[The News Bot]

<p><img style="margin: 6px; float: left;" src="http://www.homecinemachoice.com/files/hcc_content/hardware/police.jpg" title="The Plice Live coming to Blu-ray soon" width="100" height="140" />The UK’s standalone Blu-ray player population will reach 250,000 before the end of the year. That’s the bullish prediction of the British Video Association. </p>
<p>Speaking at a showcase launch for Blu-ray music titles at London’s Metropolis recording studios last night, BVA spokesman Mike Brown said that ‘the market will really pick up this autumn. <span class='read-more'><a href="http://www.homecinemachoice.com/blogs/team_HCC/blu-ray+player+boom">&nbsp;read&nbsp;more&nbsp;&raquo; </a></span></p>

[Palladio]

Originally Posted by The News Bot

<p><img style="margin: 6px; float: left;" src="http://www.homecinemachoice.com/files/hcc_content/hardware/police.jpg" title="The Plice Live coming to Blu-ray soon" width="100" height="140" />The UK’s standalone Blu-ray player population will reach 250,000 before the end of the year. That’s the bullish prediction of the British Video Association. </p>
</span></p>

Interesting in light of the other recent news that the forum had over 2 million hits in September. I wonder what percentage of the UK's 250,000 BD players view the AV forum ?

Unfortunately I think the format whether it be BD or HDD came in to late and downloads will eventually be the winner.

I'm sure a alot of people are getting fed up forever updating their Music or Film collections for the latest format and as MP3's take over the world it's obviously not always the better quality formats that win out. It's the convienence and ease which tops the list.

[reingam]

Yes indeed with the rapid expansion of braodband bandwith (I can get up to 50meg now) downloading will ultimately be the winner - it may a couple of years thou before tv's are sold with the technology to download on demand. I know that there are some prototypes available but until the bandwith increases blu rays etc will still survive

[berkeley384]

Originally Posted by reingam

Yes indeed with the rapid expansion of braodband bandwith (I can get up to 50meg now) downloading will ultimately be the winner -

At what contentio Ratio... 200:1 ? OK so maybe not quite that high

Downloads is a non starter till our IT infrastructure can support it.

Bearing in mind that most people use their plain old telephone system (POTS) for their BB , and taking into consideration the state of the BT (Openreach) network, which realistically which ever SP you go with the chances are this is the network you'll be using, its just not viable to push this as the next media format.

Right now its common for over 50 people at any one time share an 8meg BB line with many SP's,

50Meg BB with a 10:1 contention ratio gives you 5 meg per user.... how long would it take to download a HD movie on 5 Meg BB

Streaming HD audio @ 6Mb's per second ... I dont think so not over a telephone line

Several SP's complained when BBC I player was launched because the hike in useage from one website alone maxed out thier bandwidth ... and thats one website !

The UK isn't upgrading its IT infrastructure quickly enough in my opinon for this to become a reality

[Upholder]

We need to realise that there are some people (most) out there who are not at all interested in downloading anything at all, it's to scarey and complicated. Downloading is not going to be the way ahead for many years to come... Media is easy obtainable, collectable and simpler to use... Hopefully this will help sales of BD's too...

[Sonic67]

Cost of outfitting the UK with superfast broadband? According to this weeks Micro Mart about £30 billion.

The thing is people in rural communities are still using dial up and so they don't have a voice on here so they are ignored.

Aside from that there's other issues. I spent 6 months in Iraq where we had a DVD library. What would I do under this system of downloads?

What do your kids watch in the car to school? A downloaded file? Will it be allowed or will DRM stop it?

Some studios might prefer it because it will kill the second hand market. At present if you buy 200 DVDs you could at some point stick them all on a car boot or e-bay and get some money back for you, not the manufacturers.

A hard drive with 200 films on it is a second hand hard drive of other people's stuff. I wouldn't bother with it so it has no value. That's assuming that DRM wouldn't permit it to be used for others as well.