BR drives are flaky and unreliable, prone to draconian DRM schemes that might brick your BR installed in your Mac. Just like the firmware update did to thousands of PS3 owners. And the DRM/rookit thing that came on music cds.
Sony is so controlling, they even altered the Folding@home program to say it's "Life with Playstation" So I can see why there are problems with their firmware updates and BluRay in Mac's.
And yes Sony can make good stuff, it's got a software and control issue though, which makes it too flaky to include their devices in Mac's.
Sony needs to be broken up and let the diseased sections of it die and the good ones, like making TV's, live on and profit.
So flakey and unreliable that my Sony BDP-S1 that I bought in Oct 2006 will play ALL of my 550+ Blu-rays.
DRM that was so draconian that it was used in DVD! AACS, ever heard of it? Firmware didn't brick your stuff, failing optical pickup.
That rootkit stuff is such an AVSforums redant out.
Chances of all the studios backing if there was any belief that the BD would start bricking stuff? ZERO! Do some reading, the majority holder of patents is Panasonic. BD+ was and is not a Sony property. AACS and region coding are in DVD. News flash - it's not legal to copy AACS DVD either!
Just checked 32 GB SD Flash and we can pick them up for $80'ish. Blu-ray media <$.25 US. Pressing Blu is quite fast. Any clue what copying 32 GB to an SD Flash would take? Your scheme still doesn't have a method of authoring, protection or encoding that doesn't include using a technology that will have to be paid for and licensed.
All your arguments were used in CD and DVD. Studios have to be able to protect their property or they won't release it in anywhere but in the theater.
Apple will remove the Superdrive eventually leaving only SD as a removable media (e.g. the high-end Mini). That's what it has to do with Blu-ray - in other words Blu-ray will never come to the Mac platform.
Netflix type downloads are the present - maybe not HD. I used them as an example. All the networks have content downloads. Internet downloads of movie and TV are today and around the world.
Blu-ray is already supported by Final Cut Studio. Both Final Cut 7 and Compressor 3.5 can burn directly to a Blu-ray disc. Unfortunately, thanks to SJ and the chip on his shoulder, we have to use a 3rd-party drive. So, in a matter of speaking, it is on the Mac platform.
SD cards are fine and all, but they're not quite ready to replace optical media. I do see it happening at some point, but if I didn't have an SD card slot in my PS3, they'd be useless as a tool to deliver content to my A/V system. Unfortunately, my AppleTV doesn't adequately fill this role either. There are too many formats it just can't (or won't) handle.
I have Netflix as well and their streaming content is nothing to rave about.
Say someone stole the keys to your unique hardware and copied them, Sony find out that ten zillion copies of the phony keys are being used to pirate content from BluRay disks. They send out a brick command in their firmware update that disables the keys and your machine in the process.
This is what people are suspecting what happened with the PS3, because the hardware is the same and the firmware should be the same, so what is bricking some machines and not others?
Imagine this happening to Macs?
Wonderful imagination. Too bad none of this has widely (or even obscurely) affected Windoze BR-D machines. OOPS!
So flakey and unreliable that my Sony BDP-S1 that I bought in Oct 2006 will play ALL of my 550+ Blu-rays.
I have the same player (now in the bedroom). It doesn't play CD's. Impulse buy actually. I went into BestBuy to get an HDMI cable and saw that it was finally out. That cable cost me $1,110. I had to get another cable for the Sony BDP-S1.
As far as the request to move the Blu Ray vs Downloading to another room.
Please don't. This has been amusing. Only a bunch of Mac Idiots can take a blockbuster week for Apple and turn it into 13 pages of bitching. I love it. Looking forwar to the next 13 pages.
The part that bewildered me was the fact that there is a matte surface behind a glossy screen. So you should be seeing the speculative glare as well as the diffuse glare. Maybe our brains just learn to ignore the diffuse panel glare when you have the specular glare.
Maybe I'll bring out the suction cups tomorrow and see if it looks any better without the glossy screen. I know what you're saying about the speculative and diffuse glare, but I can't say I ever really noticed it (or maybe it just hasn't bothered me yet). You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.
Say someone stole the keys to your unique hardware and copied them, Sony find out that ten zillion copies of the phony keys are being used to pirate content from BluRay disks. They send out a brick command in their firmware update that disables the keys and your machine in the process.
This is what people are suspecting what happened with the PS3, because the hardware is the same and the firmware should be the same, so what is bricking some machines and not others?
Well I call bull on their theory... I have one of the PS3's that people reckon it is happening to, and mine is fine. And my other PS3 is fine too
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacTripper
Imagine this happening to Macs?
Perhaps this problem happened at the right time for Apple.
What? An update for the PS3 killing the Mac? not sure how that would happen
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacTripper
And like they are not all working together on the same standards?
Sony bought BMG.
Sony only owned part of SonyBMG at the time, and BMG were running things. Their purchase took place after the rootkit incident.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacTripper
I'm with Steve Jobs that BluRay is a bag of hurt. I agree with him.
Out with this mechanical and get high capacity SD cards instead. Easier to change the DRM without bricking the drive too.
How is it going to be easier to change the DRM on a dedicated media player just by have the media on an SD card rather than a disc? You seem to be getting a little confused. Also, the price of SD cards is going to have a drop a lot before they will be a viable replacement for optical discs.
You are entitled to your opinion about blu-ray, I for one believe that digital distribution is a bigger bag of hurt, and it will never be a viable alternative to blu-ray (or dvd for that matter) until we start getting players from multiple manufactures that can play a single unified format.
I have the same player (now in the bedroom). It doesn't play CD's. Impulse buy actually. I went into BestBuy to get an HDMI cable and saw that it was finally out. That cable cost me $1,110. I had to get another cable for the Sony BDP-S1.
As far as the request to move the Blu Ray vs Downloading to another room.
Please don't. This has been amusing. Only a bunch of Mac Idiots can take a blockbuster week for Apple and turn it into 13 pages of bitching. I love it. Looking forwar to the next 13 pages.
I suspect that connecting anything that doesn't have a DisplayPort output to that DisplayPort input is going to be a pain in the ass with buggy adapters, incompatible DRM (Blu-Ray players need their "protected path"), and weird resolution upscaling.
Good luck with that. Why couldn't Apple just put an HDMI input on it?
I have the same player (now in the bedroom). It doesn't play CD's. Impulse buy actually. I went into BestBuy to get an HDMI cable and saw that it was finally out. That cable cost me $1,110. I had to get another cable for the Sony BDP-S1.
As far as the request to move the Blu Ray vs Downloading to another room.
Please don't. This has been amusing. Only a bunch of Mac Idiots can take a blockbuster week for Apple and turn it into 13 pages of bitching. I love it. Looking forwar to the next 13 pages.
You're idiotic enough to buy an HDMI cable at BestBuy and have the temerity to label others as "Mac Idiots" (sic).
Blu-ray is already supported by Final Cut Studio. Both Final Cut 7 and Compressor 3.5 can burn directly to a Blu-ray disc. Unfortunately, thanks to SJ and the chip on his shoulder, we have to use a 3rd=party drive. So, in a matter of speaking, it is on the Mac platform.
SD cards a fine an all, but they're not quite ready to replace optical media. I do see it happening at some point, but if I didn't have an SD card slot in my PS3, they'd be useless as a tool to deliver content to my A/V system. Unfortunately, my AppleTV doesn't adequately fill this role either. There are too many formats it just can't (or won't) handle.
I have Netflix as well and their streaming content is nothing to rave about.
I worked for a company in Seattle called ModSystems that is heavily invested into by Toshiba (a.k.a. the ones that lost the HD war with Sony). Their goal is to out-do Blu-ray with kiosks that will dispense SD cards for SD enabled TVs and/or players (including computers). That was a stated goal of theirs in late 2007, so I don't know where they are with that today but I'd agree that SD can store more than a blu-ray disc and is more portable. However it isn't as ubiquitous. Does Apple know something we don't since they are privy to industry news?
Wait, let me get this straight - you have purchased $11,000 in Blu-Ray disks? (550 x $20 each)?
I'm sorry. I don't think I can consider a single comment you make seriously. Wow.
I love film and I love to collect. If I add up all the sets it's probably closer to 600 than 550. I did the same with VHS and DVD.
And I don't watch BDs on my Mac. I don't want to but that's my choice and it doesn't mean there isn't a customer base out there. I also won't support arguments supported by BS.
Edit: I reckon you should take me seriously because I do understand Blu-ray.
I worked for a company in Seattle called ModSystems that is heavily invested into by Toshiba (a.k.a. the ones that lost the HD war with Sony). Their goal is to out-do Blu-ray with kiosks that will dispense SD cards for SD enabled TVs and/or players (including computers). That was a stated goal of theirs in late 2007, so I don't know where they are with that today but I'd agree that SD can store more than a blu-ray disc and is more portable. However it isn't as ubiquitous. Does Apple know something we don't since they are privy to industry news?
You forgot to include the fact that SD is substantially more expensive than BR-D, and most SD cards are nowhere near the read/write speeds either.
Keep spewing nonsense though. We are all amused by your idiocy.
That's because the industry is very protective and selective about the information that they release. The last comprehensive report I've seen that had a full disclosure breakdown of revenues by format came out more than two years ago, and it was something that Sony paid for.
The revenues from Blockbuster and Netflix are counted as rentals. Sales revenues only account for sell-through by end users.
It matters if you want a true apples-to-apples comparison. Just comparing Blu-ray to digital distribution is hardly that. If you want an apples-to-apples comparison, then you need to either compare all optical media vs digital distribution, or compare only Blu-ray vs HD digital distribution.
Like I said, optical formats are not exciting to tech writers. They're pining away for the digital/networked living room, and yet another optical disc format is not part of that world order. Article after article that I've read from PC World, CNET, Engadget, and other sites throw out one negative article after another about how Blu-ray's dying or Blu-ray's not going to make it past the next year or Blu-ray's no better than DVD, etc. Much of it presents little to no evidence, other than the writer's all-too-apparent biases towards streaming/downloading. And considering that these guys are tech writers, the articles also frequently display a surprising lack of knowledge about digital video in general (i.e., the errant claims of unconverted DVD being the same resolution as Blu-ray, not knowing that ANY 1080p HDTV will upconvert a 480p DVD signal to 1080p, etc.). They might know their way around computers, but their appreciation for consumer electronics is often lacking.
But, look at what happened (or hasn't happened) on the audio side. Despite every publication out there having already written the CD format's obituary and despite the iTunes Music Store having been online for more than six years already (the amount of time it took for the DVD to overtake VHS), the CD format still has a 65% market share. Downloading has been hyped to no end by the tech press and mainstream press alike, yet the supposedly dead CD format is still very much alive.
This is the same tunnel visioned view of the world that the tech press has -- that market trends and consumer behavior patterns do not matter because we're talking about digital tech. Indeed, digital technology is a big part of our everyday lives, but its adoption and integration into an average household is an evolutionary process that takes years. Whether a consumer electronics format is digital or analog, it doesn't matter. Consumers do not make lifestyle changes or fundamentally shift their spending habits overnight. They do not adopt new technologies just because the tech press is enamored with it and makes wild predictions about it (most of them are wrong anyway -- witness the hype that accompanied the dotcom boom/bust a decade ago).
Consider that 40% of U.S. households do not currently have broadband. That part of the market is already excluded from this digital future.
The fact of the matter is that Blu-ray's growth trajectory is not that far behind the DVD at a comparable juncture. This is not bad considering that HDTV penetration remains just under 50%. Remember that Blu-ray also had its own competition with HD-DVD, and that format war split the market for about a year and a half. Blu-ray has had full support from the studios for less than two years.
When you look at the growth of downloads and other online media, you need to consider what the actual competition is. I don't see Blu-ray and online media as inherently competing for the same market. Downloads and online media are primarily replacements and/or enhancements to PPV, movie rentals, and recorded TV programming. Who does this affect directly? It affects Blockbuster, the satellite and cable companies, Netflix (though they do their own streaming), and it reduces time spent with DVR recordings. Sell-through disc media is affected to some degree, but it's not a direct competitor like those other options.
And if you choose to compare disc media with digital distribution, it's not even close right now. The type of market shift needed for digital distribution to overtake disc media takes years, and I don't see anything in the market trends that would indicate this happening soon. We're talking about shifting of billions of dollars, and anyone who does consumer expenditure research will tell you that it does not happen overnight. Just because digital technology enables a market change to happen quickly, does not mean that consumers will behave accordingly. Overestimation of how much technological change consumers will tolerate in a short-time is what doomed most of the dotcoms, and anyone who bets on downloads and streaming taking over TV and movie viewing in short order will probably face a similarly rude awakening.
Woochifer--
Don't have the energy to do a big response, but I do want to complement you on your rational, coherent, well thought out posting style. Even if I disagree, I very much appreciate this kind of discourse here at Apple Insider.
That's because the industry is very protective and selective about the information that they release. The last comprehensive report I've seen that had a full disclosure breakdown of revenues by format came out more than two years ago, and it was something that Sony paid for.
The revenues from Blockbuster and Netflix are counted as rentals. Sales revenues only account for sell-through by end users.
It matters if you want a true apples-to-apples comparison. Just comparing Blu-ray to digital distribution is hardly that. If you want an apples-to-apples comparison, then you need to either compare all optical media vs digital distribution, or compare only Blu-ray vs HD digital distribution.
Like I said, optical formats are not exciting to tech writers. They're pining away for the digital/networked living room, and yet another optical disc format is not part of that world order. Article after article that I've read from PC World, CNET, Engadget, and other sites throw out one negative article after another about how Blu-ray's dying or Blu-ray's not going to make it past the next year or Blu-ray's no better than DVD, etc. Much of it presents little to no evidence, other than the writer's all-too-apparent biases towards streaming/downloading. And considering that these guys are tech writers, the articles also frequently display a surprising lack of knowledge about digital video in general (i.e., the errant claims of unconverted DVD being the same resolution as Blu-ray, not knowing that ANY 1080p HDTV will upconvert a 480p DVD signal to 1080p, etc.). They might know their way around computers, but their appreciation for consumer electronics is often lacking.
But, look at what happened (or hasn't happened) on the audio side. Despite every publication out there having already written the CD format's obituary and despite the iTunes Music Store having been online for more than six years already (the amount of time it took for the DVD to overtake VHS), the CD format still has a 65% market share. Downloading has been hyped to no end by the tech press and mainstream press alike, yet the supposedly dead CD format is still very much alive.
This is the same tunnel visioned view of the world that the tech press has -- that market trends and consumer behavior patterns do not matter because we're talking about digital tech. Indeed, digital technology is a big part of our everyday lives, but its adoption and integration into an average household is an evolutionary process that takes years. Whether a consumer electronics format is digital or analog, it doesn't matter. Consumers do not make lifestyle changes or fundamentally shift their spending habits overnight. They do not adopt new technologies just because the tech press is enamored with it and makes wild predictions about it (most of them are wrong anyway -- witness the hype that accompanied the dotcom boom/bust a decade ago).
Consider that 40% of U.S. households do not currently have broadband. That part of the market is already excluded from this digital future.
The fact of the matter is that Blu-ray's growth trajectory is not that far behind the DVD at a comparable juncture. This is not bad considering that HDTV penetration remains just under 50%. Remember that Blu-ray also had its own competition with HD-DVD, and that format war split the market for about a year and a half. Blu-ray has had full support from the studios for less than two years.
When you look at the growth of downloads and other online media, you need to consider what the actual competition is. I don't see Blu-ray and online media as inherently competing for the same market. Downloads and online media are primarily replacements and/or enhancements to PPV, movie rentals, and recorded TV programming. Who does this affect directly? It affects Blockbuster, the satellite and cable companies, Netflix (though they do their own streaming), and it reduces time spent with DVR recordings. Sell-through disc media is affected to some degree, but it's not a direct competitor like those other options.
And if you choose to compare disc media with digital distribution, it's not even close right now. The type of market shift needed for digital distribution to overtake disc media takes years, and I don't see anything in the market trends that would indicate this happening soon. We're talking about shifting of billions of dollars, and anyone who does consumer expenditure research will tell you that it does not happen overnight. Just because digital technology enables a market change to happen quickly, does not mean that consumers will behave accordingly. Overestimation of how much technological change consumers will tolerate in a short-time is what doomed most of the dotcoms, and anyone who bets on downloads and streaming taking over TV and movie viewing in short order will probably face a similarly rude awakening.
that's OK
on the corporate IT side the same tech rags are writing how cloud computing is the future and you will never own anything again and just rent or buy services
Comments
Mainstream for TV, not for Mac's.
BR drives are flaky and unreliable, prone to draconian DRM schemes that might brick your BR installed in your Mac. Just like the firmware update did to thousands of PS3 owners. And the DRM/rookit thing that came on music cds.
Sony is so controlling, they even altered the Folding@home program to say it's "Life with Playstation" So I can see why there are problems with their firmware updates and BluRay in Mac's.
And yes Sony can make good stuff, it's got a software and control issue though, which makes it too flaky to include their devices in Mac's.
Sony needs to be broken up and let the diseased sections of it die and the good ones, like making TV's, live on and profit.
So flakey and unreliable that my Sony BDP-S1 that I bought in Oct 2006 will play ALL of my 550+ Blu-rays.
DRM that was so draconian that it was used in DVD! AACS, ever heard of it? Firmware didn't brick your stuff, failing optical pickup.
That rootkit stuff is such an AVSforums redant out.
Chances of all the studios backing if there was any belief that the BD would start bricking stuff? ZERO! Do some reading, the majority holder of patents is Panasonic. BD+ was and is not a Sony property. AACS and region coding are in DVD. News flash - it's not legal to copy AACS DVD either!
Just checked 32 GB SD Flash and we can pick them up for $80'ish. Blu-ray media <$.25 US. Pressing Blu is quite fast. Any clue what copying 32 GB to an SD Flash would take? Your scheme still doesn't have a method of authoring, protection or encoding that doesn't include using a technology that will have to be paid for and licensed.
All your arguments were used in CD and DVD. Studios have to be able to protect their property or they won't release it in anywhere but in the theater.
I love posts like franksargent?s. Besides not adding a monitor to the price because he has a 37? 1080p, likely TN display with LCD backlight,
I don't know of too many 37" 1080p TVs that use TN panels.
...though the rest of your post is spot on.
Apple will remove the Superdrive eventually leaving only SD as a removable media (e.g. the high-end Mini). That's what it has to do with Blu-ray - in other words Blu-ray will never come to the Mac platform.
Netflix type downloads are the present - maybe not HD. I used them as an example. All the networks have content downloads. Internet downloads of movie and TV are today and around the world.
Blu-ray is already supported by Final Cut Studio. Both Final Cut 7 and Compressor 3.5 can burn directly to a Blu-ray disc. Unfortunately, thanks to SJ and the chip on his shoulder, we have to use a 3rd-party drive. So, in a matter of speaking, it is on the Mac platform.
SD cards are fine and all, but they're not quite ready to replace optical media. I do see it happening at some point, but if I didn't have an SD card slot in my PS3, they'd be useless as a tool to deliver content to my A/V system. Unfortunately, my AppleTV doesn't adequately fill this role either. There are too many formats it just can't (or won't) handle.
I have Netflix as well and their streaming content is nothing to rave about.
Sure it does, if it's tied to hardware/firmware.
Say someone stole the keys to your unique hardware and copied them, Sony find out that ten zillion copies of the phony keys are being used to pirate content from BluRay disks. They send out a brick command in their firmware update that disables the keys and your machine in the process.
This is what people are suspecting what happened with the PS3, because the hardware is the same and the firmware should be the same, so what is bricking some machines and not others?
Imagine this happening to Macs?
Wonderful imagination. Too bad none of this has widely (or even obscurely) affected Windoze BR-D machines. OOPS!
So flakey and unreliable that my Sony BDP-S1 that I bought in Oct 2006 will play ALL of my 550+ Blu-rays.
I have the same player (now in the bedroom). It doesn't play CD's. Impulse buy actually. I went into BestBuy to get an HDMI cable and saw that it was finally out. That cable cost me $1,110. I had to get another cable for the Sony BDP-S1.
As far as the request to move the Blu Ray vs Downloading to another room.
Please don't. This has been amusing. Only a bunch of Mac Idiots can take a blockbuster week for Apple and turn it into 13 pages of bitching. I love it. Looking forwar to the next 13 pages.
The part that bewildered me was the fact that there is a matte surface behind a glossy screen. So you should be seeing the speculative glare as well as the diffuse glare. Maybe our brains just learn to ignore the diffuse panel glare when you have the specular glare.
Maybe I'll bring out the suction cups tomorrow and see if it looks any better without the glossy screen. I know what you're saying about the speculative and diffuse glare, but I can't say I ever really noticed it (or maybe it just hasn't bothered me yet). You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.
Sure it does, if it's tied to hardware/firmware.
Say someone stole the keys to your unique hardware and copied them, Sony find out that ten zillion copies of the phony keys are being used to pirate content from BluRay disks. They send out a brick command in their firmware update that disables the keys and your machine in the process.
This is what people are suspecting what happened with the PS3, because the hardware is the same and the firmware should be the same, so what is bricking some machines and not others?
Well I call bull on their theory... I have one of the PS3's that people reckon it is happening to, and mine is fine. And my other PS3 is fine too
Imagine this happening to Macs?
Perhaps this problem happened at the right time for Apple.
What? An update for the PS3 killing the Mac? not sure how that would happen
And like they are not all working together on the same standards?
Sony bought BMG.
Sony only owned part of SonyBMG at the time, and BMG were running things. Their purchase took place after the rootkit incident.
I'm with Steve Jobs that BluRay is a bag of hurt. I agree with him.
Out with this mechanical and get high capacity SD cards instead. Easier to change the DRM without bricking the drive too.
How is it going to be easier to change the DRM on a dedicated media player just by have the media on an SD card rather than a disc? You seem to be getting a little confused. Also, the price of SD cards is going to have a drop a lot before they will be a viable replacement for optical discs.
You are entitled to your opinion about blu-ray, I for one believe that digital distribution is a bigger bag of hurt, and it will never be a viable alternative to blu-ray (or dvd for that matter) until we start getting players from multiple manufactures that can play a single unified format.
I have the same player (now in the bedroom). It doesn't play CD's. Impulse buy actually. I went into BestBuy to get an HDMI cable and saw that it was finally out. That cable cost me $1,110. I had to get another cable for the Sony BDP-S1.
As far as the request to move the Blu Ray vs Downloading to another room.
Please don't. This has been amusing. Only a bunch of Mac Idiots can take a blockbuster week for Apple and turn it into 13 pages of bitching. I love it. Looking forwar to the next 13 pages.
www.monoprice.com
$5 2m, CL2 certified cables.
Good luck with that. Why couldn't Apple just put an HDMI input on it?
So flakey and unreliable that my Sony BDP-S1 that I bought in Oct 2006 will play ALL of my 550+ Blu-rays.
Wait, let me get this straight - you have purchased $11,000 in Blu-Ray disks? (550 x $20 each)?
I'm sorry. I don't think I can consider a single comment you make seriously. Wow.
Screens are 1080P & 27" is better then 1080P.
Watch the video.
http://www.apple.com/imac/the-new-imac/#large
Yet there's not a single option for an internal BR drive/recorder.
Insanity on so many levels...
I have the same player (now in the bedroom). It doesn't play CD's. Impulse buy actually. I went into BestBuy to get an HDMI cable and saw that it was finally out. That cable cost me $1,110. I had to get another cable for the Sony BDP-S1.
As far as the request to move the Blu Ray vs Downloading to another room.
Please don't. This has been amusing. Only a bunch of Mac Idiots can take a blockbuster week for Apple and turn it into 13 pages of bitching. I love it. Looking forwar to the next 13 pages.
You're idiotic enough to buy an HDMI cable at BestBuy and have the temerity to label others as "Mac Idiots" (sic).
Blu-ray is already supported by Final Cut Studio. Both Final Cut 7 and Compressor 3.5 can burn directly to a Blu-ray disc. Unfortunately, thanks to SJ and the chip on his shoulder, we have to use a 3rd=party drive. So, in a matter of speaking, it is on the Mac platform.
SD cards a fine an all, but they're not quite ready to replace optical media. I do see it happening at some point, but if I didn't have an SD card slot in my PS3, they'd be useless as a tool to deliver content to my A/V system. Unfortunately, my AppleTV doesn't adequately fill this role either. There are too many formats it just can't (or won't) handle.
I have Netflix as well and their streaming content is nothing to rave about.
I worked for a company in Seattle called ModSystems that is heavily invested into by Toshiba (a.k.a. the ones that lost the HD war with Sony). Their goal is to out-do Blu-ray with kiosks that will dispense SD cards for SD enabled TVs and/or players (including computers). That was a stated goal of theirs in late 2007, so I don't know where they are with that today but I'd agree that SD can store more than a blu-ray disc and is more portable. However it isn't as ubiquitous. Does Apple know something we don't since they are privy to industry news?
Wait, let me get this straight - you have purchased $11,000 in Blu-Ray disks? (550 x $20 each)?
I'm sorry. I don't think I can consider a single comment you make seriously. Wow.
I love film and I love to collect. If I add up all the sets it's probably closer to 600 than 550. I did the same with VHS and DVD.
And I don't watch BDs on my Mac. I don't want to but that's my choice and it doesn't mean there isn't a customer base out there. I also won't support arguments supported by BS.
Edit: I reckon you should take me seriously because I do understand Blu-ray.
Wait, let me get this straight - you have purchased $11,000 in Blu-Ray disks? (550 x $20 each)?
I'm sorry. I don't think I can consider a single comment you make seriously. Wow.
Why? There are lots of movie buffs out there. Plenty of audiophiles spend far more than $11,000 on albums too.
I worked for a company in Seattle called ModSystems that is heavily invested into by Toshiba (a.k.a. the ones that lost the HD war with Sony). Their goal is to out-do Blu-ray with kiosks that will dispense SD cards for SD enabled TVs and/or players (including computers). That was a stated goal of theirs in late 2007, so I don't know where they are with that today but I'd agree that SD can store more than a blu-ray disc and is more portable. However it isn't as ubiquitous. Does Apple know something we don't since they are privy to industry news?
You forgot to include the fact that SD is substantially more expensive than BR-D, and most SD cards are nowhere near the read/write speeds either.
Keep spewing nonsense though. We are all amused by your idiocy.
That's because the industry is very protective and selective about the information that they release. The last comprehensive report I've seen that had a full disclosure breakdown of revenues by format came out more than two years ago, and it was something that Sony paid for.
The revenues from Blockbuster and Netflix are counted as rentals. Sales revenues only account for sell-through by end users.
It matters if you want a true apples-to-apples comparison. Just comparing Blu-ray to digital distribution is hardly that. If you want an apples-to-apples comparison, then you need to either compare all optical media vs digital distribution, or compare only Blu-ray vs HD digital distribution.
Like I said, optical formats are not exciting to tech writers. They're pining away for the digital/networked living room, and yet another optical disc format is not part of that world order. Article after article that I've read from PC World, CNET, Engadget, and other sites throw out one negative article after another about how Blu-ray's dying or Blu-ray's not going to make it past the next year or Blu-ray's no better than DVD, etc. Much of it presents little to no evidence, other than the writer's all-too-apparent biases towards streaming/downloading. And considering that these guys are tech writers, the articles also frequently display a surprising lack of knowledge about digital video in general (i.e., the errant claims of unconverted DVD being the same resolution as Blu-ray, not knowing that ANY 1080p HDTV will upconvert a 480p DVD signal to 1080p, etc.). They might know their way around computers, but their appreciation for consumer electronics is often lacking.
But, look at what happened (or hasn't happened) on the audio side. Despite every publication out there having already written the CD format's obituary and despite the iTunes Music Store having been online for more than six years already (the amount of time it took for the DVD to overtake VHS), the CD format still has a 65% market share. Downloading has been hyped to no end by the tech press and mainstream press alike, yet the supposedly dead CD format is still very much alive.
This is the same tunnel visioned view of the world that the tech press has -- that market trends and consumer behavior patterns do not matter because we're talking about digital tech. Indeed, digital technology is a big part of our everyday lives, but its adoption and integration into an average household is an evolutionary process that takes years. Whether a consumer electronics format is digital or analog, it doesn't matter. Consumers do not make lifestyle changes or fundamentally shift their spending habits overnight. They do not adopt new technologies just because the tech press is enamored with it and makes wild predictions about it (most of them are wrong anyway -- witness the hype that accompanied the dotcom boom/bust a decade ago).
Consider that 40% of U.S. households do not currently have broadband. That part of the market is already excluded from this digital future.
The fact of the matter is that Blu-ray's growth trajectory is not that far behind the DVD at a comparable juncture. This is not bad considering that HDTV penetration remains just under 50%. Remember that Blu-ray also had its own competition with HD-DVD, and that format war split the market for about a year and a half. Blu-ray has had full support from the studios for less than two years.
When you look at the growth of downloads and other online media, you need to consider what the actual competition is. I don't see Blu-ray and online media as inherently competing for the same market. Downloads and online media are primarily replacements and/or enhancements to PPV, movie rentals, and recorded TV programming. Who does this affect directly? It affects Blockbuster, the satellite and cable companies, Netflix (though they do their own streaming), and it reduces time spent with DVR recordings. Sell-through disc media is affected to some degree, but it's not a direct competitor like those other options.
And if you choose to compare disc media with digital distribution, it's not even close right now. The type of market shift needed for digital distribution to overtake disc media takes years, and I don't see anything in the market trends that would indicate this happening soon. We're talking about shifting of billions of dollars, and anyone who does consumer expenditure research will tell you that it does not happen overnight. Just because digital technology enables a market change to happen quickly, does not mean that consumers will behave accordingly. Overestimation of how much technological change consumers will tolerate in a short-time is what doomed most of the dotcoms, and anyone who bets on downloads and streaming taking over TV and movie viewing in short order will probably face a similarly rude awakening.
Woochifer--
Don't have the energy to do a big response, but I do want to complement you on your rational, coherent, well thought out posting style. Even if I disagree, I very much appreciate this kind of discourse here at Apple Insider.
That's because the industry is very protective and selective about the information that they release. The last comprehensive report I've seen that had a full disclosure breakdown of revenues by format came out more than two years ago, and it was something that Sony paid for.
The revenues from Blockbuster and Netflix are counted as rentals. Sales revenues only account for sell-through by end users.
It matters if you want a true apples-to-apples comparison. Just comparing Blu-ray to digital distribution is hardly that. If you want an apples-to-apples comparison, then you need to either compare all optical media vs digital distribution, or compare only Blu-ray vs HD digital distribution.
Like I said, optical formats are not exciting to tech writers. They're pining away for the digital/networked living room, and yet another optical disc format is not part of that world order. Article after article that I've read from PC World, CNET, Engadget, and other sites throw out one negative article after another about how Blu-ray's dying or Blu-ray's not going to make it past the next year or Blu-ray's no better than DVD, etc. Much of it presents little to no evidence, other than the writer's all-too-apparent biases towards streaming/downloading. And considering that these guys are tech writers, the articles also frequently display a surprising lack of knowledge about digital video in general (i.e., the errant claims of unconverted DVD being the same resolution as Blu-ray, not knowing that ANY 1080p HDTV will upconvert a 480p DVD signal to 1080p, etc.). They might know their way around computers, but their appreciation for consumer electronics is often lacking.
But, look at what happened (or hasn't happened) on the audio side. Despite every publication out there having already written the CD format's obituary and despite the iTunes Music Store having been online for more than six years already (the amount of time it took for the DVD to overtake VHS), the CD format still has a 65% market share. Downloading has been hyped to no end by the tech press and mainstream press alike, yet the supposedly dead CD format is still very much alive.
This is the same tunnel visioned view of the world that the tech press has -- that market trends and consumer behavior patterns do not matter because we're talking about digital tech. Indeed, digital technology is a big part of our everyday lives, but its adoption and integration into an average household is an evolutionary process that takes years. Whether a consumer electronics format is digital or analog, it doesn't matter. Consumers do not make lifestyle changes or fundamentally shift their spending habits overnight. They do not adopt new technologies just because the tech press is enamored with it and makes wild predictions about it (most of them are wrong anyway -- witness the hype that accompanied the dotcom boom/bust a decade ago).
Consider that 40% of U.S. households do not currently have broadband. That part of the market is already excluded from this digital future.
The fact of the matter is that Blu-ray's growth trajectory is not that far behind the DVD at a comparable juncture. This is not bad considering that HDTV penetration remains just under 50%. Remember that Blu-ray also had its own competition with HD-DVD, and that format war split the market for about a year and a half. Blu-ray has had full support from the studios for less than two years.
When you look at the growth of downloads and other online media, you need to consider what the actual competition is. I don't see Blu-ray and online media as inherently competing for the same market. Downloads and online media are primarily replacements and/or enhancements to PPV, movie rentals, and recorded TV programming. Who does this affect directly? It affects Blockbuster, the satellite and cable companies, Netflix (though they do their own streaming), and it reduces time spent with DVR recordings. Sell-through disc media is affected to some degree, but it's not a direct competitor like those other options.
And if you choose to compare disc media with digital distribution, it's not even close right now. The type of market shift needed for digital distribution to overtake disc media takes years, and I don't see anything in the market trends that would indicate this happening soon. We're talking about shifting of billions of dollars, and anyone who does consumer expenditure research will tell you that it does not happen overnight. Just because digital technology enables a market change to happen quickly, does not mean that consumers will behave accordingly. Overestimation of how much technological change consumers will tolerate in a short-time is what doomed most of the dotcoms, and anyone who bets on downloads and streaming taking over TV and movie viewing in short order will probably face a similarly rude awakening.
that's OK
on the corporate IT side the same tech rags are writing how cloud computing is the future and you will never own anything again and just rent or buy services