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New Study Finds Low Interest In Blu-ray
PHPNerd writes "A new consumer survey recently released chronicles the woes of the winner of the hi-definition format war: nobody wants it. While consumers were very happy to embrace the DVD standard when it came about because it brought a huge jump in quality over VHS, the pros of switching to Blu-ray are not as obvious. From the article: 'In contrast, while half of the respondents to our survey rated Blu-ray's quality as 'much better' than standard DVD, another 40% termed it only 'somewhat better,' and most are very satisfied with the performance of their current DVD players." Another reason cited was that a Blu-ray investment also dictates an HDTV purchase, something consumers are reluctant to do.'" Maybe it's also that line-doubling DVD players can be had for less than a hundred dollars.
If you don't have a HD capable display, then of course you won't see any benefit to Blu-Ray. Since many people purchased a 780p display as well, the advantages of Blu-Ray will also not be as obvious.
Then you also have the "female factor", where women typically do not care about an improved experience when watching TV, and things like surround sound also are not noticed. I am not saying that all women ignore the benefits of a higher quality display or sound system, but most women just don't pay attention to these things for them to care one way or the other.
Vista is being pushed too.
How about that?
What's the value of information that you don't know?
You need to have your eyes checked. I have a DVD player with the Silicon Optix uprezzer (best there is). It is crap compared to a full HD BlueRay disc.
My 128MB USB 1.1 drive stil works, and its been through the wash...
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This is easy to fix.
You could download the media at Block Buster, encoded with a time-sensitive key, which you take home and plug in. Your reader then looks for the valid keys (on the disk or on the net) (one for each day of rental period, which is only 3-5 days) and tries the keys in the first block of the file until it works. This should take less than a second. Then you watch your movie.
The player is what determines the valid keys. Essential to this is a time service that can come from the 'net or from GPS.
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The idea is to have an industry standard hi-def player that has UBS ports and key management features. Call it a HTPC is you will but it will be a turn-key device.
You could walk into the store (or up to a kiosk) and load it immediately. You spend your time there rather than in a line at check out. If it is a store, it should be simple enough to have 20 or so USB ports going at once. (I've never seen more than 10 people in a block buster at once)
The capacity issue is temporary, as 32Gig drives are only $100, and falling fast.
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>Re-buying movies I already own if I want them in the better format?
oh, the horror of it all! better things cost more money??????? I'm still waiting for Apple to send me a new MacBook. I bought an iBook 3 years ago. surely tehy don't expect me to pay more money for a better computer!?!?!?!?!?!?!11/1/1/1
you don't have to rebuy your DVDs. they still work even if you buy a Blu-Ray player. I agree about player price though, it's still way too high, especially given that the current players are mostly crap (~minute boot ups and menu loads).