Blu-ray interest rising, but slowly

We need people buying not just interested. Hard for companies to make money of they're just interested.

Remember, hi-def discs are an upgrade, not a brand new unknown novelty...

I think it's interesting that a now dead format was gaining so much ground - grabbing so much interest... And now we're like east German's after the wall went up.

No offence to Blu-ray but if you look at the graph closely, it actually says "HD Media" not just Blu-ray. Is this type of manipulation of data that drives the masses to make/take the wrong desicions. The title of the article shoud've been: "HD Media Interest rising..." not "Blu-ray interest rising...".

Just because HD-DVD production stopped it doesn't make it non-existent.

Quote:
No offence to Blu-ray but if you look at the graph closely, it actually says "HD Media" not just Blu-ray. Is this type of manipulation of data that drives the masses to make/take the wrong desicions. The title of the article shoud've been: "HD Media Interest rising..." not "Blu-ray interest rising...".

So what would be the "wrong decision" in this case (I mean, considering that Blu-ray is now the only HD format with any possible future)? For anyone to be interested in getting into hi-def media at all? Is that what you want to see happen as opposed to Blu-ray being the next big thing? Good God, I should hope you don't hate a format so blindly that you'd sacrifice HD altogether rather than see it succeed.

Quote:
Just because HD-DVD production stopped it doesn't make it non-existent.

Um...actually, by very definition, yes it does. LMAO How about "a few titles trickling into the marketplace between now and when HD DVD is completely and utterly abandoned at the retail level doesn't make it a viable format". That's one hell of a lot more realistic.

[Post edited by CroweDawg1121 on Mar 18, 2008]

To be quite honest the graph doesn't represent the market to date. After all 2006-2007 HD DVD was still around so it was included in the graph. With that said HD DVD was still around and a lot of people that I knew never got interested in the HD media market until Toshiba announced the end of HD DVD.

One last point which should be noted is that the DVD finalization happened in 1995, and to my recollection there was production of DVD's then as well. Although b/c of the format war comparing DVD to HD Media is more like comparing apples to oranges, a more accurate representation would be comparing DVD's 1997-1998 (The year DVD Forum was fully established and DVD started getting attention) and Blu-ray's 2008-2009 (The year when one HD Media was decided). Now if that comparison doesn't show the same growth rate then I would agree Sony is in trouble however I would suspect that it won't.

Unless more and more people start buying big screen TVs or projectors, it is hard to justify going HD. Currently, the majority that is buying Bluray is either enthusiasts or people with a real home theater setup. Honestly, a person with a 37 - 40 inch LCD TV, would not see any major improvement in picture quality while seated lets say 8 feet from the TV. Whether Bluray or a perfect DVD with a decent upconversion will look the same. Unless you have that extra "third vision" capability in your eye, you wouldnt notice any difference.
But, yes, if you have a 65 inch TV, it makes a big difference.

BluandProud said -

Quote:
"One last point which should be noted is that the DVD finalization happened in 1995, and to my recollection there was production of DVD's then as well."

I don't know if that timetable was true (Japan maybe?), but here in North America the first commercial DVD players and discs appeared in 1997 - us LaserDisc owners were particularly aware (and some resentful) of this new competing disc format.

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

FYI...

> Sony plans $110 million Investment in their Indiana Blu-ray Manufacturing Plant

Note: this is a major Sony Blu-ray replication plant, and the company has previously spent several hundreds of millions here on BD infrastructure and development costs.

From the last part of the linked report...

According to resolutions for tax abatements filed with the City Council, Sony has a new corporate name for its Terre Haute plant, formerly called Sony Digital Audio Disc Corp.

The new name is Sony DADC US Inc.

Sony's Terre Haute plant currently has 1,183 employees, with 888 hourly workers earning an average of $17.63 per hour, excluding benefits and overtime, plus 295 salaried positions with an average annual salary of $65,607, excluding benefits.

The total annual payroll for its more than 1,100 workers is $51.92 million. Adding the 65 new workers will add $2.82 million to Sony's annual payroll.

Of the estimated 65 new employees, 50 will be hourly permanent positions and 15 salaried permanent positions, according to Sony's filings with the City Council.

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

If it's just talking about HD Media interest, could that number include those that are interested in cable/satellite/OTA and downloads? Also, with people's limited understanding of HD Media, could that just be some people's interest in a flat screen tv, since a lot don't seem to understand that you need an HD input signal in order to get HD?