Blu-ray: Dead by 2012

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doobiwan

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Hey I knowthis is FBF class stuff, but it's Sunday night I can'twait that long ;)

http://www.techradar.com/news/video/hd-dvd/5-reasons-why-blu-ray-could-be-dead-by-2012-464705

Planning to buy a Blu-ray player? Hold on. It's already battling public indifference, technical problems, laughable features and downloadable movies. Is it any wonder Blu-ray is doomed to fail? Here are five reasons why it's heading for the grave...

1. HD movie downloads

OK so the picture quality's not quite there yet, but Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others have already seen the future of movie viewing at home - and it doesn't come on shiny 12cm discs.

Instead services like iTunes, Xbox Live and Vudu already offer HD movies over the internet, enabling you to see the movies you want without having to hack down to the video store in the pouring rain.

With fibre-to-home broadband slowly being rolled out in the UK, who knows what the next few years will bring.

2.BD-Live

Have you seen the demos? BD-Live is a joke. It's a second-rate attempt to offer interactive features that HD DVD did first and much, much better.

It won't work on old Blu-ray players (they don't have the persistent storage) and may not work on new ones: it's not mandatory for Blu-ray player makers to include it in the hardware they sell.

Result? Large doses of confusion and frustration for anyone (un)lucky enough to buy a Blu-ray disc with BD-Live features on it.

3. Samsung thinks Blu-ray is finished

You know, the world's number one consumer electronics maker, Blu-ray stalwart.

Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK, told Pocket Lint that Blu-ray would be dead in five years, and that it certainly wouldn't last 10.

He believes the format will be replaced by either a new kind of physical media - most likely flash memory cards if Toshiba's IFA 2008 keynote is anything to go by - or downloads. Go figure.

4. Sony thinks Blu-ray is finished

Blu-ray is not only finished in terms of spec, but it's also finished as a format. Optical disc technology has gone as far as it can go.

Or so says Take Miyama, Sony product manager for home video marketing in Europe believes. He told Electric Pig that "in the future, if [our emphasis] we have a physical media format, it will change physically. It won't look like an optical disc."

Talk of a 500GB Blu-ray prototype will only prolong the agony.

Sony has already hinted at its future direction with the launch of Bravia TVs in the US that can directly receive movies streamed over the internet. Blu-ray player not required.

5. DVD is good enough

Despite the fact that Blu-ray movies are expected to hit to 12 million sales in Europe this year, they still account for just two per cent of video sales in countries like the UK.

Even by 2012 DVD will still have the edge - and that's according to the Blu-ray Disc Association's own over-enthusiastic predictions [PDF link].

The plain fact is few of us are ever likely to swap extensive DVD collection for their Blu-ray equivalents, especially when prices for Blu-ray movies and players are still so high.

Given that many cheap DVD players now have some kind of upscaling capability, DVD will prove 'good enough' in terms of picture quality for many years to come.
By Rob Mead
Click to expand...
 
You're playing wit fire Doobi ! Prepared to be attacked by the hordes of brainless, clueless, factless Sony Zombies that troll this forum !
 
4 Reasons why Blu-Ray will not die soon,

1. Telkom cap
2. Having a disc is better than storing Terabytes of data (movies)
3. What happens if your hard drive crashes, are you going to download all the movies again, see point 1.
4. Hope you have a good expensive back solution for all your movies


The only thing streaming movies are good for, is if you want to rent a movie, but a lot of people like to own a movie.
 
benitok said:
4 Reasons why Blu-Ray will not die soon,

1. Telkom cap
2. Having a disc is better than storing Terabytes of data (movies)
3. What happens if your hard drive crashes, are you going to download all the movies again, see point 1.
4. Hope you have a good expensive back solution for all your movies


The only thing streaming movies are good for, is if you want to rent a movie, but a lot of people like to own a movie.
Click to expand...

1. That's purely an African/South Africa issue and if you look here you see how little we actually count
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/04/business/20080907-metrics-graphic.html
(NOTE: Blu-Ray would fall under "recreation". ouch.)
Besides it won't be an issue within 2 years. Seacom, Uhurunet, "Ivy's Vine", all these cables land next year with multiple bandwidth providers. You can already get uncapped, unshaped from Neotel for R470-R1000 a month.

2. You don't buy "downloads" you buy licenses. When my 250Gb drive is full I delete the c@rp I don't watch any more. When I want to watch it again I just redownload it.

3&4 Asked and answered above.
 
benitok said:
4 Reasons why Blu-Ray will not die soon,

1. Telkom cap
2. Having a disc is better than storing Terabytes of data (movies)
3. What happens if your hard drive crashes, are you going to download all the movies again, see point 1.
4. Hope you have a good expensive back solution for all your movies


The only thing streaming movies are good for, is if you want to rent a movie, but a lot of people like to own a movie.
Click to expand...

True about 1 and 2. What about if your BR disks are stolen, warped by humidity or sunlight or just decay. They are also prone to easy scratching,
more than DVD.
 
@benitok.

What Blu_ray wil not die because of telkom cap, come on in what age do you live,
so now some big companies oversees will hamper becasue a african company does not have internet cap at all, they do not care about us and this will happen.

Problem is you do not have to store terabytes of data, you buy say a tv show from Microsoft, watch it and then delete it, as you have now bought the licence for this, the next time you feel in the need to watch your favorate tv show, you just donwload
it, and as the pipes so much bigger oversees you get your show quickly.

3.4 are covered above as you don't need to keep it.

Yes SA is behind but in oversees countries it is not a problem at all.
 
benitok said:
4 Reasons why Blu-Ray will not die soon,

1. Telkom cap
2. Having a disc is better than storing Terabytes of data (movies)
3. What happens if your hard drive crashes, are you going to download all the movies again, see point 1.
4. Hope you have a good expensive back solution for all your movies


The only thing streaming movies are good for, is if you want to rent a movie, but a lot of people like to own a movie.
Click to expand...

You forget that the rest of the world doesn't have Telkom.
The decision makers doesnt have a bandwidth or cap problem and even with our issues Neotel is definitely making strides in that department.

I have about 1/2 TB movies/series etc stored on my HDD now and I have a 2nd HDD that I use for backups.
I am certain a solution will provide itself very soon - flash drives are becoming cheaper and cheaper.
 
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benitok said:
4 Reasons why Blu-Ray will not die soon,

1. Telkom cap
2. Having a disc is better than storing Terabytes of data (movies)
3. What happens if your hard drive crashes, are you going to download all the movies again, see point 1.
4. Hope you have a good expensive back solution for all your movies


The only thing streaming movies are good for, is if you want to rent a movie, but a lot of people like to own a movie.
Click to expand...

Agree,

Blu-ray vs DLC is the same as saying 1080p quality vs .mp4 quality,

All those who go out and buy a HD telly will want to watch full HD content.
All those who watch movies on there PC's using a CRT monitor will opt for DLC.
 
The blu might be dead by then and its easy to say cause new ideas and formats springs up every year. Also keep in mind that those guys are primarily thinking that by 2010++ everyone will be downlaoding the full hd movies rather than renting or buying. Guess even in SA we might be so lucky as to aford maybe one movie a month :P

I dunno why this would stir anything for a fanboy though. By then the new PS4 and Xbox 720? (prolly not the names) will arrive and PS4 will include the latest, greatest optical (other) format if any. Both consoles might not even include anything for physical media and just one or more huge HDDs for the downloads. Only time will tell and we can speculate as much as we want. So much and yet so little can happen in 4 years.
 
CHURCHILL said:
Agree,

Blu-ray vs DLC is the same as saying 1080p quality vs .mp4 quality,

All those who go out and buy a HD telly will want to watch full HD content.
All those who watch movies on there PC's using a CRT monitor will opt for DLC.
Click to expand...

More likely the dopes that wasted their money on Laserdisc will waste it on Blu-Ray too. ;)
 
PeterCH said:
True about 1 and 2. What about if your BR disks are stolen, warped by humidity or sunlight or just decay. They are also prone to easy scratching,
more than DVD.
Click to expand...

That only applies if you have a bly ray player in you car and if you park you car in the sun alot with your blu ray disk collection sitting on your back board next to the 6 by 9 speakers.;)
 
This isn't great flamebait, guess the joke would just be on people who invest in stand alone players, hahahahaha. Oh and the fanboys who keep punting blu-ray, hahahahaha!
 
been saying this for years now. Chances of me buying a blu-ray player... 10% and falling.
 
Achmat_Samsodien said:
This isn't great flamebait, guess the joke would just be on people who invest in stand alone players, hahahahaha. Oh and the fanboys who keep punting blu-ray, hahahahaha!
Click to expand...

At some point formats will change, are you laughing at everybody that bought VHS tapes as well, I mean really what were they thinking. DVD is still good, but at some point it will change to a new format, whether it's Blu-ray or something else.

Edit: I think there is room for downloads & hard copies, whether it's Blu-ray or something else. What are you going to do if you want to take a movie to a friends house to watch, are you going to unplug your Xbox360 or hard drive to take along?
 
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benitok said:
At some point formats will change, are you laughing at everybody that bought VHS tapes as well, I mean really what were they thinking. DVD is still good, but at some point it will change to a new format, whether it's Blu-ray or something else.

Edit: I think there is room for downloads & hard copies, whether it's Blu-ray or something else.
Click to expand...

Won't deny that it won't change and yes blu-ray as a storage medium is pretty good in terms of size I think the costs are putting people off the whole thing.
I love collecting games most of all and movies and cd's as sideline so for me there will always be a place for physical media. but like I done in previous gen, first ps2 then a stand-alone player.

Can't laugh at VHS dude that lasted for more that 10years, I remember recording K-TV on a sat morning on a tape I probably used 100times over, hahahaha. We seeing an everchanging market in technology compared to back then so I think I'll just pan out to see what format/media or whatever prevails.
 
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