Blu-Ray Death Watch Starting
Feb 23rd, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Video Downloads, Streaming Video, Video 
Back in June of last year, we suggested that in the fight between Blu-Ray and HD DVD, Internet TV would be the winner:
Internet TV is plagued by the same problems as Blu-Ray and HD DVD, though: limited content, complex setup and high cost for hardware. Nevertheless, Internet TV is already good enough to make users realize that high definition video discs are a tangent to the real future of video delivery – Internet TV.
When Steve Jobs made his MacWorld announcements earlier this year, we said that his one more thing was that Apple was killing of the DVD:
Don’t expect Apple to kill off the DVD overnight. It took Apple a few years to get rid of the floppy drive, and there are still some PCs that come with floppy drives.
Nevertheless, Apple is looking ahead, not back, and the future Steve Jobs envisions doesn’t included DVDs.
Now mainstream coverage is picking up this idea.
Blu-Ray Death Watch
With the death of HD DVD, the Apple TV update and various new Internet TV services, the idea of a Blu-Ray death watch doesn’t sound so far-fetched anymore.
Here’s CNet’s take:
With the fall of HD DVD, Blu-ray has assumed the throne as the next format of choice, but its reign will be short-lived.
The studios backing Blu-ray already know this. At an HDTV confab last fall, Warner Bros.’ vice president of high-definition media development likened HD packaged media to a set of training wheels for digital downloads.
“We can use HD discs to train consumers to move into digital, but it’s a transition,” said Warner Bros.’ Dan Silverberg. “Downloaded content will come, but the consumer will get quicker tutorial into video-on-demand, etc., by owning a Blu-ray player or HD DVD.”
It’ll happen sooner than they think. With a growing number of alternatives to packaged media, combined with the relatively high prices of Blu-ray players and discs vs. inexpensive, so-called upconverting DVD players, Blu-ray will likely be the last major disc format you’ll ever buy.
What do you think? Are you going to invest in Blu-Ray?
Not until 2.0 comes out and certainly not until prices drop and not from Sony.
There were numerous deficiencies with Blu-Ray. Lack of an advanced menuing system on a par with HDDVD, for one, quality control another. Dual combo format is another thing that HDDVD had all over Blu-Ray. Ask yourself whether you want to replace every DVD throughout the house with BluRay, or everydisk in every desktop or laptop you own. I have nine devices that can play DVD, so I will continue to need DVD format disks unless I want to be restricted to just the big, expensive player in the living room when I want to watch a movie.
rust me when I say that Blu-Ray is being stuffed down our throats by Hollywood for it’s own interests. The somewhat superior anti-piracy protection afforded by Blu-Ray over competition is certainly enough to have pushed studios irrevocably in that direction. They hardly want you to be able to access the disks you own now – copy protection, regional schemes, shrinkwrap, extra tape on the edges, little tiny locks on the cases, anti-theft devices in the packaging – it requires five minutes of extra work and a sharp knife just to get the disk out of the box for it’s first viewing.
Then there’s Sony, one of the most-overpriced, least trustworthy offerings out there. Remember the rootkits they put on CDs to make sure you wouldn’t use your PCs to rip the content? I know they apologized and replaced the disks but that was unforgiveable.
And, the studios really are just waiting until there’s bandwidth to support downloading anyway, so then they can stop delivering the content to you other than on a temporary, rental basis, and hit you with usage fees for every viewing. Copntent on portable, durable media is going to be tomorrow’s button hook shoes.
This isn’t about the consumer and convenience to them, it’s all about studio bottom line financial results and we’re just along to pay the bill. This is a sausage factory, folks. You might like movies but it’s best not to ask how they get made and how they get to you.
[…] Blu-ray death watch starting February 25, 2008 — Bob Morris Didn’t Blu-ray just win over HD DVD? Yes, but the future, coming real quick now, will be digital delivery. Posted in None. […]