Official: Toshiba to get in on Blu-ray Disc
Wanna be in your gang, your gang, etc, etc
Toshiba has asked the Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) if it can join the gang, a move it specifically stated paves the way for the introduction of Toshiba kit supporting the HD optical disc format.
The one-time driver behind the HD DVD format stressed that it remains committed to the delivery of digital content on a variety of media, including DVD and SD card.
But "in light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA", it said.
Toshiba also said that it aims to introduce digital products that support the Blu-ray format, including BD players and notebook PCs integrating BD drives, in the course of this year.
Rumours that Toshiba will release a BD player by the end of the year surfaced last month. ®
Obituary HD DVD (2002-2008)
COMMENTS
Blu Ray won't penetrate mass market......3D is the next Blu Ray!
"You can still see a difference between blu-ray and dvd on a 720p display, even on a 26" display." - 720P
720P are you serious? I have a 32" display and whilst it doesn't support 1080P I can still watch in 720P and 1080P and the difference between a high quality DVD and Blu Ray is pretty marginal. (Played on Panasonic DMP BD 35)
I doubt very much there would too much noticable difference between DVD and Blu Ray on a 26 inch screen and certainly wouldn't justify the higher prices that you pay for Blu Ray.
"Utter flop? How do you quantify that? Take up is slow, as for most new technologies (usually down to cost.. or recession!!), but my local Blockbuster is doing a feckin' roaring trade in Blu-Ray rentals and sales.!- LuMan
Lu-Man I guess success of Bu Ray sales and rentals must vary region by region.
I live in Oxford and have myself inquired about Blu Ray take up as I am interested to monitor whether Blu Ray will become a sucess or failure.
Shortly before Woolworths went bust I talked to the manager of the store, he told me that demand was very low and sales very slow and he said he didn't think Blu Ray would ever replace DVDs.
Just a few weeks ago I also spoke to my local Block busters manager, he said although Blu Ray rentals and sales had increased since they introduced Blu Ray it still was pretty slow and not too much in demand.
I have to say everytime I visit my blockbusters there are always people looking in the DVD sections but I haven't ever spotted anyone browsing in the Blu Ray sections!
My uncle runs a business that sells DVD and Blu Ray among other things.
When we got onto the subject on Blu Ray he said without any prompting from me," Blu Ray is a flop"
"What do you mean" asked a friend in the room at the time."
"Well they don't sell....I can't sell them!"
So essentially I doubt very much that Blu Ray will follow the same path as DVD and ultimately will not become the "new standard".
People that still think that Blu Ray is doing well in comparison to DVD take up rate are perhaps missing the point a little.
We live in very different times than when DVD was first introduced.
The internet wasn't in wide spread then and consumers didn't have You Tube as an alternative to traditional,,,,!in front of the telly entertainment."
So in view comparisons to DVD and Blu Ray take up rate are bogus.
There is already talk of the possibility that 3D films will come to disc format in the future.
If that is the case then Blu Ray can only be a transitional technology whilst people wait for 3D discs.
Essentially as some here have already observed, the mass market isn't driven purely on Picture Quality......If it did then You Tube certainly wouldn't be the worldwide phenomena it has become in such a short space of time.
Equally if quality was a mass market driver then people woludn't be shopping for bargains but have the very best TV sets they can afford.
But any retailer can tell you the mass market is driven by price and convenience not necessarily quality.
That is why DVD suceeded to become a mass market product, it had so many convenient advantages over VHS, like size, durabilty, usability, storability and pretty good quality to boot!
BluRay really only has picture quality as a Unique Selling Point.(The other advantages like sound quality and lager storage capacity or online interactivity simply aren't things that the mass market are looking for).
Picure quality alone may be sufficient enough to allow Blu Ray to carve out a niche market with home cinema enthusiasts but the average joe that makes up the mass market is most likely going to give it a pass.
If 3D films do catch on then Blu Ray will quickly be forgotten about, and people wil be talking about "double dipping" their "old" Blu Ray disc for the brand new 3 D discs!
So there you have it DVD will still be the standard disc format for the masses.
Blu Ray will have it's niche....... until that is, the film studios start producing 3D films as standard.!
3D films will still face the problems Blu Ray has over DVD, ie people will need brand new compatible equipment and discs are likely to be much pricier than DVD.
That said though 3D films are likely to be much more dramatic a change of viewing experience than Blu Ray has currently over DVD so it has the potential to be much larger than Blu Ray.
Who knows what the future might bring in way of technology.....but those who argued that Blu Ray was "future proof" already sound pretty dated!
720p vs 1080p
"the difference between 720p and 1080p is just as important as that between DVD and 720p"
Only on a big enough TV and/or if you sit close enough.
Also, if you're comparing 720p and 1080p on your 1080p TV, then that's an invalid comparison as 720p is not at the native resolution. You need to compare 720p on a 720p TV and 1080p on a 1080p TV, of the same size.
Myself, having done both kinds of comparison, whilst I can tell the difference, it's no where near gobsmacking enough. Generally even 720p upscalled on my 1080p TV is perfectly fine. That's on a 40" TV.
However it's a void point. Most people who have gone out and got a flat TV to replace their CRTs have gone and bought 720p TVs. They don't need Blu-Ray for that. A smaller bandwidth download would do just as fine, and even with more compression they won't notice on their 32" or smaller TV.
And don't forget the majority of the population still have CRTs. You might find that hard to believe, but the majority of the country are not people like us. I'm still shocked by the number of people I see with just a little 14" portable TV tucked away in a corner, not to mention a lot of people who don't really watch much TV (and a few who actually don't have a TV at all!).
@MarkOne - "You seem to have forgotten about CD and 1.44Mb floppy discs which Sony did come up with."
Sony only came up with half of the CD. Sony came up with an idea for an audio optical disc (based on Phillips laserdisc principles). Phillips had something similar in the works. The actual redbook standard that produced the "Compact Disc" is a combination of Sony and Phillips technology.
1.44Mb floppies are specifically those 3.5inch discs that PCs used and formatted to 1.44Mb. They were a little different to the similar sized disc that Sony much earlier failed to introduce. Essentially their contribution was much like Betamax, but you can't say Sony came up with VHS. Besides, their floppy disc was a derivation of earlier discs of larger sizes, much the same as Betamax was a derivation of other earlier video tape formats. Sony have never really been original. They just take another idea and try to mould it into their own proprietary format.
Blu-Ray is of a dying breed
Blu-Ray is of a dying breed. The "I hand you money, you give me copy"-business is kinda dead. There are now much fancier models to finance movies than selling copies of it. One of those is called television. You have a satellite-dish and can recieve a wide range of movies and shows, as well as news, without any extra cost. And it's even HD for some stations. There's no DRM so you can store the transmissions and do anything you want with them.
ack last clarification I promise
Should have said much of Sony technology has been rejected by the consumer. Obviously they have had some huge hits as well such as the PS2, DVD, etc. When their technology doesn't try to control the consumer Orwellen style it tends to do well. It does also seem that this is occuring less and less often as the hardware division can no longer slip devices under the media side radar like the old days.
@MarkOne
Exactly - and the number of professional musicians, singers and entertainers who still use MiniDisc because it's so reliable (our group's been using MD for over 12 years with 0% fail-rate - startling!).
