Iria

Online research firm Futuresource released a study Monday that discussed the relative success Blu-ray is enjoying right now in Western Europe.

According to the report, Blu-ray disc sales are up significantly in Europe so far this holiday season, and based on its findings, it believes the strong sales will continue through 2009. In fact, it believes European Blu-ray sales will triple during 2009, seeing 2.5 million players enter homes next year. Similar results are being witnessed in the U.S.
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Source: The Digital Home

BlueMak

I am willing to bet that the vast majority of the authors of articles as to how blu ray is going to fail, have either invested in HD-DVD, or are just against Sony's solution.

yes, perhaps DVD sales managed to increase much sooner than blu ray, but dvd did not have any competition with at least some similar advantages.

Just get over it, Sony won.

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Customgamer1

Sony won, but it's now fighting DVD and digital downloading...

I had HD-DVD, and with my HD-DVD player with HDMI it really does upscale my DVD's very well and well almost might be good enough.

I only have a 720p 50" tv and well I don't notice as much difference from HD to a high quality upscale.

Yes HD looks better, but is it enough to spend $150+ on a player and then pay more for the movies... I am still thinking about it.

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Tril

Movies on Blu-ray disks are now the same price as on DVD or only a few more dollars. I'm not buying movies on DVD anymore. I bought my first Blu-ray disk today. Now, I just need to invest in a player but I think I'll wait until the price lowers a bit more.

Mr cairo

Digital DL is good few years away from being viable for everyone in fact even being viable for the majority the ISP's will have to lift the DL limits they impose and upgrade everyone speed to a decent speed for it to work

thats probably going to need a fair bit of infrastructure work

as for BluRay its started to take off just as we headed into a major recession so money is tight and i figure bluray films and players just are not top of everyones list at the moment

give that a while as well and i figure it will come into its own but money needs to be more available for the majority again at the moment the boys toys have to take a backseat to food and heat etc Lack of cash is a major holdup at the moment

personally i love my Bluray the quality and sound is stunning and there is a noticable difference between upscaled DVD's and Bluray films not a massive change but people will always want the best once your mate has it and your brother has it and your neighbour has it ...people will follow

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mike2h

what mr cairo said!!
customgamer, u r perfectly correct, a good upscale dvd player is just fine for you. audio content aside there is not much point in buying a bd player unless you have a good 1080p set or plan on buying one fairly soon & are getting your system & movies setup.

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tanka12345

I see no point in Blu-Ray (in NZ) at the moment, it's just too costly! A player here costs around $500NZ ($250US), while movies on Blu-Ray Discs cost around $50NZ ($25US). An upscaling DVD player can do near the same job for alot cheaper.

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YAYitsAndrew

DVD had a lot of advantages over VHS, very similar to CDs over casettes. You could instantly move to whatever point you wanted, better quality of music, better quality of the media, lasts longer.

The advantages BR and HD-DVD have over DVD isn't enough to get me to buy a player yet. All they really have going for them is better sound and image quality and I don't think DVD's quality is something to get upset about just yet. Maybe when BR is cheaper!

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Judas

After buying a few BR movies and playing them, i emediately dumped all my standard DVDs, i am NOT going back.... and if i can help it, i'm not putting another dvd through my living room, the differences are extreme.. no excellently upscaled DVD is going to come close to matching the br capablities. And BR has a noticeable advantage over HD-DVD ... i've got both.

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mike2h

this is only true if u dont have a good/very good system. on a good hd tv & 5.1+ audio system the difference is pretty big. but you do have a valid poitn about price gap, tho that is changing.

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Matth

Still unconvinced, maybe a few years down the line, Blu-ray will be "it", but then it will facing an even larger challenge from VoD streaming.

It could go either way, hit the value mainstream price point and it will invevitably displace DVD, fail to hit the price point, and it could end its life cycle as a niche product.

It's already broken free of the early adopters - in fact, those that jumped at the very start will probaly find their players are in danger of being obsolete due to format changes.

Of course, the fact that every PS/3 is a Blu-ray player put a good deal more blu-ray bums on seats than if it had to rely entirely on the home cinema audience.


Fact is, VHS didn't die because DVD was better, it died when DVD was better and cheaper, though it held on in the recording/timeshift arena until DVD recorders or hard disk PVRs ended up down to the price that VHS used to be.

The killer device would be a Blu-ray player with hard disk recorder, or possibly a Blu-ray player / DVD recorder (there is a PC drive that does that, so it is possible).

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Necrosis

See this the big issue with most people though they don't have the money to replace their entire catalog. However, besides the cost there is another issue which I've discussed before. Just because you buy the BR version of a movie doesn't exactly mean it's better. What I mean is the actual PQ may not be all that much better or even worse! Yes you read that correctly. So I won't even touch a movie unless it gets a great review for PQ. If I do blind buy then it has to be at a great price. For example when Amazon had "I am Legend" for 17 bucks. On certain movies depending on the codec used VC-1 or AVC there is no difference in between their BR & HD DVD counterparts. However, it's the movies the extend over two hours that excel with BR for example Shawshank
Redemption. If you need proof about BR PQ just go here, and read some of the reviews.

Yes & no but of course you first need HD viewing capability before even considering BR. Here is a great lengthy article about 1080P: High Definition 1080p TV: Why You Should Be Concerned - Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity

mike2h

didnt read your link nec. the whole 'lengthy' thing threw me of. especially when im sure im already familiar with a lot/some of the info in there. but ty anyway
you kinda taken my statement out of context tho. the poster i was talking to said that an upscaling dvd player can do nearly as good of a job as bd. on low end(vid & audio) systems this is basically true. but the better your tv & audio setup gets this becomes less & less true. my statement as far as that goes is pretty much spot on. peeps personal tastes/standards aside of course

im with you on the pq of some bd's- not up to snuff imo. tho sound quality can be better on some of these. im pretty picky about what i buy on bd. otherwise dvd is still doing good on movies for me
if u havent already, check out blue planet & baraka on bd. both have stunning visual & audio. bty the baraka dvd is also the best of that format to. imo of course.

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Customgamer1

Yeah The bigger the screen the better the Picture. Anything 60" or larger you will easily see the difference in PQ over DVD!

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Robert McClelland

Heheh I'm getting new Viewsonic refurbished NX1932W HD LCD TV because image processor went bad on it. and Yes that TV does do 1080I and also 1080p on my ps3 not bad for 300 tv let hope I get another good year out of my new replacement hehe.

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Necrosis

[QUOTE=mike2h;1205545]didnt read your link nec. the whole 'lengthy' thing threw me of. especially when im sure im already familiar with a lot/some of the info in there. but ty anyway
you kinda taken my statement out of context tho. the poster i was talking to said that an upscaling dvd player can do nearly as good of a job as bd. on low end(vid & audio) systems this is basically true. but the better your tv & audio setup gets this becomes less & less true. my statement as far as that goes is pretty much spot on. peeps personal tastes/standards aside of course

The "Yes" was meant for you. All I really am saying even w/ cheaper equipment if it has decent video it'll still look better than upscaled DVDs.

I've seen Blue Planet & own the Planet Earth series. I've heard of Baraka but have never seen it.

YouTube - Baraka (Trailer)

Holy Crap if that is true!

mike2h

it is. baraka is a must have for any collection as far as im concerned(dvd or bd). the subject matter, the music all lend themselves to the stunning picture & sound quality.

sry bout the 'yes' misunderstanding lol.

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mike2h

this is true only to a point as not all hd tv are created equal. not by a long shot. but overall the bigger the screen the less 'forgiving' it is.
which is why i always advise peeps to go with quality vs size. with tvs anyway

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