[The News Bot]

Sales of Blu-ray discs are expected to reach 45 million in the US by the end of this year, and 40-50 per cent of the market by 2012

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[IAN P]

The prices need to keep dropping too,i'd buy all blu but if the sd-dvd of same is £5 cheaper,then it's a tough choice.

[chix2]

Whoa thats a lot of discs.

[pjclark1]

I'd be surprised if this format is still going in 2012!

[jedi-knight]

Originally Posted by pjclark1

I'd be surprised if this format is still going in 2012!

Me too, as probably downloadable hd media will be more popular by then.

[P-P-S-S]

Originally Posted by jedi-knight

Me too, as probably downloadable hd media will be more popular by then.

I beg to differ. Sony and other companies didnt enter the format war and lost millions for nothing. And judging by the state of our Net it will be impossible to download 20-30 gb films quickly enough for it to be considered painless.

[Helicon]

No doubt this headline will draw out the anti-BD brigade......i think it's quite possible given the right pricing strategy.

We need:

A/ DVD prices to rise above their silly current pricing
B/ high street BD retailers to get real on BD pricing
C/ high street retailers to promote BD far better than they currently do

People are seeing £10-12 as expensive now because they can buy a DVD for £5 or less (albeit lesser quality). £10-12 is extremely reasonable for a HD disc as far as i'm concerned.

[jedi-knight]

Originally Posted by P-P-S-S

I beg to differ. Sony and other companies didnt enter the format war and lost millions for nothing. And judging by the state of our Net it will be impossible to download 20-30 gb films quickly enough for it to be considered painless.

You obviously don't have a clue on downloadable hd media, as it is currently available in excellent hd quality now at under 10gb, and is working just fine, in 4 years time the broadband speeds will be much faster too.

As for Sony, they are greedy Ba****ds, they always trying to release new formats so they can profit more and more, betamax, UMD, blu-ray, hell even the damn memory format to their consoles are their own ( pro duo and psx/ps2 memory cards), eventually their greed is goingto bite them in the arse.

Originally Posted by Helicon

No doubt this headline will draw out the anti-BD brigade......i think it's quite possible given the right pricing strategy.

We need:

A/ DVD prices to rise above their silly current pricing
B/ high street BD retailers to get real on BD pricing
C/ high street retailers to promote BD far better than they currently do

People are seeing £10-12 as expensive now because they can buy a DVD for £5 or less (albeit lesser quality). £10-12 is extremely reasonable for a HD disc as far as i'm concerned.

As for blu-ray yeah the quality is great but if you have a 42 or smaller tv then you ain't really benefiting from 1080p unless your nose in to the screen.
I can see the blu-ray prices dropping eventually, when downloadable hd media gets popular enough to threaten blu-ray.

[TommyVecetti]

Originally Posted by jedi-knight

I can see the blu-ray prices dropping eventually, when downloadable hd media gets popular enough to threaten blu-ray.

It won't threaten it at all. People want the extra features, and they won't get that from downloads.

[P-P-S-S]

Originally Posted by jedi-knight

You obviously don't have a clue on downloadable hd media, as it is currently available in excellent hd quality now at under 10gb, and is working just fine, in 4 years time the broadband speeds will be much faster too.

Are you talking about streaming or actually downloading a file and saving it to pc? My knowledge is limited but as far as i know to download a 10gb file nowadays takes hours. Pay per view services may be successful but a lot of people wan something they download and keep to watch anytime they want.

Originally Posted by jedi-knight

As for Sony, they are greedy Ba****ds, they always trying to release new formats so they can profit more and more, betamax, UMD, blu-ray, hell even the damn memory format to their consoles are their own ( pro duo and psx/ps2 memory cards), eventually their greed is goingto bite them in the arse.

That sounds a bit like a HD DVD fan talk even though i can see you own plenty of Sony products. Sony is a company that competes for profit, just like all the rest do. If they can make more profit by inventing and selling memory stick as the memory format for their products then why shouldnt they? Why dont you call greedy those who invented SD card, HD DVD, VHS, etc? Nintendo's consoles had their own cartridges, so why arent they greedy? Sony is a giant and no matter how muc some people may hate them they have always brought decent new products out for the consumers and will continue to do so.

Originally Posted by jedi-knight

As for blu-ray yeah the quality is great but if you have a 42 or smaller tv then you ain't really benefiting from 1080p unless your nose in to the screen.
I can see the blu-ray prices dropping eventually, when downloadable hd media gets popular enough to threaten blu-ray.

Has that been proved? I have read that the smaller the screen the shorter the recomended sitting distance is. I have heard/read several people that say 'if the tv isnt 42" or above you dont bebefit from HD'. Total rubish. In fact if you buy a 42" and sit too near it the more likely you are to see imperfections. I have a 37" and see plenty of differences and improvements when i compare SD to HD sources.

[Helicon]

I can see a noticeable difference between a Denon DVD1740 and a DVD1940 on a 22" screen, so i'm sure any HD source will show a worthwhile difference on the majority of screens in people's homes (26"-37"), especially cheap LCD screens.

[jedi-knight]

I was talking about the difference between 720p and 1080p on a small screen you will not notice it.

[Helicon]

There will be a smaller difference if comparing 720p and 1080p, but if the screen is 1080p then there will be a difference.

Why the comparison of 720p and 1080p anyway? The comparison would be between SD DVD and HD BD, so i don't understand your resolution comparison. SD DVD is 480 or 576, BD is 720 or 1080. There will be a big enough difference on virtually any screen to prefer BD over DVD.

[TommyVecetti]

Originally Posted by jedi-knight

I was talking about the difference between 720p and 1080p on a small screen you will not notice it.

I beg to differ. You only have to output both resolutions for a comparison and the difference is noticable on a 42" screen.

It's predicted that the screen size will increase as well for the avergage household in the next few years, so quality is important.

[jedi-knight]

Originally Posted by Helicon

There will be a smaller difference if comparing 720p and 1080p, but if the screen is 1080p then there will be a difference.

Why the comparison of 720p and 1080p anyway? The comparison would be between SD DVD and HD BD, so i don't understand your resolution comparison. SD DVD is 480 or 576, BD is 720 or 1080. There will be a big enough difference on virtually any screen to prefer BD over DVD.

I was on about the difference between downloadable hd media:720p & blu-ray:1080p, you don't need to be try and be clever about everything, If you want to spend money on blu-ray then fine, all I'm saying is that I personally think that most people won't, and would be more than happy watching downloadable hd media at 720p on their 22" to 42" sets.
You don't normally see a difference between the 2 on smaller screens, thats all.

[TommyVecetti]

If people only want to rent a film, then I can see downloading being the option of choice. The sort of people that buy a film, will want a proper hard copy.

[Bald Monkey]

No sales data at all... Just predictions for the future.

I hope Warner do start to lower their prices for catalogue titles though, surley that is something we can all agree on.

The cynical side to me thinks this is a 'no news' story they have published to simply get a lot of hits to WHF S&V's new website??

[dunks517]

Mass adoption of any format is not going to happen if the likes of HMV still sell BD films such as 'The Brave One' at £27.95

'How would one like to pay? Cheque, cash or through the nose?'

'Through the nose for me everytime! After all we are British and expect as such to pay more than everyone else. It a sign of quality'.

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by pjclark1

I'd be surprised if this format is still going in 2012!

Of course it will still be going in 2012. Blu-ray does have more competition than DVD ever had - a variety of download services plus the fact that the quality boast of a HD upgrade will lost on most people with small TVs. However the market will transition from DVD to Blu-ray even if it happens at a relative slow pace.

I should also point out that Blu-ray is well place to face off against digital downloads. In the future managed copy will allow you to extract the video from your Blu-ray disc and place it on central home server - hence the idea that a digital download will be more flexible than your BD disc is incorrect.