The future of DVD

To everyone who has over 100+ DVDs not to worry.  The next format will play them (if it succeeds that is).  But here it is:



This is Sony\'s baby called Blu-ray.  It\'s important to mention Sony teamed up with other companies to make this format and the consortium is licensing out this technology to anyone who wants to make it (unlike the mistake they made with Beta).  Here are the cold-hard specs:

DVD:
- 9.6mb/s data pipe for both video & audio
- 720x480 max resolution
- Dual-layered one-sided disc can hold close to 9 gigs max

Blu-ray:
- 36mb/s data pipe for both video & audio
- 1920x1080 standard resolution
- Dual layered one-sided disc can hold 50 gigs
- Discs are in a protective caddy to prevent scratching on the sensitive .01mm layered surface



This just means we can finally buy our movies in high definition.  It\'s also important to note this is NOT HD-DVD.  The consortium that designed the original DVD has not yet accepted a codec/ for their next proposed format.  Blu-ray still plans to use the same codec for video as DVD (mpeg-2) but many would rather have mpeg-4 or a derivative of it in its place.  Still, anything\'s better than low resolution DVD at this point.

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/blu-ray/index.html

The model reviewed here can also record 1080i high-definition material to blu-ray.  Cost: only $3800, about the same when VHS VCR\'s were first available.  Bring it on!!

[videoholic]

Very nice.   I saw that they put a WMV Mpeg-4 High definition version of some movie on disc on a collectors version of something.  Dang, can\'t remember the movie.  I\'ll find it.

This is pretty cool.  I keep going over to the open box shelf at Best Buy to get a progressive scan DVD player.  Amazing how cheap they are now.

50 gigs thats quite an impresive amount of data, how much would one of these discs cost?

Even better news is that Sony hopes to have BluRay players in our hands for "closer to $500 very soon."

WM9 material can be found the Standing in the Shadows of Motown DVD, and the new T2 Extreme DVD.  You can also download true high-def WM9 videos here.  Just be sure your computer can handle it!

Tyrant- shouldn\'t be much more than current DVD\'s.  I\'d say no more than $32 for a movie.

[Living-In-Clip]

Blu-Ray is still awhile off and even then I don\'t think the public will take to it. People have invested to much money in their DVD\'s at this time and the simple fact is a lot of people have quite a few DVD\'s. They don\'t want to rebuy them for added video and audio qualities.

LiC: I wouldn\'t re-buy anything (except maybe T2) if they came out on Blu-Ray. I\'d just get a Blu-Ray player, play my DVD\'s.. and try to buy/rent nothing but Blu-Ray discs from that point forward. No biggie.

Originally posted by Blade
LiC: I wouldn\'t re-buy anything (except maybe T2) if they came out on Blu-Ray. I\'d just get a Blu-Ray player, play my DVD\'s.. and try to buy/rent nothing but Blu-Ray discs from that point forward. No biggie.

too bad, you\'re not everyone then

[videoholic]

Terminator 2, yeah, that\'s it.  I actually thought that was it, but wasn\'t positive.

otkpblbaet epy to you too.

It would have to be backwards compatible with all current DVD\'s to take off.

SONY always make the coolest looking products. Their R&D department rocks.

Thats what I hope the new PS3 looks like (hey, maybe the games will use Blu-Ray disc\'s??? Harder to pirate???). I can see it now in a nice chrome ice silver...

[Living-In-Clip]

Even if backward compatible it won\'t take off at this time. DVD\'s are at a fevered high for consumers and they don\'t like the idea that the products they have just invested in are already out dated. If interduced, Blu-Ray would die off in no time.

The fact is, people are already tired of double dipping on DVD editions. Do you think they want to invest in a new player for movies they already own? No.  Look how long it took for VHS to die off. Laserdisc couldn\'t do it, even though it was a superior format. The same applies here. Maybe in 5 - 10 years.

Laserdisc sucked because of its size. Techy\'s loved it cause it gave better picture and sound quality, hell, I remember when my dad was getting excited over fricken AC3.

No one wants something that big and bulky, and hell, they were damn expensive.

The main thing hurting it is that only 2% of the American population (sorry wish I knew the figures for other places) has an HDTV and can truly take advantage of seeing all of Blu-ray\'s 1080i glory.  A format like this WILL be needed in 2006 when everything will be broadcast in HDTV.  By then Blu-ray players should cost about the same as current DVD players.

Currently, no one really knows what will happen at this point, but it is the future of home media.  People will get blown away when they experience for the first time.

^^

But standard DVD\'s can do HD can\'t they? Everything wont be broadcast in HD, it\'ll only be broadcast in digital won\'t it?

In Australia, the analogue frequency is stopped in 2008 and everything will either be digital or HD. Most channels broadcast multiple channels already, one in digital, one in HD.

I don\'t see the big deal about it not working... we are starting to hit a point where this is probably close to a "final" technology.  If you go to 300 gigs in 5 more years, you won\'t see the dramatic improvement in picture quality that you will going from 9 to 50.  That\'s why this will work.  I\'d buy the player, get my absolute favorite movies again (LOTR and the like), and start buying those in the future.

I\'m not saying it is a final tech, after all, crystal lattice storage and such are just a few decades away, but this would be as high as our eyes need us to go to consider it "perfect," at least for a while.