Yeah, I don't really see what the problem is here. New technology like this always takes a while to settle out. Plus, it's not as if people who bought early Blu-Ray players weren't taking a 50% chance of their format dying in the face of HD-DVD anyway.
That said, I have no intention of buying a Blu-Ray player. The quality jump from standard DVD to Blu-Ray just isn't as pronounced as the one from VHS to DVD (and yes, I have a 1080p tv). 3 times the cost for a negligible increase in picture quality just isn't an expense that I can justify.
Within the next decade, we should see a real rise in digital distribution. Broadband speeds are getting to the point where you could watch a DVD quality movie as it downloads and then save it to your hard drive. There just isn't a good system in place yet that delivers this, but I'm sure it's coming.
I don't see why they couldn't. Even with archaic compression standards, most movies don't even fill a 4.7GB disc. If they got the file size down to 1 gigabyte, that would only take 20 minutes to download on my connection.
Hmm. I've ripped my DVDs from whatever bitrate they normally have (8mbps MPEG2?) to 1.5mbps H.264 at the same res and there's no loss in quality. Apple have just started a renting service and updated the proper puchasing service so you can watch as they download. Steve Jobs demonstrated on an 8mbps connection and it took 30 seconds to begin the streaming.
'sall ready here. A might good service too. DD is where we're going.
I want discs. Downloading films is for piracy. People aren't going to switch to paying for them. If they want high quality shit they're gonna buy the discs. Or, at least, I HOPE they will. :-\
Originally Posted by Kirby Smith The quality jump from standard DVD to Blu-Ray just isn't as pronounced as the one from VHS to DVD (and yes, I have a 1080p tv).
The jump from DVD to HD-DVD/Blu Ray is merely an increase of resolution. Going from VHS to DVD however gave more convenience (no rewinding tapes), reliability (no tapewear), a HUGE boost in color resolution, about 100 times better signal/noise ratio, ehh did I forget anything?
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Originally Posted by Kirby Smith The quality jump from standard DVD to Blu-Ray just isn't as pronounced as the one from VHS to DVD (and yes, I have a 1080p tv).
The jump from DVD to HD-DVD/Blu Ray is merely an increase of resolution. Going from VHS to DVD however gave more convenience (no rewinding tapes), reliability (no tapewear), a HUGE boost in color resolution, about 100 times better signal/noise ratio, ehh did I forget anything?
Exactly. DVD is going to win this war, there's too much apathy towards this technology. DVD wasn't an overnight success and it took, was it 2003/4 before Curry's and all them lot dropped dedicated VHS recorders? Yet it did better than both these new HD standards combined.
With Xbox Marketplace and iTunes now offering HD film purchasing and rental it's going to be even tougher for both physical HD media to make an impact. Convenience and price; DD has it. id super pack on steam is £30 for 23 games, and the GTA collection is £20. Remove packaging and delivery = nice prices.
I really wonder if the complete and utter lack of consumer confidence will eventually kill the ENTIRE generation; stand-alone blu-ray players buyers get abandoned, and the only other (and main) player, the PS3, is flopping like a turd. If blu-ray wins against HD-DVD, it will be a Pyhrric victory; both formats will lose.
I think we're all going to be using DVDs up till the point that portable hard-data storage itself becomes obsolete, which is something already in the works.