The potential pitfalls of Blu-ray

most of those "reasons" are BS.
1 - Yes, currently the ps3 is the only console to support blu ray, that's not a problem, that's a choice

2 - huh?

3 - backing up to blu ray would be handy on occasion, especially if you want to mail someone a disc of important data. Optical media is great for postage.

4 - some businesses like to use optical media for temporary storage, or as above, posting from one continent to another can be quicker than 50 gb over internet

Age of Conan requires 30 gigs of hard drive space, we aren't that far away from most games needing multiple DVD... at which point it pulls away from its advantage over CD installs. That's when Blu-ray's capacity will be seen as valuable.

I never planned to do anything but play ps3 games/watch movies wth blu-ray anyway.

Isn't this true of every new technology...

I basically only Buy on Blu-Ray if one of the Following applies.

1) It's a PS3 game, Duh...
2) Sci-Fi type movies. If Star Wars hits Blu-Ray I'm buying Star Wars... Again...
3) If the Price is right. $30 is too much for a movie.

Simple Fact is if they Stop Charging $29.99 and $24.99 for Blu-Ray movies they will sell a lot more.

mole hills, have the digitimes not heard of the 200 GB prototype Blu-ray discs that were shown off almost 2 years ago now? Just like DVD has been able to get more space, just add some layers and you now have a single disc that holds as much as a lot of external HDD's. And omg that would be nice to have these simply as storage mediums for high quality audio in my car, not the puny 128kb/sec to 192 stuff.

So what's this about Pitfall on Blu-ray?

I just use blue ray for "those" movies that must be in HD, you know those ones that are super rad and are a must own must be 7.1 surround sound and must be 1080p :)

mole hills for sure... I can't count the number of times I've wished I had a bluray burner. Backing up my harddrive so I don't have to reinstall stuff again would be awesome. It would just take too many DVD's, even dual layers aren't enough. If i can cut down the number of discs i need by 80%, I'm all for it.

The 360 and the Wii, well, neither of them will last as long as the PS3. MS will definitely want to push out a new console ahead of Sony again, and will have to ship with a blu ray drive if they want to compete with sony. The Wii will get old fast and people will want something new, but even a new console, if Nintendo follows with its current hardware trend, we probably still won't see a blu ray player in their console. The games won't require it, and the public doesn't view it as a media entertainment system.

In cars, we could really use a DVD/blu ray mp3 player (as in mp3s can be read from those discs similar to those MP3 cd players from a few years ago). But for video? is that really on the priority list?

I've purchased 2 Blu Ray movies so far. They cost too much. I do alot of pay per view or downloads because I don't absolutely get in a rush to see anything before it is on permanent repeat on the premium channels. So far I haven't really seen the reason for the Blu Ray hoopla, but I have it so there...

If HD-DVD had "won" the "war", you could say the same (except for the fact that only the X360 had an addon) about these HD-discs.

I suppose HD-DVD/Blu-Ray are meant to play movies off.

PS: Why bother watching movies in a car? I really don't get that... I drive, my girlfriend talks to me/reads a book/we listen to music... And if there are kids: they'll just have to get themselfs a library card, like I did as a kid.

LOL
this is funny
basically they are saying that bluray should hold back for technology to catch up.
im sorry, looking forward, its the only way to go
those "bad points" arn't really bad points

- Not all consoles support bluray - Who cares PS3 does n im glad otherwise metal gear would have been in trouble LOL, the more space the merrier

- Who cares about in car video, plus bluray drives are backwards compatible

- lol dvds hardly hold anything i have anymore n i dont feel like lending my friends an external HDD. LOL

- I dont think blu ray is meant for business use as much but as i stated b4, Backwards compatible, and yes its a choice

-Wii doesn't even do DVD, only 360 and PS3.
-Do cars even MATTER yet?
-Are you going to give a group of clients interested in your products each a portable hard drive with your demo video on it? No, and they'll be waiting forever for their 9+GB video file to download from your website in their hotel room. Where internet speeds are lagging behind in availability and price, and where DVD isn't up to snuff in quality and features, BD will exist. It will be a niche at first, yes, but everything is, and it has room to grow.

Back on Wii, it will lose traction eventually in it's fight against movie/music entertainment, HD, and online service. Being "a game box" will only last so long with the Wii before third parties inevitably jump ship as usual. Wii's will come out just as often as gameboy(and now seemingly DS) revisions, and it will cause useless confusion. If people are only REALLY buying Wii for the first party games, then why not just stop making Nintendo consoles and focus on games like Sega tried to do? (except be successful at it)

That's y man. Why bother watching Blu Ray movies in the car. Telling us to have more on road accident.
I only thought of Blu Ray using for PS3 games and if u want to play movies on PS3 too. That's not what im going to do cause too expensive for a movie. I will just download it.

When DVDs came out they were awesome... I don't think anyone besides Sony and Toshiba and technophiles cares about getting High Definition Movies (certainly not for $30) and I imagine few people are running into space issues on DVDs yet (again people recording things in high definiton).

Of course I'm generalizing but I doubt Blu-Ray will ever be as ubiquitous as DVDs... but even if it does reach that point, I imagine that its adoption will be much slower...

DVDs weren't just bigger and better, they were also way more convenient... I just don't think Blu-Ray is the jump that DVD was.

I think the point the article is trying to make is that while blu-ray has 'won'... the demand is a long ways off from the demand for dvd as a format. It's not necessary for business, it's not necessary for music, it's not really even necessary for movies... unless you have a top notch setup and really want that movie in it's highest resolution. Yes, the same things would be said for hd-dvd if it won.

I just wonder if by the time the 'demand' is there... the medium fulfilling the demand is 'download' vs. 'disc'.

Every single one of those reasons are stupid, wait 5 years and all of those reasons don't exist.

Yet. The keyword here is yet. Blu-Ray is still very young. DVDs are worth using because the drives and discs are cheap. When the price for Blu-Ray drops, I'll be more likely to move my dozen DVDs of movies to a Blu-Ray. It's too expensive to do it now, but that doesn't mean it never will be. Cars can make use of the interactivity in Blu-Rays as games and the next-next-gen video game consoles, at least HD ones, will want the 50+ GB Blu-Ray offers. But right now it's too expensive. That won't last forever.

*******

Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

Blu-ray discs need to be at a more competitive price with the DVD format. If Blu-ray were in more people's homes I could use it with my videography business. The weddings, receptions, sports events, and more that I film have to either be compressed (loss of quality) or separated onto two DVD discs. If Blu-ray were in everybody's homes I could easily give them high quality, uncompressed video. Also, I think transferring all those family videos over to Blu-ray would also be useful. You could technically backup a number of tape based videos to Blu-ray.

It really comes down to money though. At a time when gas is sky rocketing, does anyone really want to spend that $10 to $15 extra on Blu-ray. Keep in mind they either just spent a grand or more on an HDTV or $400 on a PS3. Who has this kind of money in today's economy? The only way I support my video game and high-def movie addiction is through my videography side business.

All these statements are true. And they were ALSO true of DVD back when the PS2 was developed.

The advantage that DVD had was that it was competing with a tape format (VHS). Blu-Ray is essentially competing with DVD.

Regarding the four concerns cited:

1- true, not all consoles have Blu-Ray. So what? They will by next generation.

2- I totally agree with the in-car limitation. Not that the resolution is needed in a car. BUT, I don't want to buy movies twice (once on BD, once on DVD) just so the kids can watch the movie in the car during a long trip. The same actually applies to laptops, portable DVD players, etc. The dual-format DVD/HD-DVD discs actually were a great feature - if the publishers had actually made every HD-DVD movie in that dual-format, it would have been a huge advantage.

3- disagree - DVD's are tiny as backup media. A much bigger DVD is needed. BD-R is too expensive right now, but when it's cheaper, everyone will want a BD-RW drive. I got one a few months ago for under $300, so these drives are affordable already. (This is a TON cheaper than the first CD-R drive I ever bought, and about the same price as the first DVD+R drive I first bought)

4- True. Business don't use DVD, either, so why would they go to BD

Say what? Let's face it, Blu-Ray is for HD movies, and games on the PS3. All those "bad points" mean nothing. Especially since most of PS3 fans don't care about what other machines cannot do with it. I hope Sony doesn't allow the technology to be used on the 360. Screw them and their fanboys. I'm sick to death with them bashing our PS3s. For a change now, we have the upper had. Just wish the idiots who develop the games for the PS3 would stop simply porting games, and really develop games for the PS3 superior power and capabilities.

Blu-ray does it's job well.

It was designed as a high capacity optical media, and that is it.

It just happens that it enables us to get high-definition movies, and I am very pleased.

DVD is awful for computer use, and although I would never pay £25 for a blu-ray disc to back-up my computer, HDDs aren't always the best option.

"Potential pitfalls"???? Please! The whole thing is a pitfall! It's region restricted and drm infested. It only recently got online functionality, isn't required to do dolby trueHD, doesn't have two audio decoders required, nor two video decoders. HD DVD has always been the better format, and the only thing Blu-ray had over it was storage on a single layer. Toshiba gave up too soon and people were too stupid to see past the pretty blue color. Good luck when those get too scratched, there aren't enough layers to warrant a resurface job.

It's a tough sell to most consumers -- OK, it's really high res, that's great, but try telling your average Mom & Dad that the movies they buy will ONLY play on their BD player, not the DVD player in their PC, not the DVD player in their basement, not the DVD player in their bedroom, not the DVD player in the car... they will want the format that gives them the most flexibility AND the format with the sub-$20 movies!

I rooted for BD from day one, but HD-DVD had the dual-format idea right -- dual format is a MUCH easier sell.

No one will use Bluray except HD freaks who bought a PS3 just for it, like me!

Since when do all disks need to have more than one or two uses? I am fine with watching BDs with awesome picture quality and sound without needing to find another use for them. Wasn't everybody happy with VHS?

Here are the simple facts, as we move onto HD T.V's then we need a format which has a larger storage space for our movies. The current DVD 9's are being pushed to the limit at the moment with games only just fitting. Games like MGS4 will NEVER come the Xbox 360 as in order to play it you would probably need 3-5 DVD 9'S.

The only competitor to blu-ray at the moment is UDO and digital distrubution and arguably DVD. UDO is far too expensive for the average consume at $60 a disk... and then you would have to add the price of whatever you are putting on it.

DVD is still going strong but is ready for replacement, many of the same arguments about upgrading to blu-ray were made about upgrading to DVD. Many games, movies and ect are pushing the limits like i mentione earlier. Some people when they buy DVD's will buy Blu-ray for the simple fact that it is only £5 dearer and they get a lot more extras

Digital distrubution is a long way off no matter what Microsoft says (in relation to a blu-ray add-on.) Many homes in the UK in the north and in wales are still stuck with dial up and those who can get mobile broadband have little bandwith. 3GB a month for example. In many area the download speed is still very slow and so downloading 25 GB + movies and games is out of the question. Plus many people like a physical copy and don't like the restrictions of DRM as the file you download never actually becomes your's it is rented to you.

when dvd came out there werent any in car dvd players. those came out a NUMBER on years after everything moved to dvd. also if your external drive crashes then your effed anyways hence why people like to back up files on dvds.. and since a hard drive has well over 4.7 or 9gb of memory, is why a blu ray back up would be good to have.

btw for people complaining about movies being too expensive on bu ray, dvds were originally prices around 27 to $29 on their release to. based on inflation and everything in account as well $30 for a blu ray isnt extraordinary. find places around your area that sell previously viewed blu ray. you can find em for $17-22 each.

I dont see anything about the 360 GTAiV having anything cut from it in that IGN article link.

* Not all game consoles support Blu-ray. With DVD, every game console decided to base its hardware on the disc. However, the Wii isn't fully HD and the 360 probably won't jump into the Blu-ray bandwagon, so it's all up to the PS3 to shoulder the weight of Blu-ray. But hey, add-on drives to the 360 aren't an impossibility.

When the PS2 came out it was the first to fully take advantage of DVD games / playing DVD movies. My first DVD player was a PS2 as it was for most people. I worked at blockbuster wya back in the day during this conversion from VHS to dvd, it took about 2 years, mebbe 3 to fully make the switch. There were alot of disapointed customers to see the shelves turn from large tapes to DVD's but they eventually made the switch, as the shelves turn blue (bluray) now they'll have the same objections I'm sure, but eventually everyone will make the switch, it's simply history repeating itself.



* In-car audio/video equipment is basically incompatible with Blu-ray. Not that we'd really recommend you playing a Blu-ray video in a car anyway, but DVDs work fine. You need a screen double the size of those available in cars to even get a proper resolution.

This is completely unimportant, cars just recently started supporting DVD playback in vehicles, and even today it's rarely used. For example, if you are driving and you see a DVD LCD playing in someones car , yo ucant' help but take notice and try to see what they're watching, this is because it's still not the norm, so in no way will this make or break a format.



* As far as backing up stuff on the PC is concerned, Blu-ray isn't that necessary. DVDs and CDs cover the small stuff while external drives are useful for backing up the big stuff.

This is true, but again memory backup isn't in high demand. And when bluray burners become more practical it's going to completely replace everything, instead of having a fat stack of DVD's / CD's you'll be able to use 1 bluray to cover a heck of alot more, it'll save space similiar to that of switching from VHS to DVD, but now it's going to be 20 dvd's going down to 1 bluray.

* The same goes for business use in terms of backup. Blu-ray isn't competitive enough with the UDO market in the business industry.

Bluray just started, in time it will be the format for most everything, just as DVD started slow, it's the nature of new technology. All one has to do is simply look at the past and you'll be looking at a repeat. It's just like people who thought N64 would defeat the playstation 1, then they thought the Sega Dreamcast / Xbox would defeat the PS2, now here we are the PS2 is alive and well beating the next gen xbox, the previous gen xbox is nowhere to be found, and the PS3 is gaining the momentum of a freight train and the flagship of a new format. This is an unbiased look at the facts...bluray is fine ;)

I guess I didn't read everything in the article, and I retract my earlier comment. BluRay is NOT just for watching HD movies, and playing games. There are far more uses than they give it credit for. Still, part of my comment is still worth saying. I hope Sony never allows Microsoft to use their technology for the XBox 360.. as I said I'm sick of them thinking that the PS3 or BluRay is less than superior to them.

Why can't I see comments...

Blu Ray is noticibly better than DVD, it has way more space and resolution- that's just maths. Now that it won the format war, it can only keep growing, it's only real limitation now being the high prices of producing the drives and disks, as with any new technology.

DVDs are just too small and hard-drives may be the most useful, but when Blu-ray gets cheaper, it will be a good option for secure back-ups, especially if they perfect the 4-layer disks. In it's generation- the late-dvd one- there is now no other contender, so I ask, how can it not succeed and appear as standard in new PCs, whilst the players fall in price?

I am pretty confident that the timeline will be CD-DVD-Blu-Ray-Holographic media, people holding off on the whole for each one until they really feel the need for it (which for the moment they don't) and the next step being unaffordable for some time. Imagine, all our MP3's on one disk, or all our photos on a couple, the same for a PC backup. HD video is probably the main attraction, which is fast becoming standard. I just think that most people won't bother until it's cheap enough, which is just a question of time.

True, businesses won't be using it, as they prefer the security of magnetic medium or tape drives, but that was never on the cards. For everyone else, it's pretty much an inevitable evolution (and as many forget, not one soley made by Sony!)

LOL!

The greatest part of this article is reading the commenters tear it to shreds!

Die haters! :) Have a nice day!

PS3 FOR EVER!

yes the warriors on blu-ray kick ass!!