Blu-ray No Way!
by Frank Jovine on 05/31/2008 in Gadgets
Blu-ray was the king in the high-def DVD arena. Sony is not feeling that victorious and more like a beaten 
down old dog. Why is this? It seems that the fish (the consumers) are not taking the bait, or that’s what it seems like so far.
When HD DVD stepped away from the market earlier this year, many thought they would see Blu-ray rise like the sun in sales, but that did not happen. In fact, it was more like a flop. In February, Blu-ray player sales dropped 40 percent and rose a mere 2 percent in March.
According to Home Media Magazine publisher Thomas Arnold saying that the numbers reflect an availability issue, that there weren’t enough players on the market to meet demand, and that the first quarter is a bad time for electronics sales anyway. In what country was he shopping for a Blu-ray? I went to two stores right after Christmas and found Blu-ray devices in inventory, even after the biggest shopping holiday of the year!
My opinion is that Blu-ray hasn’t caught on yet, but it will. Blu-ray will flourish, because there’s no shortage of Blu-ray movies. What are your opinions on Blu-ray?
Louis
May 31st, 2008
listen- its not that they suck, they are good…
people today just do not want to have to go through another vhs – dvd change. plus we have things like apple tv, or tv rentals, or the nextflix tv thing…or even Microsoft media….
the only way blueray is going to catch on is if the devices will get better and get much cheaper, almost dvd player cheap…..or else who needs them, the quality is better, but people are getting scared to spend money so why should they on something like quality?
I’d say in 4 years blue ray, dvd, and cd will be almost history, other then for backing your computer up….everything will be done with ssd hard drives and wirelessly.
Frank J
May 31st, 2008
No way we are saying they “suck”. I just can’t believe it hasn’t gained the popularity I expected.
Peintros
May 31st, 2008
Great article, thanks
Blue-Ray vs HD-DVD is over, but beware of Red-ray DVD.
Red-Ray DVD is being developed by CCID Consulting, a chinese research firm.
On the other hand toshiba which swallowed a billion dollars loss, is giving another go with an evolution format to the DVD(As for now this is just a rumor). IMO i think that blue-ray will stay as an upscale format for sometime, but will never replace the DVD. Sony is having troubles catching up with the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation 3 is their best asset to penetrate the consumers market…. The threat is digital movie downloads coming from Apple. All major studios are diversifying their bets, and placing it in both technologies. Few years from now higher internet speeds will be available to consumers, thus blue-ray will be long gone.
Cheers
Frank J
May 31st, 2008
Thank you Peintros. Red-ray oh my. I can’t wait to see this product. I love new technology, especially when it works right out of the box.
Steve
Jun 2nd, 2008
Personally I fully understand why blu-ray hasn’t caught on. I have a collection of some 300 or so DVDs. Even though I have an HDTV, there’s no way I’m going to re-buy movies that I already own just so I can watch them in HD. I feel like the increase in quality over DVD is not worth the investment at the present. As an above poster said, the price will have to come down quite a bit for me to consider buying new movies in blu-ray format. Besides, when processed and scaled correctly a movie on DVD looks almost as good as HD.
Rt
Jun 29th, 2008
Blu-ray is the winner and i love it , almost everyone accepting , ya it take time.
Eddie Starr
Aug 15th, 2008
Not only is pricing a key factor, most of the people I have discussed blu-ray technology with do not feel the need to have to go out and upgrade. The move from VHS to DVD is still recent in the minds of many consumers.
Although Blu-Ray is an amazing “next generation” technology, with higher capacity and crystal clear media content, consider the state of the economy. Rising fuel expenses, and the impact of rising costs towards consumer goods. Naturally households will hold off spending hundreds of dollars to buy an unnecessarily needed blu-ray player. Also, for us technical folks out there who would use blu-ray as a way to save data, the sheer cost of BD-R (blank blu-ray discs) is still very costly. Historically consumers know prices of “New Technology” drop given time. Blu-Ray usage and sales will undobtedly supersede that of DVD as the technology is adopted by more and more households. Wikipedia.org has a great biography on Blu-Ray, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc more interesting is Alternative disc technologies which discusses technologies that are being developed that will eventually (possibly) make Blu-Ray technology look antiquated. Oh the joy of Technological Evolution.