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Topic: Anyone consuming HD or Blu-ray?
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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today
Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99
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posted 02-08-2008 05:21 PM
You said you were part of the last three groups which includes:
quote:
- Don't give a shit about high-res, as long as they can tell what's happening on the screen
That sounds like a lousy attitude to have if you run a theater. EDIT: Never mind, you said "least", not "last", my bad.
As for physical media being a funny memory, I'm not so sure. Have you heard about Time Warner Cable (I think) eliminating flat rate internet fees? More broadband ISPs are expected to follow suit. Instead, the more you use it, the more you pay. You are allotted 7 GB of bandwidth a month before you start paying more. 7 gigs! That's nothing! A decent DVD can't even fit in that space. Imagine how much you'd pay to download a 35-40GB high definition movie. Sure, they aren't that big on Apple TV or Xbox Live, but they are limited to 720p and are compressed all to hell with wimpy 480kbps Dolby Digital audio (which is still a higher bitrate than the theatrical version, but still). A lot of the people who seem to have this outlook seem to forget logic. They think because iTunes has a store that sells shitty AACs that physical media will go away forever, and very soon! It will be a very limited segment of the population who actually will love that kind of nonsense.
If you're unwilling to move up to HDTV, that's your prerogative. But did you feel the same way when black and white TV went to color? I guarantee that you'll own an HDTV someday, and likely a Blu-Ray player as well!
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-09-2008 10:51 AM
quote:
If you're unwilling to move up to HDTV, that's your prerogative. But did you feel the same way when black and white TV went to color? I guarantee that you'll own an HDTV someday, and likely a Blu-Ray player as well!
When black & white went to color, I wanted it right now...but my dad controlled the money, and it was probably a good five or seven years into the color "era" before we got a color TV.
I'm not unwilling, in fact I'm eager. I enjoy a great picture as much as anyone. I'm sure that I'll have a hi-def setup one of these days, and probably a Blu-Ray too, but I don't feel a big need to rush out and buy it right now because I think the picture on my current setup looks real good -- for TV. If I was a five-hour-a-day and all-weekend TV viewer, I would probably feel differently.
You have to admit that the difference between regular DVD and high-def vs. that between B&W and color is much more subtle for the typical viewer. Plus, the switch to color was a lot simpler. Just buy a new TV and hook your antenna to it: Done. If I wanted to upgrade my system at home to what I have in mind, I'd have to remodel my house. Can't really justify the cost right now.
The reason there's not a massive move to hi-def DVD is because a huge portion of the TV watching population is people like me. We have a decent setup now and don't see a need to change it...but the problem, from a marketing standpoint, is that we are the ones who have the money to spend. Do I really need a somewhat clearer picture and fancy menus from a machine that takes a lot longer to load a disk, especially when I've seen at least four home video formats get 'outmoded' in the last 20 years?
Watch out, Joe...you're in your 20s, right? In another 20 years (maybe less, as fast as things move nowadays) you will be griping about the new technology and saying that what you've been using is good enough.
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-09-2008 03:24 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
During the first couple years of the DVD format's life, lots of people were trying to say that it would never be adopted by the general public and that many (including lots of older customers) would just hang onto their VHS players.
Those people were idiots. As soon as I heard about DVD, I thought, "That's it for VHS." Any fool could see that DVD would take over from VHS, because DVD has a clearer picture, plus easier portability, better durability, higher capacity, more versatility, smaller size, easier recordability, easier navigation, and so on. Plus they're lighter and cost less to ship.
The only thing from the above list that can be said about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is the clearer picture. So it has WAY less "demonstrable" improvement over the old format.
Generally I'm not a naysayer and I like new goodies as much as the next guy. I was right there and bought a Betamax the first year they came out, and I had the VHS hi-fi, the $900 CD player, the Atari 5200 on day 1, the Walkman, and all that crap. But in THIS case, I think you're looking at the "Windows Vista" of video formats -- tons of people, especially those over 30, will only buy hi-res DVD players when their old players crap out and they have no other choice.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 02-09-2008 06:00 PM
quote: Mike Blakesley
The only thing from the above list that can be said about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is the clearer picture. So it has WAY less "demonstrable" improvement over the old format.
6 times the native pixel count. Native 24fps on theatrical films. LPCM Multichannel, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio -at up to 7.1 discrete channels. The difference is VERY impressive.
quote: Mike Blakesley
But in THIS case, I think you're looking at the "Windows Vista" of video formats -- tons of people, especially those over 30, will only buy hi-res DVD players when their old players crap out and they have no other choice.
Unlike Windows Vista, Blu-Ray actually works very well.
I'm also over 30 years old and recently bought a brand new Sony DVD player with built in 1080p upconversion, Bravia™ Theater Link and HDMI output. Despite that, when I saw just how good Blu-Ray looked on the Bravia HDTV I wanted I simply had to include a PS3 with the TV purchase.
I sold my old TV to a coworker (he's putting it in his son's room). I'm done with buying movies on standard DVD. I'm going to sell at least some of the discs in my DVD movie collection and gradually replace them with Blu-Ray versions.
Blu-Ray has renewed some of the enthusiasm I had years ago renting and buying movies.
I waited 2 years after DVD had been introduced before buying into the format. Did the same thing with Blu-Ray. DVD went mainstream not long after the 2 year mark. I think The Matrix was the movie title that really drove player sales in 1999. This summer, I suspect a number of movies coming out (The Dark Knight, Indy IV, Wall•E and more) could do the same for Blu-Ray this fall.
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