DVD and Blu-Ray

so anybody else worried that dvds are going to be phased out and blue ray will become the new standard? its' kind of annoying, especially since i just really started collecting dvds , oh and that you can only tell the difference if you have a 1080 television. does dvd still have some life or what?

signed,

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most dvd players will upscale dvds to the higher res anyway (through hdmi or component cables).. i'm sticking with dvds for now :)

It's not gonna happen. Right around the time that it would actually make sense for Bluray to replace DVDs (6-7 years for for the mass consuming public to finally say "Yeah, this is worth the upgrade"), it'll be all about streaming & download services. Apple TV, On Demand, Netflix, etc etc.

Bluray is currently just sort of a videophile circle-jerk slash indoctrinated Sony fanboy talking point, and will remain that way for several years, largely for the reasons you stated (everyone just re-bought their VHS collections in DVD and won't want to do it again).

so it will take the laser disc route probably, that's good to hear

Anyone that has any laser discs in good condition, I'll take them off your hands.

Most upscaled dvds I've seen look really watchable on a 32" LCD but your 42"-50" screens might bring the compression artifacts out a bit more.

Some dvds come from relatively shitty sources and upscaling doesn't help them. A good example of this is Massive Attack's eleven promos dvd where some if not all the videos appear to be VHS sourced.

This biggest obstacle in the general public's adoption of blu-rays is that the ps3 is way too expensive and the stand alone blu-ray players are too expensive for the lack of features and the additional cost of blu-ray discs.

Right...the relatively minor (in comparison to VHS->DVD) jump in quality doesn't justify the cost of upgrading your whole system/collection.

I think the next big thing isn't going to be optical disc media either, it'll likely be some hyper-potent SD card sized deal.

i'm not worried at all. i agree with the cost of the media and the cost of the player. both are far too expensive for the amount of quality you get so i can't see it really having an impact unless bluray comes down, or at least far closer to, dvd prices. i can't be fucked with blu ray until that happens.

unless broadband and storage get to the point that HD "on-demand" content is able to be large enough to match the quality of blu-ray discs, i'll stick to BD. the compression artifacts and sound quality of HD downloaded content is, to me, noticeably inferior if you have a decent monitor and audio setup.

to the average consumer enjoying "nick and norah's infinite playlist", downloadable HD is perfectly adequate. to be fair, it's probably adequate for most people, even of more discerning tastes. the problem is, those of us who actually enjoy the enhanced quality that BD affords will lose out in the long run, which, i suppose, is the nature of things. there are many here who would argue the same about mp3 vs. uncompressed CD quality.

horses for courses i guess.

8mm FTW.

  autopilot said:

It's not gonna happen. Right around the time that it would actually make sense for Bluray to replace DVDs (6-7 years for for the mass consuming public to finally say "Yeah, this is worth the upgrade"), it'll be all about streaming & download services. Apple TV, On Demand, Netflix, etc etc.

 

Bluray is currently just sort of a videophile circle-jerk slash indoctrinated Sony fanboy talking point, and will remain that way for several years, largely for the reasons you stated (everyone just re-bought their VHS collections in DVD and won't want to do it again).

Exactly.

It'll remain a feinschmecker DVD and seeing how well DLC for consoles and PCs have been received by the public, I don't see how streaming/downloading movies WON'T be an even greater success.

  autopilot said:

It's not gonna happen. Right around the time that it would actually make sense for Bluray to replace DVDs (6-7 years for for the mass consuming public to finally say "Yeah, this is worth the upgrade"), it'll be all about streaming & download services. Apple TV, On Demand, Netflix, etc etc.

 

Bluray is currently just sort of a videophile circle-jerk slash indoctrinated Sony fanboy talking point, and will remain that way for several years, largely for the reasons you stated (everyone just re-bought their VHS collections in DVD and won't want to do it again).

I have to agree with pretty much all of this.

I was one of the naysayers about all the HD disc wars (HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray) because I thought streaming/download services would beat them both to the punch. That didn't happen, but it's still going to happen before Blu-ray can really dominate as a format.

My feelings on Blu-ray are that for anything I rent, it's worth spending an extra dollar or two to get Blu-ray. Now that Criterion is on the bandwagon, it's worth picking up their Blu-ray releases. For anything else, don't bother.

Also, as many of you know, art-house cinema is deader than dogshit and that has a lot to do with the success of DVD distribution, Bravo / IFC / Netflix, etc. The small distributors that put out art-house material aren't gonna start stamping Blu-rays any time soon, so DVD is not likely to die or even diminish for at least another decade.

I think Blu Rays will have more appeal then DVD's in multiple realms besides just movies. My computer is running out of space for instance but I'd much rather back up some stuff to a 50 gb disk then an 8 gig disk.

  Mirezzi said:

My feelings on Blu-ray are that for anything I rent, it's worth spending an extra dollar or two to get Blu-ray. Now that Criterion is on the bandwagon, it's worth picking up their Blu-ray releases. For anything else, don't bother.

 

Also, as many of you know, art-house cinema is deader than dogshit and that has a lot to do with the success of DVD distribution, Bravo / IFC / Netflix, etc. The small distributors that put out art-house material aren't gonna start stamping Blu-rays any time soon, so DVD is not likely to die or even diminish for at least another decade.

what do you mean about art-house cinema being dead? (i know next to nothing about the business)

how does that relate to the success of dvd distribution, are you saying that the success of dvd distribution is taking people out of the seats and making them more inclined to wait for dvd releases?

in any case, it's kinda like music for me in that i'm more concerned with the content (ie what i'm watching) than with what caliber quality it is delivered. blu-ray is nice and all but not at all necessary for my watching habits.

  snowpepsi said:

most dvd players will upscale dvds to the higher res anyway (through hdmi or component cables).. i'm sticking with dvds for now :)

No they don't.

That's like saying your mp3s are converted to lossless because you play them through your valve amp.

The information is simply not there, a dvd does not have enough space available to contain a feature length movie in a high definition resolution.

I cant wait to get Planet Earth in Blu Ray, but other than that I dont think I care too much about the format.

Streaming and downloading entertainment just took another step in the right direction

http://kotaku.com/5203480/amazon-selling-x...ii-ps3-incoming

Blu-Ray, just like DVD before it, won't really take off until the players (PS3 included) hit a magical price point (discs included) that takes away any monetary disadvantage over DVD's relative cheapness. DVD really didn't take off until the Playstation 2 came out in 2001 and offered a game console and DVD player combination for the price that most DVD players were at (300.00) at the time. DVD prices didn't drop below 20.00 until well into 2005/6, and it stands to reason that Blu-Ray will follow suit as more people upgrade to HD sets to replace their aging SD televisions. Another hurdle to mass-adoption of Blu-Ray is the amount (or lack of) HD content on TV - until 95% of TV and cable networks go HD-only, most people will still look at upscaled DVD as "superior" to most television content and continue to accept it over BD due to BD's price and tech requirements. If the majority of consumers had HDTVs and HD-content (either over the air or via cable/satellite), then BD would be a logical choice due to not wanting a "lesser" format compared to what they regularly watch. Sony was a bit premature thinking that the PS3 would convert as quickly the public to BD as the PS2 did with DVD, because mostly due to the lack of HDTV penetration - DVD didn't have that extra requirement for people to enjoy the format.

I say it'll be about 3-4, perhaps 5 at the most when we'll see 90% of released on BD, and the minority on DVD, and even then, small releases will still come out on DVD (just like how we still saw generic movies on VHS for some time after DVD became mainstream). Unless broadband in the US really steps up and 10+Mb connections become the norm instead of the exception, I don't see digital distribution really taking off (and not to play being US-centric, but the US is one of the largest, if not the largest consumer market for these kinds of items) and supplanting any physical media format for at least another decade, if not longer.

The reason that logic falls apart, JR, is that unlike the days where VHS expired and DVD came out, people *must* have a 40" or so television that supports 1080p to get the most out of a Blu-ray player.

With DVD, most CRT televisions on the market at the time were capable of way better than VHS.

That's without mentioning that DVD and Blu-ray are both digital formats that have special features, chapter search, etc. VHS to DVD was a much more revolutionary leap than DVD to Blu-ray AND the Blu-ray progression requires a hefty fucking piece of hardware: LCD or Plasma. All that happening during a recession means that the Blu-ray paradigm will crawl slowly along.

  maus said:

unless broadband and storage get to the point that HD "on-demand" content is able to be large enough to match the quality of blu-ray discs, i'll stick to BD. the compression artifacts and sound quality of HD downloaded content is, to me, noticeably inferior if you have a decent monitor and audio setup.

 

to the average consumer enjoying "nick and norah's infinite playlist", downloadable HD is perfectly adequate. to be fair, it's probably adequate for most people, even of more discerning tastes. the problem is, those of us who actually enjoy the enhanced quality that BD affords will lose out in the long run, which, i suppose, is the nature of things.

this guy has it right. almost all download services currently offer 720p HD movies and TV shows, with on demand broadcast being the worst of the lot. it's sad the only real service offering 1080p digitally is Vudu, which no one has heard of and will probably go belly up in the current economy even though it's a stroke of technical genius. the mass buying public is either already looking at buying smaller LCD TVs, which are probably mostly 720p in resolution because that's what the fucks at Best Buy, Target and Walmart are telling them they need (because those are taking up shelf space and need to be sold ASAP). it seems currently only cinephiles really value the investment of buying a 50" or larger 1080p set, know about things like 120hz or 24fps, and have seen the advance in resolution, which is stunning for those who have actually seen it and don't slag a new format becasue "it's shit".

  Mirezzi said:

The reason that logic falls apart, JR, is that unlike the days where VHS expired and DVD came out, people *must* have a 40" or so television that supports 1080p to get the most out of a Blu-ray player.

 

With DVD, most CRT televisions on the market at the time were capable of way better than VHS.

 

That's without mentioning that DVD and Blu-ray are both digital formats that have special features, chapter search, etc. VHS to DVD was a much more revolutionary leap than DVD to Blu-ray AND the Blu-ray progression requires a hefty fucking piece of hardware: LCD or Plasma. All that happening during a recession means that the Blu-ray paradigm will crawl slowly along.

Most CRT televisions had, at best, an S-Video input as the best quality you could get on the majority of TVs when DVD took off (post 2001), and only on the 36" and larger sets did you see component cable inputs (the best DVD had at the time until HDMI came about). Also consider almost all DVD players sold then (and I still think now, since it's been about 5 years since I bought a DVD player) only came with a composite video cable, people were still getting less than optimal viewing out of DVDs regardless of how good their CRT was.

My plasma is only capable of doing 1080i at most, and even at 720p, the difference over upscaled DVD versus Blu-Ray (in most cases) is night and day (for me) - I think most of the people who "can't see that much of a difference" are the same people that are still running their DVD player through composite cables, thinking that's the best it can be.

Sure, but I'd still argue that the leap from VHS to DVD, for reasons I stated previously about digital content, was vastly more revolutionary than DVD to Blu-ray.

  Mirezzi said:

Sure, but I'd still argue that the leap from VHS to DVD, for reasons I stated previously about digital content, was vastly more revolutionary than DVD to Blu-ray.

I don't disagree with you there - but how big the leap I don't think is as important to most consumers as does the base value of "does it look better, and is it worth it money-wise" factor. I, for instance, rarely use the interactive features on most DVDs/BD discs - I just watch the damn movie, but I demand the best visuals/audio possible with my setup so I can enjoy the movie as it was intended.

I'd say, as I already was an owner of a 40" 1080p LCD, the leap, whilst arguably not as big as VHS to DVD, is still a no-brainer. The improved contrast levels, color depth and overall "realness" of the picture has made me fall in love with movies all over again. DVDs have a boring flatness compared to BluRay, which captures better the grain and image depth and the feeling of watching celluloid film as opposed to watching a dull digitally compressed copy.

The only downer is the lack of foreign or older movies available, but it's coming along. Also, alot of the discs tend to be region free.