Looks like Microsoft was onto something regarding Bluray vs Digital Media

Guess what? One of THX's chief scientists says Blu-ray is toast. Laurie Fincham was recently interviewed by Home Cinema Choice Magazine and when asked about HD DVD's recent death he commented with this,

"Personally, I think it's too late for Blu-ray. I think consumers will only become interested in replacing DVD when HD movies becomes available on flash memory. Do we really need another spinning format?" he told the magazine.

"In the future I want to be able to carry four to five movies around with me in a wallet, or walk into a store and have someone copy me a movie to a USB device. Stores will like that idea, because it's all about having zero inventory. I don't want to take up shelf space with dozens of HD movies."

"By the time Blu-ray really finds a mass market, we will have 128GB cards. I would guess that getting studios to supply movies on media cards, or offer downloads, will be a lot easier than getting them to sign up to support a disc format." he concluded.

DVD Town brings up a good point regarding Star Wars, though. We may not see the epic intergalactic love story on a HD format. That would suck. Big time.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/03/26/thx-says-blu-ray-is-dead-does-that-mean-no-star-wars-in-hd/

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

Trouble is flash drives will be even easier to pirate...Meu2k7

Which the Movie industry safeguards constantly.

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

SolidTy

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

Trouble is flash drives will be even easier to pirate...Meu2k7

It really depends. I think as of today, that is the case. However, over time Bluray will be easier to pirate in comparision to flash media. This is because flash media encryption can potentially be mutated while Bluray media cannot. They have a one time encryption scheme and once cracked (it already is), the only logistical piracy problem becomes obtaining a Bluray drive / Disks. Which over time, will be conventional in all PCs, as the price drops.

[quote=""]Guess what? One of THX's chief scientists says Blu-ray is toast. Laurie Fincham was recently interviewed by Home Cinema Choice Magazine and when asked about HD DVD's recent death he commented with this,

"Personally, I think it's too late for Blu-ray. I think consumers will only become interested in replacing DVD when HD movies becomes available on flash memory. Do we really need another spinning format?" he told the magazine.

"In the future I want to be able to carry four to five movies around with me in a wallet, or walk into a store and have someone copy me a movie to a USB device. Stores will like that idea, because it's all about having zero inventory. I don't want to take up shelf space with dozens of HD movies."

"By the time Blu-ray really finds a mass market, we will have 128GB cards. I would guess that getting studios to supply movies on media cards, or offer downloads, will be a lot easier than getting them to sign up to support a disc format." he concluded.

DVD Town brings up a good point regarding Star Wars, though. We may not see the epic intergalactic love story on a HD format. That would suck. Big time.rimnet00

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/03/26/thx-says-blu-ray-is-dead-does-that-mean-no-star-wars-in-hd/

Riiiiight.

Riiiiight.

girlpowerz

Is there a reason you post that so often? Or do you just want to get the post count up?

[QUOTE="SolidTy"]

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

Meu2k7

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

It may happen one day...probably 25 years from now.

Right now, the Memory cards aren't big enough to allow 25-50gig DL's at a decent price. It's about being economical, yet profitable.

Then there is the overly protective movie industry.

We are no where near this future as of now, this may as well be a SciFi novel.

[QUOTE="SolidTy"]

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

Meu2k7

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

WoW...:lol: he put the environmental spin on it. That awesome, yet cheesy.

[QUOTE="Meu2k7"][QUOTE="SolidTy"]

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

SolidTy

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

It may happen one day...probably 25 years from now.

Right now, the Memory cards aren't big enough to allow 25-50gig DL's at a decent price. It's about being economical, yet profitable.

Then there is the overly protective movie industry.

We are no where near this future as of now, this may as well be a SciFi novel.

yes exactly! movie industry will not allow people to simply download a movie onto their usb stick anytime soon, piracy will jump up even more than it is now! also to download a high def blu ray quality movie onto a usb stick is nowhere near around teh corner. that kind of technological advancement will come about later on much later. i would not like to stand around at some kiosk waiting for a 25-50gb sized movie downloading onto my usb stick even if it was going at few MBs a second

It may happen one day...probably 25 years from now.

Right now, the Memory cards aren't big enough to allow 25-50gig DL's at a decent price. It's about being economical, yet profitable.

Then there is the overly protective movie industry.

We are no where near this future as of now, this may as well be a SciFi novel.

SolidTy

Actually SSDs are dropping down in price very rapidly, while at the same time they are getting bigger.

[QUOTE="Meu2k7"][QUOTE="SolidTy"]

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

Cute_Red_Panda

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

WoW...:lol: he put the environmental spin on it. That awesome, yet cheesy.

:P in truth, I hate discs, enviroment or not, its all needless clutter to me.

[QUOTE="SolidTy"][QUOTE="Meu2k7"][QUOTE="SolidTy"]

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

superjim42

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

It may happen one day...probably 25 years from now.

Right now, the Memory cards aren't big enough to allow 25-50gig DL's at a decent price. It's about being economical, yet profitable.

Then there is the overly protective movie industry.

We are no where near this future as of now, this may as well be a SciFi novel.

yes exactly! movie industry will not allow people to simply download a movie onto their usb stick anytime soon, piracy will jump up even more than it is now! also to download a high def blu ray quality movie onto a usb stick is nowhere near around teh corner. that kind of technological advancement will come about later on much later. i would not like to stand around at some kiosk waiting for a 25-50gb sized movie downloading onto my usb stick even if it was going at few MBs a second

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

SolidTy

and how much with the flash cards cost..cause a 4 gig produo still runs u around 50$...and i aint going to pay thatstereointegrity

Where have you been looking? The 4gig MicroSD card I have for my phone cost me $20.

and how much with the flash cards cost..cause a 4 gig produo still runs u around 50$...and i aint going to pay thatstereointegrity

You really have to pay attention to the word "future" here. :P

Are you kidding me? Yeah, people will jump all over flash. And they love replacing components all of the time. That's why everyone in the U.S. has a HDTV, right? :lol:

Pricing is the issue.

MS isn't on the forefront with this. Not this gen. They have a non-standard HDD 360 and an overpriced add-on HDD or weak flash. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

If memory gets cheaper, yes, there's a chance for DD to get big. But don't forget about the "hold it in you hand" mentality. It may be generations before that goes.

wow really?? thats some huge improvement there! but how much do they cost is the question?? also a card of 50gb size as a usb 3.0 would cost quite a bit of money dont you think

[QUOTE="girlpowerz"]

Riiiiight.

Ninja-Hippo

Is there a reason you post that so often? Or do you just want to get the post count up?

Because that's a bunch of rubbish, imo. I find it hard to believe that blu-ray won the format war and already there's talk about it being obsolete.

Broadcast HD is better than DVD but Blu-ray isn't so much better than broadcast HD that anyone is going to write home about it besides AV nuts. As the ON DEMAND stuff sorts itself out and compression, transfers improve no one will care to replace all their DVD's with Blu-ray.

superjim42

wow really?? thats some huge improvement there! but how much do they cost is the question?? also a card of 50gb size as a usb 3.0 would cost quite a bit of money dont you think

And if you sit, wet, format it, what will you do then? 4-5 movies erased, oh you may be able to restore it, but what about pirating? Thats easy to fix you say, how much will it cost, also what if people cant afford the technollogy? Plus what about the quality?

I bought a 250gb, usb powered mini-hard drive for $100. It's smaller than my wallet, weighs only a few ounces, and would be more than capable of holding five blu-ray movies. You may say "it's sci-fi" but I say, why not? Why not replace the entire movie rental business with grocery store kiosks? Plug in your drive, swipe your credit card, and boom, it's loaded with an ecrypted movie rental.

Or, order your movies online via a subscription plan (similar to Netflix) and simply pick them up at any kiosk - your drive is tied to your account, so you simply go online, pick the movies you like - and then plug it in at any gas station, grocery store, post office, et cetera to get your content.

Digital makes economic sense - it eliminates the disc, puts more piracy control in the hands of the movie industries (since they can encode the movie so that it requires online-access / secure-login to be decoded, and makes aquiring movies simpler. It's inevitably the future, so the question really comes down to "how much longer are we going to hang on to archaic methods".

And for that matter, how long until this turns over into the game industry? I buy games on XBLA that I wouldn't drive to the store and buy - but sure, $5 to play whatever game right this second when I'm bored? Absolutely - digital can deliver, and it can do it at costs where buying a game is as cheap as getting a hamburger and fries at a drivethru.

-

Times are a-changing, the days of the disc are certainly number, and it's legitimate to question if Blu-Ray will ever have DVDs omnipresence - I doubt it will, because its rise to power is being infringed upon by a growing digital movement. More people stream content - more people download content - fewer people go to theater - and now fewer people are buying discs. If anything Blu-Ray is simply delaying the inevitable.

And if you sit, wet, format it, what will you do then? 4-5 movies erased, oh you may be able to restore it, but what about pirating? Thats easy to fix you say, how much will it cost, also what if people cant afford the technollogy? Plus what about the quality?

almahdi08

From a technical standpoint, I assure you: none of those are problems, that are already solved, or not issues at all.

I bought a 250gb, usb powered mini-hard drive for $100. It's smaller than my wallet, weighs only a few ounces, and would be more than capable of holding five blu-ray movies. You may say "it's sci-fi" but I say, why not? Why not replace the entire movie rental business with grocery store kiosks? Plug in your drive, swipe your credit card, and boom, it's loaded with an ecrypted movie rental.

Or, order your movies online via a subscription plan (similar to Netflix) and simply pick them up at any kiosk - your drive is tied to your account, so you simply go online, pick the movies you like - and then plug it in at any gas station, grocery store, post office, et cetera to get your content.

Digital makes economic sense - it eliminates the disc, puts more piracy control in the hands of the movie industries (since they can encode the movie so that it requires online-access / secure-login to be decoded, and makes aquiring movies simpler. It's inevitably the future, so the question really comes down to "how much longer are we going to hang on to archaic methods".

And for that matter, how long until this turns over into the console game industry? I buy games on XBLA that I wouldn't drive to the store and buy - but sure, $5 to play whatever game right this second when I'm bored? Absolutely - digital can deliver, and it can do it at costs where buying a game is as cheap as getting a hamburger and fries at a drivethru.

subrosian

See, this guy and me are seeing eye to eye here. One small thing I had to fix above tho :P

LOL, what shocks me about this is that a THX scientist said it. Glad it was only one as he is clearly wrong. retailers need "disk" or their is no need for customers to come in as they can all of this online.

Wow, now scientists are that dumb?

LOL, what shocks me about this is that a THX scientist said it. Glad it was only one as he is clearly wrong. retailers need "disk" or their is no need for customers to come in as they can all of this online.

Wow, now scientists are that dumb?

razu_gamer2

Kiosks? being able to view trailers for every fil you browse in one spot?

Now whos not thinking?

See, this guy and me are seeing eye to eye here. One small thing I had to fix above tho :P

rimnet00

Yes, you are correct, PC game industry is already dominated by the online market, with retail being its archaic leg.

See, this guy and me are seeing eye to eye here. One small thing I had to fix above tho :P

rimnet00

Yes, you are correct, PC game industry is already dominated by the online market, with retail being its archaic leg.

Chief Scientist......lol an in his off time he cleans and emptys the trash.

I'm in the movie business and Blu-ray or DVD is far from being outdone from downloads and certainly not FLASHDRIVES lol. This guy might as well say stop buying new cars because in the future they'll fly.

[QUOTE="Meu2k7"]Trouble is flash drives will be even easier to pirate...SolidTy

Which the Movie industry safeguards constantly.

Actually, flash drives are easier to secure than CDs and DVDs. Unlike static optical media, flash drives can be updated with new security measures. Optical media currently is only statically encrypted.

People are still buying CDs rather than using iTunes or similar services. The only people who adopt new technology quickly are people like us. That said, even if Blu Ray is toast it will still go strong for a long time because by the time a 128GB flash drive becomes affordable for the masses a BD player will probably be much cheaper.Tiefster

That is not really true. The music business is dying because of the I-pod.

[QUOTE="Meu2k7"][QUOTE="SolidTy"]

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

SolidTy

It doesnt mean just Downloading....

It means going into a store ... no shelves ... just Kiosks, which makes sense financially/Enviromentally ... for the future.

It may happen one day...probably 25 years from now.

Right now, the Memory cards aren't big enough to allow 25-50gig DL's at a decent price. It's about being economical, yet profitable.

Then there is the overly protective movie industry.

We are no where near this future as of now, this may as well be a SciFi novel.

The solution wouldn't be for memory cards to be distributed for every movie. The solution would be to have ONE memory card (or other mass storage device) that could hold the data, which the user would then reuse whenever he wanted to get a new movie. Just look at how cheap laptop hard drives are now.

[QUOTE="stereointegrity"]and how much with the flash cards cost..cause a 4 gig produo still runs u around 50$...and i aint going to pay thatrimnet00

Where have you been looking? The 4gig MicroSD card I have for my phone cost me $20.

[QUOTE="Ninja-Hippo"][QUOTE="girlpowerz"]

Riiiiight.

girlpowerz

Is there a reason you post that so often? Or do you just want to get the post count up?

Because that's a bunch of rubbish, imo. I find it hard to believe that blu-ray won the format war and already there's talk about it being obsolete.

Why? People were talking about digital distribution LONG before BluRay came into the picture. And now with fiber optics becoming more and more available and hard drives plummeting in price-per-gigabyte, it's actually becoming a viable option.

[QUOTE="rimnet00"]

[QUOTE="stereointegrity"]and how much with the flash cards cost..cause a 4 gig produo still runs u around 50$...and i aint going to pay thatstereointegrity

Where have you been looking? The 4gig MicroSD card I have for my phone cost me $20.

$27.99

Not quite $20, but damn close. And in a few months it WILL be at $20. The Pro Duo is a SONY format, so Sony gouges everyone who buys it. SD is an open format used by everyone else, so it's cheap as hell.

Propaganda.

Digital Downloads are not nearly equal to HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray image quality.

They are free to have their opinion, but they are wrong. The Net speeds aren't up to snuff for larger DL speeds on 25gig movies. The Storage is another problem.

DD also don't work for the mainstream market, but it is going to be a nice avenue for revenue, as it is growing, but it can't replace Blu-Ray.

SolidTy

it says nothing about downloads,

Im sorry how does a DISC represent image quality, decoders do all of the work. I could rip an entire bluray disc to my PC (if i knew how) and it would still look the same as if i was to watch it on a Blu Ray drive

Are you kidding me? Yeah, people will jump all over flash. And they love replacing components all of the time. That's why everyone in the U.S. has a HDTV, right? :lol:

Pricing is the issue.

MS isn't on the forefront with this. Not this gen. They have a non-standard HDD 360 and an overpriced add-on HDD or weak flash. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

If memory gets cheaper, yes, there's a chance for DD to get big. But don't forget about the "hold it in you hand" mentality. It may be generations before that goes.

The_Dan_K

loads of people have downloaded games on STEAM, almost all PC games run direct from the HDD and require no disc in the drive.

Why have discs at all, a one time install and it sits in the corner of my room. If my PC was to need a full clean sweep and i had steam games, i head over to steam and redownload them.

I dont see how the mentality of hold it in your hand :P

I would love to be able to either rip all of my 350+ dvds to some massive Hard drive type box and then just download new films. Save me some space, run this sort of system under an account that not only looks at your account name, but other features too, so you can download your films again if your box goes wrong.

Films i am starting to run out of space xD, so i would welcome a decent secure way to get new films that wont require physical media.

[QUOTE="subrosian"]

I bought a 250gb, usb powered mini-hard drive for $100. It's smaller than my wallet, weighs only a few ounces, and would be more than capable of holding five blu-ray movies. You may say "it's sci-fi" but I say, why not? Why not replace the entire movie rental business with grocery store kiosks? Plug in your drive, swipe your credit card, and boom, it's loaded with an ecrypted movie rental.

Or, order your movies online via a subscription plan (similar to Netflix) and simply pick them up at any kiosk - your drive is tied to your account, so you simply go online, pick the movies you like - and then plug it in at any gas station, grocery store, post office, et cetera to get your content.

Digital makes economic sense - it eliminates the disc, puts more piracy control in the hands of the movie industries (since they can encode the movie so that it requires online-access / secure-login to be decoded, and makes aquiring movies simpler. It's inevitably the future, so the question really comes down to "how much longer are we going to hang on to archaic methods".

And for that matter, how long until this turns over into the console game industry? I buy games on XBLA that I wouldn't drive to the store and buy - but sure, $5 to play whatever game right this second when I'm bored? Absolutely - digital can deliver, and it can do it at costs where buying a game is as cheap as getting a hamburger and fries at a drivethru.

rimnet00

See, this guy and me are seeing eye to eye here. One small thing I had to fix above tho :P

i like the sound of this idea too :P

[QUOTE="razu_gamer2"]

LOL, what shocks me about this is that a THX scientist said it. Glad it was only one as he is clearly wrong. retailers need "disk" or their is no need for customers to come in as they can all of this online.

Wow, now scientists are that dumb?

Meu2k7

Kiosks? being able to view trailers for every fil you browse in one spot?

Now whos not thinking?

I'd never watch another BR again if I could DL Netflix movies through my consoles on a subscription plan. They already have a pretty cool streaming option, but the movie choices on it aren't that great yet.

Maybe mempile will come along and kick the crap out of BR anyways. Can't argue with a 1TB on a disk....

http://mempile.com/

Downloads are easily portable and everything, but your adverage USB drive doesn't hold enough to carry around 4 movies, not even in HD. You'd need a portable hard drive, which is kind of expensive. Plus, all of the technophobics would find it much easier to just buy a movie on a BD instead of having to download it and everything. Downloads will be better soon, but not now.Sol1d_Snake441

Key there is trying to explain how to do all this to a non-techno person. My mother doesn't even have online access aside from AOL (which is worthless). this is all a fiction that USB drives, flashdrives, or hardrives will REPLACE optical anytime soon. I don't have a problem with what was said IF it was said in say 5-10 years. Right now it's laughable.

[QUOTE="Sol1d_Snake441"]Downloads are easily portable and everything, but your adverage USB drive doesn't hold enough to carry around 4 movies, not even in HD. You'd need a portable hard drive, which is kind of expensive. Plus, all of the technophobics would find it much easier to just buy a movie on a BD instead of having to download it and everything. Downloads will be better soon, but not now.darthogre

Key there is trying to explain how to do all this to a non-techno person. My mother doesn't even have online access aside from AOL (which is worthless). this is all a fiction that USB drives, flashdrives, or hardrives will REPLACE optical anytime soon. I don't have a problem with what was said IF it was said in say 5-10 years. Right now it's laughable.

Plug dealybob into hole. Push button. Pay.

There is a prostitute joke in there somewhere but I'm not going to go after it.