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.

OH HUM. I listen to the got have the latest ...Even before it's out.
How perfect is perfect. I still enjoy 78 rpm records (scratching and all). Life is too short to get your fur up.

Sony seems to be in the same rut as was with Beta. Quality but always too expensive. when they come round it is always too late.
Got to be faster on your feet Sony. The problem with HD storage for video, is what happens when it packs in ?

Rae 79 years young

I like Blu-Ray, but it IS costly. I don't have a stand-alone Blu-Ray disc player, however; I own a PlayStation 3. The PS3's games are all Blu-Ray discs, and it also plays Blu-Ray movies.

I use the one HDTV we have in the house, and I have the necessary cables for it to be in HD; I can tell the difference between standard definition and high definition. It's a BIG jump.

Blu-Ray discs also can hold more material than the others.

Maybe the price will go down in the future.

Totally agreed on everything, except the "disc is dead" idea. I think having a physical product that will last your entire lifetime is a big plus. And hey, no physical product, no resale ability. That's pretty much the beginning of the end of "property". I only buy download-only products if there is NO other way.

Also, DVD offers nearly any movie you could name, and most at a fraction of the cost of the new, shiny, Blu-Ray counterpart. There is a very limited variety of movies available on Blu-Ray. They are more expensive to produce and many smaller companies will stick with DVD indefinitely. Some movies don't even warrant the small jump in quality, at least not for the price, and DVD will always be there to provide. Let's face it, who needs "Weekend at Bernie's" on Blu-Ray anyway?

DVD will always be there, alongside Blu-Ray and perhaps past Blu-Ray's end.

I enjoy a good High Def movie just like most anyone else, but the difference between an upscaled DVD and Blueray is just not noticeable enough to pay the difference in price, both for the player and the disc. The one place that Blueray has an appeal, however, is data storage. I like backing up my hard drive often, and I like having 2 seperate copies in seperate places so my pictures wont succumb to fires, theft etc. plus downloaded games like battlefield, crysis etc. are getting larger, so Blueray has a nice appeal for cutting down the number of discs needed to be burned. So for my computer, yes. For my TV, no.

Valid comments. Personally, i have a 42" Panasonic plasma HDTV connected to a Panasonic Blu-ray player and i must say that the documentary style disks like Baraka, and IMAX nature and science films look stunning in Blu-ray.I think these types of films really show off Blu-ray.On the regular type of movie, it's really not something that i believe is worth paying more for.I do hope Blu-ray survives as i do believe in pride of ownership, and as was mentioned,i wouldn't want my movies on a hard drive to be wiped out in a flash, the same goes for my music collection.I generally pay in the neighborhood of $20 for a Blu-ray disk,and will wait till a title i am interested comes down in price, no $27-30 disks for me.

Having seen the difference between Blu-ray and standard DVD on a large Sony LCDTV set up for the comparison, I cannot see how you say there is little difference - it's as big as the difference between VHS and S-Video inputs!

In a country where my bandwidth is limited to 2GB per month, downloading is not an option - neither would I want to even if I had the bandwidth. Blu-ray will have to come down an awfully long way for me to buy - $40 a disk is too rich for me!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Well that's the key... they compared to standard DVD, not upsampled DVD.

I'll agree that Blu-ray is expensive, but we've seen the prices on players drop dramatically, and prices on the disks are also likely to follow suit as more people start buying them, and since all new TV's are HDTV's, Blu-ray sales will almost certainly pick up as people replace their older sets. Blu-ray disks probably won't ever be as cheap as standard DVD, but why should they? They have better video quality--I can see the difference between a Blu-ray and an upscanned standard DVD, and I only have a 720p HDTV. I suspect that the difference is even more pronounced on the newer 1080p HDTV's. And you haven't even touched on the superior sound. I have a top-notch surround sound system, and the sound quality on the Blu-ray disks is amazing.

As for disks being dead, what about those of us who like to watch our favorite movies again and again over the years? Or take a movie on the plane or in a car with a portable player (or notebook computer) to help pass the time on trips? With a disk, those things are not a problem. Internet delivery can't offer those advantages. I'm sure disks will eventually be replaced by something else some day, but that day isn't coming anytime soon. There are just too many things that internet delivery can't do yet, especially in places where truly high speed service just isn't readily available.

Blu Ray is not just 10-20 dollars more per disk - in our area the cost is ridiculous. An old movie in the $5.00 pile at Wal Mart is 35-50.00 in Blu Ray. When I look at Blu Ray I don't see the difference, either. Beta Max died and VCR stayed because of cost. So will Blu Ray.

Just some thoughts
1)Bluray disk are reported to be more stable than CD/DVD so as backup maybe better.
2)The problem with VOD is that it costs per view (or per day or subscription). If you are patient you can buy the movie (DVD) ex-rental for little more than 2 viewings and you get to keep it and watch as often as you like. (Or wait 'til the film is in the bargain section)

Personally, I'm extremely tired of being told that my entire movie collection will have to be re-purchased on Blu-Ray. The reasons for switching to DVD from VHS were many and obvious. I've heard no compelling arguments for moving to Blu-Ray. I'm not chasing the "latest" thing this time! I'd have to be nuts! I am certain that if I re-bought everything on BR, they too would (very) soon fall into extinction...