Blu-ray may die off as well

http://www.current.com.au/2008/02/20/article/HXGEAZOXNF.html

Toshiba is putting the blame on downloads!? :

I would rather have disc media than digital downloads take over but it could happen. As an HD-DVD supporter I'm upset about what has happened but I would rather have Blu-ray win against digital downloads.

Don't believe everything you read on the web. Don't worry Blu ray has a brite future ahead of it because of people like you and me.

After all of this fighting over HD DVD vs. Blu Ray, now that a side has won, everyone wants to talk about downloads. DOWNLOADS WILL NOT WIN OVER DISCS. Until the sound and video quality can be equal to discs with all of the same features as discs, and until storage devices exist that can handle massive collections of movies, downloads are not a realistic option, unless you have no intention of buying movies anyway. And if you'd rather download or rent, than you're not the market for BUYING discs anyway, so that demographic doesn't matter in terms of disc sales.

Blu-ray will last until the next thing comes along. Perhaps until those holographic cube thingies I saw on some movie. What movie was that again?

In all seriousness, VOD and downloads will more affect the rental market eventually when the infrastructure is in place to bring it to the majority of people for comparable prices and HD quality. We Westerners are pretty darn lazy. Why walk, err I mean DRIVE to the video store to rent when you can download or call up an instant VOD rental for only $1 more? And no risk of late fees either!

But I think for the foreseeable future, such offerings will not affect actual sales of HDM.

Skyhawk, My cable bill gave me a nose bleed because not only was I ordering HD movies but the wife and the kids was doing it as well. For now on it's NetFLIX. No more VoDs at 5 bucks a pop.

Well downloads may be faster and better in a couple of years. I don't expect mass adoption of Blu-ray in a long time. Even if downloads do become better I would rather physically own my movies. At first I believed chances of HDM going mainstream were ruined now that HD-DVD is dead, but hopefully other companies in the BDA will drop the prices on their finished units. All standalone players should cost less than the PS3. I just have this feeling that $ony is forcing the other companies to charge more. Hopefully Panasonic will give $ony some hell, I know they have been rivals for along time. IMHO Panasonic is a much better company.

Even if HD downloads do catch on with the masses, and who knows when that'll be (not anytime soon that's for sure) most companies that offer them will compress the hell out of the video and offer it at 720p/1080i and only include DD 5.1 audio tracks and probably no special features. So, to that I say, NO THANKS!

I will always want an actual hard copy of a movie in a nice case with inserts because I'm a collector. I also want a beautiful 1080p picture with full lossless audio, both in high bitrates. I consider myself a teckie, yet I don't like downloads and I feel many if not most of the people out there would concur with me.

So, to anyone who thinks that downloads will overtake Blu-ray (hi-def packaged media) in the next 5 or even 10 years, I say you're fooling yourself. Maybe in the next generation, and even then it's unlikely.

Let's put it this way: if MP3 downloads such as iTunes and P2P have not killed the CD what makes Toshiba, Apple, Microsoft, and others think that HD movie downloads will kill the DVD (HD and SD)? They are crazy. lol

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Let's put it this way: if MP3 downloads such as iTunes and P2P have not killed the CD

The CD isn't dead but it'll never be what it once was. I know people that haven't bought a hard copy of album in over two years. Do I think Blu-Ray will be successful? Yes, do I think it will attain the success of DVD? That's debatable, over the last several years the market seems to skew more to convenience then quality. So while we might all rip digital downloads for their low quality. The average person might not care. I know I personally can't stand to listen to MP3's on anything other then headphones but I know some people who hook their Ipod's up to there home stereo systems.

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The CD isn't dead but it'll never be what it once was. I know people that haven't bought a hard copy of album in over two years. Do I think Blu-Ray will be successful? Yes, do I think it will attain the success of DVD? That's debatable, over the last several years the market seems to skew more to convenience then quality. So while we might all rip digital downloads for their low quality. The average person might not care. I know I personally can't stand to listen to MP3's on anything other then headphones but I know some people who hook their Ipod's up to there home stereo systems.

While I agree that unfortunately too many people settle for the convenience of having low quality MP3's that they can carry around and transfer from computer to MP3 player and vice versa, I believe that there will always be a market for people who prefer quality over convenience. For as long as I live, I will always fall into that latter category.

Currently I myself am sort of forced to listed to 320kb/s (notice they're still the highest bitrate) quality MP3's due to the capacity limitation of my 80GB Zune player and having way to many albums to fit as wave audio or WMA lossless, but as soon as much larger capacity drives will be available in an MP3 player that I actually like (such as the Zune), then I will rip all of my music into one of the lossless formats. Perhaps into FLAC. Notice that by having the actual disc of an album, I am afforded a choice in the future to re-rip the music into another format.

[Post edited by gvortex7 on Feb 21, 2008]