Blu-ray boycott?

[DARTH KNITE]

I was just wondering if I'm the only supporter here of those who are not at all interested in planned obsolescence and transferring our movies over again. I will gladly wait until Novermber for the DVD of Snow White, rather than purchase a Blu-ray/DVD combo. What are other people's thoughts? Do you even think those holding out will be effective?

[knittingknerd]

I'm so late on technology that it's not a boycott, but a "I don't need to be high tech." My DVD player is a combo DVD/VCR, which I think is at least 4 years old. I don't need fanciness.

[OC2Epcot]

I was holding off on getting a Blu-ray, but since my wife has agreed to buy a plasma screen and mount it, along with getting a cabinet built in ... I may want to get one just to have the system complete and setup properly with all the HD components.

[Barbossa]

I'm holding off on Blu. I can't afford the equipment right now. To me DVD is still good. I also feel that I wouldn't utilize a lot of the features on a Blu-Ray. Seriously, who does live chat while the movie is playing? That's like an idiot texting while driving a car. Come on people, like Bill shatner once said, get a life!

I may upgrade when a new format comes out that will replace Blu, and I believe that will probably be Solid State. The picture and sound should be even better as there won't be any mechanical parts in the players. And, the physical size of the media should be smaller than the size of a DVD or Blu-Ray case, so they won't take up as much room.

I am getting my first Blu-Ray disc in the mail though. It was the free birthday movie offer thru Disney Movie Rewards. I picked National Treasure, but it's just going to sit on my bookshelf for the time being.

I'm really not sure why Disney is pushing the format so much, especially now when there's a lot of people out of work and can't afford new tech, like me.

I just saw this in the Wiki page for Betamax and got a good laugh from it:

Another episode of The Simpsons, shows a garbage dump, and depicts a space for "BETA", another with the legend "VHS", and a last one space says "Reserved for DVD".

I wonder if there is a spot at that garbage dump reserved for Blu-Ray yet?

[Race Runner]

I'm a supporter of blue ray, I have a ps3 which I can play them on. A lot better than regular dvds, if you have an hd tv. Right now, in no ways should blue rays take over dvds. The equiptment for it, is just way too expensive. I think it should just be a luxary for right now

[Gone2Disneyland]

I got my PS3 about a year ago and my HDTV about three months after that. And they're hooked up to my ten-year old Surround Sound system. But the picture quality watching Blu-ray Discs is a clear step up from watching standard definition DVDs. I definitely spoiled myself! I never realized I'd be selling many of my old DVDs for trade in value to upgrade them to Blu-rays, but when I see the difference, I can't help but want to own or at least watch the better quality version.

I've hosted a handful of movie nights for friends at my place, and so now they understand the PQ difference too. One couple got a PS3 to pair with her dad's flatscreen TV Christmas gift while another couple recently bought their flatscreen. It was a 37" HDTV with built-in DVD player on sale for $400 at Sears. My HDTV I bought a year ago was $1000 more, so prices are dropping dramatically. Plus, those friends are probably hoping to add the new, less-expensive Slim PS3 for Christmas, so they can enjoy high def at home like the rest of us. But for now, they've upgraded their cable to HD reception.

As to why Disney is pushing Blu-ray, here's a 2007 editorial from The Digital Bits, back when there were still this "HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray war". The studios have been complaining about the piracy market, including adding all those FBI warnings and for a short period of time, fancy commercials at the start of DVDs. It's a long piece, but in the middle of it is this point:

Let's look at the studio support side. HD-DVD has just one major exclusive studio supporter: Universal. Blu-ray has FIVE exclusive studios: Disney, Fox, MGM, Lionsgate and Sony. Which exclusive group do you think is more likely to go format neutral first? (FYI, the other major studios - Warner, Paramount, DreamWorks - already support both formats, and New Line has indicated that they'll likely do the same.) For better or worse, one of the reasons some of these studios sided with Blu-ray exclusively is because that format offers them an additional layer of content protection: BD+

So security from duplication is one apparent reason. Another must be the simple existence of HDTVs for sale. If they're made to display high resolution images, they must've put together a plan years ago with the developers of Blu-ray to pitch to the studios and said, "Hey, we're gonna make and sell HDTVs and Blu-ray Discs gives you better protection from piracy. Wanna lend your support?"

I guess my point is if you can, you will. If you can't, it's fine too. But Disney and the rest of the studios don't seem to be holding back on producing new Blu-day titles in the near future.

[mycroft16]

I was just wondering if I'm the only supporter here of those who are not at all interested in planned obsolescence and transferring our movies over again.

This is a myth. Blu-ray players are backwards compatible. In other words, ANY Blu-ray player will play ALL of your current DVD library. You don't have to throw them out and buy Blu-rays of them. You just pop a DVD into the Blu-ray player and voila! The quality will be lesser simply because DVD does not store the same amount of data as a Blu-ray disc, but you do not have to throw them out and upgrade them. Keep your DVDs. This is actually one of the many pros about Blu-ray.

I will gladly wait until Novermber for the DVD of Snow White, rather than purchase a Blu-ray/DVD combo. What are other people's thoughts? Do you even think those holding out will be effective?

Holding out against superior technology has, more often than not, failed miserably. The recording industry would have you belive that it is fighting piracy, but really it is fighting the mp3 format in general. And losing. They are going to fight themselves completely out of business and off the map. Superior technology gets adopted by the people, and Blu-ray is vastly superior to DVD. It holds vastly more data than DVD and can therefore reproduce movies at a full 1080p resolution. It can hold many more interactive features as well as make use of BD live software to download features and make purchases directly from the DVD itself opening huge marketing doors.

Yeah, it's expensive right now, though not any more so than DVD was when it appeared on the market. By January it will be significantly cheaper. I am buying the Blu-ray of Snow White in October (already pre-ordered). It comes with a DVD so that those who haven't bought a Blu-ray yet can still watch it and when they upgrade to a Blu-ray player, they'll own the Blu-ray disc. It isn't any more expensive than pre-ordering Disney Platinum DVDs has been either. So it is a good deal.

Cheap players can be found at Best Buy and Walmart for about $130 - $150. Given a few months, this will drop even more. Don't fight this technological change, it is for the better and you don't have to get rid of a single DVD

[sir clinksalot]

I've been a holdout on Blu for awhile. I bought an HD-DVD player when they were $100 just as an up-converting player and I did buy some HD-DVD's. Since our TV is only 720p we don't see THAT big of a difference though.

We did get some Blu-Rays through the "Red to Blu" exchange program that WB was having (you could get the Blu-Ray's for $5 if you sent in the covers for the HD-DVD's).

Honestly, the only way that Blu is going to take off is if the price comes down, it's available on players other than components (car players, computers, etc) and it would REALLY help if companies would allow an exchange program for the DVD's to upgrade to Blu. Say $10 per DVD towards the cost of the Blu disc. But of course, they aren't going to do that.

[caesarboxfan]

Honestly, the only way that Blu is going to take off is if the price comes down, it's available on players other than components (car players, computers, etc) and it would REALLY help if companies would allow an exchange program for the DVD's to upgrade to Blu. Say $10 per DVD towards the cost of the Blu disc. But of course, they aren't going to do that.

That's what happened after the VHS to DVD switch. DVD never really took off until the price of the player went down.

[mycroft16]

Honestly, the only way that Blu is going to take off is if the price comes down, it's available on players other than components (car players, computers, etc) and it would REALLY help if companies would allow an exchange program for the DVD's to upgrade to Blu. Say $10 per DVD towards the cost of the Blu disc. But of course, they aren't going to do that.

Once again you don't have to upgrade your DVDs to Bluray discs. Bluray players play DVDs at regular DVD resolutions. It's just like having a DVD player, except it also plays the much better Bluray format.

VHS to DVD was a switch from Analog to Digital formats. They simply couldn't do backward compatability with that type of switch even if they wanted to. DVD to Bluray is Digital -> Better Digital. Easy to do backward compatibility.

The prices will drop, don't worry about that, and it will probably be within the next 4 - 6 months. When CDs first came out, the players were really expensive to manufacture (new very tiny lasers, smaller precision optics, etc. It didn't take them too long to find better and cheaper ways to manufacture the parts. The same thing happened with DVD players. Multi-focus optics capable of reading multiple layers, etc. But then they found cheaper ways to do it and the prices came down. It will happen again with Bluray players. It isn't cheap to manufacture blue laser diodes yet, but there have been several recent breakthroughs in the field of lasers that should begin to make it to market soon. Prices will fall soon. They already have. When Bluray first hit markets it was $400 for a standard player. Now you can get them for $150. They will continue to fall.

The reason people had to trade in their HD-DVDs for Blu-ray was because the encoding formats were totally different. Both were high def formats but Blu-ray won the battle for public acceptance. You don't have to trade DVDs in for Blu-ray discs unless you want the full 1080p resolution that Blu-ray offers. DVD only goes up to 480i.

IMPORTANT POINTS:

• Blu-ray players will play your current DVD library. You don't have to upgrade your DVDs for Blu-ray discs.
• Blu-ray.com - Blu-ray FAQ

[All4dISNEY]

We went BluRay the day it released and haven't looked back since. There is no disputing the picture quality difference.

[mickhyperion]

In order for investing in Blu-Ray to make any sense, you have to have a widescreen HD television. Watching Blu-Ray on a standard definition TV is no improvement over watching a DVD. So until most people can afford the $700-1000 minimum it takes to buy a new HD television just to enjoy sharper resolution, I don't think there will be a widespread jump into Blu-Ray.

By the time a majority of people have bought high definition TV's, all of the other HD options including online downloads for rent and purchase, on demand, etc. will be such competition for the Blu-Ray format that I think it will have a difficult time dominating the market, even then.

[Flickering Bulb]

we got the plasma and blu ray last year and love it! blu ray is definitely far more superior than dvd. right off the bat we bought 3 blu ray movies, Wall.E, The Dark Knight, and Cars. those movies are amazing on blu ray! won't be going back to dvd at all : )

[justjohn]

I you own a large HDTV and do not use BR, you've thrown your money out the window. The difference isn't minor, it is a world apart from DVD.

[mycroft16]

In order for investing in Blu-Ray to make any sense, you have to have a widescreen HD television. Watching Blu-Ray on a standard definition TV is no improvement over watching a DVD.

This is true... in order to enjoy the full quality of the blu-ray disc a HD capable tv (preferably one that goes to a full 1080p) is required.

However, this is on the only benefit to blu-ray. Blu-ray discs last much longer than DVDs thanks to a very hard coat protective layer. They resist scratches and other damage much better.

TV prices are falling as well. It is now possible to get a decent 42" 1080p capabe flat panel tv for $600. Sure there are better for much more, but prices are continuing to fall. Especially as manufacturers are beginning to look at the newer significantly better OLED technology emerging. (OLED is insanely expensive.) Places like WalMart and Best Buy routinely have pretty decent sales and deals on really nice tvs.

Yes an upgrade to full HD capability is a bit of an investment right now. But prices will continue to fall and I don't think online downloadable content will be a competitor until studios and lawmakers has out new copyright laws. Nothing will ever beat actually owning the content. With downloadable plans, they are rentals.