Like it or not, Blu-ray is needed. Programs are starting to reach the limit of dual-layer DVDs, and a lot of them are now coming on multiple dual-layer disks. I’m sure downloading will matter for 3/4 of the people out there that don’t have broadband access… :-p

I’m sorry, but you’re about right up there with the National Enquirer when it comes to reporting, and I must say your bias is showing.

You should have called it a day when HD DVD died, at least you could have said you were right about that.

*Chuckles*

Anybody that sees a Blu-Ray disk will think “Its in HD”

Having a 10-DVD SD boxset put into one SD Blu-Ray disk will just confuse people when they pop it in and go “HEY! Why isn’t this in HD?”. Not to mention while I would certanely welocome this, most people don’t care abuot the convinence of having a multi-disk boxset on a single disk.

Not to mention all it takes is a signle lag spike to make your movie buffer right in the middle to ruin the expirence.

Watching all three movies in 1080p glory on a 120″ inch projection with someone you care about, without spending a arm and a leg in a movie theater, without driving and wasting gas.

- Priceless.

For those who claims that Blu-ray movies are expensive. That’s BS, You can find BR player for about $150, you can find 13.99 blu-ray movies at Fry’s on weekly specials. James Bond movies were on sale for 14.99 last week. Pan’s Labyrinth were on sale for 14.99 the week before. Sunshine for 14.99 last month. DVD counterpart cost around 10.99 each. you’re looking at $3-4 difference. That’s a small difference in price, but the amount of audio visual gain is amazing. Blu-ray is long away from dead.

- Cost: BD players and discs are not in the right ballpark … yet. We’ll see what happens after Christmas. Considering that Netflix rents BD for only $1 more per month, increased disc prices may not be a big issue.
- Reliability: Incompatibilities like those with the Ironman BD are a potentially deadly thorn. People don’t want to upgrade firmware. If BD doesn’t become as bulletproof as DVD, it probably won’t take off.
- Performance: How many people hate it when they buy a new computer that runs slower than their last one? Added bloat from new operating systems & ‘features’ they don’t use get in the way and encourage people to stick with their old technology. Discs that take 3 min to load are just as bad as incompatibilities.

I’m not buying BD yet because of these issues. When there is a player for $200 that doesn’t need any updates, plays fast & reliably, I’ll buy it. But until then, why bother?

Blu-Ray always was going to struggle establishing itself as major format for movies. The jump from VHS to DVD was one of the fastest format adoptions in history. Especially when compared to Vinyl vs. CD. In both of these cases there was a notable difference in both technology and quality of the medium. This is really not as straight forward with Blu-Ray.

An upscaling DVD gives an image that is on par with a Blu-Ray player on a full 1080 display, most people will not be able to tell the difference any way. Also because DVD is still a major revenue for the studios, I can’t see any off them going Blu-Ray only any time soon. In fact the positioning of Blu-Ray has made DVD titles even cheaper. Add to the mix digital downloads, be it in DRM’ed format of plain DivX from BitTorrent provide a perfectly good viewing experience.

The problem Blu-Ray always faced was physically and technically it is still just an optical disk. The capacity and how it works is abstract to most people. Technically it is superior due to its storage capacity. But other than that it does exactly the same thing DVD does. It is because of this perception, adoption is going to take time. Sony’s strategy of using the PS3 to drive Blu-Ray is a stroke of genius without it Blu-Ray would not have even got ths far. Also the use of Blu-Ray in the PS3 has pretty much guaranteed Blu-Ray will be around for a while just because of the PS3’s lifecycle, which is going to be at least another 8 years.

Also the argument about Blu-Ray writers getting cheaper will ease adoption is also mute. In that hard disk recording is becoming the major format for recording. Every major comsumer electronics company already offers HD based recorders. Blu-Ray is more likely to become an archive medium for recordings from a HD recorder, much like how I use my DVD-R right now. The argument that older people understand the DVD interface so jumping to Blu-Ray is trivial is probably correct. However HD recorders have the same interface so they don’t cause a problem for the older generation either. I know this because my parents use a HD recorder and Sky+ without issue.

Another factor also slowing High-Def adoption in general right now is cost for services like Sky-HD, and until free-to-air services go fully High-Def in 2010, people in general are not going to rush out to buy Blu-Ray players. As a storage format use with PC’s is really going to be decided by cost of media, right now it looks like it will be a while before that happens.

OK, the quality is nice, yes, but the prices??? Right now it’s a DRM-startover for all Moviemakers and a huge market for the patent holders who want a bite like Philips with their CD or Matshusita with the DVD.

I have no need to switch. I watch DVDs on my PowerBook with a nice iPod hifi Sound – works for me.