BluRay to Die Over Time
I love a good high-def movie, and Blu-ray players are sweet. Only they're so feature rich, the discs themselves are an afterthought?DOA or relegated to a niche format reserved for the finest films.
Oh, come on?you can't tell me you don't see where this is going. Every Blu-ray player we choose to review has an abundance of features that have nothing to do with Blu-ray. In fact, they all have to do with delivering movies in a different way, with more instant gratification.
The joke is, when we were pushing for Blu-ray 2.0 with BD-Live a year ago, we didn't realize that the ethernet port was really not about enhanced Blu-ray at all, but about video on demand. I own a few Blu-rays, like Wall-E, that have BD-Live components. Never even bothered with them. No point. But you'd be a 'tard to buy a Blu-ray player without an ethernet port, and you'd be a 'tard to buy a Blu-ray player without Netflix on demand, and at this point, another service for new-release movies, like Amazon VOD or CinemaNow.
Netflix gives me back seasons of 30 Rock and The Office in high-def. Pop quiz: Will I ever buy them on Blu-ray, or even DVD? No. I can even get stuff I'd have previously hunted down on disc, like The IT Crowd. I can get lots of the movies I previously owned on DVD instantly on demand for no cost other than the $10 monthly subscription. People don't even bitch about DRM with Netflix, because it's instant and always there, so even the copyright owners should be happy. Time Warner's boss even said he's thinking about offering a Netflix-like VOD distribution channel for HBO?nothing like all-you-can-eat Rome, Wire and Band of Brothers to kill DVD sales, and HBO still gets their mad money.
You want to talk video quality? Fine. I own The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. That movie is freakin' awesome, and I am happy to watch it on a Blu-ray player, while I sit exactly 47 inches from a 50-inch 1080p plasma television. But what about Billy Madison? I love that movie too, but I first owned it on a VHS playing in 4:3 at what you might call 240i, and I can verify that the high-def version is no funnier. In fact, instead of fishing out the HD DVD of it I have, and hooking up the HD DVD drive to my Xbox, I'd probably sooner try to find it on Netflix, in whatever video quality they're offering.
Besides, most people?most Giz readers, I'd wager?are watching "high def" movies on LCD TVs they bought at Costco for $899, so you can't tell me that they can see a difference between so-called VOD high-def and real bonafide Blu-ray high-def, even though there definitely is one.
The Criterion Collection belongs on Blu-ray. But six films by Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam and Akira Kurosawa do not an industry make. Like our discussion of audiophiles, there's a need to preserve (and even appreciate) video at very high quality, but that need doesn't trickle down to the masses, and especially doesn't matter for every single film, or even the vast majority of middle-of-the-road movies and TV. DVDs were a hit because they were the smartest way to deliver most video in the years 1999 to 2007. Now, the smartest way to deliver most video is over broadband, not on high-density shiny discs.
Don't get me wrong. You'll buy a "Blu-ray player." Stats show many of you already are. You may even buy some Blu-ray discs, or pay the extra $2 or $3 for Netflix Blu-ray rental. But the amount of time you'll spend watching Blu-ray on it will continue to dwindle, until, maybe one day, the disc tray just refuses to open from lack of use.
Oh, come on?you can't tell me you don't see where this is going. Every Blu-ray player we choose to review has an abundance of features that have nothing to do with Blu-ray. In fact, they all have to do with delivering movies in a different way, with more instant gratification.
The joke is, when we were pushing for Blu-ray 2.0 with BD-Live a year ago, we didn't realize that the ethernet port was really not about enhanced Blu-ray at all, but about video on demand. I own a few Blu-rays, like Wall-E, that have BD-Live components. Never even bothered with them. No point. But you'd be a 'tard to buy a Blu-ray player without an ethernet port, and you'd be a 'tard to buy a Blu-ray player without Netflix on demand, and at this point, another service for new-release movies, like Amazon VOD or CinemaNow.
Netflix gives me back seasons of 30 Rock and The Office in high-def. Pop quiz: Will I ever buy them on Blu-ray, or even DVD? No. I can even get stuff I'd have previously hunted down on disc, like The IT Crowd. I can get lots of the movies I previously owned on DVD instantly on demand for no cost other than the $10 monthly subscription. People don't even bitch about DRM with Netflix, because it's instant and always there, so even the copyright owners should be happy. Time Warner's boss even said he's thinking about offering a Netflix-like VOD distribution channel for HBO?nothing like all-you-can-eat Rome, Wire and Band of Brothers to kill DVD sales, and HBO still gets their mad money.
You want to talk video quality? Fine. I own The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. That movie is freakin' awesome, and I am happy to watch it on a Blu-ray player, while I sit exactly 47 inches from a 50-inch 1080p plasma television. But what about Billy Madison? I love that movie too, but I first owned it on a VHS playing in 4:3 at what you might call 240i, and I can verify that the high-def version is no funnier. In fact, instead of fishing out the HD DVD of it I have, and hooking up the HD DVD drive to my Xbox, I'd probably sooner try to find it on Netflix, in whatever video quality they're offering.
Besides, most people?most Giz readers, I'd wager?are watching "high def" movies on LCD TVs they bought at Costco for $899, so you can't tell me that they can see a difference between so-called VOD high-def and real bonafide Blu-ray high-def, even though there definitely is one.
The Criterion Collection belongs on Blu-ray. But six films by Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam and Akira Kurosawa do not an industry make. Like our discussion of audiophiles, there's a need to preserve (and even appreciate) video at very high quality, but that need doesn't trickle down to the masses, and especially doesn't matter for every single film, or even the vast majority of middle-of-the-road movies and TV. DVDs were a hit because they were the smartest way to deliver most video in the years 1999 to 2007. Now, the smartest way to deliver most video is over broadband, not on high-density shiny discs.
Don't get me wrong. You'll buy a "Blu-ray player." Stats show many of you already are. You may even buy some Blu-ray discs, or pay the extra $2 or $3 for Netflix Blu-ray rental. But the amount of time you'll spend watching Blu-ray on it will continue to dwindle, until, maybe one day, the disc tray just refuses to open from lack of use.
Comments
I think we will obviously ditch physical media in the future, but broadband has a long way to go first.
And the MPAA has to agree to similar usage terms as the RIAA and Apple is going to have to realize that AppleTV might be something they have to license. Digital media is going to be the future, but it has a lot of problems to be worked out first.
Great ...just when I bought a player.
Don't feel bad. You still can return it and if not just sell it in craigslist. I would recommend buying an ATV for now. Free movies via torrents are a click away and they have them in HD too.
Don't feel bad. You still can return it and if not just sell it in craigslist. I would recommend buying an ATV for now. Free movies via torrents are a click away and they have them in HD too.
+1
Exactly.
+1
Exactly.
Tauron
Tauron
He must have forgotten to log into a different account.
+1
Exactly.
At least someone supports you all the way, Tauron
He must have forgotten to log into a different account.
Legend.
Thing that sucks is we have to suffer with this copyright and protections and crap right now because of nit wits, who don't know what they truly possess and putting up with not have fat on-demand setups direct from studios. I just think like 10-15 studios will have massive archives of everything. And they will die paying monkeys to digitize and digitize and digitize till the get it all right and clean, 60-70 years from now. Could you imagine the hard drives? or gold bars... hehe
The only thing that will cost extra in this VOD utopia will be the latest and greatest new releases, which will always be that way so those who see them first will have something to talk about before someone else.
This could happen in 20-30 years. But it's all about the compression, bandwidth and storage. There will be absolutely no need to have your own collection of videos. Unless you don't want someone tracking what you watch... which only 0.00001% of people will care about at that point.
Think about that though. 1940ish to 2040ish of videos. A one hundred year archive of activities to watch on video that people will be able to sit back and eat food and die watching...
Laters...
oh and the blu-rays, probably 32 layer 3cm blu-ray in a hard caddy like the old opticals (250 MB) or MDs that hold 1tb. But you would only use it for all your personal files and backups of yourself that you don't feel comfortable publishing. oh yeah and they cost a $1... hah
I think Bluray has plenty of life left in it. A lot of music is still distributed via CDs, by the way.
Yes, but it will, over time, die out.
Tauron
He just cut and pasted the original post without attributing it's source so nothing he does surprises me.
Unless of course he is actually Wilson Rothman who posted the article on Friday, May 15 2009
http://gizmodo.com/5256285/blu+ray-is-killing-itself
Yes, but it will, over time, die out.
No shit. But the 99% chance is that Blu-ray will deliver the expected ROI to its developers and promoters before it goes away. Plus, until there's a politically expedient way to distribute music online without crippling DRM and lossy encoding, there will always be CDs or similar.
Once proper global HD downloads are available, not arbitrarily restricted to certain countries, then we can start talking about the death of Blu-Ray.
Don't forget Blu-Ray is an important GLOBAL high-definition format. That's its advantage. Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, etc. are very US-centric and change over time.
Once proper global HD downloads are available, not arbitrarily restricted to certain countries, then we can start talking about the death of Blu-Ray.
LOLS I don't know about you but I download 4-5 HD movies each week for free and play it on my ATV (720 and 1080p). So to me Blu Ray couldn't be more dead.
LOLS I don't know about you but I download 4-5 HD movies each week for free and play it on my ATV (720 and 1080p). So to me Blu Ray couldn't be more dead.
Sure, download piracy could "kill" Blu Ray in the long run, that's a possibility.
Curious, most of those 720p and 1080p (I'm assuming Torrents) are AVIs and MKVs. Do convert each one to play on your AppleTV or have you hacked AppleTV to play them (Myth or some program like that?).
Yeah for me where I live broadband is crap. (Don't ask
...If ALL of Hollywood start selling 720p Movies on iTunes...
Yes, and making it available GLOBALLY, like how game downloads are now so easy and great to purchase wherever you live (eg. Steam distribution and legal downloads/purchase network).
We're all still waiting for Hollywood to "get it"... while they continue to churn out mostly rubbish nowadays and expect us to pay for watching it just once at the cinema.