Since Fred, who has jumped on the Blu-Ray bandwagon to some degree, commented on Blu-Ray being more than just more storage (though I still say that's all it is, regardless of a supposed resolution bump, which IS due to new levels of storage), I noted this latest article which articulates things better. Making Blu-Ray akin to laserdisc has a pretty big "ouch" factor, in my mind. Laserdisk was of course large and unwieldy when the time of the LP vinyl record was disappearing (since it was the same size), so at least Blu-Ray has THAT going for it (though technically, if something is going to replace DVD, you'd think they would have gone for something smaller - since I'm not aware of many, if any, companies selling movies in a "mini" Ray disc format, which I can only assume exists just as it did for DVD and also assume is compatible on drives by default).
I remember thinking, when Fred showed me a few minutes of The Dark Knight that it was a bit insane that the player was slow on pulling up video, booting in general, and related functions, I am understanding enough to know that it's only what.. a year or so old? The players will obviously get better and "near instantaneous" as time goes on. The issue is... will it last? Another article shows how there is a "very loud vocal minority" saying Blu-Ray is here to stay, but with the PS3 still costing so much to produce ($450 average right now apparently), I don't know. I'm not as anxious to get a BD drive for my computer now. I'm going to wait at least several months.
I can't even imagine what a PS3's Blu-Ray playback experience is like (though I assume the actual movie playback is "fine"). Once again, the video game console wars show that Nintendo ruled, followed by Microsoft who has the best online experience bar none. PS3 sucked royally and is finally in BETA for their online service that was due a year ago. The fact that they took Microsoft's approach of selling PS3s at a major loss to "get into the market" with nextgen means they seem to be floundering in general. Just like my belief that PERHAPS one of the auto manufacturers in America NEEDS to be put down for the other two to flourish once again (*cough* GM *cough*), perhaps it's time for Sony to concentrate more on their other electronics. PSP is crap (though a decent hackable toy for MAME, Linux and more) and PS3 is a loser (your opinion may vary, I'm sure).
Very similar arguments existed not only for laserdisc, but for such previous new technologies as Nintendo 64 (for some reason, the cartridges were very expensive to produce - I believe it had to do with NV RAM storage on them or something), then even the GameCube (which by my recall did not flourish at all) and heck, even "MP3 replacements". MP3 is still the king (are Apple players still trying to force their format down your throat with that silly iTunes store?). It's hard to be unbiased or to have a "normal person's" point of view when my mentality is that of a computer-geek who doesn't need DRM content, doesn't need a DVD player to watch movies (and no, streaming is still crap, too) and who doesn't stare at an unexpected screen on his computer and go "okay, let's go pay someone to click a few buttons on some prepacked software that makes them look like they have any clue to fix this". I still pity the average consumer who gets screwed by people "like me" who "fix" their hardware and software. :-/ This is why I am not and never again will be a salesman. But that's a discussion for another time, so I digress. :-P I'm rambling now.
Happy New Year to all.
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I'd reckon that AAC is probably more prevalent than MP3 - you've got maybe 20% of the population that knows how to rip or download a CD, everyone else buys AAC from iTunes.
ReplyDeleteAnd regarding watching a movie without a DVD player....yes, you can, but put something from Bittorrent next to Blu-ray on a large screen and the difference is obvious. It's the kind of thing you wouldn't know you should care about until you watch a movie in HD and then watch it as an AVI. You can spend money buying a BD drive for a PC, a sufficiently fast CPU and HDCP compatible video card, or you can just spend $250 on a player.