blue ray betamax or laserdisc?

[astraman]

Is it just me or is blue ray just a new gimmick to make huge companies money now that the cost of dvd has hit the floor.I personally think this will be a turkey as people whom have just spent hundreds if not thousands on dvd systems will not be prepared to switch so quick.Just look at the war vhs had with betamax laserdisc with videos.People like to through history it seems to stay loyal to a format for a while.Sony especia;;y must be horrified that there umd for psp has failed and now major movie companies are no longer backing it.Why didnt they just put the movies on a smaller disc format with coverters being cheaply purchasesd to allow dvd playback.

In my opinion the concept of the technology is awesome.

The realisation is something else - it is interesting it seems that building digital rights into the spec is more a problem than the competing hardware??

- and people haven't spent thousands on the players for their systems, just the screen & cables & speakers - the players have become the cheapest bit. Blu-Ray, etc trying to change that, drastically, may come up against some customer inertia, in the short term

your point about umd is interesting

[patrickp]

Originally Posted by homealone

The realisation is something else - it is interesting it seems that building digital rights into the spec is more a problem than the competing hardware??

Doesn't your heart just go out to those poor, misunderstood media multinationals?

Originally Posted by patrickp

Doesn't your heart just go out to those poor, misunderstood media multinationals?

we can only observe

[DVS]

I think you're missing the point of Blu-Ray astraman. Blu-Ray is aimed at high definition content (in the video arena) which standard DVD cannot handle so it isn't a gimmick. If you have a HD TV and a DVD player (even a top range player with progressive output) you'll know that standard DVD looks crap compared to true HD content.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are competeing formats and which will end up the 'Beta Max' of HD content remains to be seen (as with Beta vs VHS, Blue Ray (the Beta of HD disc formats) is the better format, but I'm expecting HD-DVD (the VHS) to flourish due to the commercial support and consumer 'brand' familiarity, ie DVD).

That said both formats are backwards compatible with current DVD and CD formats so the fact that I have £100's of pounds worth of DVDs does not preclude me from upgrading my player to HD-DVD or BluRay as I will still be able to play these discs.
The benefit is that I will also be able to make full use of my HD TV and play back HD content from disc rather than PC I must admit that I will not buy either format until:- one is the clear format winner or there's a player released that plays both!

[Stephen]

I am expecting HD-DVD to be the future format and Blu Ray will go the way of Betamax.

[Stuart]

True, Sony backed Betamax, which failed. Sony backed pre-recorded Mini Discs, which failed (don't believe me? Go into any record store, find an Album you like and try and buy it on Mini Disc). Sony is backing UMD Movies, which are apparently failing (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/03/npd_sony_psp_umd_future/), and Sony are backing Blu-Ray..

[Neil]

*Moved to Science & Technology forum*

[TheBlueRaja]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

True, Sony backed Betamax, which failed. Sony backed pre-recorded Mini Discs, which failed (don't believe me? Go into any record store, find an Album you like and try and buy it on Mini Disc). Sony is backing UMD Movies, which are apparently failing (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/03/npd_sony_psp_umd_future/), and Sony are backing Blu-Ray..

What about all those memory stick things too, or their AMTRAC??? Music format for their media players etc...

If ever there was a company that didnt know when to quit it was these guys.

Saying that though - IF the PS3 is affordable and comes bundled with Blu-Ray as they say - i would'nt bet against it.

Im in the HD-DVD camp myself, if only because of the copy protection that comes bundled on Blu-Ray and i think it cheaper too (could be wrong there), but hey - in the long run - i'll be buying neither until it becomes obvious who's won.

[Safecracker]

The Gadget Show Did A Bit About The Issue
And Showed a List Of Companies Who Were Going Down Which Route
HD DVD Had About 8 Backers And Blu Ray About 40
All The Film And Game Producers Were Going BR


I Think the Beta Max Will Possibly Win This One
But All At A Higher Cost To Us The Punters