Blu-ray will be dead by 2012. Here's why...

Blu-ray won the format war, but it's doomed to the same fate as its former arch-rival.

[sonarus]

lol it seems like everyone wants blu ray to die meanwhile blu ray is still on the rise. It keeps giving movie industry growth and all the supporters are getting rich from it.

In 2012 there mayb be a new format that denounces blu ray but i think blu ray will still hold its own for a while after that. I like to keep my movies i don't like to rent them. I have over 30 blu ray movies at 50GB each thats 1.5TB and i am still collecting movies. Until i can get a hardrive like that for real cheap am sticking to blu ray

[Jamie Foxx]

but the better tec blu-ray wont?

article is an epic fail

[mikeslemonade]

Sounds like a bitter HD-DVD owner wrote this article.

[Dark General]

That with their time machine they would use it for something more worthy like stopping hitler or something. But no they go to the year 2012 to see that's when Blu-Ray becomes obsolete... Wait a minute they don't have a time machine.

[Sergeant Osiris]

I see the author of this article went FULL RETARD and it will cost him just like it cost my costar Tug Speedman in the epic flop simple jack.

[el_bandito]

I think by 2012 it is still seemingly impossible to download a full HD movie or game in a matter of hours. If there will be, I bet I couldn't afford such a package from an ISP.

Above all, I maybe one of the last people in the world who'd still prefer physical copies of games/movies with all those fancy sleeves and cases, over copies stored in my hard drive. Much more, I couldn't see how showing off the latter (as a personal collection) to someone would be better than the former.

[Rock Bottom]

Blah Blah Blah...

[StephanieBBB]

And by 2012 Sony and other companys will have brought in an fortune on the blueray so then didn't it serve it's purpose? I don't understand the meaning of articles like this, are they trying to get people worried that blueray will stop selling or are they just stating the obvious?

[season007]

There are definitely MUCH BETTER reasonings we can imagine at the moment than those listed...

[DeadlyFire]

There will be at least 3 disc formats competing in the next format war. Blu-Ray, SVOD, and HVD. All with discs from 100 GB to at least 1 TB. Unlimited capabilities with these big discs.

There is a new Blu-Ray format coming soon with up to 1 TB discs and compatible with Blu-Ray discs as well.
http://www.theregister.co.u...

[Dir_en_grey]

That's all I got to say...

[madmike]

but i love blu-ray and buy lots of films i think that it wont die but they need to bring the price down for there films.ps if you own a hd tv or are buying one you got to have a blu-ray player as the picture will blow you away

[Real Gambler]

What's even better? Tech Radar UK also has an article about which is the best tv to pick, and number one is: Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX6090 for "only" £4200 ($7500 U.S).

http://www.techradar.com/ne...

So on one side, you should buy a $7500 HDTV, but then you have a stupid moron telling you that a $29 dvd player is the only thing you need to watch movie on it!

And as usual, no matter how stupid a story is, it always get posted on N4G as the news of the century!

[theKiller]

blue ray will be in its glory and will continue plus 5 years after that!!

[Genesis5]

These are the days we should be saving these articles. So in 5 years you can show it to the author and say what were you thinking?

Unless my cable company drops it's prices(yeah right) I won't being doing DD in my near future.

DVD is good enough? Not for the games of the future.

[kitzuki]

Lmao

[Megatron08]

blu ray is already dead think about it there is about 1 blu ray disc sold for every 5 blu ray player that have been sold.

[HighDefinition]

Alot of people think EARTH will be too.

Just sayin........

[prunchess]

The author just hasn't got over purchasing the HD add-on for his 360, still spitting bullets over HD DVDs death!

[robep3]

Hi megatron08

Your statement is so STUPID i bet you were one of the accountants
at ENRON!

Rob

[theEnemy]

"* Where am I? > * News > * News by technology > * Video >* HD DVD"

lol.

What kind of site is that ?

They have a section for a DEAD format but they don't have one for Blu-Ray ?

I guess they bought lots of HD-DVD players and movies and they are still crying due to the loss of HD-DVD.

Pathetic losers..

[Raoh]

LOL techradar has been on a roll with the blu ray and ps3 hate...

took me a week to find the transformers blu ray release due to it being sold out online and in retail stores.. LOL

this holiday also brings Iron Man and (gasp) Batman: Dark Knight on blu ray

LOL with the push for HDTV's for the feb. 09 HD Broadcast....... and ps3 being pushed as the best blu ray player...

lets not forget other classics being hits this year (clockwork orange and nightmare before christmas on blu ray)

techradar falls further and further below the radar when it comes to credibility..

[RememberThe357]

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Skizelli]

You're right. It has nothing to do with HD.

[fufotrufo]

Everything on that list is lame..and takes time...only good point in that list is the samsung claim ...and i really don't get why they said that

[zoydwheeler]

Why lame?

Rob Mead (the writer of this article) seems to have made pretty valid arguments for each of the five reasons he puts forward. Rob also used to edit T3 a while back, so does know what he is talking about... I think he's made a very strong case here predicting the end of Blu-ray by 2012.

As an aside - it seems the reason people here immediately claim any argument to be 'lame' has more to do with their own fanboy allegiance, rather than actually reading a submitted news piece or article and basing their argument on solid fact, considered reasoning or correctly-sourced argument and opinion from any relevant authorities.

[INehalemEXI]

None of those reasons where convincing. Blu Ray will be around past 2012. I expect there will be a larger capacity BD on the market by then too.

As a consumer of the BD's I expect at that time BD's will be cheaper. BD Burners will be affordable too. I got plans to purchase all kinds of BD games and eventually movies though I usually at this time just get dvd since they are so cheap.

[RememberThe357]

Those weren't valid arguments, they were bias arguments. Everything he said was relative. Blu-Ray is here, It's doing well, and it's being supported. It's is not relative.
Now, I can under stand if you resent the big BR for beating out the format you decided to back, but it is what it is, get over it. BR is the future and it has loads of potential, get used to it. It's here it stay.

[Bazookajoe_83]

To me it sounds like he´s the fanboy that got his feelings hurt when hd-dvd died.

1. Hd movie download will take longer than 4 years to reach the mass market, if he would have said 2020 i could have agreed with him.

2. It´s not like youre forced to use bd-live, it´s a feature who´s great for some and some wont care.

3. Samsung thinks bluray is finished? what kind of argument is that, they are still the second largest bluray makers.

4. Sony doesnt think bluray is finished, otherwise they wouldnt have put the bluray in the ps3.

5. Isnt vhs good enough?

There you have 5 counter arguments i came up with in 1 minute. If the person who wrote this article would have written any counter arguments to what he has written, he wouldnt seem as the big fanboy that he seems to be.

[Freckler]

I don't know about that Bazookajoe. Whether ps3 boys like it or not. There are alot more people watching movies using Netflix, Xbox Live, and PSN than there are people watching blu-ray movies using a blu-ray player.

[beavis4play]

and i get EVERY movie i can i the blu-ray format. and downloading a movie may be good for renting, but for movies i own......i want a physical disc.

[DaTruth]

If a late adopter buys a player in 2010 are they going to throw it away in 2 years? of course not! How many people have a blu-ray player and a DVD player. If HD movies go beyond capacity, they will have upconverting blu-ray players for years.

[tehReaper]

I actually think Blu-ray will become the new DVD by then, and again, a new format or two will emerge that are better but won't match Blu-ray sales.

Just my prediction.

[INehalemEXI]

Your probably right. Anyone who brings a new format out is going to have a tough time since BD's will have the base and be able to undercut its competition.

[Saint Sony]

Then why would Blu-ray manage to destroy DVD if the next better format can't destroy Blu-ray? DVD has enormous user base at the moment. Blu-ray won't catch that, not even 2012. Blu-ray players has to come equally cheap and common before anything bad happens to DVDs.

Before that happens, there's more than one new and better format.

[VF34EJ25]

"Blu-ray players has to come equally cheap and common before anything bad happens to DVDs. "

Seriously, this sounds exactly like the same folks that said DVD will never replace VHS because DVD is too expensive. Well guess what, prices drop. You seriously cannot think that in 5 years BR players and BDs will be the same price as today?

The prices will drop, and people will convert. It's that simple.

If BD is dying, then the conversion trend should be pointing downwards. But it's not, it's growing and always growing. What's so hard to understand here? Anybody will simple common sense and Logic knows this.

[Saint Sony]

Where did I say the price would be the same for next 5 years? Don't assume sh!t like that.

I was talking about next format doing the same thing to Blu-ray what BR is doing to DVD... but in BR's case there will be new and better formats faster. DVD has lived long, but BR won't get the same time.

What ever you say, there will be new and better formats already BEFORE 2012.

[INehalemEXI]

Theres already dvd at a low price point and Blu ray at a higher price point with a larger capacity. No room for a 3rd Disc format as we witnessed with the death of HD-DVD.

Whos going to back this supposed format and for what reason? Its possible another format could pop up sometime but not likely it would fit in.

Time is really the only thing that "destroys" a format once its rooted into the market. Higher capacity alternatives are adopted by the masses as time goes on. BD's are simply here as the next higher capacity medium. Another format will eventually come along and outdue BD's but not in the time frame alot are wishing. Blu Ray is not going to destroy dvd.

Blu Ray players are backwards compatible and are capable of playing dvd's as well. Its just a matter of CD, DVD, or BD. You wont use a BD for something that does not require that large capacity so DVD will still be used. Its not like When DVD came along and ousted VHS since the players play both DVD and BD.

[chinesesoldier]

she something there? 2012? end of blu ray? not really again

[KiddyBrownTurd]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm , no they didn't.

[Sir_Ken_Kutaragi]

...(Hmm i better not say!!!) ;-D

[Freezingduck]

.

[BattleAxe]

People like owning hard copies of movies and games where they get the boxart and instruction manuals(games). There is still a large market for CDs and they've been around since 1983. The blu-ray market will be around for at least 10 more years if not longer.

[Pain]

STFU Blu-ray Haters.

What Flash drives? DLC?? F*&& U..

this crap is getting GAY. Go watch your Low-rez DVD;s on your XBOX and P!ss OFF.

[TheMART]

"Despite the fact that Blu-ray movies are expected to hit to 12 million sales in Europe this year, they still account for just two per cent of video sales in countries like the UK.

Even by 2012 DVD will still have the edge - and that's according to the Blu-ray Disc Association's own over-enthusiastic predictions [PDF link]."

Done. No need to discuss about it anymore.

TWO PER CENT OF VIDEO SALES

Even by 2012 the DVD will still be on top. At that time the digital downloads and other formats have arrived.

Its was a good sales driver for the PS3 for those that are horny for the newest format but it seems it won't reach its maturity ever.

[tehReaper]

I didn't disagree with you but, more people are upgrading to HD every day. Blu-ray is the only HD format disc right now. What is the point in having a HDTV with nothing to use with it? Do the math. People will eventually upgrade. Sony just needs to market it more.

[mboojigga]

There has been other options besideds BD. YOur only argument and point can be that it is the best HD available. Nobody is claiming otherwise. Do you not see how many options consumers have that they didn't 8 years ago? Just because someone gets an HD television does't mean they are going to buy BR. I got friends and have seen customers who just want the display and nothing else. People are not going to splurge to get BD simply because. Hello gas prices? The economy? Even when before both of those were an issues, people still weren't going out to get even HD over sat or cable before BR and HD-DVD came on the scene.

[tehReaper]

Only said it was the only HD disc format available right now. I know a lot of people who would rather own a disc than watch something off of cable. It's the sense of owning something physical. But yeah, like you said, for a long time people will not upgrade. But I think people eventually will when prices come down.

I personally prefer digital downloads, as long as my hard drive doesn't erase, I'm fine. I only own 5 Blu-ray movies, but I can see through my opinion and see why people would want Blu-ray in the future. Not trying to argue, just stating what I think about it.

[Sergeant Osiris]

reporting to base, I have located the wanted xbot agitator, will get team in position.

[dukadork]

I think about all those whining losers and it does 2 things:

1- brings a smile on my face
2- makes me buy another bluray

Thank you themart and all of you hddvd-loving-oh-sh!t-now-it's- digital-downloads wonderful losers :)

[AngryXbot]

"becose by 2012 deegeetal downloodz will taik ovar omgwtfbbq!"

Hahaha stupid 12 year olds. Hey kiddies, nothing will change. Blu Ray will shiat on your face. Cant go around it. Owned.

mbooiga: Idiot. Thats irrelevant. It doesnt matter WHAT YOU think about your DVD player. The fact is Blu Ray is supported by every studio in the world now and its backed by the PS3. That alone makes it a success.

Having an install base of 65 million plus Blu Ray players around the world by 2012 and selling over 100 million copies a year means that no matter what happens Blu Ray is a success and will stay.

By then you can still keep that inferior DVD player if you want. Some people still have VHS for crying out loud but its not going to CHANGE ANYTHING about the reality that Blu Ray is here to stay.

And if you are stupid enough like those VHS dudes still clinging on ancient and inferior technology, than by all means do it.

Meanwhile I know I will be watching in the highest quality on the highest storage format.

[mboojigga]

Obvously people are going around it. They still have DVD and the option for Downloaded movies, Sat, and Cable. Good amount of people are satisfied with DVD movies and HD on Sat and Cable. A trend is changing.

Yet the only thing you can do is call people idiots and blah blah blah. I have a PS3 but I don't need to tell you that. The FACT is not everyone cares for BR or cared for HD-DVD or even cared for DVD. Some poeple will buy a HDTV and watch local channels without an off-air HD antenna. majority still don't care about Hi Def. That is a fact. Sure people are buy but fewer are buying everything they need at one time. Over time they buy. But beyone your fanboy rants it is hard to try and see all sides of things. You circle jerk about the quality of BD. No one is disputing that.

Now all of a sudden you have a crystal ball about 2012 too. At least the article he had put some statements to his top 5. You are just spewing as if you are the next Cleo.

[tehReaper]

Circle jerk. Haha. Hilarious.

Bubbles, mboojigga

[LightningPS3]

Blu ray was a bust. The worst part was dragging the Playstation 3 down with it.

I just hope now Sony has some deep pockets and can afford all the losses they will get on the PS3. They're gonna have to cut the price of the PS3 again this year. Are you kidding me!!!

XBOX 360 starts at $199 and PS3 at $399. That's double the amount!! if Sony is crazy enough to not already have a price cut planned, they will go in emergency mode again after the next couple of NPD's.

That's some crazy sh*t. People paying double for a machine that plays the same games??

Who doesn't want $200 free dollars?? Raise your hand..

[mazirjones]

All electronics share the same doomed fate...whoa, poetic. And I guess now you know I didn't read the article.

Whoa dude, now people are gonna think I'm crazy too.

[INehalemEXI]

Whats crazy is the amount of times so many people have to send those 360's back to MS in Coffins. 2 times I sent mine in. Got a different one back everytime. Thats crazy.

You know what I like Scratch resistant coating on BD's. I tell you whats crazy.

I had this Game Crazy (a store that sells ...games...like crazy) employee trying to sell me game guard for SCIV on PS3. Its like insurance for if your disc scratches.

I said nah im cool. Saying its got the scratch resist. He tried to say something about if it gets one scratch its over.....I laughed so hard. Never had a scratch on a BD yet....

Now on the other hand I had 2 360's that actually ate discs. Thats the Craziest sh1t I ever saw a console do. Blowing on NES cartridges is the only thing that comes remotely close. Well that and RRoD.

[slave2Dcontroller]

........ LMAO! LightningPS3 are you ok buddy?

[DJ]

But more PS3s than 360s have been sold for both 2007 AND 2008. Sony's shakin' in their boots.

[TrooGamer]

How can Sony announce any plans for aprice cut when the console is still selling? If they announce plans people will not but the console.

Also i believe Sony are gonna reduce the 80gb one when the 160gb one comes out as the 160gb will be Sonys 'Elite' and the 80gb Sonys 'Pro'

Stop being so negative and enjoy games...its sad to be honest

Also i guarante ALL future console will have Blu Ray as statndard..get over it!!

Just an observation.

[ArsArcanum]

For that extra $200 you get an 80GB hard drive and a blu-ray player?

sounds like good value to me

[Bazookajoe_83]

I guess you often leave this kind´s of comments...

[unjust]

Sony is not very smart. I cant believe people are buying the PS3 for the very few exclusive that they have not to mention the fact the graphics look no better than the 360. The reason for this is that developers have a set goal when making platform games for both these systems therefor neither company would allow ones game to look overly better than the others it all comes down to exclusives and Sonys lack there of.

[Tacki]

"People paying double for a machine that plays the same games??"

Whoa, I had no idea! Guess I'll see you guys in Gears of War 2 on PSN! Also let's get together and play some LittleBigPlanet on Live. Can't wait! :)

Seriously man, c'mon now. Don't go saying ridiculous things like that. Many people buy consoles for the games they want and both Sony and Microsoft have games exclusive to them that will draw people in. I don't care which side you're on... just please leave out these absurd statements that they 'play the same games'. Yeah, you probably meant that to justify the price of the PS3 it should make the 360 look like an NES or something... but you're paying for extra features just like you have to pay for the extra features that Live offers. Yes, yes... Live's optional. So is buying a PS3. But people will pay for something they see value in. It's the reason people pay for Live and it's the reason people buy PS3's or even 360's or Wii's.

You seem very concerned for Sony though. I don't even know how many times you've mentioned they need a pricecut now (when we haven't even seen the amount of impact the 360 pricecut has had yet) but maybe you should email Sony and let them know your thoughts, because it seems you need to calm yourself somehow. Take some NyQuil and call me in the morning. Just use your nearest game console... I'm sure it's a phone too.

[VF34EJ25]

Yeah Sony's going to the broke house now aren't they? There's a couple small things that Sony owns that will keep them from being bankrupt. It's called Sony Corp. Which consists of TVs, Computers, Cameras, Music Studios, Movie Studios, Game consoles, etc.

Yeah poooooorrrr Sony...

And like DJ said, they are shaking in their boots when their $500 MGS4 bundles are selling out, and people buying their $400 40gb consoles.

Lightning360, give it up already.

[Lookbehind]

I think your brain got fried like your 360 in that strike.

[poopsack]

"People paying double for a machine that plays the same games?? "

That has to be the dumbest thing you've ever said, considering you were praising motorstorm 2 a couple of hours ago.

[pp]

I'm happy with my DVD player thankyou very much

[Draperc]

Of course you are, just like your grandfather is still happy with VHS, and your great grandfather is still happy with film reels. Blu ray disc is just like DVD, only with much better picture and sound quality. You fail for wanting to stick to a last gen format.

[ArsArcanum]

DVD will gradually loose support
since its incredibly easy to pirate them

[Gam71]

Maybe he is happy with dvd.

Just because you're not doesn't mean everyone does or has to subscribe to your way of thinking.

I'm happy with dl .mkv 720p hd films and don't see the need for blu-ray until someone decides to finish it.

Its a personal choice, thats his and you have yours.
let him be.

I mean what is this the BD nazi?

[Spydiggity]

blu ray will be just as easy to pirate in a few years.

[VMAN_01]

Digital downloads will never fully take off. Not everyone has super speedy internet to download HD movies and have a massive download quota and of course a hard drive that your constantly going to have to upgrade and besides I think most people prefer to have a hard copy instead of a digital copy where if deleted will make u download it again. Besides you can't take digital movies to mates or girlfriends place to watch them.

[RememberThe357]

I see digital distribution getting pretty big ten years from now, but never fully taking over whichever physical format its up against.

[VF34EJ25]

Yeah but it's not even just that. There's also 7.1 surround or TrueHD. Blu-Rays also is capable of the highest bitrates in any form of media today. Blu-ray also features full documentaries and extras in HD. Something that DD will NEVER offer. All we get right now from DD is a 720p two channel stereo output with a crappy bitrate.

Blu-Ray > DD

[ultimate920]

Blu Ray will die, but not for a long shot

HD DD is going to be hard, until the bandwidth of all people changes up to what? The same as Blu Ray?

It is true that there is already fast internet being made, but I'm pretty sure it will take a long time for it to be distributed to all of the world, including US (more than 10yrs+, I think).

Long Live Blu Ray (while it last)

[slave2Dcontroller]

Blu Ray will be the leading format for movies. Hollywood doesnt make bone headed run of the mill decisions when it comes to supporting a medium. If there is competition between formats the weakerlings are swiftly weeded out. See; Laser Disc. See; HD DVD

To the victor(Blu Ray) goes the spoil so BR will be around for a loooooong time. Why? Because the power that is Hollywood said so. Rob and everyone else who is in denial about the longevity of Blu Ray are just talking out of their asses. Unless your an owner of a major movies studio you may as well STFU bc Hollywood has ALREADY spoken.

[VF34EJ25]

I'm done with this article. Because that post right there is the best thing anybody here could have said. Well done!

[Stickguy259]

Don't see a point in upgrading to Blu-Ray for DVD's.

A couple more special features on the disc, and better visuals? All of that for just $300? Yeah...

Count me out...

[RememberThe357]

Come on...

[shutupandplay]

It`s just not time to buy one yet. It`s like: Get a 360 for $200 with a HUGE library of games and can find oldies for $10...or, get a ps3 for $400 with a smaller library of games and overall less to add to the collection. Tell me when blu-ray becomes the standard format so I can get one.

[INehalemEXI]

Actually A BC PS3 has the largest library of games if your including oldies. PS1 Library, PS2 and PS3/PSN....Thats alot of game. PS3 library is catching up fast too considering it launched later.

I could not settle for one or the other though. I gota play Left4dead, Fable 2, Gears 2 and LBP, Resistance 2, Killzone 2 , God of War 3, Infamous, Blazblue, Tekken 6, Naruto UNS, FF13,FF13VS, GT5 and so on.

[Stickguy259]

I agree with shutupandplay. Once it becomes the standard format, count me in. But right now, at its price, and lack of a decent amount of Blu-Ray movies, I'm out.

And I'm just talking about movies btw. I'm not talking about games.

[spectyre]

I remember paying $700 for my first "6 head Hi-Fi" VCR. What do they cost now?

[shutupandplay]

If I praised a "supercomputer" that had teh cell!!!!1!! and teh blu-ray!!!!111!!!! and it could not even beat a dvd player, I would say it would be dead much sooner than 2012! LOL!

[tangerine]

PLEASE.

[juuken]

...You're an idiot.

[pulsating-bile]

that is some funny sh1t. i might b a nerd but im gonna go tell sum1 that right now

[SancLunatic]

The thing about the switch from DVDs isn't quite like the switch from cassetes or cartridges to discs.

The truth is most people just don't understand HD, How to achieve it, etc. Which is why people don't switch to it as swiftly. Most people simply look at what they can see - portability, convenience, and price. Hence DVD easily wins over VHS.

The switch from VHS to DVD was swift not because of the video output quality, but because it was more convenient and portable. No need to rewind. The average person picks up on those simpler things more. How many gigs/better quality/etc - people just don't pick up on those things easily. First thing you see is the price and that a BluRay movie is sometimes up to twice the price of a DVD. So BluRay may replace DVD, but I don't think it would be taking over as swiftly.

BluRays/HDDVDs, to the people who don't understand technology(which in reality not many), aren't going to pick up on what the differences between to them are other than the fact that they are both just discs.

Another thing is most of the movies out there that are 1080 resolution are mid 90s - present day. Any earlier, you'd rather just get it on DVD. It would be a waste of money and time to get the BluRay when it's virtually the same quality.

I'm a Blu Ray guy myself. I got lots of movies on BluRay but honestly I don't see BluRay taking over any time soon if not at all.

[Azurite]

The VHS to DVD was anything but swift.
The DVD to Blu-ray is going much swifter.

[beavis4play]

"The truth is most people just don't understand HD, How to achieve it, etc." - your quote.

but you think these same people are skilled at using a computer to download movies?

and the switch (from VHS to DVD) wasn't "swift". took several years. and blu movies are already becoming cheaper much quicker (thanks to online sites like amazon/ebay) than early years of dvd.

who says a person has to have every movie they own updated? i have many dvd movies i won't update to blu. that doesn't mean i can't play them on my ps3! and it certainly doesn't mean i can't buy all my future movies in the blu format.

[DaTruth]

If any part of the switch from VHS to DVD was swift it was due to the PS2. Wow, the irony!

[beavis4play]

bubbles for you.

[thor]

I think there's a chance that by 2012 many more homes will have a decent speed broadband connection to enable digital downloading of films, but there WILL be homes without a fast broadband connection, and there's a chance not many homes' connections will be improved. I would love to download all my games and films, but the fact of the matter is that I don't have enough hard disk space. I've uninstalled most of the games on my steam account as it is. I've no guarantee that steam will always be around so I can play those games again. I'd need to re-download them again before playing anyway. A downloaded film collection for me would just be an undownloaded film collection, and unless I can stream the content I've already paid for once in HD, it's not that attractive to me. And even then I wouldn't be sure I could watch all my old films in the future (that's why I keep them).

So basically if you want HD content, blu-ray is the way to go. It seems it's still being hurt by the format war - if there was no HD-DVD (or no blu-ray for that matter), the winning format would have had market dominance far sooner. But as it is, it's late enough in the game for people to start talking about digital downloads and there are still some haters left from the HD-DVD camp (and spiteful xbox fanboys).

[DJ]

And even that's a lousy internet speed. Until 2 terabyte hard drives and 100 MBps connections become standard throughout the U.S. and Europe, digital downloads aren't going to replace Blu-ray anytime soon. What DD is good for right now is SD content, which is DVD's target area.

And until Digital Downloads somehow become easily portable between households, disc formats are going to stay dominant.

[slave2Dcontroller]

But even if and when the Internet speeds in the us increases and DD becomes accessible more faster, it still wont matter as much. Sure there are people who will DL movies in liu physical copies. I still believe that your average movie collector prefers to go out and buy the physical copy to add their movie collection.

I just believe that when most people are paying for something, they'd rather have it in their hands vs sitting on their HDD's taking up space.

[INehalemEXI]

In the US Comcast is downgrading its broadband, and is in court trying to be able to impose a Monthly limit on how much bandwidth its customers get. Other ISP's will follow if the court allows this. Scary actually for US Online Gamers. This type of ish is why DD is not going to be a threat to Disc's.

That and alot of country's don't have broadband at all for its masses.

[chewmystink]

Sick of "Bluray quality is only a little bit better"
Watch it on a projector and you won't want to go back to DVD, also probably half the people who state this are watching Bluray on a 720P HD ready set and not Full HD panel.
Sick of "Digital download excuse"
I won't even go into that subject as everyone has stated many times the pitfalls of a service like that. Also if digital downloads are the future tell me why I still see as many CD's in the market as before the internet took off. If it was to kill off optical media than this wouldn't be the case but it isn't and CD's are a great defense to all these so called Tech Analysts theories of a digital download future.
There is no codec that rivals Bluray compression yet in a digital download service, ohh yeh I want Itunes HD content or whoever wants to claim to be a HD content provider through the net where it's only over 1gig in size , yeh that rivals a 50gb bluray please!!!.
There is probably room for both but I can tell you the fair percentage of the market will always be some form of media's favour.
Sure this crap is written by disgruntled HD DVD people!

[DJ]

And you're guaranteed to dig up old "HD-DVD is the future" articles as well. ^_~

[MRMagoo123]

To be honest when i first watched blu ray movies i wasnt impressed because i had an old palsonic 720p tv and it didnt look good at all but since i got my 40" series 6 full hd samsung lcd i am inlove with the format its unbelievable how good they look better than dvd or even dvd upscaled can do.I have one of the fastest internet connections you can get in australia adsl2+ which is 20000kbs i think i get 1.5 mbs dl when im on downloading movies but even then its way too slow to dl a HD movie it takes at least half an hour for a SD movie so unless the internet gets alot better in less than 4 years and at the same time becomes loooooooadddds cheaper i cant see digital dl being the main source of movies in 2012.

ide also like to add that ide prefer to have a physical copy of a movie rather than easily erased data on a pc

[Narutone66]

Add to that the bandwidth cap being implemented by isp, then let's see if it is still feasible to download HD contents online.

[Karum]

Until internet speeds in the UK get up to the 100MB/s mark (which won't be any time in the near to mid future since the government won't be helping internet providers fund it's implementation) and ISP's remove their retarded limits on how much you can download per month (unless you're on their most expensive package in some cases) then the likes of digital distribution will not take off and I honestly can't see digital distribution being mainstream for a very long time due to storage limitations if nothing else.

And yeah, I like to take movies to my girls house to watch and her doing the same coming to mine.

Blu-Ray isn't mainstream either but I have a feeling that in the next few years it will be the medium that will become mainstream as both the players and the movies will get cheaper and people will start going more for HD TV sets. I bought my first HD TV like a month ago in one of the biggest UK electronics chains (Currys) and they didn't have a single CRT TV set, it was all HD LCD or Plasma sets, many of which had bundled blu-ray players for not too much extra.

When the movies and players come down a little in price more and more people will have an HD tv set, the capabilities and features of blu-ray will be better and people will take more notice as the library of BD movies grows and as advertising campaigns for them also grow.

There may well be another physical medium by 2012 but it'll be early in it's life-cycle and will probably be expensive just as all new technology is when it is first presented to the market and if people are happy with what they are already using then it'll find it hard to grow just as early Blu-Ray has compared to DVD.

[joeymp]

Download speeds are no where near faster enough to download blu-ray sized games. How many DAYS do you think it would take to download a game about 50gigs? What about when developers start to make games even bigger than that(we know Hideo Kojima will).

Servers can't handle millions of people downloading a game at the same time. What will happen when Grand Theft Auto 5 or Metal Gear Solid 5 comes out and 6 million people try to download it at the same time?

Hard Drives aren't big enough. Ya we have Terabyte hard drives now, but how many blu-ray sized games can that hold? 20 games. Most people end up getting more than 20 games in a consoles' life time. And what about other media. Movies, Photos, Music. How about demos, betas.

What about moving content from one house to another. Easy and accessible with a disk, but not with a 50gb download.

So trust me! Blu-ray sizes will get larger (heard of the 500gb blu-ray disk), Blu-ray read speeds will get faster, and Blu-ray will not be dead by 2012!

[RememberThe357]

...we will not see an end to physical distribution. The argument about broadband speed is too strong. Thats way no one saying that DD is going to take over ever mentions it. Much like other people, I like having something physical to set on a shelf.

[slave2Dcontroller]

Thanx for helping me get my point across that I made above. I too amongst many others want physical property in my hand if I'm paying for it. Bubble+ 4 U

[beavis4play]

if i'm paying to own, i want the physial disc and the great boxart.

[dj_funky]

that clown doesn't know what hes talking about.

[arika]

it comes from a guy who probably bought 2 hddvd player(one is for his xbox 360 and the other one a stand alone player.) and 100 hddvd movies(which by the way are almost garbage or a thing of the past.). he is just sour graping. read my lips, you are a L-O-S-E-R! just accept it that bluray won the high def format wars.

2012 duh! by that time bluray would have taken over dvd's and will be the main format for consoles, high def players and pc's around the world and this guy will eat his words!

[tangerine]

Sounds like a Sony hating bitter HD DVD/360 fantard to me.
Show me any average household that has internet that can download 50 gig in reasonable time...? Oh you can't? Well, stfu then.
Downloads will not replace physical media any time soon the way the internet infrastructure is at the moment on a world wide basis.

Oh yea also LightningPS3..please change your name to boring, obvious 360 fanboy. That would be more accurate. Grow some balls and try to be objective for once, instead of vague and fud like.

[Lucreto]

1.HD movie downloads
Download speeds are still too slow and they have yet to get True HD downloads with uncompressed sound.

2.BD-Live
It was a mistake not to include from the start but it is compulsory now but I rarely watch the extra features.

3. Samsung thinks Blu-ray is finished
People can be wrong just like saying HD-DVD was going to win. Good luck to Toshiba in getting a full HD format on a Flash card.

4. Sony thinks Blu-ray is finished
They are new model TV's he was talking about will be expensive and blu-ray would be far cheaper by the time the even hit the market.

5. DVD is good enough
For some yes but once you go HD and see the difference you will be more inclined to get blu-ray over DVD.

[Sergeant Osiris]

bravo......over........static. ......
roger.....this.....is.....bra vo......base......over
situation..is..hostile..surro unded...by...xbots....drop..the . ..big...one..over
roger.....killzone2..ordinanc e...en...route...over

smokes cigar while looking up at sky anticipating final victory.

[felidae]

lol@TheMART talking about BluRay ;-)

lolol, so funny

[pulsating-bile]

dare i ask what is that a picture of?

[Raoh]

also one does not buy what one wants.. you buy what your given an option to buy

no one stopped buying cassettes and vhs tapes because they wanted to.. they stopped buying them because companies stopped releasing them...

this too will happen with DVD's, after a while companies will want your big budget blu ray dollars not your dvd pennies..

who else remembers when dvd's and vhs movies were released on the same day?

[n4gzz]

blah blah blah.. It,s been dead since HD-DVD came out. LOL

[Jake the Muss]

I agree with most of the posters here. Just because a new format is released doesn't mean that the current one is suddenly "dead". No-one can really say with a straight face that DVD is "dead", just because Blu-ray is gaining in popularity. Both formats are currently comfortably co-existing because the market allows it. Even if a new superior physical format was invented, its as though the author cannot imagine a world where there are two different formats existing at the same time.

In addition, many of these 'tech gurus' are so used to living with unlimited broadband networks that they forget that a large portion of the world do NOT have accessible broadband coverage, let alone plans that have no caps on bandwidth usage. When you live with something day in and out, you take it for granted. Large parts of Europe, including my country, operate with major caps on their broadband and digital downloads are simply not an option without incurring huge costs. Never mind the fact most HD movies are yet to be released in 1080P for this very reason. Now which ISP's will allow their profit margin to be slashed by removing caps to allow this to become the norm?

In addition, upgrading a country's telecommunications infrastructure to make this a common reality takes years and costs millions. To me this is a question of accessibility - while some countries have the broadband coverage and ISP access to warrant a complete shift to digital downloads, by eliminating physical formats you are annihilating a potential market of billions of users for the few tech types like the author who consider unlimited broadband access the norm.

[thereapersson]

With digital downloads becoming a dying fad due to monopolistic cable corporations putting a bandwidth cap on their subscribers, how does anyone expect anything other than disc-based media to catch on with consumers?

This guy is an idiot.

[hfaze]

The cable operators are imposing/looking to impose bandwidth caps to protect their (overpriced, IMO) Cable TV services specifically from digital distribution.

When you look at it this way... Cable operators can either risk losing their most profitable markets (SD and HD programming) by leaving customer cable modem accounts un-capped, or they can cap those accounts and bill the hell out of customers transferring a LOT of bandwidth in a month.

None of the companies offering digital distribution are cutting the cable operators in on their profits. Do you really think that Microsoft/NetFlix, Apple, or Sony is going to compensate these cable operators for lost revenue if people start dropping cable TV and just go with digital distribution for shows/movies?

Wide-Spread Digital Distribution is still a ways off...

[oOLightOo]

DD replacin BD in 4 yrs??? haha can't wait to see that.

[Pika-pie]

NOBODY CARES ABOUT DIGITAL DOWNLOADS. JEEEEEEZ

[InMyOpinion]

Yeah...cause no one downloads movies right? ;)

I bet you always go to the record store and buy albums when you want some new music too.

[thereapersson]

But I also go purchase the music in CD form when I find stuff that I really like. I like having hard copies of my data, whether it's CD's or DVD's.

[InMyOpinion]

I do that too, but that's not what he said. He said no one cares about digital downloads, which makes me wonder why the record and movie companies are losing tons of money to piracy...

[KiddyBrownTurd]

Of course it will be. We'll ALL be dead by 2012, stupid n00bs.

Never heard of Armageddon? It's a jewish holiday!

[Veronica Belmont]

Blu ray is a great piece of technology, and yeah of course dvd is going to stay in the lead for a long time but blu ray is here to stay as it gives te highest qualty you can get at the moment, and dont for a second think download services will take over, if someone is not going to buy a blu ray player what makes you think they are going to buy some sort of hard drive, then pay to download a compressed movie with quality a lot lower than blu ray, and even if they start downlod services for totaly uncompessed movies howmany people are going to want to sit around for hours waiting for a movie to download I know I wont. Hey feel lik watching te lord of the rings extended version, sure, ok lets wait 3 day as it downloads!! No thanks, watching a blu ray movie is a great experience and more and more people will be finding this out for themselves.

[InMyOpinion]

Is it possible to not believe in Blu-Ray without being labeled a fanboy?

My opinion is that Blu-Ray is very dependent of the PS3, and this generation of consoles. When the next gen of consoles are established I think Blu-Ray will be forgotten. I'm not implying that Blu-Ray is a bad format, it just seems to me that most of it's supporters are PS3 owners.

[thereapersson]

I have run across many individuals out in public, who after I talk to them, say that they looked at what was offered in the consumer market and went with Blu-Ray because they figured it would be the best possible picture they can get at the moment. Plus, like the point I stated above, most people also would rather have a hard copy of their movies available at all times.

You have a point there, Jenzo, but I think it's good to look at the other side of the argument as well.

[InMyOpinion]

Of course. I agree with you. I still think Blu-Ray will remain a 'hardcore' format though. One thing that could change my opinion is if Sony uses it in the PS4 as well. Maybe with the upgraded disc capacity they were talking about.

[Tacki]

I can speak as someone who actually bought an HD-DVD player (and still have it). I don't support Bluray simply because it's part of the PS3 or made by Sony. In fact, I wasn't happy at all back when HD-DVD lost the whole format war. The reason for this is because at that time I was focused more my movie collection than my game collection. HD-DVD was my HD format of choice because it was cheaper and was pretty much on par with Bluray. At that time at least. It was a very sad day when I got news of its demise since it kind of nullified any future purchases.

Though I wouldn't say I really 'regret' making those purchases, as I can still enjoy the HD movies I have and the player serves as a very good DVD upscaler. But I eventually got over the loss and I likely will buy some Bluray movies in the future (Dark Knight's a pretty sure thing) even though my focus in now on expanding my game library. Also, I'd say about 70% of the films I have bought or do buy are Asian films. Most of which don't get HD releases. But I'd say I support Bluray for the simple fact that it's an HD format and the only one at this time.

[badkolo]

blue ray is supported by the few, its not overtaking the dvd aisles by any means.

its still not adopted like you want to bealeve, dvd is doing as well as ever,

we went from cd to dvd to a uncertain hd format from hddvd with better features to blueray- the winner of this next gen format, yet its not being adapted as quick as dvd was, that's not arguable that's fact, even with the ps3 being a blue ray player its not adapting.

That most likely could be because the industry is waiting for the next big thing, be it a new physical format or downloads or a mixture of both.

[thereapersson]

While many people shop online for their media, and therefore have access to many deals that retail outlet-only shoppers don't, there are still a lot of consumers who only go to brick and mortar stores to purchase technological investments. Many standalone stores have to monetarily satisfy their employees as well as the companies who provide the products, and therefore usually go by the suggested MSRP set forth by the industry (whatever the product is). People see that the prices are so high on brand new Blu-Ray films, especially when compared to their DVD counterparts, and are less likely to purchase the HD versions of movies despite them having superior features.

When the price of Blu-Ray discs can come down to a more reasonable level (i.e. no movie should cost more than 30 dollars [if that]), more uncertain shoppers will be willing to "Go Blu". This is especially necessary in these hard economic times where more people are beginning to scale back (or cut out completely) luxury purchases that aren't necessary to survive.

[mr_saturn]

People downloading HD movies in the future will still probably be a small minority by then just as it is now. Internet here (U.S.A.) just won't be able to compare to other countries (like Japan) for a long time.

[whatis]

When I go to the video store down the road I usually rent out about six movies at a time.

If we're talking HD quality Blu-Ray movies that equates to about 240gb worth in total.

So I'd need a hdd with 240gb free space. I don't think that's asking too much since 1tb hhd's are already quite affordable and it's only 2008. As a matter of fact I actually have four of them running in this very computer at this very moment.

The 240gb would have to download in around fifteen minutes, which is how about how long it takes me to get to the video store, choose some movies and then get back home again.

I would need to have an internet plan that would allow me to download at that speed and have a big enough cap limit. At the moment I have to pay $110 per month for adsl2+ speed, with a cap limit of 100gb. Luckily the bill is split three ways because I definitely wouldn't be able to afford it by myself.

Pretty much every month we manage to run out of cap exactly one week before our quota is reset. This is without downloading a single 40gb movie. Judging from this I would guess (although I'm no expert) that the type of internet plan you would need to accommodate regular DD of both games and movies at a reasonable speed, won't be easily affordable.

The main reason I think that Blu-Ray is probably going to stick around for a while though, is that I believe that DD is just too advanced for the vast majority of the people to handle.

Before all it took was a single payment and you ended up with a new piece of hardware. If DD becomes the new standard you will need to have an internet connection. You will need to pay for it every month. FOREVER.

I think it is going to take a hell of a long time for the whole world to accept digital downloads as a universal format. I don't think it's even going to happen entirely. I think there will always be a need for a physical format and to me, it's looking like the next one is going to be Blu-Ray.

[thereapersson]

In my area, Comcast is proposing (and will most likely put it into effect) a cap of 250gb per month. While that's way more than most ISP's out there, Comcast is one of the largest ISP's in America. If they get their way, it will open the doors for other companies to start following this bandwidth limiting practice.

America is so far behind the times when it comes to internet speeds and networks, it's ridiculous.

[badkolo]

ok, i can understand that the U.S.'s slow adoption of true broadband is the cause for the slow progression of full hd movies and full retail game donwloads as a possibilty for the masses but the fact remanins that 10 to 15 years from now the larger portion of the majority will be using that as the means of buying or renting.

physical media is either on the way out or transforming into something more solid, less scratch able, sturdier, and something that is more feasible to use from one system to another.

Flash drives starting at 100gigs, who knows but thats where its heading.

As much as we might not like the idea of downalods, theres no doubting this is where its heading. I can see both a physical and download universe but i dont see blueray in that picture and thats not a knock at blueray but more of how things just roll.

Lets not act naive and think a new physical format isnt on its way, there's always something new coming and while they take years to arrive they always come. computers get faster, newer chips arrive, newer graphics cards arrive, newer consoles are made, memory cards get larger and new storage media always comes along.

TV is going digital, downloads are becoming a reality for we are basically doing it now in its infancy. It will only get better and faster and more adopted by all as neighborhood to neighborhood get connected with the latest thing(FIOS or whatever the newest thing is).

Realistically while you might not like a digital universe many dont mind, I truly wouldn't mind knowing that a true full retail game can be downloaded for my console without leaving my home, im all for it.

Tell me i can download evey movie i want in hd without leaving my house at the prices im accustomed to, im all for it.

change is coming. We went from basic channels to a cable box to the cable we have today, then satellite came along and now fios and other faster connections. It's obvious that this will somehow play a part with the next gen consoles and microsoft has shown they are willing to dabble or show what they got when it comes to digital downloads and some kind of online world.

They have successfully did online gaming, an online store, game downloads, dlc, movie and music downloads, and now netflix downloads all on a console successfully.

Just imagine what the next box will be capable of. And yes i cant wait to see what sony does this gen and next as well.

[whatis]

They are saying that digital downloads will not replace physical media, but rather coexist along side it.

And if DD does eventually replace physical media, it definitely isn't going to be in the next FOUR YEARS.

[asyouburn]

imagine downloading vampire rain, paying full price for it, and now you can't get rid of it. how did you know it was supposed to suck? the ad campaign looked so good! or buying malibu's most wanted. again full price. thenyoure stuck with it, you can never resell, or trade or anything.

[highps3]

Once upon a time.. There was a boy named Blu-Ray. No one really liked blu ray. Blu Ray became a hobo on the east side of Wilshire and Belmont drinking kool aid singing the threescompany theme.

For this reason alone Blu Ray will prosper.

[js_mac]

You even get blu-ray fanboys. It's all well and good self-justifying your investment, but I'm afraid the article is right. Ignore your prejudices and it's plain to see.

[tk]

I think by reading the article your IQ will drop 10 points.

- The format is out for two years
-- predictions from these analysts said it was dead on arival, was going to be dead due to HD-DVD, that HD-DVD was better quality, and all kinds of subjective waffle.
-- now they have stretched it from dead in one year to dead in 6 years.

DVD will be "good enough"? Wow.
- Macs and PC's are now coming out with BR drives. BR sales rocketed in the last year. HD TV's is only now becoming mainstream - so the market is not even fully ripe for BR yet - let alone left it behind.

BR is the next DVD standard. CD's are still very much alive for Audio. DVD's still alive for mainstream video. BR is the standard for the next 10 years at least. Which is quite a good run in the market in any case.

[beavis4play]

"I think by reading the article your IQ will drop 10 points."

this is true.....read #21..... i think his dropped 50 points.

[Karum]

Here's a couple of links to a recent Blu-Ray release on play.com which is a pretty good online store for music, dvd's etc.

The recent release is Transformers on Blu-Ray.

The 2 Disc DVD version comes in (a year later) at £9.99
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD...

Here's the just released Blu-Ray option, it comes in at £15.99 which isn't a great deal more for an HD format imo
http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu...

Shop around and some movies aren't greatly more expensive than their DVD counterpart. Obviously older movies will be much cheaper than a re-release on Blu-Ray and tbh I find the PS3 to be excellent at upscaling DVD's so I personally don't have much interest in replacing DVD movies I already own with Blu-Ray versions but upcoming and future releases are another thing entirely.

I guess my point is that if you shop around the price of the actual movies isn't THAT bad. The most expensive BD movie on that site right now is like £17.99 I think and delivery is free. The price will gradually come down so I think perhaps the main problem Blu-Ray has is the price of players right now but like I said in an earlier post in this topic, there are some high street stores including Blu-Ray players with new HD tv's - along with the price gradually coming down on players (as happens with all new tech over time) then the switch might start to pick up pace.

Either way consumers have a decent range of choice out there so buy what you like and be happy :)

[beavis4play]

agreed. i buy lots of blu movies in the 12-18 dollar range on amazon.

[Equinoxe_7]

Are this guy on crack or something?

Blu-ray wont be dead before 2020 or something.

Why, because you can sell your games again, the value of your investment.

[zonetrooper5]

I just found a 1TB Sata hard drive for the PC for £90, I see hard drives are getting much cheaper.

http://www.overclockers.co....

Then you got a 1.5TB hard drive for £138.

http://www.overclockers.co....

[beavis4play]

so? i know lots of people who rent/buy movies on disc that don't even know what a hard drive is. (sad but true)
discs aren't going anywhere.

[juuken]

...I swear, if the PS3 was never created you wouldn't hear about the death of bluray...

But now the PS3 is sticking around, you see these doomsday articles roaming around.

PATHETIC.

[tudors]

but downloading does take time, and there will always be those times when downloading is not convenient, I like to have both options if I am honest, the only way downloading can take over completley will require that we be allowed to make actual backup's of the movies we download, and although a happy 360 owner I downloaded phyconauts but it broke, now when I try to download again I am told I have to pay, this is likely due to me buying a new 360 but it should be based on my gamertag, I tried to download matrix reveolution and got the same problem.

DLC is far from evolved, I doubt Bluray will become obslete anyitime soon.

[lewis]

and blueray is dying.

[brodels]

but people will be happy with blu ray once it gets mainstream, just like people are still buying DVDs today even though better technology has been out for a while.

[cherrypie]

Bluray will never be mainstream.

DVD is too popular to be displaced by a "Now with more resolution! And DRM!" bluray.

The masses are already moving to Digital Distribution.

BluRay is stillborn. It has totally failed in the market.

[SpartanGR]

This whole "blu-ray is gonna fail" or "-has limited future" is getting really boring.
Sony/Blu-Ray/PS3 haters have nothing better to do i guess now that their 360's getting toasted all the time and their beloved hd-dvd sunk.

[CrazyOrange]

and i though its already dead

[CaitSith]

Seriously, you're starting to get on my nerves.

[JasonX43]

...that all these "Blu-Ray will fail!" articles read like the were written by someone that was bitter that they backed the wrong horse(cough, HD-DVD, cough!) America has the worst internet service in the world and until that improves and these ISPs stop capping everyone's bandwidth, HD downloads ain't catchin' on! And as far as DVD Upscalers, my PS3 can do that too, but it still doesn't look as good as 300 on Blu-Ray!

[strotee]

It all boils down to basic human psychology. Hypothetically, say I’m a fan of Peyton Manning and I absolutely think he’s the greatest QB to have ever lived. My team faces Tom Brady & the Patriots in the playoffs and I lose. I’m going to feel really bitter and despise the Patriots along with Tom Brady. I will be critical of absolutely everything possible just to make my bruised ego feel better. One pass is incomplete, I’ll think “Pssh, Manning could have completed that.” or let’s imagine Brady completes a pass that goes for a TD “Oh, did you not see the holding not called by the refs? Such BS”, so on, and so on.

So continuing our example, now the Patriots are in the Super Bowl and I am instantly a fan of the opposing team. I now pretend I’ve been a fan of theirs for ages but deep down, I just cannot wait until the day I see Tom Brady and the Patriots stumble and lose. I think we see how this relates to Blu-ray; HD-DVD lost, so now digital downloads are the future, it’s the death of Blu-ray, blah blah blah.

I also like how the author seems to want to bet on every horse, just to stack the deck and ensure he’s right. 1) DD is the future 2) DVDs are “good enough”. I’m surprised he didn’t say, “3) It’s God’s will to see the death of Blu-ray.”

Spineless. Choose an opponent and stick with it.

** Waits for next week’s inevitable iteration of “Blu-ray is dead” article and say the same thing. **

[cherrypie]

@3.1

"Choose an opponent and stick with it"

What is life like in your black and white world? Not everyone has some kind of emotion-based agenda.

bluray has failed because it is not compelling. It offers very minor advantages over DVD, and the market has already chosen Digital Download in vastly greater amounts, at vastly greater rates of adoption.

Sheesh. HD-DVD "failed" because Sony paid hundreds of millions to its MPAA partners to drop the format. It wasnt the *marketplace* that choose HD-DVD, as a movie format, HDDVD was vastly more compelling (HDDVDs work in DVD players being the most important) -- but Sony killed it by buying off its MPAA partners.

Now, that said -- what does HDDVD being aborted by Sony's Blu-Ray-Buy-Off-Millions have to do to make bluray "work" in the market? Nothign. Because it doesnt.

Bluray is totally dead on arrival. Digital Distribution is the current format of choice.

[zoydwheeler]

Best comment on this thread. By far. Pretty much sums it all up!

[Lumbo]

Ahh, even more lies and fanboy drivel ...

quote: "cherrypie

"Choose an opponent and stick with it"

What is life like in your black and white world? Not everyone has some kind of emotion-based agenda.

bluray has failed because it is not compelling. It offers very minor advantages over DVD, and the market has already chosen Digital Download in vastly greater amounts, at vastly greater rates of adoption.

Sheesh. HD-DVD "failed" because Sony paid hundreds of millions to its MPAA partners to drop the format. It wasnt the *marketplace* that choose HD-DVD, as a movie format, HDDVD was vastly more compelling (HDDVDs work in DVD players being the most important) -- but Sony killed it by buying off its MPAA partners.

Now, that said -- what does HDDVD being aborted by Sony's Blu-Ray-Buy-Off-Millions have to do to make bluray "work" in the market? Nothign. Because it doesnt.

Bluray is totally dead on arrival. Digital Distribution is the current format of choice. "
####endquote#####

You should drink some of your own medicine i guess, especially regarding the overly emotional attachment against BluRay, a format you obviously hate with such a passion that you had to make up fake arguments to talk it down.

Fact: HD-DVD discs did NOT work in DVD drives. You managed to completely mix that up with the few COMBO disks that had hd-dvd on one side and DVD on the other for a premium price. Bravo ... fail

like your childish blaming of Sony paying of their MPAA friends .. a rather ridicules statement considering that BluRay was a joint venture of many companies based in the digital movie business. And already completely debunked several times including the last business report sheet of Sony. On the other hand we see a report sheet from Toshiba that clearly states a $150 million BRIBE for Paramount to drop the other format.

Contrary to your whining the market clearly choose:
BluRay, even BEFORE the final switch of Warner, outsold HDDVD on a 60:40 basis early 2007 and the margin was constantly growing to 80:20 at the end of that year. You can't get it more clear than that. The buyers chose BluRay many times more often than HDDVD, regardless of the 50:50 movie exclusivity ratio. Even Warner said that they sold 2 blurays for every HDDVD they sold resulting in the fatal switch in early 08. There was NEVER a market for 3rd party HD-DVD players, it was all a huge Toshiba monopoly, whereas on the BluRay side 5 hardware companies released players competing with each other.

And also contrary to your made up claim regarding DD movie marketshares (provide a link next time) BluRay already got over 12% of the total marketshare from DVD sales, in less than 2 years and with a more than 300% increase year over year. Meaning that the adoption is faster than any other format so far driven by a burning hot market for HDTV sets. Contrary to your made up claims DD movies are a niche market reserved for the rental business as of today.

[GarandShooter]

'HDDVDs work in DVD players being the most important'

So why did Microsoft have an HD-DVD add-on drive, if they would play in your 360's DVD drive?

[RGB]

sorry but people who say this are idiots. why would i say that, well 7 billion people in the world and there only 3 billion of us online. so more than half the world has not internet connect.

HD downloads will not be possible in the UK, 24mbps is are top speed but 17mbps of 24mbps only comes through, UK average speed is 2-3mbps, most of UK wires are copper wires, most over 60 years old, War time wires lol. we have fibre optic cable but only with virgin media customers. if UK when 100% fibre optic cable it would cost £4 billion. so DVD, Blu-ray will be in europe for at least 10 more years. most HD downloads from PSN video store are 7GB+ so thats 4-5 hours of downloading in UK. Blu-ray is far from Dead for offline people and slow MBPS people.

[RGB]

Also People, Microsoft recently Made Blu-ray the future format disc for Windows & Games for Windows.

[arngrim229]

cuz everyone will just throw out their bluray players randomly and bluray will cease to exist...nope, people got the ps3 for bluray or paid 400+ for one wont just throw it out, article is stupid

[Silent]

I personally think there is no better copy than a physical hard copy.

[Guardian0fPeace]

Honestly, was this article written by neanderthals? Sure, for most people dvd upscaling is good enough, but only until bluray players hit that overwhelmingly tempting $100-150 price range, which sony did announce a few months ago to be this winter! Even when movies are sold at a 4k resolution, the 500gb bluray discs should be more than sufficient!

[Agent VX]

Yep, I have to agree with the majority of you. I keep seeing this "Download" you movie crap. I am sorry, the internet Bandwidth will not provide this for many many years.

Bluray ain't going away anytime soon.

[Blackcanary]

Now didn't someone say Blu-Ray would be dead by 2009 and its still here then they said said by 2011 and now they are saying 2012 people need to stop predecting whats gonna happen and just watch. And Blu-Ray wont die if Sony keep useing BLU RAY for the consoles.

[Dr_Nefarious]

In the year 3012 my graphics card will be powerful enough to create a death ray, I will call it a blu ray. I will have my graphics card transport me back in time by using its ability to create dark energy. Then i will write a retarded comment in 2008 about the year 2012 and disentegrate every one against me with my blu ray. everyone got that. zap, zap.

[azmanmanz]

@militant u are f*cking idiot... i think ur age just 10 yrs old.. get off kid

[Fanboy Slaughter]

It's not like Sony didn't accomplish their objective....to use the ps3 as a catalyst to get Blu-ray into homes.

Blu-ray was set-up to fail....Incomplete spec, more expensive, loaded with features that NOBODY will EVER use, although video was equal and sound was better, it was also more expensive, and not just by a little either. This format was built to fail and somehow kicked the living sh!t out of HD-DVD.....one reason...PS3, plain and simple.

When people bought PS3's and 360's all of a sudden you picked a side and were thrust into both a console war and a format war, which got so bitter at times, that it had professional writers, movie directors, and certain gaming show hosts acting like children.

HD-DVD should have won, they had everything to win, except the support of 170 companies, which included studio backing. And don't give me that "if teh 360 had HD-DVD built-in, it would have won"....for the last time no it wouldn't because that console using HD-DVD for it's games built-in would skyrocketed the price to $1000 at launch in '05, and that would've been STILL selling it at a loss.

[IzKyD1331]

sorry, digital downloads WON'T happen anytime soon, until everyone has TB HDDs and mega high bandwidths (still takes like 2 hours to download a movie)
but I do agree with the statement that a new form of physical media will over take optical discs, but again, not anytime soo, like the article mentioned, everyone has a huge DVD collection, and when some new form of physical media comes out, you think everyone will want to switch over when DVDs are so (according to the article)"good enough"?

[TheExodus]

Where'd all the PS3 supporters go, because there isn't a single one responding to this thread. The Cell processor was designed to stream media & the PS3 is a media center. Blu-ray was a stop gap measure to kill physical formats because Hollywood would prefer we not own content. If you are a proponent of physical formats you were an HD DVD backer, because every PS3 owner knows DD is the future which is why we purchased a PS3.

[tk]

You use the PS3 as a media centre at home. You get extra content for BR online. But DLC will not replace physical media. Think about it - 100 movies of +/- 30GB. Now that would mean a 3TB drive. Now if DLC is going to take over - then you better get at least a TB drive for your XB360. Now it is possible with the PS3 - but not the XB360. So why is it that the supporters of the machine with the least possibility to capatilize on DLC, is the ones who are most vocal about how it will take over?

Just one answer. Jealousy.

[cherrypie]

It is dead right now.

bluray is Sony -- and their RIAA / MPAA partners -- wet dream DRM scheme.

Digital Download is *already* the majority of traffic on the internet -- right now.

There will *not* be another plastic disc format, all media is already moving (or moved) to Digital Distribution.

BluRay is dead because it is an anti-customer and because Digital Download makes it a totally un-compelling format.

BluRay is totally still-born.

[strotee]

Man to man, be honest, how many HD-DVD movies have you purchased?

[antt3]

These types of articles are pointless if you consider that most media formats will go out of style at some point. When people like this write articles, they are just grasping at straws. Really it's just an excuse to vent all their frustrations about bluray.

It's one thing if a format never catches on (like Lazer Disk). But once the public accepts a new format, it'll be a long time before they finally give up on it for another one. Which is part of the reason that DVD won't die any time soon just because of bluray. The two will most likely coexist for years to come.

Just like bluray will coexist with direct downloads for a very long time to come.

[Dogswithguns]

Everything will be dead. you will die. I will die. the whole world will explo.... Have you heard it's gonna be the end of the world by 2012.

[man0fsteel]

you are definitely limiting your potential market if you drop physical media.. Here's an excerpt from an article i found about the statistics of people that actually have broadband at home.

"Overall, Pew found that 55 percent of American adults now have broadband access at home, up from 47 percent a year earlier and 42 percent in March 2007. By contrast, only 10 percent of Americans now have dial-up access.

Despite the increase in overall broadband adoption, though, growth has been flat among blacks and poorer Americans.

Of the Americans with no Internet access at all, about a third say they have no interest in logging on, even at dial-up speeds. Nearly 20 percent of nonusers had access in the past but dropped it. Older and lower-income Americans are most likely to be offline."

source : http://www.gmanews.tv/story...

These critics are forgetting that this country is multidimensional market to deal with and only a multidimensional approach would work. Many people still do not have broadband, so why in the hell would we even think of a media, that in the long run, always becomes more accessible for a great quantity of consumers? I'm sorry but physical media is here to stay for a while.

-I'm saving this comment for future use

[metalhead]

OK this is stupid. Blu-ray will not be dead because of downloads and heres why. A game comes on PS3 for both disc and download, I have a cable internet connection, but the download will still take the better part of my day so I just go to the store and buy the game and instantly play it on PS3. Blu-ray will never die unless they find a way to make downloads instantanious at an affordable price otherwise disc based games are here to stay

[Bill Gates]

Is it because the Mayan calendar ends in 2012?
I think we'll all be dead by then any way, that's why I don't waste my time with a shiet console like the 360...AHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHHAHA

STUPID BABOONS....AHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHHA

[DFresh]

Well I have to disagree with this statement.
2 formats can co exist together.
VHS & DVD
DVD & Blu-ray
Blu-ray & Digital Downloadable movies
Ofcourse nothing lasts forever VHS died after DVD came out, DVD will die after Blu-ray comes out, and Blu-ray will disappear one day.
But I still believe 2 formats can co exist together cuz not everyone wants a digital copy of a movie some people like myself want a product to where to can hold it in your hand and look at it not view it through a screen like dumb ass.

[eliasg]

SONY is doomed again...

[skyfire2261]

This article does have the stench of a disgruntled HD-DVD supporter. However I do agree Digital downloads will become a viable option.

DVD will still be supported for time to come and blu-ray will no doubt continue to rise. I see DVD becoming the VHS what VHS was to DVD when DVD came around. At first it's still here but eventually it will phase out. Nothing is forever.

[antt3]

Exactly. Just what I said.

I mean, let's think about this for a second. When people talk about bluray and direct downloads, they always reference the rise of MP3's and itunes. But wait! CD's are still being sold, and it's been how long now? And there's no sign of CD's being completely phased out, right?

So why in the world would anyone think that only one medium would exist at any one time? There have always been multiple mediums coexisting, from records and 8-tracks, to tape cassettes and CD's, to DVD's and Blurays.

Like you said, nothing is forever.

[TheExodus]

Yes, but CD survived a horde of competitors over the years that tried to usurp it's reign:

MiniDisc
Super Audio CD
DVD Audio

CD survives to this day because it was a convenient source for MP3s & something that everyone already had a collection of to fill their iPods. Same thing is happening to DVD (See RealDVD: http://www.realdvd.com/ ) which is why Blu-ray is fighting an uphill battle it hasn't a prayer in h*ll of winning.

[antt3]

There's nothing for it to win. It's already more prevalent than any of those audio mediums that tried to beat out the CD. And as I mentioned in (at least one of) my posts, I expect both blu ray and DVD to continue to coexist. Blu ray won't "kill" dvd, just like Direct Download won't kill Blu ray.

As HD TV's become the norm, more people will be getting upconverting DVD players and Blu ray players. The coming holiday season should show a surge in buyers, and when the TV signals go digital, more people will be switching over as well (not that they have to--I know that digital signal has nothing to do with HD and blu ray--but many will take advantage of having to upgrade their TVs).

So while many will stick with DVD, there will be enough buyers (there already are) to keep blu ray going as well.

[ben806]

as soon as i hear that in 5 years we will be streaming hd movies directly into our t.v's i cant help but think that according to the 1960's we should be living on the moon and have flying cars.

[air1]

doomed is the blu ray. why do you think micro already started on letting you download full games, for the hell of it? next gen is all about downloads. at least blu ray will do better then that beta max thing.

i dont think the ps3 will be doomed though im sure sony can hold the blu rays weight like it does with umd. but by the time the next box comes out it will look like a last gen feature. dvd's what tha? thats like having cassettes. lol

[pshizle]

Feb 2009 everything goes HD

so expect bluray players to go down and more and more people will by bluray

i give bluray 7 more years

[air1]

i think you look more like a dumbas$ looking at a box of a movie that you seen a few times. bring on the downloads i dont need anymore dvd cases taking up space

[mirroredderorrim]

Physical formats will be here for a long while yet.

[joeblk10]

You would think some of you guys had substantial stock in Sony or something the way you get fired up over someones opinion. I love my bluray collection and hope it sticks for a long time to come but he has a couple of valid points in this article. Plus, even though blu is still growing, if you look at the general adoption rate two years in and then compare to the adoption rate of DVD after its first two years there is no comparison.... not even close. Bluray with all its wonderful picture and audio quality is no DVD in terms of being the next great wave.

[joeynox]

I agree with the article 100%.This is why I havent bought a bluray player.I received a ps3 as a gift andonly own 1 movie. Its just not worth it.DvD quality is perfect and the average person doesnt want to have to rebuy there collection over and over.Technology is jus tmoving to fast nowadays for a media like this to stick around

[antt3]

because I don't really agree with the article, yet I sort of agree with you. :-)

What I mean is this: I don't think blu is going to die any time soon. Yet, at the same time, I have purchased zero (as in 0) bluray disks. I rent them through netflix, but i don't purchase them.

Also, I am never going to rebuy the dvd's I currently own. I own the movie, my ps3 upconverts the dvd, so why spend money I don't have to, right?

But, at the same time, if I want to buy a movie, and the bluray version is better and costs a similar amount, I'll probably buy it.

[Mad_Rhetoric]

hard copies will always be #1, heck, now when you buy a blu ray disk or dvd it comes with a digital copy for your pc and ipod.

blu ray is going to be around for a while, so theres no need for but-hurt hd dvd fans to cry about it

[TheExodus]

Yes, people will continue to prefer a disc over a download, but what we do with that disc is changing. The next wave of TVs are going to be capable of streaming video content from our home networks which begs the question: How are we going to get video content on our home networks.

CD has been the defacto MP3 source since the PC CD-ROM drive was first introduced. RealNetworks just launched RealDVD which reduces DVD to a source for video content. If RealDVD is able to stand it's ground against the DMCA then it's all but guaranteed that Window MediaPlayer & iTunes won't be far behind.

[OGharryjoysticks]

But if you're still alive your Bluray discs will still work

[Guardian0fPeace]

that was a good one!

[sunfrog]

Blu-ray will neva die. Do you know why> Because digital downloas are stupid. That's why.

[KBDuB]

You're stupid. You know why? Cause your mama dropped you on your head when you were a baby.

=)

[bdup46]

But there is two problems with this article it is possible that it can fail and be replaced with something that can play twice the resolution QUad HD but then again it can be the standard like dvd today. Most people in the U.S. will probably own a tv that has HD resolution of some sort by that year. LOOK AT THIS ARTICLE back in 2004.
http://www.physorg.com/news...

[Sano64]

With broadband provider talking about putting caps on how much bandwidth people can use a month, it just proves that HD downloading wont take off. I don't see Blu-ray going anywhere for many years!

[Reibooi]

I'm sick of this download crap. THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN ANYTIME SOON. The speed of internet in the US will prevent this from happening anytime soon and not only that alot of providers are starting to test caps and if they go into effect then you can be sure this wont happen. I think before people talk about the age of digital downloads that they think about the age of incredibly slow US internet access.

[TheExodus]

The way we use content has already changed & that change is going to hit the mass-market consumer long before Blu-ray has a chance to succeed. Last weekend I sat on my couch & watched the first two seasons of Dexter without having to get up to change a disc. The convenience offered by digital distribution far outweighs the benefit of Blu-ray. Not sure why everyone thinks digital distribution means downloading from the internet, because I've purchased the bulk of my digital content from Best Buy in a clamshell over the course of the past 12 years.

[mirroredderorrim]

They make it slow for us because they like to milk us for money.

Are we, the people of the United States, cash cows ourselves?

Hahaha!

[mfwahwah]

This was a terrible article. His points were horrid.

For example:

" BD-Live is a joke. It's a second-rate attempt to offer interactive features that HD DVD did first and much, much better."

That is in no way something that will kill Blu Ray. Yeah, it's not good for it, but will people really not buy BD just because of this "optional" feature?

It seemed like the author thought something like this: "Hmm, I have 2 pretty good reasons.... **** it I'll just bs 3 more of them."

[cosmos]

if you look to the past for reference then sure BD will have a rival in 2012. Look at VHS vs DVD. It wasn't too awful long ago that DVD took over as the dominate format and it will inevitably happen to BD. No one is denying that. But like the beginning of the article states " the quality is not there yet." is painfully true. Anyone who has used any download, XBL, PSN,etc... knows this. You are, for older movies getting the same low quality transfer at a high res., which basically looks horrible. The high def versions don't look much better. Besides, if you want to own the movie then you need a way to make a hard copy after downloading it which means more hardware. Besides, I don't feel like using up all my HDD space on any machine.

[ChickeyCantor]

yeah well according to the ancient Mayas we will be all dead by 2012...so in some way it makes sense XD

I remember some article in the newspaper about restructing the infrastructure of Internet cables in the netherlands for highspeed internet. And they didn't want to do it because according to a reseearcher we won't need high speeds connections untill 20 years from now...it's a shame though =(

with 50Gb downloads WE DO NEED IT >_<.

[ryanpmulvey]

I can see the market for downloading content. I just downloaded an episode of the universe and bought PixelJunk Eden from the ps store, so of course there will be exclusives that you can only download.
Sadly The people that honestly believe downloads will replace a physical copy, they just aren't that bright. I would much rather own for my own hands to touch the vinyl copy of the beatles white album and be able to see it in my collection, than to download the songs from Itunes and be left with an e-bill and no physical product.
truck downloads.

[meluvulongtime]

I just don't see physical discs disappearing. I can't imagine not having a physical box and disc. I love box art on video games and movie boxes. I thought CDs were supposed to disappear when DD of music happened, but they're still here. I still buy CDs and then import them to itunes to put them on my ipod. I don't like the idea of companies restricting how you can play your media. I can see companies trying the same things with DD. I think if blu-ray would fail it would only be replaced by another physical media. DD wouldn't reach as many ppl as physical media. There's still so many ppl that don't have internet period or have dial-up. Some ppl just can't afford to drop the cash to have high speed internet.

[Naked-Snake]

Look who is talkin

[cheapndirty]

In order to get a true 1080p picture the video bit rates have to VERY HIGH. 28 MBPS+, that means the file has to be MASSIVE. Now lets pile on the adavanced audio codecs. Another massive file. Have fun downloading that. If I were an ISP I would be a little upset that my infrustructure i spend millions on is going to be used for movies and tv watching mainly.

Look I love Blu ray. I am an early adopter. I have tried DD and hate how long it takes. And do not get me started how they come with with either 2 channel STEREO (how 80's) or lossy 5.1 audio (how 90's).

Oh yeah, do you guy really think 1080p will last long? We will have 2000p+ tv's on the market within a few years at decent prices( still a four figure price tag). You want DD for THOSE massive files?

[aiphanes]

And guess what media is going to support them? Bluray baby! 100GB bluray discs...that are still compatible in your current bluray player (At least the PS3)

Bluray specs will scale to the 4K tv resolution in the next 5 years. Heck the PS4 will probably be 4K.

Standard Resolution DAR Pixels
Full Aperture 4K 4096 x 3112 1.33:1 12,746,752

[IntelligentAj]

Wow this sounds like someone drank some pretty strong haterade when they wrote this article. I still love how people say that DLC will replace physical media but they're forgetting a enormous hurdle: People want to have something physically that they can say is theirs. Most of the general public would prefer to have an optical disc or some physical form factor than movies being stored on a drive. Hell most common users don't even back up their HD's so why would they keep their movie collection on it. Another big drawback with this is portability. If your friend doesn't have the same movie you would have to wait for him to download it. That's not convenient for a lot of people. Maybe Blu-Ray will be dead in when internet connections improve from their current state but I don't think this will happe for quite some time.

[kalel333]

Personally I like to have a physical copy, and I like going to the store to get it too. I Also have a 20gb download cap on my connection !! So if I have to download 5gb per movie, you can imagine that I won't have long till I start paying 1.25$ extra per gb...

[njr]

If you haven't read it, don't. You'll waste a couple of minutes of your life.

[redsnake]

i dont agree at all. hd movie downloads are stupid people want something they can touch. people already download movies for free they wont start paying for it

[EL MAESTRO]

yes he is an idiot. does not write like someone who has journalism writting skills. sounds like some retart who is pissed off cuz he dont like BL. I personally dont like blueray only cuz its really not that great. The picture quality is so damn good, it looks fake. spiderman on BR looks way too cg..lol..when i was at the theater it didnt look like that. and i download all the movies in hd. but for collectors they will always like hard media. i choose to go digital, which i believe the whole world is goin, so i agree with the fact that BR will not be around as long a dvd was or is going to be but its not a failure.

[zoydwheeler]

Do you see what you did yet? You still have to pass that spelling 101 test... You complete and utter fecking tickturd. Luurn to rite proppa!

[prunchess]

Give the poster a break. There are many out there that have bad reading and writing skills.

[Bullseye]

to this article. Yes, i think it's true HD DVD was the better of the two options, but now blu ray has won the format war i, don't think it will vanish any time soon.However,i don't see it making that much ground either. Therefore, it'll probably hang around for a good few years,but without making any major dents in standard DVD sales.Then ultimately,get replaced by another system.Still, i agree with many of you who say it's nice to have a physical box/disc, you're right, it is.So i don't think downloads are popular with punters, only the industry.As usual,time will tell.

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

First Rob Mead (Author) comments that HD (High Definition) downloads will take over, yet says SD (Standard Definition) DVDs are good enough. It's either you think HD is good enough or you don't, you can't be on both sides of the fence here. If anyone has a full HDTV for HD downloads they're going to buy Blu-ray discs. No you don't have to re-buy your collection just continue to buy it on blu-ray since the SDDVDs work on Blu-ray players.

This is how you know this person has a person grudge against a company he supports HD downloads, but not the physical media. The thing that is funny the Blu-ray discs now are the same prices are the SDDVDs were before the Blu-ray disc format was released. People need to understand anything new will cost you money.

With the Microsoft Surface (Milan) do you really think an average consumer can buy that? Is this really doing to replace desktop computers? Did the TV replace the theatre? Was making a manual transmission impossible? Is digital distribution going to replace all physical media? When something new comes out people always think it will replace something completely. Wait, our TVs don't even have 1080p shows, yet this is still going on.

Microsoft Surface Official Site HTML: http://www.microsoft.com/su...

If SDDVDs are just fine than VHS (Video Home System) with me because the prices are just so reasonable. They're better than the SDDVDs so in reality SDDVDs will be dead in 2009, plus my next door neighbour thinks so.

[aiphanes]

To see what bluray can really do, you have to have a good tv...try playing back the best bluray disc on a good bluray player on a Pioneer Kuro plasma, and then come back and tell me DVDs look better or digital downloads look better than bluray.

Also with bluray its about the sound...most people do not have the proper 7.1 sound set up. Its not too expensive to do.

Bluray is superior than DVD and all digital downloads, even upscaled ones. HDDVD is dead so it can not compare...plus it has much lower bandwidth...Microsoft is hating on bluray because they are not part of it. Bluray became a standard without them.

Remember bluray is the Standard full HD format...just like DVD is the standard non-hd video format. Both do not compete against each other. If you want to watch a movie or video in HD, you have to watch it is bluray..there is really no other choice. All the digital downloads do not have the bandwidth and are not true full HD. Upscalling is not true HD.

1080p tvs are less than $1000 these days. Even some sony and samsung. 7.1 HDMI 1.3a receivers are less than $300 these days.

Bluray will be around just as long as DVD...which means about forever.

Also have you seen all the movies comming out now? And they all come out same time as DVD.

[zoydwheeler]

Yay! Another eejit that cannot write or express himself properly. Well done. No, really, WELL DONE.

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

I just realized I typed "Was making a manual transmission impossible?" when I should've said automatic. There was a time when people thought automatic transmision was impossible, lol. I know you're not talking about me "zoydwheeler" after calling me "eejit." Lol.

[ReBurn]

Ultimately technology will reach the point where digital distribution will be possible at current Blu-Ray quality. But even that faces an adoption process. The only way it will replace disc-based media is if content distributors just stop producing disc-based media.

[AZgamerB3yond]

To The Author: Nice try, but you'll have to get in line behind the mayans, nostradamus, christianity, judeasm, and islam on the whole 2012 thing.....d00sh

[ReeBlock]

As long as it makes money, it will be relevant. Also, of course Bill Gates will speak ill of Blu-Ray because HD still has Blu-Ray's foot up it's ass. Yep Bill, you f*cked up. I'm not a fanboy either (unless I'm getting paid for it), I love and own both systems. Peace!

[James Vanderbeek]

Not if they release all the seasons of Dawsons Creek in blu ray..

[Vulcan Raven]

Ok, first off the majority of the world does not have "lightning" fast internet, so obviously Digital downloads are a ways off, lets say 10 years. Second reason Is most of the people I know enjoy having or collecting physical media. So this is not meant to convince you die hard digital downloaders but it is why Blu-Ray will be around for quite some time. Oh look they still sell umd movies on psp.

[BattleAxe]

Sony actually just recently got all of the major movie studios back on board to sell movies on UMD due to the PSPs success. The catch is that Sony has to market and distribute all of the movies.

[asyouburn]

how are you supposed to trade in digital downloads? if you get a game from psn or xbl, youre stuck with it. believe me, if i couldve traded the half hour long double dragon remake, or that damn ninja turtles game, i would have. but you cant.

[Fux4Bux]

With ISPs actually starting to cap bandwidth digital downloads are not going to stay viable.

[P_Bomb]

Article's pretty xenophobic. People will always want a physical media. Does he HONESTLY think people are buying HDTVs now and surround sounds just to wait 5-10 years for digital downloads to start using them, and does he honestly think they're gonna dump all their physical media at that time at the drop of a hat just because the calender now says 2012 and not 2011?

You think in 2012 you'll wake up one day and suddenly every movie ever made is suddenly gonna be available for download somewhere?! Is everyone gonna have enough hard drive space for all that? Will everyone be cool with their IP's charging them more money for milking all their bandwidth as you re-download half a million gigs of movies? Are people honestly gonna be so anti-physical media that they won't even make physical backups of their $30.00 movies in case of hard drive crashes because they're trying to prove how "cool" they are to be alive in 2012? Is your average Johnny six pack/ soccer mom sally willing to invest the time and money in hard drives and faster internet and teaching their peanut butter fingered toddlers how not to delete 'Little Mermaid' off the hard drive when most of them probably still have 12:00 flashing on their DVD players?

What do you do if you wanna buy or sell a used movie for cheap, or trade with your friend, you think everyone buys everything brand new in middle america? You think everyone keeps all their movies? LOL, yeah you try walking into Blockbuster and selling them a USB drive and see what happens.

New media is just another option. An option. Anyone who thinks that everything new will ALWAYS wipe out everything tried and true (like the writer of the article) simply doesn't have life experience.

Did PayPerView and Movies on Demand kill Blockbuster?
Did I-Tunes kill the CD?
Did computers kill paper?
Did TV kill the book?

Why even buy a TV at all, might as well just wait for the day they can beam the signals directly into your brain. You're a fanboy if you don't.

Too funny.

[SlaughterMeister]

Beautiful words, my friend.

Excellent.

[zoydwheeler]

xenophobia

xen·o·pho·bi&# 183;a /ˌzɛnəˈfoʊbiə, ˌzinə-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[zen-uh-foh-bee-u h, zee-nuh-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation – noun

an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

How, going by this definition above, is this article xenophobic?

[SpartanZero]

Because of the Xbox 720

[SlaughterMeister]

May 21, 2012 is the end of the world.

[NipGrip]

Someone's been drinking out of the Microsoft punch bowl again.

[Rourker]

who pays for the internet? um businesses for the most part so they can do all their online transactions (and they make a lot) then you pay your 40 bucks a month to you ISP, but what happens when the businesses make their own internet? like they are trying to do now, then what happens to your ISP bill, um goes up and up and up, to say oh 150 - 200 a month for a 3 - 4Mb/s connection, but that's not nearly enough to download an HD movie in a reasonable amount of time. for that you will need to pay a lot more. and no one is going to do that. this will happen in 10 - 15 years but it will hit people like a brick wall.

Edit: the point is, physical media is not going anywhere.

[aiphanes]

Why would anybody think that bluray with 50GB of space now and 100 GB comming next year is gonna die?

Nobody is going to download a 50Gb or 100 GB movie...it is not possible in to days or even 2012 tech....maybe 10 to 20 years from now when there is plenty of bandwidth and no caps.

[Lumbo]

I believe you can unmask the authors whole idiocy by linking up two of his "points"

1st: "Instead services like iTunes, Xbox Live and Vudu already offer HD movies"
and
2nd: "Given that many cheap DVD players now have some kind of upscaling capability, DVD will prove 'good enough' in terms of picture quality for many years to come."

Naturally if you believe that the shoddy 1.5 mbit/sec streams labeled HD are good enough you also believe that DVD (at 6mbit/sec = 4 times the data the download streams offer) upscaled is as good as HD-movies

BluRay offers up to 40mbit/sec bandwidth for video, You would be lucky to have 16mbit DSL lines as a minimum in 2012. Instead you get served 6mbit lines = max DVD bandwidth streams. The 'HD'-Streams you can access via the online services are overly compressed and lack sharpness and color compared to the HD-media based movies. Consider this: if DVD needs 6mbit/sec to deliver SD film in adequate quality for a 704×576 resolution you can imagine what quality you get at a mere 1.5 mbit/sec for a 1280×720 (720p)resolution. A quarter of the bandwidth for more than double the pixels. And don't even think about "full-hd" 1080i streams, you would need 20 times better compression than DVD-mpeg2 to reach DVD quality for 1080i material on Itunes-HD.

Or how about total bandwidth? Why do the avid DD supporters NEVER think their fairy tale wonderland through? "in 2012 we will all have 50mbit fibreoptic lines and therefor we can stream full-hd content, DD is teh win" ... So you can stream ONE full-HD movie, yes, but imagine the "new Transformers3 movie" only released on DD resulting in half a million people wanting to "buy/watch" it from itunes ... 500000 * 40mbit = 20tbit/sec .. There is NO datacenter around that will manage 20 TERRABIT trafic per second, not today, not tomorrow, not in 2012. Datacenters with the biggest available lines today manage 2-3 10 Gbit lines outgoing. So while 500000 people can easily buy a Transformers3 Bluray in one day and watch it at the same time, even 1 million, or 2 or 3 or 10 as the physical media can be piled in the back of the stores warehouse WEEKS before the release, but streaming is an instant business, you get it when you buy it and you have to deliver it at that moment, you can't pile up a stream in the warehouse. So only a very limited amount of users can actually stream a 40mbit HD movie at the same time. Thats the reason why itunes and other streaming firms only offer 1.5 mbit streams, a fraction of the data a simple BluRay delivers.

Or his attempt of spin with "Sony thinks Blu-ray is finished" quoting a Sony rep and suggesting that the rep said that BluRay won't be the next format.

If you read the original interview you would see that the rep instead said they do not NEED any other format, as BluRay is even good enough for the future 4k format for movies. So while the Sony rep said BluRay is so good they need no further format for the foreseeable future our little HD-DVD fan claims Sony said BluRay is teh shiat and will be replaced by something else soonish.

The usual blabber the angry HD-DVD(rip) fanboys spew around the net. Complete with a comment on how HD-DVD was soooo much better...

fail, next

[cheapndirty]

Hey anyone want to borrow some HD downloads? Come on over and I will loan them to you. Oh wait! I can't! Seems DRM has killed that . No sweat I will just bring over my hard drive.

Who would tolerate that scenario?

With most americans returning electronics purchases as "defective" only to find out that all they needed to do was READ THE MANUAL(95% of returns work just fine), I do not see anyone wanting to give up the ease of buying the dang disc.

We can count on DRM getting stricter with DD. You can thank the pirates out there for that.

[Rob0g0rilla]

I lived in PA, NY, and FL and in all of those areas I was in I could barley find a internet provider that provided the speeds that were above DSL. It's just way too slow & overpriced in America compared to other countries. It's probably better or worse in other countries (some ppl don't have internet at all) but I don't see Blu-ray dying any time soon. Lol, Sony will have Blu-ray on PS4 and Microsoft will have Blu-ray on 360. Just watch. People just wanna buy a movie, put it in, and watch it. Maybe around 2015 everything will be downloaded but from now to 2012 I really doubt it. Same with games.

[Toixer]

Open your eyes guys. This is totally fanboy drivel. If he had any ambition to write a realistic breakdown, there would be pro arguments. And noone can say, there aren't any.
I mean even hardcore hd-dvd fans have to admit, that blu-ray at least contributes to a livley discussion like this one^^.

Not worth to comment on this article.

[RUF1]

Okay, it's my own damn fault for clicking on the link, but I had to see if this was something different from the last ten articles that have said something like this, and it isn't. Reading the comments on the Tech-Radar site only confirmed what I was thinking already: That this is some biased clown saying the same bunch of over-generalized crap as before.

Even just taking one point, "DVD is good enough," I can break it down this way: If you think that DVD is totally fine compared to good HD, then you need your eyes checked. Seriously.

[0LDSCH00L]

How dare you upset all the kids here at N4G's! lol!

[0LDSCH00L]

Fanturds! lol!

[mraffa]

I am a person who does not have a blu ray player yet. I imagine that I will get one eventually probably in the form in ps3. I think it is still too early to tell where things are going to go. DVD is still great especially since you can up convert. I don't see the point of buying Blu ray since theey are so expensive. I am not goig to waste my money when I can get them cheaper on DVD. As far as the next format. If comcast imposes the 250 GB limit on the net. Then don't plan on seeing downloads taking off. Flash drive formats I can see taking off. It is smaller and can be easy. You probably won't even need a additional device. As far as Xbox live is see it as a rip off. I don't buy a damn thing on xbox live. After paying for the service everything on there should be free. Why pay for something on xbox live when I can watch free movies on demand or just use Netflix and watch DVDs. I honestly see flash drive taking off especially since Hd downloads take too long. I think Sony already has Ghostbusters on a PNY flash drive for sale.

[P_Bomb]

I was just being facetious. ;)

Going by the definition of "an unreasonable fear or hatred of that which is foreign or strange", I felt the author was displaying an unreasonable fear and even bias in opposition to the fact that the average consumer may still prefer or have a vested interest in physical media for hi def (blu ray or whatever else) in 2012.

It seems strange to him that simply upscaling DVDs would not be good enough for everyone. It seems foreign to him that physical hi def media would still be around in 2012, even grasping at straws like saying that blu ray will fail in part due to weak BD Live (do DVDs even have Live and has it ever been an issue?) or that one person at one company said one thing, so it must apply to everybody at every company. It seems unreasonable to not even take into consideration the other side of the coin and what physical media offers the consumer that a bunch of zeros and ones on a hard drive do not, such as re-sale.

[TheTimeDoctor]

your face is facetious

[IaMs12]

Wait isn't the world suppose to end in 2012....

[Kemicalbeliefs]

The world as WE know it is going to end in 2012 but we'll go to another world or dimension. One where Blu-ray has failed and families sit at the TV to watch a movie but have to wait 8 hours to download a 'not quite full HD' version and the kids go to bed at 5am when its finished.

There is a real campaign out there with some real marketing going on but they don't realise. I'LL DECIDE if I want to kill my blu-ray, not them.

[gersh]

Possibly the crappiest article I have ever read.
Crap crap crap. Biased opinions.

[xg-ei8ht]

apparently the world ends in 2012, so no format will be winning.

[bosels11]

analysts are the dumbest motherfu@ker$ on the planet - Blu Ray will be around ALOT longer than 2012. See, now I am an analyst

[TheTimeDoctor]

xbox 360 60gb $300
live $50
wireless network adapter $100

the price seems similar to the playstation; the xbox is preying on stupidity.

[Transformer]

OMG this made me laugh so hard.
2012 death of B Ray yeah right.
Blu Ray more than meets the eye.

[Slinger420]

This guy would love to see this happen so he can justify his purchases. Some people honestly need to get a life.

[Expy]

lol all these reasons are horrible.

[Gantrfaxx]

"DVD is good enough"

But Blu Ray is not? Maybe VHS is even better?
Go kill yourself.

[flappo]

the future is solid state , not unlike those tiny little cards that came with the 1987 nec pc engne

http://searchstorage.techta...

but instead of 128k they'll be XXX terabytes , that you slip in your pocket , cost peanuts and last ages , don't need moving parts that go wrong etc etc

[JenniferFromSony]

Check out the Sony Electronics Blog. A recent post talks about why Sony thinks Blu-ray is here to stay, despite contrary reports.

~Jennifer

Jennifer Peterson
Sony Electronics Blog Moderator
Sony Electronics
www.Sony.com/ElectronicsBlog