Re: Blu-ray may die off as well

I have no doubt that Blu-ray will survive. However, I highly doubt they will copy DVDs success and I doubt that DVD will go away anytime soon. The average Joe values price and convenience over quality and has more options to get their movie fix than ever.

Blu-ray will also be more than the next-generation laserdisc it will be somewhere in between. And as someone said, as long as I can get my favorite movies on Blu-ray isn't that what counts for the movie fan? It is kinda like Seinfeld's joke about Mc Donalds showing off how many burgers they have sold. Quantity does not always equal quality.

Now, lets start enjoying some movies.

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A [good] compilation of music is like a movie: not only is it given a title as a whole, it is intended to be experienced from beginning to end.

And how many albums fit that category today? The fact that there might be 1 or 2 wonder hits on a new $20 CD provides extra incentive to download instead of collect. This factor along with file size, the inability for most young listeners to tell the difference in quality with low bitrate MP3s, that portability and playback device really don't affect that quality (as would playing a movie on your cell phone), the sheer choice of illegal easily accessed material, etc. all contribute to music downloads eating away at CD sales.

The only CD music stores in our city that aren't surviving by keeping half their stock in DVD movies are specialty stores - like one we have downtown with a floor filled with nothing but Jazz, and upstairs nothing but Classical. That place is always filled with people.

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Here's what may be the next big thing in HD... 1440p resolution/content

You mean Ultra HD, it provides a video resolution containing 16 times as many pixels as current HD. Whereas HDTV uses 1,080 lines of resolution, ultra HD contains 4,320. Ultra HD uses 7,680 x 4,320 pixels in a widescreen aspect ratio of 16x9, making for a total of approximately 33 million pixels (33 megapixels). Also Ultra HD also offers improved sound quality: a 22.2 channel sound system reproduces 24 different channels of audio in three vertical layers of speakers, compared to currently available surround sound systems that use 5 or 6 channels.

But it is still at the concept stage, it will likely not be available to the public for some years.

But isn't it available Tuesday on Blu-ray?

what has to be kept in mind we all said cd was going to last forever, but has time goes by digital downloads are slowly taking over cds. I believe this will happen within the next five years for movies too. There will still be market for a physical copy of movie but this will generally apply to movie buffs. The general population will take up movie downloads because most people look for convenience over going to shop and buying a movie. There many people who are downloading movies on the net they do not care if the quality is not a1 has long as they see the movie. The friends i talk too can't even tell the difference between standard definition and hi definition. So if there is a option to buy a movie download for 10 dollars or 25 dollars for a blu ray copy i know which copy the general market will chose.

[Post edited by trigun74 on Feb 22, 2008]

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what has to be kept in mind we all said cd was going to last forever, but has time goes by digital downloads are slowly taking over cds. I believe this will happen within the next five years for movies too. There will still be market for a physical copy of movie but this will generally apply to movie buffs. The general population will take up movie downloads because most people look for convenience over going to shop and buying a movie. There many people who are downloading movies on the net they do not care if the quality is not a1 has long as they see the movie. The friends i talk too can't even tell the difference between standard definition and hi definition. So if there is a option to buy a movie download for 10 dollars or 25 dollars for a blu ray copy i know which copy the general market will chose.

While that may become the sad reality for the majority of the people, I do believe that there will always be a market for people who care about audio/video quality and who would rather buy a movie in a packaged form. I would definitely fall into that category.

Try telling an audiophile that he cannot get his SACD release of the newest Peter Gabriel album, and that his only option would be to download it as a 320kb/s (best case scenario) MP3 from Itunes, and he'd tell you to go to hell. Well, the same would apply to videophiles as well.

If someone told me that if I wanted to download Star Wars (episode IV) from somewhere online and the best quality I could get would be 720p at a 6Mbps video bitrate and only DD5.1 audio, while the same movie is available on Blu-ray in 1080p at a 30Mbps video bitrate and 7.1 PCM audio, I would not hesitate for a moment to go out and buy the movie on Blu-ray. See I believe that the option will always be there for people like me to get the best possible version of a movie which in this case would be on Blu-ray. Offering it as downloadable content will always be an alternative to owning a hard copy of a movie or an album.

Downloads have the hightest chance because of TiVo. I've heard it's easy to use and easy to understand. I don't see why you can't pay a little more to see any movie you want with the use of a different TiVo machine.

I have no doubt that downloads will become important, just as iTunes did, but again, I want my shiny disc to show it off...

I think downloads and Blu-Ray could co-exist. But you also have to factor in the fact that standard DVDs probably aren't going anywhere... something's gotta give. My guess is BR would win out over downloads.

They can co-exist, in the same way disc buying and renting co-exist today. For a collector of movies, downloads are not a viable option. If you don't care to own movies, and just want to see them in HD, then absolutely, downloads are the way to go.

I just hope that wide screen DVDs win the war against full screen DVDs soon.