GorillaX

yes, they already have $100 BR players

HTN

I too think it will take at least 5 years before we see a majority of retailer's shelves stocked with BD titles versus DVD. Will the DVD format ever go away, highly unlikely considering the longevity of VHS (over 2 decades). VHS may not be the king anymore, but it's still around.

Even though I don't even own a BD player or HDTV yet, I did pick up my first two BD title from the recent $5 off BD Target coupon. I only picked them up since I don't own the titles on DVD and thought they (2001 & WoO) were an exceptional value at $3.99 & $7.99, respectively. I highly doubt I will be picking up anymore BD titles unless they were:

1. A remaster version to take advantage of the BD format.
2. Contained the usual extras found on 2/3 disc DVD titles.
3. Less than $5 for the average title or less than $10 for the exceptional/must have copy like WoO

On a side note, I did pick up only one DVD this BF for $2 (Casino Royale). Walmart $5 bins doesn't seem to sway me to buy these days unless its the 2/3 disc DVD titles. $2 seems to be my new price point for DVDs.

Dane

Eventually, yes... Or some new digital revolution will surpass Blu-ray all together, which is needed for the common customer to be a "true" eye-opener.

Most people are happy with the quality of DVDs as they are. DVDs are cheap. One can buy more titles for their money compared to Blu-rays. It takes to much money to take full advantage of the Blu-ray capabilities - A/V receiver, and so forth.

Not that I´m not interested in Blu-rays, but personally, I´ll stick to DVDs for as long as I can. I just don´t see the meaning of paying 50% more for a media when the end result (enjoyment wise) are the same.

I DO have other things to spend my money on!!!!!!

noworries81

The Terminator: The Blu-ray Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 2012. Human decisions are removed from the sales strategy. Blu-ray begins to grow in popularity at a geometric rate. It becomes the leading format at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the discs.

Sarah Connor: DVD fights back.

The Terminator: Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.

John Connor: Why attack Russia? Aren't they our friends now?

The Terminator: Because DVDs know the Russian counter-attack will eliminate Blu-ray production over here.

ernestrp

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-...part=earthlink

Blu-ray/DVD flipper discs finally coming

Why did it take take Blu-ray two years to catch up to HD DVD?

(Credit: Amazon) Universal is set to roll out the first Blu-ray/DVD "flipper discs"--a single, dual-sided disc that contains Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other. The "Bourne" trilogy ("Identity," "Supremacy," "Ultimatum") will be the first movies to get the dual-sided treatment, with all three discs coming out on January 19.

The flipper discs are a good idea, as one of the biggest drawbacks to Blu-ray is that new movies you buy can't be played in DVD players. That loss of flexibility can be a real pain in locations other than your home theater (car, plane, bedroom), where you probably haven't upgraded to Blu-ray yet.

On the other hand, the flipper discs aren't quite as attractive an option as the increasingly popular Blu-ray-DVD combo packages that include separate discs for both formats. Overall, Blu-ray-DVD combo packages offer more value--you do get two discs to take anywhere you like. The only advantage flipper discs might have is if they can drive down the price of the movies.

HD DVD fanboys (somehow they still exist) will also be quick to point out that this is hardly new technology. HD DVD/DVD combo discs were around back in 2007; in that sense, it's unbelievable that it took Blu-ray this long to get onboard with a good idea.

mrpayroll

With a few modifications, this would make for a great movie..... oh wait!

Chris

Prideoftheyanks

I recently went Blu and I'm only looking to upgrade/buy for the first time a relatively small number of films.

1st, many of the titles I want to upgrade/buy for the first time aren't on BD yet.

2nd, there are far too many BDs that aren't much of an upgrade over their DVD counterparts (even more so if you count extras).

3rd, the cost is generally too high (although great deals can be found from time to time).

Over time, I'm sure all three of these things will get fixed just as DVDs expanded their library, improved their quality, and dropped their prices as the format matured. Still, I'm a DVD collector and a film buff and I'm not ready to upgrade everything to BD yet.

I don't think the average consumer is ready to shell out several hundred dollars for an HDTV, another $100+ for a surround sound system, and another $100+ for a BD player just so they can spend more money buying BDs to replace the 20-50 DVDs they currently own (some of which aren't even on BD yet and some of which the BDs aren't much of an upgrade from the DVD they currently own). Of course, if they already own everything except the BD player and discs, it might take less than 5 years for them to make the switch.

adrenaline78

I for one think dvd's will be around for a long time to come. It took VHS about 5-7 years to completely phase out and we all know that DVD's were leaps and bounds over those.. but I just don't think Blu-ray is leaps and bounds over dvd's.

why buy anything other than an action/scifi movie or animated film on blu-ray? To buy a comedy or a chick flick love story IMO is just a waste of $..

The huge sound upgrade is where its at.. 7.1 channels of sound is amazing.. and can make a home theater just as amazing...

Dvd's are more affordable and almost as good.. so yes. I think they will be around for awhile longer.

Sessioner

Nah.

I find that although Blu rays look amazing, I miss the "film" feel of my faves. Blu Ray makes them all look like they've been videotaped.

I'm perfectly happy with my Oppo upconverter.

Travis McClain

1) Blu-ray will take over when Walmart gets entirely behind it. As long as they only stock 50-100 titles in store at any given time, the format is deprived of maximum exposure from the biggest retailer in the world.

2) I caught some show on the BBC a couple weeks ago and Christopher Walken was being interviewed. The question arose concerning his distinctive speech and he attributed it to his contempt for punctuation. He insists that the words should be able to lead him to the proper inflection, etc., without being aided by question marks and exclamation points. (This may be the subject of the posted YouTube video above; I'm having a hard time streaming things right now and don't feel like freezing my computer to take a peek.)

BobO'Link

No. Never.

BR is overpriced, both for players and media, for the value perceived by the average consumer. Yes, you can get a better picture but the majority of people just don't care. Until a basic player can be purchased for ~$30-$50 *everyday*, product is available consistently at $5-$10 for catalog titles, *and* (this is a big gotcha) you can play anything out there *without* having to constantly upgrade the player software/firmware you'll see only a marginal increase in the uptake. Sales figures bear this out. Currently only about 10% of the *total* output of released video product is sold on BR. Far less than the % of DVD over VHS sales at a similar time frame. Again, no perception in increased value on the consumer side. The pallet full of untouched under $80 players at almost every WM on BF is a prime indicator as to how much "Joe Average" really cares about BR. It's a niche market with primarily videophiles as the purchasers. Even then *most* people don't have a screen large enough or the technical know how to make the proper connections to even notice the somewhat marginal difference BR has over a *good* upscaled DVD.

VOD and downloadable, locally saveable delivery will most likely appear in a viable format before BR *ever* overtakes standard DVD sales *unless* manufacturers start a wholescale obsolence program on the DVD as was done with CRT TV sets. No, I don't think the "fire sales" and mass discontinued title lists the past year are this indicator. That's just manufacturers getting rid of warehouse hogging product that was overpriced to begin with and is moving slowly due to the general poor economy.

The only reason the average consumer "bought in" to WS TV is that they were *forced* into it by the federal government and manufacturers. If memory serves, the last figures I saw on the uptake of HDTV sets is just under 50% with the remaining 50% or so indicating they'll only purchase when that old CRT dies. If you could still purchase a 27"-32" CRT for the ~$250 they were going for when "phased out" I'd wager you'd currently see more of them being sold than HDTV sets just on the cost basis alone. It's this same factor that keeps BR from becoming a "threat" to DVD.

The Cow

That's an odd one for sure.

upconverter certainly doesn't give the "film" feel.

Anono

I give it 4-5 years and dvds will be in vhs territory.

Josh-da-man

Never.

I think that, in the near future we will settle into a pattern where DVD:VHS::Blu-ray:LD.

Blu-ray will exist for film geeks and home theater nerds, while DVD will exist for the masses.

The thing about DVD is that DVD isn't really DVD anymore. The glory days of that format are behind it now, with most films having been released multiple times, and studios letting more obscure titles and slow sellers slip out of print. Sales have slowed down, shelf space in stores is running out, and collectors already have huge libraries of DVDs.

JediMindTricks

dunno. i just figured that by the time standard DVDs start to fade, physical media, itself, will fade too.

story

VHS < Laser Disc < DVD

DVD < Blu-Ray < The Next Big Thing

Chas Speed

Let's face it there are a lot more titles available on DVD then Blu-ray and many of these titles will never get a Blu-ray release. Blu-ray are not that popular and they seemed to have killed off the Home Video market. There have been fewer releases of any titles on Blu-ray or DVD over the past 2 years. I thought everything would get a release at one time, but since Blu-ray the future looks dismal for obscure titles ever getting a release. By the way, DVD's look great on HD sets.

danwiz

No way - as BobO'Link said - the number of Blu titles out there is just not increasing fast enough. How old is the Blu format now anyway? At least 3 years old I guess. When DVD made it's debut we had LOTS of titles by this time. Here are the numbers from http://www.thedigitalbits.com/.

TOTAL DVD TITLES (10/22/09 - DVD Release Report): 105,954*
*Net total of R1 DVD-Video discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included.

TOTAL BLU-RAY DISC TITLES (10/23/09 - DVD Release Report): 1,872/131*
*Net total of Region A discs released/announced. Discontinued & adult not included.

orangerunner

It's hard to say. They've finally sharpened their pencils after three years and the prices of the players have come down considerably but the discs are still $6-$10 more than their DVD counterparts, at least where I live.

Yes, there's $9.99 Blu-rays but they are generally all the same crappy titles you've been able to purchase for $4.99 on DVD for the last five years.

I think library titles are still going to be a challenge for Blu-ray as they are, in most cases, not offering anything new the DVD hasn't already offered (and sometimes less).

New releases will stand a much better chance in gaining market share.

If it's any indication, when you look around the second-hand thrift stores you don't see people chucking out their DVDs like they did their VHS tapes in the same time frame.

MrFleharty

The main reason I started buying blu is because sometiems they are the ones with the bonus features. Also I go by price. I compare the price to bonus feature ratio on blu and dvd...if its not that much a difference, I'll take the cheaper route. If there is exclusive features I want, I'll go blu. Some DVD's look just as good on my ps3 as a blu ray does. When i popped in Bones, it looked beautiful. It looked better than my Lie To Me Bluray. My latest blu rays are (preorders) Public Enemies for 19.99, The Hangover for 15.99, and Inglorious basters for 18.99. Considered they were actually CHEAPER than the dvd's, I decided blu was the best way to go.

excuse my grammer and spelling. I see plenty of red squiggle lines on my words, but i just don't care.

theguyoverthere

The 2012-2013 timeframe sounds about right in terms of the current pace of transition. This could change, however, if the industry made a (probably ill-conceived) push to phase out DVD "early" in favor of a BD-only business model. Right now there isn't enough penetration in terms of HDTVs to make it a favorable proposition to do that, though.

Brian Shannon

before BD is itself replaced?

That answer would be no.

dkedvd

Don't you think it's too early to say that? All things considered blu-ray is still a new format that's trying to plant itself firmly in the market. I think back to when DVDs first came out. It was pretty much the same thing. We didn't get some pretty big titles until the early to mid 2000's. I think that if blu-ray becomes dominate then we will surly see some more titles start to pop up. As a new media I don't think the studios would take a chance releasing an older title with a smaller audience on blu-ray when DVD is still the main media. They would surly loose money on the blu pressings. Older titles like Wizard of Oz, Terminator, etc. have a huge audience and scream BUY ME to a lot of people but titles like 3 Ninjas or Masters Of The Universe... Not so much. Titles like that we will have to wait for a while until blu is the king. Or should I say IF blu becomes the king? But that last sentence is why I'm sticking to DVD for now. Who knows... blu-ray could be the next laserdisc? I'm sure when LD came out there were all kinds of conversations just like this, and look what happened there. So until blu becomes the only media source I'll still with DVD so I'm not wasting my money. Of course I say that now... But once I start finding blu-ray discs in the Walmart dump bin all bets are off. Haha!

dkedvd

And then I will kill myself! Because the days of collecting for everyone will be over. Unless you consider buying titles only to have them not work in 10 years or less collecting? If digital movies become anything like video game downloads we are all screwed.

stingermck

Just read this:

Blu-ray Titles Outsell DVD Counterparts on Amazon
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...on_Amazon/3857