Do you want blu-ray to remain niche? - Page 6

It (what ppl around here *want*) doesn't really matter.

I can't imagine how blu-ray can remain a niche product if it is the interest of all big players (CE, Studios, stores) that it doesn't.

Catalog titles are niche. If blu-ray stays niche, that's a niche of a niche. So far, older catalog titles haven't sold well at all. IIRC, Casablanca only sold a few thousand copies. They can't make money with those numbers.

That's the problem with being different from the general public, they're the ones catered to. Which means they don't have cars with enough leg or headroom, my size shoes in stock, or movies with a decent story.

BR, I hope doesn't remain niche. It would be a shame to lose the only method that will ever be known for watching 1080P content.

1080P with lossless codecs will never be available through cable or Apple TV. Even FIOS is too bandwith limited.

I fear that BR has some work to do still not to become niche. They need final spec, full-featured players which require no firmware updates, are not buggy, and turn off/on, stop/resume, and start the movie as fast if not faster than current DVDs.

Further, they need to both develop a combo BR/DVD disc and figure out a way to make the format portable beyond carrying around a laptop. If BR players can't be miniaturized or copied onto a format for transport, I am afraid that J6P will see this as a negative and a step back.

I hope BR doesn't become niche, because if it does, I suspect the BDA will drop it like a hot potato in its next iteration of HDM due to the enhanced costs and start on reduced quality downloads which they will tout as tranformational.

BR has a future...just not sure what that holds.

about 10,000,000 worldwide...and counting....can you hear it now ????

Yes unfortuantely the PS3 still runs hella hot with all those fans....


No one wants BD to stay niche but it will......there is too much competition in the marketplace now for HD as well as DVD and in 5 years do you really thing DL movies will not improve on quality of delivery?

Just like the internet went from dial up to broadband so will hd.

Hell No! I want my HD audio and video!

but but but gamers don't watch movies

Gamers will watch movies, if there aren't enough games. The PS3 is the greatest blu ray player of all time.

Cheers

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=999018

Nuff'said.

I would like for HDM to be more successful and wider spread than DVD. Every single CE building players at every price level, and as good an encode as the media allows for every title.

In a few years there would be bargain bins at the B and M s with HDM for $2.99 at which time I would buy a bunch.

For now a couple hundred Red and Blu at under $10 will have to suffice.

This thing is going to blow wide open.

Studios like to see bigger prices which they can have for a while with Bluray. I would expect to see a transition for them from DVD. Why? The players will come down to commodity prices soon. Also how many of you know people with big screen TV's. The penetration is quite large. Also it will grow due to confusion over the Digital transition next year. Peopl have the TV's there is incentive for the studios to try to make more money per copy, the players will come down in price... DVD players will fade away to be replaced by Bluray.

Did any of you watch how DVD moved in? Admitedly Bluray shares a the same features that moved people from VHS to DVD (random access, smaller size) but it is the studios and manufacturers who will move us.

And don't get me started on downloads. They won't be worth a darn for quite a few years.

2.0 is not out there at all. Widely is hardly an appropriate word.

Better take this time to come up with some new reasons to hate BD because in June when the BD50 hits the streets all the "BD isn't complete" stuff is going to be irrelevant.

Don't worry, they'll come up with something.

How many of them really care about profile 2.0 anyway if they are ready to accept low quality downloads with no interactivity?

Besides, they still have their old standbys: "downloads are poised to take over the market" and "BD players aren't $99 yet".

Trudat, trudat....gamers spend cash on winning formats....not wannabe's

"niche is the new black"...or so I've heard from the early adopters who mistook HD-DVD as the format of choice...let it go...

In an attempt to get the thread back to the OP...

I want thousand of movies on BD. And as far as the discussions about what if this and that and will the quality go down/up etc. I don't really know and I can't really care. If I had that crystal ball I wouldn't be typing this now would I?

SOOOOOOOO, in the meantime I'll be enjoying HDM on both formats because as of yesterday I joined the evil side.

I'm thinking NO to "niche". Sony probably has a window of opportunity of maybe five years, before movie downloads become the norm. Sony is going to want to push as much product as they can over that period. And since the studios already threw their hat down with Blu-Ray, they are going to want to crank out as many titles as people will buy. DVD sales were off last year according to a fairly recent USA Today article. "For the first time since the format was launched in 1997, consumers spent less on DVDs than in the previous year."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...slippage_N.htm

The last sentence in that USA Today article reads;

"With one format, the industry can promote Blu-ray to the masses."

Only time will tell...

Mike

I totally, completely, absolutely want BR to be niche. I enjoy being one step ahead of the technology curve, and I get plesaure from guests getting blown away by good PQ and SQ.

That was why I had laserdiscs when everyone else had VHS, and why I had BR/HD-DVD when everyone else had DVDs. $2,000 starting point for a BR player is about what laserdisc players were worth, adjusting for inflation. And $100 starting point for a movie is about what I paid for laserdiscs in today's dollars. Since I am significantly better off (financially) today than 20 years ago, I am actually willing to pay higher than those prices.

I am willing to pay those prices, as long as BR is not mass-market. Once they are, my expectation becomes $200 for players and $10 for movies.

I get pleasure from letting guests' kids play Grand Theft Auto on my PS3 while I get blown away by some crack in the next room.

My Ps3 is silent. Maybe theres something wrong with yours, or its not getting proper airflow.