost me on BD (with extras as well, please note), or the 150 N$ that it would cost me on DVD.... i think the 3rd world needs a million gajillion dollars worth of infrastructure first. Unless, of course, the movie industry goes the way of GFWL, which had issues with the Country i live in last I checked. In which case, movies in the 3rd world would come strictly from non-legit sources, which in turn would make them dirt cheap and distributed around the world... so yeah. I firmly hope and believe that DVD will be succeeded by BD. I am still hanging on to DVD for the time being, simply because buying the amount of movies i do on DVD is barely affordable, nevermind doing it on BD.
They may not have made a sequal, but the Neo/Smith fight at the end of the 2nd sequal they didn't make was stunning in Hi Def.
@BentAnat as you say large parts of the planet never buy a legal DVD... i dont know what the profits of the media companies is in these regions but I suspect it is not massively significant now and certainly will not be in the future. I also agree that people will not buy new copies of their old dvd's in BR format - which kind of proves the point that HD isn't a big enough improvement. I bet however they would download an HD version over an SD version if they're streamed or the download time is not to long. 5 years is a long time - we have 50mbs connections available in the netherlands now and 20mbs is 15 euro so the performance is not an issue today - it certainly wont be in 5 years, and it probably wont be an issue for 60% of users in the developed world - which would be mass market. I've nothing against BR personally, I just don't see much of a future in it.
Man - While i don't think that it'll be massively significant, i sortof DO think that completely outing the third world would make a splash. Especially if the world goes the GFWL way. I'd reckon that the third world would then start spreading the stuff like mad... It's all speculation, i suppose. However, i think that unless they're willing to give up on the third world completely in that regard, physical media will remain for a while. As for 5 years being a long time: we got ADSL 3 years ago here. We get speeds up to 2Mb/s, which underperforms (like 3g here as well) badly, as the lines running out of the country barely total 200Mb
Everywhere? in the back of Friesland? Or just in the "Randstad"? Large parts of Germany are under 1Mb/s
Haha funny you should say that, i've just come back from Abu Dhabi and they still sell tapes and VHS's and the players on mass. All your big electric shops not just the side streets. haha dam i thought i'd never see them for sale like that again im sure i could or found a 8 track if i'd tried. But the point is the world won't wait and i think the DVD will be the last big solid state media, blue ray will get out there but not in the same numbers and short lived as streaming takes over. Look at your getting movies on demand with your cable/satellite already i know my provider has hundreds on there new and old with the new you have the choice normal or HD it costs the same if less than renting and you can just sit there watch the trailers and choose, pause rewind what ever. I haven't rented a movie since.
Really? This is a quote from What Hi-Fi when testing the Slim "Sure, in outright quality terms, the PS3's picture doesn't quite stand comparison with a cheaper dedicated BD player like Sony's BDP-S360: playing both Blu-rays and DVDs, you'll notice slight losses in clarity, low-light detail and stability." And the S360 costs less than £100. (Not that they think the PS3 is bad though, they still rate it highly and gave it 5 stars)
I would not be repurchasing blu rays to replace DVD's, I dont own any. My question was: I am planning to start a collection of TV shows and some films, is it worth paying for blu ray. The answer seems yes, and the S360 seems like the way to go.
Well with the annoucement of the PS3 being finally hacked i would say sooner or later we will be seeing cheap knockoff blu-ray players just like the ones in the supermarket. once we have a cheap blu-ray writer then it then goes further into mainstream.
I think a more interesting question is how long it'll remain mainstream before being overtaken by digital distribution. I'm still awaiting the equivalent of itunes for HD movies - that'll be as much of a revolution as Steam was for PC gaming. And it'll finally mark the end of dedicated hardware solutions for media. Even if 'hacked' cheap Blu-ray reader/writers were on the market, I wouldn't buy one, because like many many people I don't have a 7.1 surround setup with a stack of amps, equalizers, CD changers and consoles on glass panels. I have a computer and some clothes, and even that's a struggle to carry around when I move. An integrated solution like digital sales would solve all of my problems instantly.
I think I have found my TV as well. Looking at this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-LE3...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264341974&sr=1-1 for £350 new. What do people think?
