I doubt many expect DVD to be completely replaced by BD. I just figure one day BD will outsell DVD, as prices decline.
Economy causes Blu-Ray Stutter
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I'm more optimistic about Blu-ray coming on stronger.
Bear in mind, that doesn't mean everyone is going to be replacing all the DVDs in their movie collection with BDs. I certainly won't -and that's mainly because I have a lot of DVDs I never should have purchased.
Nevertheless, I do believe BD will start outselling DVD sooner than many think on releases of new movies. For one thing the DVD format is now in a steady rate of decline. While BD movies sales are but a mere fraction of DVD sales, those sales are significant enough to more than offset the market losses DVD has been posting for the last couple of years. BD is going to eat out a bigger and bigger share.
I think The Dark Knight will be an interesting release to watch in terms of Blu-ray sales. Even Iron Man will have some interesting numbers. Event movies like that will push a new format like BD up to a new sales plateau. DVD was helped in this regard as The Matrix set sales records, followed by Gladiator in 2000 and other hits leading up to the Lord of the Rings DVD releases. Big hit movies will increase the popularity of BD in the same way.
We also can't leave out the factor of HDTV snobbery. I am an HDTV snob. I am spoiled to HD content and really have to force myself to watch SD content. If I'm really wanting to watch a certain DVD I have in my movie collection I'll stomach it, but I also think of how much better it would look in native 1080p. This may end up being a bigger factor to quicken BD adoption than anything else. Upconverting SD just doesn't cut it once you get a taste for the good stuff.
I believe the folks who think SD will stick around for a long time to come either haven't seen the difference between great looking HD or SD or they just have an axe to grind against upgrading to HD.
Bear in mind, that doesn't mean everyone is going to be replacing all the DVDs in their movie collection with BDs. I certainly won't -and that's mainly because I have a lot of DVDs I never should have purchased.
Nevertheless, I do believe BD will start outselling DVD sooner than many think on releases of new movies. For one thing the DVD format is now in a steady rate of decline. While BD movies sales are but a mere fraction of DVD sales, those sales are significant enough to more than offset the market losses DVD has been posting for the last couple of years. BD is going to eat out a bigger and bigger share.
I think The Dark Knight will be an interesting release to watch in terms of Blu-ray sales. Even Iron Man will have some interesting numbers. Event movies like that will push a new format like BD up to a new sales plateau. DVD was helped in this regard as The Matrix set sales records, followed by Gladiator in 2000 and other hits leading up to the Lord of the Rings DVD releases. Big hit movies will increase the popularity of BD in the same way.
We also can't leave out the factor of HDTV snobbery. I am an HDTV snob. I am spoiled to HD content and really have to force myself to watch SD content. If I'm really wanting to watch a certain DVD I have in my movie collection I'll stomach it, but I also think of how much better it would look in native 1080p. This may end up being a bigger factor to quicken BD adoption than anything else. Upconverting SD just doesn't cut it once you get a taste for the good stuff.
I believe the folks who think SD will stick around for a long time to come either haven't seen the difference between great looking HD or SD or they just have an axe to grind against upgrading to HD.
I don't know if I will be replacing a lot of my SD DVDs either. I have purchased a few romantic comedies in Blu Ray now and I am coming to the conclusion that stuff that is mainly talking heads, or intimate scenes, just doesn't have much of an impact. I recently purchased '50 First Dates' and I think I would have been nearly as happy with the SD version here. I tend to get lost in the story and don't really notice the difference.
Action/Adventure or horror - no brainer. The rest, not so much, especially if you have a good upconverter.
Action/Adventure or horror - no brainer. The rest, not so much, especially if you have a good upconverter.
I love that movie. That's one I'll watch anytime it's on. I'm just going to look for it on sale somewhere and buy it.
S~
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I'm like many out there and waiting (until next year apparently) for the price of the players with features to drop below $200. I keep getting the feeling that the Blu-ray manufacturers are holding out on the full-featured units to try and clear the ones that don't have network connectivity and interactive capabilities.
Where I shop, these units don't seem to be moving very fast. A pallet of BD300 at my local Costco has lasted almost two months at $280; about $70 less than it was going for a year ago and it is a 1.0 machine? No thanks.
Where I shop, these units don't seem to be moving very fast. A pallet of BD300 at my local Costco has lasted almost two months at $280; about $70 less than it was going for a year ago and it is a 1.0 machine? No thanks.
Honestly, Sony's BDP-300 is just not all that great a player. It's a basic Profile 1.0 player and lacks support for certain audio formats. The unit won't internally decode or bitstream output Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD audio tracks. Sony should be liquidating those players for well under $200 or even for just $99 -or merely pull them from the market completely.
The Playstation 3 is the main reason why most standalone BD players are moving slowly. The PS3 has by far the most value in terms of features and capability of any Blu-ray player on the market. On top of that it loads discs faster than any other player. It loads Bonus View and BD Live features faster than any other player. The only thing PS3 lacks is bitstream output of DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD -but it internally decodes both and outputs them up to 7.1. If someone asks me which Blu-ray player they should buy I still recommend the PS3 as the best choice.
As the price drops further on models like Sony's BDP-S350 or new Panasonic models they may start to become more attractive. I still think another generation of standalones will have to come up and challenge PS3 in terms of speed and performance. So far the standalones haven't done that.
It might be interesting to note in this context that the Sony BDP-S350 is only $299 at Best Buy currently: Sony - Blu-ray Disc Player with 1080p Output - BDP-S350
Someone please help out a "BD-challenged" (reforming HD DVD enthusiast) A/V hobbiest. Are the 350/550 profile 2.0? (I see the 350 has the ethernet connection that I associate with 2.0.) What are the meaningful differences between the two?
Also - since I don't have broadband at home, are there down-loadable updates that I can burn to disk as an alternate to the ethernet updates?
With all the hoopla about Iron Man, I may pull the trigger sooner rather than later on BD. (Might also be a good reason to hook up the 2 extra speakers I bought months ago for 7.1 !!)
TIA and BRgds...
Also - since I don't have broadband at home, are there down-loadable updates that I can burn to disk as an alternate to the ethernet updates?
With all the hoopla about Iron Man, I may pull the trigger sooner rather than later on BD. (Might also be a good reason to hook up the 2 extra speakers I bought months ago for 7.1 !!)
TIA and BRgds...
I don't think Sony's 550 model is available yet. When it ships it will be Profile 2.0 right out of the box. The 550 has both built in decoding and bit stream output for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. It even has a analog 7.1 output.
The 350 is Profile 1.1, but can be updated to Profile 2.0 via a firmware update that is available. You can download it directly to the player or download it from Sony's website to create a firmware disc using a personal computer & CD burner.
The 350 is Profile 1.1, but can be updated to Profile 2.0 via a firmware update that is available. You can download it directly to the player or download it from Sony's website to create a firmware disc using a personal computer & CD burner.
Tks for that! Amazon has both listed but perhaps the 550 at (now) $399 is a pre-buy only (it says "usually ships in 3-5 weeks!). I'll want the bitstream output in part because the single set of 7.1 analog multichannel inputs on my receiver are already occupied with my SACD player that does not have DSD. Anyone know if either of these newer BD players will play SACDs ??
TIA and have a great weekend...!
TIA and have a great weekend...!
Panasonic no. I don't believe the SOny does either and they haven't put their OM online yet and it is not listed in the spec sheet.
S~
S~
If any do it would be Sonys, like the PS3. But like you I have not seen any information either way on the standalone players. Tks for your reply!
The Sony BDP-300 does decode Dolby TrueHD internally. There is now a firmware for it (http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download.pl?upd_id=3716&SMB=YES&template_id=1®ion_id=1). For some of us the profile doesn't really matter. Most viewers including myself like to watch a movie. You can keep all the other crap.
