Xbox Head Proclaims Blu-ray Dead 547
Blacklaw writes "Microsoft has sided with Apple in a rare case of solidarity between the two companies, and declares that Blu-ray will be 'passed by' as a high-definition format. In many ways, it's hard to disagree. US markets have seen the demand for legal digital downloads of PC games exceed sales of the physical object for the first time, and Apple famously refuses to put a Blu-ray drive in its Macs, as Jobs prefers to send people towards iTunes to download their entertainment. That said, there's an argument for physical media, too. A recent survey suggested that the majority of gamers prefer physical discs, and digital downloads have the secondary effect of entirely cutting out the popular market for second-hand films and games — a plus for publishers, but a big negative for the consumer."
If indeed, truly sad news (Score:5, Insightful)
I never thought I would say it, but I can now quite easily envision a day very soon when all my new media (games, movies, music, TV shows, books, etc.) will belong to studios, software companies, publishers, etc.--with me just renting it. There will be no such thing as buying a used book, or a used videogame. I will never be able to resell any media that I "buy." If the studio decides to have a moritorium [wikipedia.org] on a movie (like Disney so often does), they will just be able to flick a switch at any time and turn my copy of that movie off. Publishers will be able to edit all my books retroactively. When a director decides he doesn't like the ending of his movie, he can change it and force that change on everyone who owns it. If a studio goes bankrupt and takes down their servers, all my movies from them will turn to digital dust. If a judge issues a court order, all copies of a piece of media will evaporate with a single command from a media server somewhere. And when my internet goes down, so does every piece of media I own.
I will own nothing. The media companies will control how I watch or use my media, when I use it, where I use it, and how long I use it, and even *if* I can use it. I will either be completely at their mercy, or forced to resort to law-breaking to enjoy my own media as I wish.
Re:If indeed, truly sad news (Score:5, Insightful)
>>>-with me just renting it.
Pretty much.
But before we jump on that bandwagon, let's not forget practical limitations. A Bluray holds 50 gigabytes of data. Downloading that over my 750k DSL connection would take 7 days, and there are a lot of people who don't have even that speed (still suck on dialup). Plus once I've downloaded the file I'll want to store it somewhere permanent, like a Bluray-R so why not just save some time, go to the store, and get the Bluray already conveniently pressed on disc for me?
Bottom Line - Blurays are not disappearing yet. People like the convenience and instant gratification.
Also Steve Jobs has a bad habit of burying technology while it's still alive & breathing in the coffin. He famously stopped putting floppies in Macs (1999), when people still needed floppies to trade work files, or to access older archived software, or to revive dead systems, thereby forcing Mac users to spend extra for an external drive. NOW it looks like he's doing the same with DVDs and Blurays - declaring them as "not needed" when they still ARE needed.
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He famously stopped putting floppies in Macs (1999), when people still needed floppies to trade work files, or to access older archived software, or to revive dead systems, thereby forcing Mac users to spend extra for an external drive. NOW it looks like he's doing the same with DVDs and Blurays - declaring them as "not needed" when they still ARE needed.
And today? Still using floppies?
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I'm glad you perceive 40% of his post as "all about Steve Jobs".
He made a side note, which is kind of relevant.
Relax.
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Downloading over my connection would take... 19 hours
There are several hidden assumptions in that 19 hours. The most obvious one is that the BD is full. In practice, pretty much all movies come on single-layer (25GB) BluRay disks, and a lot are under half full. The second assumption is that you need to download it to start watching it. This is also not true, you just need to download enough of it that you will have downloaded each frame of the rest of it before you need to decode it.
The BBC now streams 720p content, which is noticeably better than DVD
Re:If indeed, truly sad news (Score:4, Interesting)
In a sense, you are correct in that media publishers have always sought the advantage of being able to control access to their content so that they can charge you many times for the same thing. It's not enough that they can "print money" by charging excessively for that which cost them pennies to produce, now they want to charge repeatedly for things that cost an order of magnitude less to produce.
I have already said "goodbye" to paying for TV. With my last move, I was unsuccessful in bribing the cable internet installer to "forget to block the TV signal" which meant I was faced with (a) hacking on the physical cables and locking devices, (b) paying for the TV services or (c) doing without. I went with option (c). I would simply rather do without. Turns out that while I get fewer digital TV channels than I did with analog, I get some in hi-def and I can watch The Big Bang Theory for free. And while I don't get access to everything else I might want to see, I have found that I don't miss it as much as I thought I would and can do without just fine.
Getting away from the various sources of media has been an interesting experience and I find that it doesn't harm me in the least. On the contrary, I think it was actually good for me.
People are largely addicted to their media streams and are unaware of what their life might be like without all that noise to fill the empty moments and spaces. I'm here to say, it's not that bad! I got a new bicycle and I ride it. It's fun! Build things! Create things! This is how we used to entertain ourselves back in the day and it still seems to work.
Replacing cable TV with Netflix (Score:2)
I have already said "goodbye" to paying for TV.
Some people have reported success with replacing most TV watching with Netflix rentals and Netflix streaming. But this doesn't work so well for news or sports, which are worth much less if they are not live. And it doesn't work so well if the cable company's pricing structure is such that Internet-only subscribers could add basic TV for free.
Build things! Create things!
The incumbent publishers want national legislatures to make this illegal for indies to do. See Anonymous Coward's comment [slashdot.org].
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Will not work because ISPs are moving toward caps, if they haven't already. In Canada, I am paying around 45 bucks a month for 7.5 megabit download speed and 60 GB cap. If I want to watch 3 BluRay movies a month, I am fucked, I just busted my cap.
Also, you really think people with no technical know how will wait 5+ hours to download one movie? Or how about people who have slower connections because they don't need anything faster? You really think Apple couldn't stream 1080p from their stores, yet they have
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Look at the success of Redbox... 100% based on rapid gratification of a desire for physical media.
Netflix's business is still at least 75%+ based on physical media due to the limitations of streaming (lower quality than DVD, less portability, restricted availability of content.)
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>>>PC Game Digital Downloads Dramatically Outpace Retail Sales
Looks like the PS3, X360, and Wii will be the last game consoles I ever own. I'm not going to buy any future consoles that are disc-free and force me to RENT rather own my software (and which also means I can't sell the game Used when I'm sick of it).
Well, for what it's worth (Score:3, Insightful)
We've got three XBox 360s in the house, and we buy a lot more Bluray movies than we do XBox games. So much for how the physical media balance out. As for streaming, we only stream when we *can't* buy, because the quality is never even close to that of Bluray, and of course, if the connection goes down, as happens from time to time, you're screwed.
It seems to me that between the cost of the high speed connection, the cost of the rental, the fact that it's gone after you watch it, the quality is lower, you
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>>>I have no loyalty to gamestop
It's not gamestop that I'm worried about, but gamers like me who enjoy selling our older games on amazon.com or ebay.com. If the used market "implodes" as you say, we'll be cut off from a large supply of money (which we use to fund purchases of new games).
Internet activation (Score:5, Insightful)
I have an installer, I have the game files
The installer requires a connection to a server that Activision Blizzard can shut down at any time.
If you so desire, you can burn everything that you "do not own" over to a disc and voila! you now have a physical representation of your ownership.
How does this store the state of Internet activation of the copies that you own?
frog in the cauldron (Score:4, Insightful)
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The Wooky speaks truth.
Re:frog in the cauldron (Score:5, Informative)
That's an urban legend. Please stop spreading it.
http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/frogboil.asp [snopes.com]
Re:frog in the cauldron (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps that's why he said it was a story. Maybe a better word would be "fable". None the less, the anecdote is still good even if the science isn't.
Re:frog in the cauldron (Score:5, Funny)
None the less, the anecdote is still good even if the science isn't.
Really? Wow! My analogies will be even better now!
You know, if you throw a car into a pool of acid, it will jump out, but if you throw it into an empty pool and then pour the acid, it will stay and die. Thus, you should buy physical disks of all your games because cracked installers will magically disappear tomorrow.
Re:frog in the cauldron (Score:5, Funny)
Hello, I am a strategist for the Tea Party. We are intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Re:frog in the cauldron (Score:4, Insightful)
There wasn't really a boy who cried "Wolf" either. But it's a useful parable to describe a situation.
Re:frog in the cauldron (Score:4, Insightful)
There wasn't really a boy who cried "Wolf" either. But it's a useful parable to describe a situation.
Never use the same lie more than two times?
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Perhaps you forgot to read this part of the linked page:
I suppose if someone referenced the tortoise and the hare, you would respond that it is ridiculous to believe that a swift hare would actually lose a race to a slow moving tortoise by taking a nap halfway through.
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If you put a live [frog] in a cauldron with boiling water, he will leap out as soon as he touches the water.
Actually, the frog will probably die too quickly for it to be able to leap out, assuming that you've got the cauldron going at a proper boil.
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Look around you. It already IS happening.
And today's kids that are growing up using services like Steam or DRM-laden music services will be used to it by the time it gets worse. Hell, the majority of the software I'm using right now, and the OS it's running on, are not and cannot be 'owned' by me, never mind if I bought it. We've already had instances of Amazon removing books from Kindles, and I would not be surprised if at some point soon Microsoft decides to remote-kill an OS in the future if you don't
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Well ou say you can't sell the software, but if you still have original discs you must certainly CAN sell it. For example I still have my MS Office 97 laying in my drawer and could sell it on ebay if I wished. Ditto my ancient copy of Windows 3.1
.
>>>at some point soon Microsoft decides to remote-kill an OS in the future if you don't update it to a new version
That would royally piss off a lot of customers. Perhaps even enough that the CEO would need to hire protection from pissed-off people with
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or DRM-laden music services
Such as? Amazon and iTunes (pretty much the only relevant online music services to the vast majority of consumers) provide DRM-free files.
Re:If indeed, truly sad news (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course the customers would complain and whine. The copyright owners, however, backed by the best copyright protection laws money can buy, will make sure they don't get a choice.
"If you don't like it, don't watch," will the the response of those who buy into the system. "Film your own movies"/"Write your own books"/"Build your own games"/"Perform your own music" will be the response of the copyright conglomerates. And people will and do now, but, good luck distributing anything when all playback devices are locked down. Trusted Computing will prevent you from running apps that aren't signed by huge corporations that can afford to pay the certification and membership fees which really just funnel back to themselves because they belong to the organizations that benefit (see the existing relationships between movie studios and the MPAA).
Hold on to your unprotected old analog stuff. It'll be pretty valuable once this takes over.
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>>>will be the response of the copyright conglomerates.
And here would be my response:
Amendment ____ : "A healthy culture being necessary to the pursuit of happiness by the People, and the suppression of said culture having been abused by existing media conglomerates, the clause 'To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries' is hereby stricken from this Constitution. It sha
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"Film your own movies"/"Write your own books"/"Build your own games"/"Perform your own music" will be the response of the copyright conglomerates. And people will and do now, but, good luck distributing anything when all playback devices are locked down.
What are you talking about? What kind of dystopian future world you imagine that will lock down computers?
Trusted Computing will prevent you from running apps that aren't signed by huge corporations that can afford to pay the certification and membership fees which really just funnel back to themselves because they belong to the organizations that benefit (see the existing relationships between movie studios and the MPAA).
Ah, I see now. Yes, that will probably happen. Because nobody would ever think of creating an unlocked computer with decades old technology, just to play the movies, and become rich.
Seriously, that future you're imagining is impossible. Many bad things can happen, but technology doesn't go backwards.
Re:If indeed, truly sad news (Score:5, Interesting)
What is being redefined, slowly but surely, is what rights you have as a computer user, what your computer is allowed to do, and what rights you have to "purchases" of content. Using encryption marks you for greater scrutiny by law enforcement. In some people's minds, merely using DeCSS or other software is against the law. It gets worse every day, in a little less freedom here and a little less freedom there.
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I'm pretty sure that "Get over it" was the message when CDs came out, and yet we've got a resurgence of vinyl. Vive la differénce! Everybody wants something to hold and us and keep and love; media is not immune to that, and I am glad.
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And the size of media files is increasing FAR FAR faster than the speed of Internet connections. It's great to tell someone to go download a 5 GB game with a 10 Mbit connection, but try doing it on a 1 Mbit connection (still very common outside of major cities) and see how quickly people complain.
MPAA-controlled news media (Score:2)
Or we will decide copyright is too much of a hassle
Which U.S. political party should voters elect to the Congress to make that happen? And how will this party keep the MPAA-controlled news media [pineight.com] from burying it?
Not only BluRay (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft and Apple aren't just proclaiming the death of Blu-ray, but psychical media entirely.
They are just using Blu-Ray as a front for that, as it's the biggest consumer disc currently.
I don't see psychical media dieing anything soon though.
I don't mind digital downloads, I see a use for it.
But I also see a use for psychical media.
Get over it, they can both be here.
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As long as the majority of users are at leastreluctantly willing to purchase a digital download you won't have a choice much longer. The publishers will see it as a more than even trade if they keep 75% of their sales during move to digital downloads. The costs saved in production and distribution (you didn't really think they would pass those savings on did you?), the money saved by reducing piracy (if you can download a game, you must have broadband, therefore you should be able to sign in every time yo
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Buy movie, $10
Buy a case and DVD/Blu-Ray of said movie, $6 shipped?
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What are you trying to say?
I really can't figure it out.
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I don't know either.
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When physical media becomes as locked-down as digitally distributed files, then it will be dead for all meaningful intents and purposes, intensive or no.
And, oh look, we're almost there. Except that so far, only incompetent DRM has been used on physical media, the kind that presents no meaningful impediment to the public. When that changes, you'll either see an outcry, or you'll see physical media go away. My prediction is that the price gap between the two will widen so that by that point the public at lar
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Just a viewpoint from a primarily digital guy- Over the years I've always wanted a digital library of video. The thing stopping me was the overhead on storage of digital video. I had multiple terrabyte drives full of tv shows, and it started becoming overwhelming. I considered transcoding all my video to fit it better, but with my processor power, it was years of transcoding just to get a decent quality.
Enter the ROKU and Amazon VOD. I understand that they ultimately have the control an
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They are just using Blu-Ray as a front for that, as it's the biggest consumer disc currently.
Is it? Even the biggest, most spectacular, high def Blu-ray sold less than half [gizmodo.com] of its DVD equivalent.
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Whoops, my spell checker went overboard there :P
Hmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Eventually, yes...but I think optical media will still be around for a while.
Purely from a gaming perspective, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft includes Blu-Ray in its next Xbox. I doubt the next Xbox will be far enough in the future to support only digital downloads (due to ISP bandwith concerns), they won't be able to just stick with DVD9, and they would be pretty stupid to try to release their own optical format.
All that being said, I'll agree that Blu-Ray is likely the last (or the second to last) optical media standard that will ever hit mainstream status.
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Return of the cartridge. We truly will have come full circle.
(Well, maybe full circle will be when you can go buy a book, or a magazine for computing which publishes the code which you can then enter in by hand)
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So, maybe the last physical media will be a last hurrah for cartridges.
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"All that being said, I'll agree that Blu-Ray is likely the last (or the second to last) optical media standard that will ever hit mainstream status."
Doubtful, I don't know how much storage is required for a holographic two hour presentation, but I would guess a hell of a lot more than 50GB. Physical media has always been a magnitudes faster than downloading for consumers, technology pushes both every year and will for the foreseeable future, until we can download a lifelike experience in a matter of secon
Of course they want physical media gone (Score:2, Interesting)
It's one step closer to the pay per play model. If people can't sell or give away their old titles, everyone will have to cough up.
Jobs obviously has a shitty home theatre if he believes the "HD" crap in itunes is acceptable on anything other than little screens, with low-fi sound systems.
Re:Of course they want physical media gone (Score:4, Insightful)
Or he thinks we do.
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Or he doesn't care because people keep buying it anyway.
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Jobs obviously has a shitty home theatre if he believes the "HD" crap in itunes is acceptable on anything other than little screens, with low-fi sound systems.
That wasn't an impediment to MP3s. Heck, I remember when people were transcoding popular songs to midi.
MP3s offered much reduced sound quality (at first) in return for greatly enhanced transportability and convenience. There is a huge market of people who will only watch these things while sitting at their desk looking at their computer monitor.
While (Score:2)
I believe it's the last spinning physical media device, it's not dead...
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I believe it's the last spinning physical media device, it's not dead...
Excluding Hard drives of course. But that's not a generally 'shippable' item.
For a good portion of people, it will be. But what they also miss is that for a hell of a lot of people who will NEVER have access to broadband in the next 50 years, something similar will exist for them. There are a lot of people out there who live in the boonies (as of 2 years ago, I was one) and unless satellite really takes off, they are stuck with dialu
Hard to argue with it. (Score:2)
While Fry's is offering Civ5 for $39, I am still thinking of getting it off Stream for $49. Netflix is "good enough" and most of my other programs I get on the web (www.thedailyshow.com, southpark.com, etc.)
I mean DVDs are still being sold by the millions so why I believe BlueRay fills a needed market, that market is just shrinking like crazy.
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I know your question wasn't direct at me, but I did buy Civ V on steam rather than physical copy, so I feel I can answer your question (for myself, anyway)
Civ V is a game that I will never have any interest in reselling. Shooters, platformers, etc...sure. But a game that contains, for all intents and purposes, unlimited replay value? No reason to ever sell it.
In light of that, it makes no sense to have to keep track of a physical copy.
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Why not order it off fry's and put the key into steam?
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I think it's more of many of us don't want to purchase a BluRay player. I don't have a PS3, and don't watch enough movies to make it worth my while to purchase a new drive. Streaming/Downloading (legally, of course) is simply much more convenient and easier.
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I mean DVDs are still being sold by the millions so why I believe BlueRay fills a needed market, that market is just shrinking like crazy.
DVD has huge penetration already, and adequately fills most of the low end market for media distribution and storage. Bluray is still in kind of a high end specialty market that is being squashed. Unlike the switch to Bluray there is no extra cost to the consumer to start using digital downloaded media.
You're right in that the market exists. I don't think DVD or Bluray are in immediate danger of abandonment and death (Remember HD-DVD? That was tragically swift). But if only one of those formats is goin
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I mean DVDs are still being sold by the millions so why I believe BlueRay fills a needed market, that market is just shrinking like crazy.
Blu-ray isn't selling well because it's too high priced. I can get brand new DVDs for $5 at Wal Mart, the cheapest Blu-rays are four times that, and new releases are twice what a new DVD release is -- for a piece of plastic! It doesn't cost much if any more to manufacture a Blu-Ray than a DVD. And there are still more low-def TVs out there that Blu-ray will look identical
Re:Hard to argue with it. (Score:4, Informative)
It doesn't cost much if any more to manufacture a Blu-Ray than a DVD.
Well, maybe not for large runs, but apparently the AACS yearly license fee's can exceed the cost of the disk duplication for small runs. Originally this was one of the HD-DVD advantages (used existing DVD replication lines, with minor upgrades, rather than replacing the duplicators). Apparently the cost difference vs DVD is still fairly significant for DL BR's (>$1) (someone has to amortize the cost of buying the duplicators). This may not seem like a lot if the movie is selling for ~$20, but it makes a diffrence if your selling in the walmart bargin bin for $4.
Still, the studios always use the lure of new technology to raise prices. They did the same thing with DVD vs VHS, and CD vs tape. Initially they were just "passing on additional costs", but the price hikes stuck long after the new technology became mainstream.
Other than that I generally agree with you.
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I picked up a 42" 1080p HDTV (60fps) for $700 earlier this year. The prices have dropped astronomically in the past two years, and the quality remains high. Avoid unnecessary extras like 120 / 240 hz, any sort of BS color correction, etc, and you can get a great looking screen for quite reasonable amounts these days. This is especially true over old CRT's, that had issues with color blur, "bending" the picture when things got bright, colored fringes around spots of light or dark, and weighing a bloody to
Confusing logic is confusing. (Score:2)
Let me see if I can lay this out:
1) An Xbox exec claims that Blu-ray will be "passed over" as an HD format.
2) Author notes that Apple seems to agree, pushing consumers to use the iTunes store rather than make OEM Blu-ray drives available on Macs - even though the majority of iTunes-connected devices are not Macs, and most would agree Blu-ray for iPod Nano or even iPad would be odd.
3) ???
4) Argument in 1) is refuted by claims that gamers still like physical media, despite recent stats showing more PC gamers
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Windows PC Gamers are buying downloads rather than physical copies for reasons including (but not limited to):
1. Convenience. One doesn't have to find the closest store that sells PC games.
2. Availability. Game stores like Game Stop have a terrible PC selection. Also, digital stores (usually) don't run out of products.
3. Cost. A
Figures don't lie (Score:5, Informative)
The sales figures [blu-ray.com] for blu-ray seem to indicate otherwise. Sales are up over 68% year over year, marketshare has nearly doubled year over year (2009 to 1020).
Of course there are dynamics at work outside of the straight consumer choice angle. There is the control afforded the media companies via downloadable media to consider as well. That may be what these guys are relying on for their opinion. The question then is whether the sheep are willing to follow where they are being led.
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The Xbox heads and the Apple heads talk about how streaming is going to be on top -- are they talking about buying a movie from iT
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You'd hope sales would be up since 1020.
ANd ti's not good (Score:2)
for the publisher to remove parallel economy.
People get done with the game and move on, other people in a different economic demographic then got your game. It's good for your brand, and if they would focus more on DLC, you have another market that can't buy 40+ for a game, but can afford the 5 bucks for a DLC.
This isn't hard.
About time. (Score:5, Funny)
Now I can finally get of the fence and order my new HD DVD player! Awesome.
Passed by as a /High Definition/ format? (Score:5, Insightful)
The point of HD is high quality, right?
So, in which fantasy land do these streamed or downloaded films match the 20-30Mb/s data rate of playing a film off Blu-Ray? Or have they managed to invent some magical new codec that's ~10x as efficient as what you find on disk without losing quality?
Enjoy downloading your high resolution but blocky and fuzzy mess. I'll stick to a high quality, sharp picture thanks.
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Re:Passed by as a /High Definition/ format? (Score:5, Insightful)
The point of HD is high quality, right?
Exactly! And the Blu-Ray format was invented to allow more storage on a physical disc media. Thus, you have the storage available to put an entire movie in High Definition on it(~10 - ~30Gb).
I have the fastest available broadband in my area(18Mbps down). To download an entire high def movie in that size would take significantly longer than I would want to wait in front of my television for it. I bought my Blu-ray player for the quality. If I'm going to be forced to download the same content, I expect, and demand, the same quality.
Also, let us not forget about the fact that a sizable portion of the US is still running on dial-up, so downloading a high definition movie is completely out of the question.
Unless the content providers are willing to invest heavily in the broadband infrastructure of the country then physical media like Blu-Ray is here to stay, at least for the next several years.
Majority of gamers prefer discs (Score:2)
OK, that explains the console market, but for PCs, most games on disc contain DRM. Given that fact, I'm going to look at my options for digital downloads first, starting with Steam.
If the game is on Steam, I'll check the game page and look to see if it includes Third-party DRM, which is noted on the right side
Headline wrong (Score:5, Informative)
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Technically, the guy says that he predicts the format is dying (i.e. bluray is currently in use but he forsees the day that his approach, downloads, will overtake physical media). He doesn't actually say that it's dead (past tense) like the headline states.
But "Xbox Head Proclaims Blu-ray Dying" doesn't rhyme...
Pure Digital? (Score:2)
While I do have the habit of ripping all of my DVDs and Blu-Rays, and storing them on my massive media server because hard drives are cheap, I still prefer to have a physical copy. With limited programs that can play back
I sorta agree, but (Score:2)
Here's the thing. If I get a movie on BluRay, or DVD or a physical game, etc, then I know that if my system gets whacked then I still have the movie or game. As long as the media companies can change their policy at will, or like Apple tell you that sorry, no you can't re-download all your music even though you already paid for it: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11654170 [apple.com]
When we get into HD movies that I purchase (I will also rent, but there are a lot of movies and music that i want to
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Given your sig, I should think you would have a backup solution in place.
You do back up, I assume?
If your house burns down and destroys all your DVDs the store you bought them from isn;t going to let you replace them all for free - how is that different to an online store only allowing a download once? Once you have it, you should back it up (as Apple strongly suggests you do) so you don't lose it if your machine dies. Some places might let you redownload (steam does, for example), but bandwidth is not free
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If your house burns down and destroys all your DVDs the store you bought them from isn;t going to let you replace them all for free -
This is tangentially related to the story topic, but I have definitely had physical media replaced. It wasn't through the retailer though. One instance I recall was that I accidentally dropped one of the disks to C&C Generals and rolled over it in my office chair. Totally ruined it. I wrote a polite letter to EA Games, included what was left of the original media to prove I wasn't trying to scam them, and they sent me a replacement disk.
They weren't obligated to do this by any means (that I am aware
Ask your ISP what they think (Score:2)
I'm thinking some serious infrastructure, download cap, net neutrality, and just plain money issues are going to need to be addressed before the masses can download all their HD content.
Personal perspective (Score:2)
Just to add my personal perspective on the digital vs physical media thing:
Legal downloaded content wins in the convenience stakes (let's leave piracy out of this for the moment; I've not done it for products available in my region for over a decade anyway). I've got a reasonable connection, so it takes less time for me to download the average game (say... 6 gigs) or high definition movie than it does for me to go out to the shops and buy it. As far as games go, high street retailers have made things even w
I have to agree (Score:2)
I loved DVD when it came out and "Collected" movies for a while but soon realized it wasn't "Dvd" i loved, but how accessible dvds made movies to me.
Sold off my collection and have never bought a DVD, or a CD or a bluray since. On the CD front for less than the price of a CD at bestbuy i get unlimited access to songs on zune.net and can keep 10 a month non DRM in mp3 format. With Xbox live I can stream 1080p 5.1 digital videos and enjoy a movie in hi-def on my tv or computer or zune or windows phone 7. Wi
HD in Bluray quality is dead as well (Score:5, Insightful)
"CD Quality" is dead, to be replaced by downsampled and compressed mp3s
"Bluray Quality" is dead, to be replaced by downsampled, compressed iTunes downloads, streamed netflix/comcast, Hulu etc..
Hell, even the stuff on TV that is claimed to be "HD" is compressed by your cable provider. It's a shame as a Bluray just provides that much more content than some compressed/re-encoded file. While it's not as easy to tell when watching "HDTV" on a iPhone or iPod. When you have a 50in TV and a 5.1 stereo, you can tell.
Steve Jobs' motto should be, "Compressed media, through earbuds, it's good enough."
Re: (Score:2)
No no, it should be "640kb per sec should be enough for anybody"....
Not so fast. (Score:2)
I prefer physical copies of my games because I don't want to have to face the ordeal of having to download everything all over again if something happens to my system. But more importantly, I don't like being at the whim of an online retailer or publisher, worrying about my account expiring for whatever reason and no longer having access to something I've purchased. And I don't think broadband is still at the point for a lot of people where it's realistic downloading a game that would occupy the majority of
Just not *that* physical media (Score:2)
The problem with BluRay specifically is that it eliminates most of the advantages of physical media. What's the point of having a physical disc if you still need to have internet access to play it? It's pretty much the same as PC games: why bother with the disc when you have to deal with the same DRM either way?
Back in early 00's... (Score:3, Interesting)
I worked as a consultant primarily with small and medium sized production houses who were transitioning from other editing platforms to Final Cut Pro and from SD to HD. They would ask, "Should I invest in Blu-ray or HD-DVD?" My answer would be neither. Those of us in the industry saw that by the time one format won out, it would remain dominate for 18 - 24 hours before everything went Digital Download anyway. And this was back in 2004. The only question would be the method of digital content delivery. Would it be a store like iTunes, would it be streaming through set top cable boxes (On Demand), or would it be some kind of web streaming service like Youtube or Hulu? Or would it be a combination of all? So far it's a combination of all.
I can't remember the last time I used my DVD player. I bought a Mac Mini in 2005 and hooked it up to my TV's DVI port and attached a 320 and now 1TB external harddrive to it. At the time, the apartment I lived in didn't have SciFi as part of the basic cable package. I purchased season 2 & 3 of Battlestar Galactica and quickly figured out for 2 months of the TV/Internet/Phone bundle I could buy all the TV programs I watched off iTunes and download them the next day . And the Quality of picture was good enough on my 32" TV.
That's what I did until Hulu came along. Then I just started watching the shows I wanted on it.
Most videographers I know are still creating regular DVD's and then if a client wants their movie in HD, they save it as an H.264 file onto a thumb drive or have the client provide an external HDD.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, I have had ONE client ask for a BluRay of their event. When I told them that the pressing price was more than giving out thumbdrives with the video on them they were happy. Although we still get the random idiot that asks, How do I use this... but then I also got that with bluray discs...
The conversation went as follows.....
These BluRay discs do not work in my DVD player...
That is correct, they work in a blu ray player.
But I have a DVD player....
Then you wanted a DVD....
No I wanted a BluRay....
You we
I have the best of both worlds.... (Score:2)
I buy the bluray and then rip it to a non DRM file format for use on my XBMC box.
Works great. 720p looks fantastic but I can always rip to 1080p if I ever desire to. AND they cant take the files away from me or invoke any control at all.
And I get that warm fuzzy feeling that I am violating a unjust law by doing it.
I LOVE BLU-RAY. Thank you very much (Score:3, Insightful)
I love Blu-Ray. I love having a physical copy of my movies, that have a higher bitrate and quality than those sent via Net Flix and iTunes.
I will ALWAYS side with owning a copy on disc, as long as the disc contains a superior quality product, and I can own my disc.
Be it movie, or game.... I want a physical version that I can load or unload onto my own media server as I see fit, or sell to someone else on a whim etc.
Downloadable services have their place, but none of them include ownership of the films. Games yes, but games are a complex issue as many of them require online servers to play. Unfortunately many games do not provide you with the server code, or the match making applications used by the game companies networks. This hurts classic gaming.
Re: (Score:2)
Streaming just isn't going to be "good enough" for people that care about quality
Agreed, but unfortunately we are a minority. Witness the fate of SACD, DVD-A and even CD in the face of MP3 and other lossy formats. Or the general acceptance of horribly low bit rate HD from pretty much every television programming source except OTA.
Re: (Score:2)
It's worse than that. For the millions of people in Qwestland that are stuck at 1.5mbps service (and will be for the indefinite future) it is painfully easy to see the difference between streaming and DVD (much less blu-ray). Even if all of these connections were miraculously upgraded by an entire order of magnitude overnight, you won't have the capacity to stream a BD-quality movie (and that's assuming one user in any given home is going to suck up the entire connection to that home).
I have one of these
Re: (Score:2)
The self publishing thing would be my bet. A distributor like Amazon swoops in with easy to use tools and a massive online storefront, allowing you to publish directly to them and sell to the masses. Within a few short years the middle men of publishing will be gone.