[The News Bot]

<p><img style="margin: 6px; float: left;" src="http://www.homecinemachoice.com/files/hcc_content/hardware/jobssmall.jpg" title="'Blu-ray hurts' says Steve Jobs" width="99" height="142" />Responding to the lack of Blu-ray hardware in the company’s latest laptop range, Apple’s Steve Jobs has reportedly described Blu-ray as ‘a bag of hurt,’ adding: ‘We're waiting until things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.’ </p><p>While it remains to be seen if Blu-ray will ever figure in Apple’s plans (it flies against its iTunes download strategy after all), Jobs is not the first executive to complain about the complicated licensing arrangements for the format. <span class='read-more'><a href="http://www.homecinemachoice.com/blogs/team_HCC/bluray+a+world+of+hurt">&nbsp;read&nbsp;more&nbsp; &raquo;</a></span></p>

[segedunum]

While I don't agree with Steve Jobs too often, I think this will be yet another bone of contention with Blu-Ray. There's an awful lot of inertia out there still with the DVD collections that people have already, and their motivation and need to start replacing their DVDs or to stop buying DVDs and start buying Blu-Ray discs. There's really no advantages at all in doing so. DVDs provided convenience over VHS with random access and you didn't need to rewind the things. Blu-Ray is...........a DVD with some supposedly higher definition pictures if your TV supports them. Oh, and you have few devices that can play them. Personally, my next home cinema project will be geared to getting the best out of the SD and DVD pictures I already have whilst getting more out of the surround sound I already have. I am seriously disinterested in Blu-Ray, or even Hi Def TV, until the price becomes far more affordable and supply of devices is good. Even then, the effort and cost just might scupper it.

Additionally, I have also seen severe confusion with people that is damaging Blu-Ray adoption. People are buying HD ready and even full HD televisions, plugging DVD players into their televisions with HDMI and see no reason to buy a more expensive Blu-Ray player or get new Blue-Ray discs. Many people also believe they have high definition without Blu-Ray as a result.

In the face of that confusion and inertia, what you really want to do to drive a format forwards is to increase the supply of discs and devices and make it far easier for manufacturers to produce devices for your format in the face of them having little motivation to do so because of the limited market. This makes it more likely that, if you customers don't know what they're buying, they're more likely to buy your stuff. That doesn't seem to be happening and it looks as though Blu-Ray devices are far more complicated and political to get made. Apple look as if they want that to settle before they commit.

Blu-Ray might have come through against HD-DVD but it seems like a hollow victory. The format might well go the same way as DVD-Audio and SACD and their hardware.

[hornydragon]

The man on the street thinks a DVD player with HDMI is HD so why buy a Blu-Ray? Its simple DVD was an easy sell as it was logical following the Cassette to CD conversion. CD is giving way to MP3, so why buy Blu-ray? IPTV and VOD will be the future as they cut out the middle man the retailer and deliver content direct to end users 8cm optical discs are thing of the past. I dont agree but thats the future...

[David Mackenzie]

I think he's completely right, it's a nightmare just creating BD discs, let alone players.

But you know what's an even bigger "bag of hurt"? The quality of the iTunes "HD" downloads...

[Welsh Whirlwind]

Originally Posted by segedunum

Blu-Ray is...........a DVD with some supposedly higher definition pictures if your TV supports them. Oh, and you have few devices that can play them. Personally, my next home cinema project will be geared to getting the best out of the SD and DVD pictures I already have whilst getting more out of the surround sound I already have. .

Being a person who's looking to get 'more out of surround sound' are you not forgetting one major thing? The VAST audio improvent Blu Ray disc's have to offer? Have you ever listened to a DTS MA/ DD THD/ track?
Evidently not.

Because if you had you'd realise the format is so much more than just 'higher definition pictures'. Being a home cinema enthusiast I adopted HD after hearing 'The Orphanage' on Blu-Ray disc at a friends house, it simply blew me away.
It's alot harder to go back to the sometimes vastly inferior DD/DTS DVD tracks after experiencing what HD has to offer. To me the improved picture quality was just an added bonus...

[rovex33]

Wow BR must be really bad for Apple of all companies to complain about 'complicated licensing arrangements'. Not so nice when you're on the other side is is Steve? I pray he keeps his mouth shut about its DRM, because i might die laughing..

[Glenzo]

I don't know if I'd say DD/DTS is vastly inferior to the HD flavours.

I've an Onkyo 606 Panasonic BD Player and Toshiba HD DVD Player.

Soundtracks are wonderful if they're good with this set up whether they're SD DVD Track or HD ones IMHO!

[vader100]

Apple complaining about licensing, you just couldn't make it up

[Dav1dF]

Originally Posted by vader100

Apple complaining about licensing, you just couldn't make it up

[andrew markwort]

The VAST audio improvent Blu Ray disc's have to offer? Have you ever listened to a DTS MA/ DD THD/ track?

I've tried blind tests on this with a couple of colleagues and yes, there's a reliably detectable difference, but we were all agreed it wasn't of the same magnitude as e.g. the visual differences between HD v SD. Clearly others feel the reverse. Different strokes, I guess.

[t72bogie]

just the naming is enough to confuse the consumer public...people dont buy stuff that the man in the shop has to explain the benefits of ...now Toshiba at least had the name as simple as possible with High Definition DVD ....but so long a s £100 cheap player from the far east, connects via HDMI and upconverts so you get a slightly better picture, Joe Bloggs will be happy

...and Blu-Ray wont be a household contraption until everyone owns a Sony box in the home, thereby sneaking it in for free...or until every £100 DVD player is a Blu-Ray player..

[rovex33]

Being a PC guy and a friend of many PC gurus i can safely say Sony wont be making an appearance in any of our houses!

[Sonic67]

How odd that PC manufacturers don't have a problem.

[rovex33]

We ARE talking about a clash of 2 of the biggest licensing money hogs in the industry here. Sony and Apple. When one wanted something from the other it was never going to be pretty.

[segedunum]

Originally Posted by Welsh Whirlwind

Being a person who's looking to get 'more out of surround sound' are you not forgetting one major thing? The VAST audio improvent Blu Ray disc's have to offer? Have you ever listened to a DTS MA/ DD THD/ track? Evidently not.

Yer I have, and you have to be exceptionally anal about sound to notice the difference, or even care. Sound is probably a distant second to the video quality of Blu-Ray in terms of selling points to the majority, and even that is a difficult sell as I'd explained.

Being a home cinema enthusiast I adopted HD after hearing 'The Orphanage' on Blu-Ray disc at a friends house, it simply blew me away.

Great, but you're in a minority. The vast majority don't even have any kind of surround sound set up to hear any better audio, and even those that do are going to find it an exceptionally tough sell to spend thousands of pounds replacing discs and hardware to get it. The majority have surround sound on their DVDs that they are currently not using at all!

It's alot harder to go back to the sometimes vastly inferior DD/DTS DVD tracks after experiencing what HD has to offer. To me the improved picture quality was just an added bonus...

That's great. I just hope you're willing to pay a pretty sizeable premium for quite a while to come for that.

[segedunum]

Originally Posted by Sonic67

How odd that PC manufacturers don't have a problem.

Don't tell users that see lots of HDCP pop-ups in PowerDVD stopping them from playing discs. The whole process of getting video and audio from many discs through the system to another system that both have trust each other first is infinitely more complex, and then you have to throw different manufacturers into the mix. Note that there is no benefit to the user in this process. It makes me recoil from playing Blu-Ray discs on a PC in horror.