PC WORLD asks: Why doesn't anyone want a Blu-ray player?

let Bluray be a niche market. For those of us who wont tolerate the heavy compression that DBS and on demand movies have Bluray is the way to go. I paid premiums for laserdisc back in the day and no one considered it a failure. LD was a niche , and VHS was for the masses. Digital download is convenient and has its place.

This being an enthusiast site I would have expected the tech aspects to had been mentioned. Shame , Shame...

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I still don't own a BD player. Why? The price is way to high.

Ironbull,

How much did you pay for your high-definition TV? You can get a BD player these days for under $200. And if you wait a few weeks after their initial release, most Blu-ray discs are under $20 (or rentals that are equally cheap)--for picture and sound markedly superior to DVD and to high-def cable or satellite broadcasts.

If a person already has an HD television, it seems like a no-brainer to me. Why waste an HD TV feeding it inferior material?

John

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[Post edited by John J. Puccio on Jun 23, 2009 - CDT 8:18 PM]

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On Sept. 8, Warner and its distributed label New Line Home Entertainment will unleash about a dozen $28.99 Blu-ray theatricals, including Snakes On a Plane, Catwoman, Creepshow, Dead Calm, Freddy vs. Jason, Friday and Menace II Society. Others on that date, at the same pricing, include Sphere, Over the Top, The Postman, Set It Off and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.


Let's see, I own a good remastered copy of "Dead calm" now. Do I want to spend $28.99 for a Blue version ........................... I think not. Bladerunner1 is correct IMO, another Sony fiasco.............. it's a shame.

John

John,

Don't forget...some people like to cut the HDMI cable to spite their HDTVs.

I don't know if you guys are teasing or not. But...are you seriously suggesting that Blu-ray discs are not superior to DVDs and are not worth the few extra dollars for BD movies? If so, I obviously disagree. It's painful for me to watch a movie in standard definition anymore. But if you can't tell the difference, for whatever reason (poor equipment, poor eyesight, sitting too far from the television, whatever), then I guess you are free to waste your HD television on SD material or so many of those awful, so-called HD cable and satellite broadcasts. Seems a shame, though, like buying a Ferrari and never driving it. Oh, well....

John

I think they may be John. For the most part we all want better picture and sound, but at our own price, Not on Sony's terms. This is part fo the problem when you have a group like the BDA. Inconsistent, and unorganized crap at the consumers expense. The average joe is, to be brutally honest with you is looking for conveniece at all costs. He or she can't be bothered with looking around just to find the Hi Def version of a movie in a busy rental store. The price niche has also warned customers off, and now with all of the legacy issues with firmware and playback problems, no wonder Blu isn't exactly flying off the shelves. For those like ourselves who grasp some for of tech background this stuff is easy, but to most they feel that they have to have a PHD in electronics. That is no joke. The BDA and the whole blu launch should have died 1.5 years ago, but it didn't. Now consumers for the most part are dead set on buying a player, or the other half is completely lost. Just like that little old lady and her new digital TV serive...

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I don't know if you guys are teasing or not. But...are you seriously suggesting that Blu-ray discs are not superior to DVDs and are not worth the few extra dollars for BD movies?

all (i think?) we are saying is that the studios are giving us sh*t movies (for the most part) at stupid prices. i am not interested in any of the titles that warner plans on releasing and i don't think i am alone here. the same thing happened with sony's failed umd format, the studios flooded the market with sh*t movies at crazy prices that nobody wanted and in effect killed that format alltogether, and the exact same thing is happening all over again.

somebody also mentioned sony's crap advertisement or lack of alltogether. well..that company is on the verge of bankruptcy....probably over blu-ray .(logical guess) and the complete and utter failure of the psp and now it seems, the ps3. (not to mention the corrupt behavior of the company itself, of which has turned off many by its "smugness.")

somebody also mentioned that we havent talked about the specs of blu-ray. dude..check past threads. we have beat this topic into the ground.

look, i love high def. video. however i am also a realist and i don't really want to invest alot of money into another failed format as i did with hd-dvd. i don't want to go through what i did with THAT format ever again...paying $300 bucks for a player and $30 bucks a flick only to see it crash and burn 6 months later at the feet of a flawed and unfinished product of which WAS blu-ray. i'm weary this time fellas, and by judging by what warner has on tap, and zero mention of the movies that we all really want entering year 3 of this format,add the stale economy into the mix, and i will not be surprised at all when i read, "warner decides to drop blu-ray format." (with more studios to follow.)

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paying $300 bucks for a player and $30 bucks a flick only to see it crash and burn 6 months later

Blade,

Your exaggerations probably don't help your case.

You can get a great Panasonic player at Costco for $230, a Sharp for $199, and a Funai clone for even less (ask Eddie for details). The cost of Blu-ray discs is significantly cheaper than $30 if you wait a week or two after a release (usually in the under $20 range) or buy it used. And I doubt that BD is going away in six months. There is no format war, and every major studio has bought into it, investing huge amounts of money. They're not about to give it up now.

Besides, "Lord of the Rings" is coming from New Line (WB), and "Braveheart" and "Gladiator" are coming from Paramount/DreamWorks, along with "The Wizard of Oz" and probably the "Indy" films. And since when are the "Godfather" movies or "Batman" or "2001" or "Cars" or "The Chronicles of Narnia" or the Bond films or "Dr. Strangelove" or the "Potter" films or "The Shawshank Redemption" or hundreds of other currently available films I could name on BD crap?

John

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Your exaggerations probably don't help your case.

i wasn't trying to make a case for anything. everything that i wrote about my expierience with hd-dvd was indeed true. as much as all the computer people want to believe that EVERYONE are computer people and shop online, that is simply not the case. sure, yes, you can get quite a few bd titles at good prices at the ol' brick and mortar (where the majority still shop) but the quality of these titles may vary leading to people feeling burned. in my neck of the woods the prices of new release bd's run the same gambit as sd's of which they are about $4-5 bucks cheaper the first week of release and then jump upto $30 and stay that way for more than 2 weeks.

as far as the players go, well you read the article. is it a fabrication on pc worlds part? what is YOUR opinion on the state of bd at this point? do you think it's going to penetrate into the mass market, or remain a niche product?

as for the movies you mentioned that are coming out i am only interested in owning 3. however i am not all that interested in those 3 because we are dealing with 50gb discs here that should hold the theatrical and extended cuts of the movies! (once again, one may feel burned by this stupidity, now looking in mirror)

regarding the facebook thing..i'm not sure what happened to my message for i was multitasking that night while drinking fine wine. i'm sure it was nice or honery whatever it was.

"I know thats only a specific part of the massive organisation but come on... I never see ANY ads for blu ray, ps3, even their tv's!"

You know I just thought about that the other day. There used to be tons of blu-ray ads all over the place. I remember being bombarded by Pirates of the Carribean blu commercials everytime I walked into best buy or seing tons of other promo shots at least once a day on tv. Now it seems like I hardly ever see any ads. It seems Disney has grown somewhat quiet toward the format compared to their marketing from prior times. Even the best buy displays that used to run ads front and center have replaced the blu ads with hdx vudu commercials. I think bluray has found its niche and I'm happy with that. Unfortunately for Sony that will probably not be enough to recoup all that they have lost to push the format. The economic downturn could not have happened at a worse time for the bda and I think the window of opportunity to reach mass adoption has already passed. I'm still going to enjoy my hd movies though regardless of what format it is in but I do wish Sony had put a little more thought into their plans since they wanted to run the show so badly.