2008 was Great for Blu-ray, '09 Even Better!

[admin]

Blu-ray has become one of the most successful new consumer electronics products to come along in recent history. So says Andy Parsons, Blu-ray Disc Promotions Group chairman. He says the format made huge strides in the final weeks of '08 and shows no sign of slowing down. The only real competitor on the horizon for Blu-ray are digital downloads and all I can is - don’t hold your breath.


Discuss "2008 was Great for Blu-ray, '09 Even Better!" here. Read the article.

[jostenmeat]

Yeah. I have nothing against DD's, but I'll stick with BD as long as it represents the highest level of PQ and AQ.

Cable Companies from Comcast to many of the smaller ones throughout the US are reeling in their claims of unlimited Internet access. Comcast has set a hard cap on its Internet access plans to 250 GB of downloads before customers are treated to extra charges. Sure, 250 GB sounds generous today. But generous today is easily tomorrow’s baseline requirement, especially in a future where we’re downloading all of our television and movie programming.

Just my Godfather collection alone would take up the greater portion of 250 GB. Each movie almost uses the entire 50 GB per available per disc, and then there's the extras. I've been following the 25 Gb vs 50 Gb proportion for a while, and the 50 GB discs have been increasing ever since I've cared to follow this. When I first started following, I believe 25 GB represented slightly over half of all titles. 50 GB now represent 58.41%, and climbing. However, it's important to note that just because they use a 50 GB does not mean they necessarily will use all, or nearly all, of the space available.

[sahihai]

Having jumped into the Blu ray world with this new year, I too am excited with the great PQ and SQ I am getting. It's like an entire new workd has opened. Now what would really sweeten things up is if the BR discs became cheaper.

[GlocksRock]

This once again shows what I have been saying... don't expect to see downloadable content to trump physical media anytime soon. But I do hope for blu ray to become a big success. My girlfriends mom and sister are looking to get a blu ray player, so I've been assisting them in the process of selecting the right one, and every player that finds it's way into someones home is a step in the right direction.

[BMXTRIX]

It is a nice read, but misses out on some of the negatives which aren't really presented from Andy and the BDA. Keep in mind as I say this, I am one of the few staunch believers that Blu-ray from day one would be a success and I have criticized AH extensively for almost every negative statement made against HD formats...

Blu-ray is seeing increased growth but is using numbers which include PS3 consoles. It is very difficult to determine from the press release whether or not the discs sold information is strictly movies, or if it inludes PS3 games. Keep in mind, the first '2 million month' occurred in 2008, but was that for movies, or movies and games? It would be good if it was for movies only, but hard to tell.

I think that consumer adoption is nearly guaranteed, but I also believe that to expect Blu-ray to outpace DVD would be naive and it is more about spinning for bragging rights instead of actually being able to put up real numbers. Blu-ray has an audience which is mostly limited to HDTV owners, which is a smaller percentage of the US population than SDTV owners. So, first a TV owner must decide to buy a HDTV, then they must spend more to get a Blu-ray player to go along with it.

It is logical, that a HDTV owner should have a HD disc player to go along with it. It is an easy sale. But, first people have to have the money to buy.

The recession will keep BD from truly reaching its full potential in the next couple of years, but I expect that BD will still see solid growth, and we will see better and better players for less money.

This is the inevitability that I blame Audioholics for completely missing from day one. Blu-ray & HD DVD both have very similar potential for quality, but with a product which is obviously a good thing, there has never been a CE product to my knowledge with so diversified of CE support which has ever failed.

"A lot of readers blamed Audioholics at large for an HD DVD bent during the format war."

No, Audioholics had a bent against HD in general and didn't realize that HD DVD was never the actual competitor to Blu-ray. Blu-ray was always setting itself up to be the competitor to DVD, and had to work very carefully to get rid of HD DVD to ensure that the proper focus on DVD could be properly in the spotlight.

Good to see at least a bit of turn from AH on this.

Now if we can see some more of the BD players put into the hardware reviews it would be a good thing. It was ten months between Audioholics reviewing their last HD disc player and the most current review. TEN MONTHS! That's a full production cycle for most companies, and even worse, the player reviewed before the recent Memorex, was the Toshiba A35 HD DVD player.

I really hope AH will step up with reviews of the Samsungs, Panasonics, and Sony players as well as some of the lesser knowns, such as Oppo.

EDIT: Audioholics did an excellent job slamming both HD formats 2.5 years ago... Yet, this was my response to it all...
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums...883#post187883 - Would love to know what you guys think now.

[wiyosaya]

Personally, I think that BR's adoption rate would increase if stand-alone BR recorders that lack draconian rights management and have HDMI inputs were available in the US.

When the US will get stand-alone BR recorders is anyone's guess Sharp specifically said at CES not to expect any this year.

However, according to this "note," Sony showed at least one prototype stand-alone BR recorder at CES 2009. There is another reference to the machine here.

Neither reference gives a market target date.

[bobnegi]

Well, I have decided to skip Blue Ray, I will eventually get a 1080p front projector and use my upscaling Toshiba HD DVD and Denon 2910 to get close to the Blue Ray effect

Woooo Hoooo wait till 3D DVD rolls around, now thats something to get excited about!

[Thunder18]

Well, I have decided to skip Blue Ray, I will eventually get a 1080p front projector and use my upscaling Toshiba HD DVD and Denon 2910 to get close to the Blue Ray effect

Woooo Hoooo wait till 3D DVD rolls around, now thats something to get excited about!

Panasonic is already working with the rest of the BDA to standardize 3D Blu-Ray media...
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/06...-movies-in-hd/

Looks like even Dolby labs is looking to do the same thing:
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2009/01...-movies,-games

[Bluesmoke]

I bought my first blu-ray disc with Kingdom of Heaven in 2006. Been an avid supporter of the format since despite the format war.

[BMXTRIX]

Well, I have decided to skip Blue Ray, I will eventually get a 1080p front projector and use my upscaling Toshiba HD DVD and Denon 2910 to get close to the Blue Ray effect

Woooo Hoooo wait till 3D DVD rolls around, now thats something to get excited about!

I'm definitely hanging onto my AM radio and upconverting VCR with my B&W TV for that near 'Blu-ray' effect until 4D real life time shifting technology comes along.

Really, someday someone will have to explain to me why people try to convince others that 480i DVD is somehow capable of 1080p performance. It's not bad, for sure, but HD DVD blew away DVD, and Blu-ray is every bit is gorgeous.

It's why we all bought HD displays isn't it?