Microsoft predicts Blu-ray, HD DVD obsolete in five years

[The News Bot]

Blu-ray and HD DVD could be obsolete in just five years. So believes Microsoft’s program manager for Media Entertainment Convergence, Richard Doherty. Speaking at the annual Digital Hollywood conference trade confab in California, he suggested that advances in download and broadband technology could render the current format war moot.Â* “I don’t know that high definition [...]
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[Badger0-0]

Totally agree.
It'll all be online and saved straight to HDD.
Hence the end of television.
A no brainer, I'd say.
Why bother with physical stuff (DVD, or whatever) when the dough is in just transmitting the info?

Then they can make even more more money by selling us ever increasing disc capacity

[Manxstar]

Total b******,
Half of the population don't even know how to get online nevermind download something.
Dvds won't even be obsolete in five years...What clowns!

[narabdela]

Originally Posted by Badger0-0

Totally agree.
It'll all be online and saved straight to HDD.

The Dream.

Originally Posted by andysb

Total b******,
Half of the population don't even know how to get online nevermind download something.
Dvds won't even be obsolete in five years...What clowns!

The Reality.

[LCR_Dave]

it will be as easy as box office on sky i think, so you wont need to be a genius to download a movie, it gets my thumbs up anyway, well aslong as i have a 1gb broadband line

[amardilo]

Broadband speeds would have to increase greatly.

I pay for upto 8MB but I currently only get 0.5MB broadband, it would take ages to download a movie and streaming it would not be possible. Plus my electricity bill would go through the roof as it would mean having to leave my PC or set top box connected to the net all day and night, what happened to cutting our C02 footprint...

Plus a lot of ISP's would need to change as they have download caps and fair use policies which is not good if you download a few HD movies and TV shows a week.

[dannius]

Originally Posted by andysb

Total b******,
Half of the population don't even know how to get online nevermind download something.
Dvds won't even be obsolete in five years...What clowns!

Seeing as the article is referring to HD DVD and Blu Ray, I seriously doubt that anyone who doesn't know how to get online will be buying in to either HD format either.

It's natural progression, the music market is gradually moving over to downloads and it's likely that films and games will too eventually. Didn't Sony already state that the PS3 would be their last console with a physical disc format?

[AgentCool]

I don't think this will work until it is possible to stream high bitrate HD content from an online source. People like having a large collection of titles but that wouldn't be easy with downloads as you'd have to keep buying hard drives to store them all on.

When download speeds increase dramatically (to say 30-50Mb/s, if not higher) and are accessible to the mainstream then maybe, but I can't see that happening for a few years yet.

[johnelf]

Remember Remember

The top man at Microsoft once said there would only be so many computers in the country and 512 ram was more than suficient. Im sure someone will correct me.

I said at 18 id be rich by the time I was 25, now 45 and still skint

John

[jaketheb]

Originally Posted by markwpage

When download speeds increase dramatically (to say 30-50Mb/s, if not higher)

In places like germany i've heard at the moment you can get 40mbps through your phoneline.

[Badger0-0]

Yeah, check out modern places like Sweden and even the likes of Korea

Who's kidding who, when they say we're at the forefront of things?

It may not be 5 years, but it's going to happen

[Gordicron]

Well, it *could* happen... if they didn't riddle it with all kinds of DRM. But how likely is that?

Yes, it's much more convenient to be able to download and store content... but not if we're dictated as to how, when and where we can use it.

- Gord

[imonmedicine]

People that believe the above theory/statement is true is currently living in fantasy land . I'm swede and currently using a line of 100 mbit/s but most swedes use 24mbit/s (some 50mbit/s) via the phone line. Considering that Sweden is one of the most advanced countries in Europe when it comes to telecommunications and networking, there are alot of people that still have like 2mbit/s and 8 mbit/s, each one of these speeds having an upload limit of 1mbit/s.

This is not fast enough for storing/transmitting HD quality movies etc, unless u got a 100mbit/s (100mbit up & down) connection or higher :P. Now, consider the rest of he world. Places like central- and south America, Asia(except for Koreans), middle east, and the US ( Yes they have considerably good speeds but still very expensive). Do you honestly think people in such places, within 5 years will have the capacity to watch/download HD stuff live/streamed etc? I highly doubt it

Even if fast speeds exist in places like Mexico or Brazil they're waaay too expensive, and only big companies can afford that technology.

I'm currently paying like 35 Eur per month for my 100mbit/s connection, while in not so advanced places like the ones mentioned above, the same speed would cost nearly 1000 Eur or even more.

Having said that, I think 5 years is bull, most probably like 15 or 20 lol... I'm talking global wise.


What do you guys think?

[Badger0-0]

Welcome to the forums

You're probably right mate.

I was hasty in agreeing with the 5 year thing, but still believe it will happen sooner rather than later.

I don't see why you need a hundred Meg connection though
All you need is nearer 20Mb, I think. 1080i HD is 13Mb (but am open to correction).

I get your point with regards to price, but the 20Mb that I'll hopefully be on soon would have cost hundreds a couple of years ago and is now available for £35.
I'd expect that to be down to a tenner in 5 years time.

I guess only time will tell

[mat1110]

They are right only if they can stop all these piracy problems with people downloading of the net. I think if they stoped doing dvds and and cds then more people would go to the net and download it illeagaly