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Prediction: Blu-ray Will Unseat Standard DVDs

August 19, 2008 RSS Feed Print

Today brings a more upbeat forecast for Blu-ray. The high-def disks are gaining traction and will outsell standard DVDs by 2012 in the United States, at least in dollar value, says Futuresource Consulting.

U.S. consumers could buy 45 million of the disks this year, or about four times as many as last year, the group says. Sales will accelerate as players creep down in price, with Futuresource echoing earlier predictions that the holiday season could see a Blu-ray player for as little as $200.

Analysts remain divided on Blu-ray's future despite its winning the format war against HD DVD. Some predict that the disks don't offer enough for consumers to make the expensive upgrade, particularly in the face of new competition from digital downloads and other sources.

Tags:: DVDs,; movies

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There is only a certain percentage of the people who really care about the extra boost. For them DVD is just as good as BlueRay. Most of the time they cant tell the difference. Which movies do make a difference? The high action and graphics movies. Not to mention that most movies are now available over the internet. The length of time that it takes to download blue ray versus dvd is about 5-1. But of course the major corporations will do everything they can to make sure you are forced to switch. Including giving $500 rebates for people to buy new tvs, making standard definition broadcasts illegal, and offering few and fewer new movies in standard dvd. I agree with you the corporate interests have an advantage, but we can still win.

robert of 10:30PM December 10, 2008

Never forget to follow the money. Hollywood is missing out on millions of dollars each time a new movie is released. Anyone can go rent a movie and clone it. The software to do it is so easy to get. And it is possible to copy Blu-ray titles too.
But.!!!
Because of all this pirating the Software makers have asked the Hardware makers for some help. All large screen displays have HDMI ports ( some have 2 or 3). All Blu-Ray players have HDMI output ports. Most audio Recievers will also have HDMI ports. So we will have in place a full digital path from source to display for Audio and Video. Great for the consumer, Right? I think it is.
It is even greater for Sony Pictures and evey other company producing Blu-Ray titles. Besides sending great Video 1080P signals and 7.1 Audio signals, HDMI circuits look for something called HDCP. If they see a HDCP code then everything is great. And life is wonderful.
If they don't see the copy protection code then they simply turn off. No image on your screen and no sound from your speakers.
When you teenage kids goes out and rented a blu-ray view on your 42" display then things work great. But when they drop it on you your computer to copy for their friends the HDCP code does not get copied. And when you drop the cloned disk in your blu-ray player thing get turned off.
I think over all this is a very good thing because the ones that pay for titles don't pay a surcharge for those thet think movies should be free to copy. If you were going to release a blockbuser movie like the new BATMAN and you knew if you released in on DVD 15% or more would be copied and if you released it on Blu-ray almost none would get copied. What would you do?
My only question is how HDCP works with downloaded movies. Maybe the code will allow ONE copy to be made then gets turned off. From what I know Code is not neeeded to play a movie on your computer screen

Terry 3:57PM August 20, 2008

First review of Toshiba XDE player is out, it actually beats out Blu-Ray in image quality 4 feet away or further.(http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=3994).
How can this be? Because Toshiba's using human physiology to improve perceived image quality; that human eyes respond better to contrast than pixel resolution. Blu-Ray is in big trouble now.
BTW, don't expect any price below $250 for a basic Profile 1.1(Not Profile 2 player that all new Diseny, Fox, and Warner titles would require from December 2008) Blu-Ray player this holiday season.

Deadmeat of AL 9:31PM August 19, 2008

Prediction: Blu-ray Will Unseat Standard DVDs

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