Blu-ray is dead - heckuva job, Sony!

[admin]

Blu-ray is in a death spiral. 12 months from now Blu-ray will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=365

Wow. That's a bit of an exaggeration. There are some good points in the article, but the writer does suggest that there are ways to fix it (so it's not "dead", it's just "dying unless you do these and these").

[cynthia]

Some stuff from Sweden:

Around 800 players sold each month.
The predication was 40.000 sold units this year.
15.000 players sold since the introduction date.
There has been sold 135.000 Playstation 3-units in Sweden, but how many of those that are used to watch movies is not known.

As a comparison - 700.000 regular DVD players will be sold this year.

[ed klein]

I don't buy that Blu-ray is on the way out.

Sony and ALL the other special interest groups are going to do what ever it takes to make Blu-ray stay afloat. They have spent too much money to let Blu-ray slip thru the cracks. Companies are gearing up for the production of blank Blu-ray disks, including building new plants.

Blu-ray is for the main stream future, it will take a long time for the general public to accept Blu-ray, but I believe that is what the future of DVD is in Blu-ray.

No don't get me wrong, an upscale std def DVD output at 1080p thru HDMI to your HDTV from a video standpoint looks just as good as a Blu-ray video disk at 1080p, the only difference in in the hi def audio.

The general public is going to buy Blu-ray for the hi def audio associated with their custom built sound rooms for watching DVD in the future. Hi def DVD always sounds better then std def DVD and that will be the selling point for the future.

[rago88]

Hi def DVD always sounds better then std def DVD


what is HD audio as opposed to 5.1 surround or is it the same thing?

[admin]

The high-bitrate audio on Blu-ray definitely sounds better, but it does depend on your equipment. That's the other problem with Blu-ray, that you need to buy more stuff to get the best out of it, in this case, it's a HDMI capable receiver that supports PCM 5.1/7.1 audio input (although you do get better audio even with your old AC3/DTS decode, as higher bit-rates are used, usually double or quadruple that of the same AC3/DTS tracks on DVDs).

Then of course, you need a proper 1080p HDTV to get the best out of the picture as well, preferably 52" or larger and able to handle and process 24 Hz input (not just convert to 60 Hz, which all the Blu-ray players can do already, but to 72/120 Hz if possible).

It was a big step for people to make in terms of upgrading equipment for DVDs. It may be too soon for the general public to upgrade again, especially in this economic climate (although I think a poorer economy might benefit the home theatre industry as people look for cheaper ways to entertain themselves, as opposed to going on holiday or even going to the movies).