So if you choose to pick up your media by another method, everybody else will just imitate your moves? Not.
There is no media delivery war in the sense that there isn't going to be a clear-cut winner. Different strokes for different folks. You get your movies one way. I choose another route and somebody else yet another method. This isn't really a new development. For years I didn't buy so much as a single DVD, choosing instead a subscription service via cable. Did stores stop selling DVDs?
Right? Remeber all the VHS rentals stores- I can count on one hand the number of times I rented a tape.
Well, mine is 52" and I have compared several movies (BD and iTunes 720p rentals). BDs have slightly better picture quality, but it's not a quantum leap and not worth almost twice the price. The downloaded file is also much more comfortable to use (jumping to different chapters or forward/rewind is instantaneous and stutter-free, while the BD simply sucks). I also get a free iPhone/iPod standard definition version with these movies from iTunes, while the "digital copies" included with some BDs do only play on Windows machines or even only on PSPs.
Well you must have an old Blu-ray maching because no one would say Blu-ray sucks to skip chapters as compared to anything else. It lets you browse and switch while the movie plays!
The very large tv's need 720 or 1080p or their picture would suffer greatly .
i bought a 32 " 1080p and have only twice in a year seen that the 1080p is on
720P does rock thou star wars looks fantastic
So would an hd movie DL be an overkill for a 15" MBP ?
It's not strict screen size. It's really a factor of field of view. a 15" screen at 30" is functionally same as
a 60" at 10ft (120"), assuming your eyes focus equally well at both distances.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
I do not know the actual numbers for 2009, but the 3% figure is not a year and a half old either. It is actually the official number reported for all of 2008 by the DEG (http://www.dvdinformation.com/News/p...009yearEnd.htm).
OK, it's still somewhat true, because it averages down because of the growth over time. The data is an average of a year in age. BD sales went from less than 1% at the beginning of the year to about 10% at the end of the year, going by Nielsen VideoScan numbers.
You are probably not very old. Back in the 80's renting the VHS tape was the only option for watching movies that weren't at the theater. Other than randomly waiting for them to come on network television.
Quote:
Originally Posted by teckstud
Right? Remeber all the VHS rentals stores- I can count on one hand the number of times I rented a tape.
Well you must have an old Blu-ray maching because no one would say Blu-ray sucks to skip chapters as compared to anything else. It lets you browse and switch while the movie plays!
It is a Pioneer LX 71 and was released in September 2008 (in Germany at least). Skipping chapters is clearly slower than on a DVD player and severely slower than downloads. Fast forward and rewind is pretty close to a nightmare. I do not think it has something to do with the machine, a good friend has the Sony BDP-S5000ES which is a bit newer and more than twice as expensive and it behaves exactly the same.
I think the old betamax crowd see's a final chance to live again here, Except apple already knows that the optical drives are dead just like matte screens and just like fire wire dead dead dead .
SO you can spend money on blu ray and in a few months or couple of years the whole industry will be phased out and replaced by USB 2 or USB 3 data drives . Your money is wasted .
I will never buy a disc again unless it's a transformer level movie.
My MOVIE GUY now gives me usb drives w/star trek on it.
I placed the file on my hard drive and MY MBP DVD player, QUICKTIME player > played the movie in perfect quality equal to an itunes HD movie down load or HULU hi-res mode.
A whole industry just died . We just can't see it yet . I wondered about the MBA for a long time. Now I get it . We will have in the near future little SD movie cards or little usb cards or multi movie or large ssd 128 g bricks.
So this whole blu-ray angst going on here is moot and silly . Blu-ray is already obsolete.
9
I wouldn't say Blu-ray is dead or obsolete yet. Blu-ray movie sales are up. The great advantage of Blu-ray is the players play DVD's which means the HD movies we buy look great on our HDTV and our DVD's continue to play.
There isn't an easy way to get movies on a USB drive onto the HDTV. There are a tiny few that have AppleTV or connect their computer to the TV, but the rest of us are quite happy with discs.
You are probably not very old. Back in the 80's renting the VHS tape was the only option for watching movies that weren't at the theater. Other than randomly waiting for them to come on network television.
Exactly. I think I spent more money on not rewinding the tape than for all iTunes purchases combined :-)
You are probably not very old. Back in the 80's renting the VHS tape was the only option for watching movies that weren't at the theater. Other than randomly waiting for them to come on network television.
Let's see - we had HBO, Cinemax and SHowtime back then. You could also buy them. I'm not talking about at the beginning either- I'm talking in the 90's.
So would an hd movie DL be an overkill for a 15" MBP ?
Whether you prefer discs or downloads, people are buying Blu-ray movies now and they would like to be able to watch the HD movies they already own on their MBP.
Cable was just developing in the 80's. If you even had cable in your area, it did not mean your cable provider offered HBO, Cinemax, or Showtime. Even if you have HBO/Cinemax/Showtime, they may not be showing the movie you want to see.
Still in the 90's, VHS was the primary way to watch movies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by teckstud
Let's see - we had HBO, Cinemax and SHowtime back then. You could also buy them. I'm not talking about at the beginning either- I'm talking in the 90's.
When the heck is apple and the movie industries going to realized we're not going to buy movies we already own from the App Store? There has to be some way to let us download our previously purchased movies into iTunes. I know there are still licensing problems with that but it really sucks that if you want to watch your movies on iTunes or on your computer in general, you have to download them from the App Store or play the disc directly. iTunes already gives the user the ability to download and view audio content without copyright issues. what makes movies so different? that would make the Apple TV much more enticing to purchase in the future. Plus. Why not offer TV shows with commercials? I think Apple is shooting themselves in the foot by not allowing TV shows as free downloads (or at least streaming) to the Apple TV and itunes. They're going to have to figure out some way to do this or else they will be far behind the curve in the coming months and years.
When the heck is apple and the movie industries going to realized we're not going to buy movies we already own from the App Store? There has to be some way to let us download our previously purchased movies into iTunes. I know there are still licensing problems with that but it really sucks that if you want to watch your movies on iTunes or on your computer in general, you have to download them from the App Store or play the disc directly. iTunes already gives the user the ability to download and view audio content without copyright issues. what makes movies so different?
iTunes will only "rip" audio content which is not DRM protected. Absolutely every DVD with a region code (the vast majority) is DRM protected. Unless there will be an official DMCA exemption for at least CSS encryption, Apple will never add this functionality to iTunes and they really can't ? they depend on the movie industry for content. There are several ways to do it yourself though, see e.g. http://www.macworld.com/article/135137/convert.html.
If you do a bit of internet research you will quickly learn that Blue Ray DRM licensing is very prohibitive in terms of what hardware manufacturers are required to do if they support the drives. Computers take a real performance across the board even when the Blue Ray is not in use. Among it's other issues, Vista suffered from it's Blue Ray support. Moreover, the drives still haven't come down in price enough to allow Apple to lower prices in a market recession (as it just did).
Further, Blue Ray stinks. The disks cost a lot, and the DRM hinders format. I want more rights, not less. Jobs is likely holding out for better licensing terms as he should.
Quote:
Originally Posted by holywarrior007
This is interesting. However, when will Steve Jobs break his reservation on Blu-ray enabled drives in MBPs? It really sucks not have these in MBPs.
I wouldn't say Blu-ray is dead or obsolete yet. Blu-ray movie sales are up. The great advantage of Blu-ray is the players play DVD's which means the HD movies we buy look great on our HDTV and our DVD's continue to play.
There isn't an easy way to get movies on a USB drive onto the HDTV. There are a tiny few that have AppleTV or connect their computer to the TV, but the rest of us are quite happy with discs.
The reason for using a disc was storage , 4 or 5 g of media .
Today the storage train is so fast that you don't need anymore to be tied to a dvd player at or tied to any one type of format .
If the blu ray Encoding is so good, fine tehn a little SQUARE storage card will do just as good as a disc.. NO BD player needed
Of course go ahead and buy and play blu ray and I hope apple accepts this format. I was just amazed that i got a star trek file from a storage card and dropped the file on my hard drive and THE DVD and QT players could play back the raw files . NO handbrake converting needed.
What this means is the overall price for movies will drop to about $7 or $9 dollars for a new movie and $3 to $5 for rentals. AND the bootleggers and their ilk will be out of business and the movie makers will still make a profit .
I would love to own the LOTR on SINGLE USB-3 DRIVE .
ok- ok blu-ray is not dead just the discs and there players are .
Because nothing looks as good as Blu-ray. And the sound is an even worse story.
Being a techstud, I'm sure you have fairly high-end equipment. But that is hardly representative of the general population. Most people either do not have TVs which are capable of showing blu-ray to it's potential (they have 720p or SD sets, or they have cheap, crappy 1080i/p sets) or they sit too far away from the screen to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p. And even fewer have the equipment to take advantage of blu-ray sound tracks. Heck, not that many people even have the sound systems to take advantage of the 5.1 sound tracks on DVDs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TenoBell
The point that's missed. No one is sitting around waiting for HD streaming. Most people don't need HD streaming. Far more people are watching upscaled DVD on HDTV's than those watching Blu-ray. What we have right now is good enough for most.
Agreed. With a good scaler, and upscaled DVD can look better than my cable company's 1080i. And while blu-ray is obviously better than Comcast, per my points above, the difference would be minor for most people.
DVDs were successful not only because they were better quality than VHS, but because I could enjoy that increased quality on my existing TV. DVDs were also more convenient and more durable than VHS. To enjoy blu-rays increased quality, people need to buy new TVs. And it offers no advantage over DVDs in terms of convenience or durability.
Think of the attempts by the music industry to move to SuperAudio CDs (I think that's what they were called). They offered better sound quality than CDs, but they were quickly relegated to audiophiles only. For the general consumers, CDs were "good enough". I think we'll find that for the next several years, "good enough" in video is 720p. It makes it more appropriate file size to download, and offers a convenience advantage that blu-ray does not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pt123
I wouldn't say Blu-ray is dead or obsolete yet. Blu-ray movie sales are up. The great advantage of Blu-ray is the players play DVD's which means the HD movies we buy look great on our HDTV and our DVD's continue to play.
There isn't an easy way to get movies on a USB drive onto the HDTV. There are a tiny few that have AppleTV or connect their computer to the TV, but the rest of us are quite happy with discs.
As I've stated before, one thing that Apple could do to slow the adoption of blu-ray, if that is their goal, would be to put a DVD drive in the AppleTV. That would allow you to continue to play the DVDs you already own while also giving you access to 720p video (ie, "good enough"), with the advantage to Apple that iTunes becomes your main source for HD video. They should use the AppleTV/DVD as a loss leader to lock customers into iTunes as their future source of video.
Comments
So if you choose to pick up your media by another method, everybody else will just imitate your moves? Not.
There is no media delivery war in the sense that there isn't going to be a clear-cut winner. Different strokes for different folks. You get your movies one way. I choose another route and somebody else yet another method. This isn't really a new development. For years I didn't buy so much as a single DVD, choosing instead a subscription service via cable. Did stores stop selling DVDs?
Right? Remeber all the VHS rentals stores- I can count on one hand the number of times I rented a tape.
Well, mine is 52" and I have compared several movies (BD and iTunes 720p rentals). BDs have slightly better picture quality, but it's not a quantum leap and not worth almost twice the price. The downloaded file is also much more comfortable to use (jumping to different chapters or forward/rewind is instantaneous and stutter-free, while the BD simply sucks). I also get a free iPhone/iPod standard definition version with these movies from iTunes, while the "digital copies" included with some BDs do only play on Windows machines or even only on PSPs.
Well you must have an old Blu-ray maching because no one would say Blu-ray sucks to skip chapters as compared to anything else. It lets you browse and switch while the movie plays!
You will need 1080p down the road .
The very large tv's need 720 or 1080p or their picture would suffer greatly .
i bought a 32 " 1080p and have only twice in a year seen that the 1080p is on
720P does rock thou star wars looks fantastic
So would an hd movie DL be an overkill for a 15" MBP ?
It's not strict screen size. It's really a factor of field of view. a 15" screen at 30" is functionally same as
a 60" at 10ft (120"), assuming your eyes focus equally well at both distances.
I do not know the actual numbers for 2009, but the 3% figure is not a year and a half old either. It is actually the official number reported for all of 2008 by the DEG (http://www.dvdinformation.com/News/p...009yearEnd.htm).
OK, it's still somewhat true, because it averages down because of the growth over time. The data is an average of a year in age. BD sales went from less than 1% at the beginning of the year to about 10% at the end of the year, going by Nielsen VideoScan numbers.
Or even using Netflix. $10 a month for unlimited streaming makes a $30 disc less enticing.
I don't think Hulu and Blu-Ray markets are the same. Hulu isn't better than standard definition.
Right? Remeber all the VHS rentals stores- I can count on one hand the number of times I rented a tape.
Well you must have an old Blu-ray maching because no one would say Blu-ray sucks to skip chapters as compared to anything else. It lets you browse and switch while the movie plays!
It is a Pioneer LX 71 and was released in September 2008 (in Germany at least). Skipping chapters is clearly slower than on a DVD player and severely slower than downloads. Fast forward and rewind is pretty close to a nightmare. I do not think it has something to do with the machine, a good friend has the Sony BDP-S5000ES which is a bit newer and more than twice as expensive and it behaves exactly the same.
hmmm....
I think the old betamax crowd see's a final chance to live again here, Except apple already knows that the optical drives are dead just like matte screens and just like fire wire dead dead dead .
SO you can spend money on blu ray and in a few months or couple of years the whole industry will be phased out and replaced by USB 2 or USB 3 data drives . Your money is wasted .
I will never buy a disc again unless it's a transformer level movie.
My MOVIE GUY now gives me usb drives w/star trek on it.
I placed the file on my hard drive and MY MBP DVD player, QUICKTIME player > played the movie in perfect quality equal to an itunes HD movie down load or HULU hi-res mode.
A whole industry just died . We just can't see it yet . I wondered about the MBA for a long time. Now I get it . We will have in the near future little SD movie cards or little usb cards or multi movie or large ssd 128 g bricks.
So this whole blu-ray angst going on here is moot and silly . Blu-ray is already obsolete.
9
I wouldn't say Blu-ray is dead or obsolete yet. Blu-ray movie sales are up. The great advantage of Blu-ray is the players play DVD's which means the HD movies we buy look great on our HDTV and our DVD's continue to play.
There isn't an easy way to get movies on a USB drive onto the HDTV. There are a tiny few that have AppleTV or connect their computer to the TV, but the rest of us are quite happy with discs.
You are probably not very old. Back in the 80's renting the VHS tape was the only option for watching movies that weren't at the theater. Other than randomly waiting for them to come on network television.
Exactly. I think I spent more money on not rewinding the tape than for all iTunes purchases combined :-)
You are probably not very old. Back in the 80's renting the VHS tape was the only option for watching movies that weren't at the theater. Other than randomly waiting for them to come on network television.
Let's see - we had HBO, Cinemax and SHowtime back then. You could also buy them. I'm not talking about at the beginning either- I'm talking in the 90's.
So would an hd movie DL be an overkill for a 15" MBP ?
Whether you prefer discs or downloads, people are buying Blu-ray movies now and they would like to be able to watch the HD movies they already own on their MBP.
Still in the 90's, VHS was the primary way to watch movies.
Let's see - we had HBO, Cinemax and SHowtime back then. You could also buy them. I'm not talking about at the beginning either- I'm talking in the 90's.
When the heck is apple and the movie industries going to realized we're not going to buy movies we already own from the App Store? There has to be some way to let us download our previously purchased movies into iTunes. I know there are still licensing problems with that but it really sucks that if you want to watch your movies on iTunes or on your computer in general, you have to download them from the App Store or play the disc directly. iTunes already gives the user the ability to download and view audio content without copyright issues. what makes movies so different?
iTunes will only "rip" audio content which is not DRM protected. Absolutely every DVD with a region code (the vast majority) is DRM protected. Unless there will be an official DMCA exemption for at least CSS encryption, Apple will never add this functionality to iTunes and they really can't ? they depend on the movie industry for content. There are several ways to do it yourself though, see e.g. http://www.macworld.com/article/135137/convert.html.
Further, Blue Ray stinks. The disks cost a lot, and the DRM hinders format. I want more rights, not less. Jobs is likely holding out for better licensing terms as he should.
This is interesting. However, when will Steve Jobs break his reservation on Blu-ray enabled drives in MBPs? It really sucks not have these in MBPs.
I wouldn't say Blu-ray is dead or obsolete yet. Blu-ray movie sales are up. The great advantage of Blu-ray is the players play DVD's which means the HD movies we buy look great on our HDTV and our DVD's continue to play.
There isn't an easy way to get movies on a USB drive onto the HDTV. There are a tiny few that have AppleTV or connect their computer to the TV, but the rest of us are quite happy with discs.
The reason for using a disc was storage , 4 or 5 g of media .
Today the storage train is so fast that you don't need anymore to be tied to a dvd player at or tied to any one type of format .
If the blu ray Encoding is so good, fine tehn a little SQUARE storage card will do just as good as a disc.. NO BD player needed
Of course go ahead and buy and play blu ray and I hope apple accepts this format. I was just amazed that i got a star trek file from a storage card and dropped the file on my hard drive and THE DVD and QT players could play back the raw files . NO handbrake converting needed.
What this means is the overall price for movies will drop to about $7 or $9 dollars for a new movie and $3 to $5 for rentals. AND the bootleggers and their ilk will be out of business and the movie makers will still make a profit .
I would love to own the LOTR on SINGLE USB-3 DRIVE .
ok- ok blu-ray is not dead just the discs and there players are .
peace
9
MY kids now use little game cards for there DS game machines .
You have kids?
Let me guess, they actually ghost-write your posts for you?
Because nothing looks as good as Blu-ray. And the sound is an even worse story.
Being a techstud, I'm sure you have fairly high-end equipment. But that is hardly representative of the general population. Most people either do not have TVs which are capable of showing blu-ray to it's potential (they have 720p or SD sets, or they have cheap, crappy 1080i/p sets) or they sit too far away from the screen to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p. And even fewer have the equipment to take advantage of blu-ray sound tracks. Heck, not that many people even have the sound systems to take advantage of the 5.1 sound tracks on DVDs.
The point that's missed. No one is sitting around waiting for HD streaming. Most people don't need HD streaming. Far more people are watching upscaled DVD on HDTV's than those watching Blu-ray. What we have right now is good enough for most.
Agreed. With a good scaler, and upscaled DVD can look better than my cable company's 1080i. And while blu-ray is obviously better than Comcast, per my points above, the difference would be minor for most people.
DVDs were successful not only because they were better quality than VHS, but because I could enjoy that increased quality on my existing TV. DVDs were also more convenient and more durable than VHS. To enjoy blu-rays increased quality, people need to buy new TVs. And it offers no advantage over DVDs in terms of convenience or durability.
Think of the attempts by the music industry to move to SuperAudio CDs (I think that's what they were called). They offered better sound quality than CDs, but they were quickly relegated to audiophiles only. For the general consumers, CDs were "good enough". I think we'll find that for the next several years, "good enough" in video is 720p. It makes it more appropriate file size to download, and offers a convenience advantage that blu-ray does not.
I wouldn't say Blu-ray is dead or obsolete yet. Blu-ray movie sales are up. The great advantage of Blu-ray is the players play DVD's which means the HD movies we buy look great on our HDTV and our DVD's continue to play.
There isn't an easy way to get movies on a USB drive onto the HDTV. There are a tiny few that have AppleTV or connect their computer to the TV, but the rest of us are quite happy with discs.
As I've stated before, one thing that Apple could do to slow the adoption of blu-ray, if that is their goal, would be to put a DVD drive in the AppleTV. That would allow you to continue to play the DVDs you already own while also giving you access to 720p video (ie, "good enough"), with the advantage to Apple that iTunes becomes your main source for HD video. They should use the AppleTV/DVD as a loss leader to lock customers into iTunes as their future source of video.
You have kids?
Let me guess, they actually ghost-write your posts for you?
ummm !!
ok- ok blu-ray is not dead just the discs and there players are .
I guess you haven't heard about how Blu-ray movie sales have increased. With Christmas approaching, I may soon contribute to the dead.
Steve Jobs was absolutely right. Blu Ray is nothing but a bag of hurt I totally brought upon myself.
My 1080p Pioneer KURO plasma disagrees with you. Blu-Ray is a bag of wonderous high-definition joy.
Apple should get with the times and start offering BD drives throughout their entire line of PCs.