Five Reasons Blu-Ray Will Fail - Comments Page 1

I have no plans to buy Blue Ray for reasons 1 & 2 as you have listed here. The main reason I switched from VHS to DVD is because of the great features you get in DVD, not necessarily the quality.

One more factor: redbox.com - for the in-betweeners, there's the vendor boxes *or* the online/netflix option - the dollar-a-day rental fee is too good for the kids [kids' parents] to pass up.

Another: after having converted the wedding vhs and other cherished items to DVD, and after having several computers with self-contained DVD burners...and switching taping the program to DVD-burning and TiVo...

Technology has already clearly taken DVD to such convenience level that Sony, in privatizing and domain-prioritizing its product, has rendered it obsolete before deboxing...much like the UMD became obsolete when it was realized that the movies would only play on a 4" screen...and would not work with anything other than the PSP.

Oh, wait, that is another Sony product...is there a pattern that I'm missing?

Bob, you hit the nail on the head! Bluray is the Sony Betamax of this generation-overpriced and unnecesary. I agree that the disk is dead. With huge hard drives cheap and affordable and solid state drives getting larger everyday, Bluray and disks are doomed! Economics are always the driving factor. With high unemploment rates and who knows what our tax rates will be to cover all the TARP bailouts, car companies and socilized healthcare! The average American is barely getting by!

I have no plans to buy Blue Ray for reasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & RedBox as you (& another) have listed here. If no one is doing it, I believe it is a good time to continue the manufacture of DVD players. After all ... THE DEMAND IS THERE!! for DVD NOT Bluray

We buy Blue Ray for our clients and upgrades for $89 to $93... We have not seen a $200 Blueray in a long, long time.
I suspect they will get down to $50 then level off... that will make them affordable...
But I agree there is not much use for them, compared to regular DVD for most users. Very handy for advanced photography and videocam though.

A commercially produced disc, well cared for, has a greater lifespan than the hard drive you're saving those digital downloads on. Or the discs you're burning, for that matter. Not that most people actually take good care of their discs (or phonograph records before them). Or think in the long term.

Yes, I buy downloads from Amazon occasionally, and I view them on my HDTV, but I'd hate to see physical discs go away. I'm pretty selective about the DVDs I buy and I wouldn't like to lose my collection to a hard drive failure. (And don't assume that those downloads will always be available--rights expire and aren't necessarily picked up.)

I've never been an early adopter, because I never liked paying the price. If Blu-Ray survives long enough for its prices to drop to more reasonable levels I'll go Blu-Ray. After all, while DVD players, burners and discs are cheap now, that wasn't always the case.

I still collect records BTW.

Good argument.
For me the blue thing has been a big yawn.
I can't remember the last time I watched content via spinning disk!
VOD and PPV are the rule in my life.

I'll get a blue ray player only if a future computer I buy happens to come with one installed. Odds are poor, as I tend to evaluate speed and price, and blue ray won't be cheap.

In addition to the online reasons you mention, a USB stick can be cheaper and faster than a Blueray disk.

The only reason for Blueray, that I can see, is for the movie companies to have continued copyright protection. I personally don't care if the big movie companies go out of business, as they have been bilking consumers and forcing Digital Rights Management upon us.

Soon it will be easy to get a Blu-Ray disc reader *in your laptop* and self-contained Blu-Ray players for travel, and the DVD format for movies will be coughing like Camille. Why? Point-by-point response to your reasons:

1. You don't see the difference. You are probably over 50. The average consumer isn't.

2. Money. There's a Blu-Ray player available at Sam's Club for $199 *including HDMI cable*. As more people buy, the price will continue to go down. Discs will decrease in cost, too, and until they do, there's always rentals.

3. More people will be buying HD TVs. Even the small ones look better than regular TVs. Again, you probably don't see the big deal because you're older than the average consumer.

4. The disc will be dead when everyone has high-volume pipes coming to their homes. Which will be...a long time from now. Lots of people don't, whether it's because their local cable company sucks, or they live in the sticks, or they're one of 427 people on the same link. And that's just the US. Some countries have access through the government or monopolies that still charge by the byte and have very limited bandwidth regardless. Unless these consumers want to start your download today and see the movie tomorrow, movie downloading won't solve this problem.

5. The internet -- same problem with "the disc is dead." Only for people who have a big pipe to their houses.

I usually latch onto the newest tech gadget but Blu-Ray doesn't interest me at all. Besides the cost, the whole idea of having movie definition any sharper than in DVD smacks of gobbledygook. Just how sensitive are your eyes? I agree with Ralph: we're looking at Betamax 2009 here.