what is everyone buying blu-ray or HD dvd?
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Ive built a brand new high spec PC that will run virtually silent and will play both formats with no update or region coding issues that cant be side stepped. All for under £700. Yes ive used a few bits of hardware ive had but essientially how much more expensive has this cost me over say buying a £300 ish Blu Ray standalone and a £280 HD-DVD player.
I looked at my options.
So for me as im sure many others ive got a full upgraded PC with Blu Ray burning ability added and all the general PC benifits all for £120 more.
Sure its got drawbacks too but HTPC has so many more benifits over standalone players.
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I know that. But people in HT don't bother with a PC for playback, they have players costing thousands of pounds fitted by a CI. Cost or value for money isn't a problem, these are people who fit home theatres that cost several thousand pounds. A £1000 Pioneer LXR60 isn't a problem.
People like yourself are a rarity. I've got a HTPC and a seperate DVD player, I just prefer using the DVD player. I've used the PC for DVD playback but the optical drive is much louder than the DVD player. Plus operation is a bit clunky.
People like yourself are a rarity. I've got a HTPC and a seperate DVD player, I just prefer using the DVD player. I've used the PC for DVD playback but the optical drive is much louder than the DVD player. Plus operation is a bit clunky.
Id say the HTPC market is a vastly growing market, count the threads that appear this week alone if you want.
Also say more people will get into Hi Def movies via PCs than via upmarket consumers purchasing designer/audiophile brands.
£1000 Blu Ray player isnt high end at all its high mass market.
Also say more people will get into Hi Def movies via PCs than via upmarket consumers purchasing designer/audiophile brands.
£1000 Blu Ray player isnt high end at all its high mass market.
I would love this ability but you Im sure realise as I do that the amount of people who would use this is tiny in proportion to those even buying BR currently let alone general population
I mentioned this above, but as stated very few people even look at the extras, playing the movie on the disc hasnt "stopped working "
This is completely invisible to the user - so its got absolutely nothing to do with "being consumer friendly"
It would be more of an issue if more purchasers actually viewed the additional content, it still needs ot be sorted and it should be rectified asap - but all players bought now should be upgradable anyway even if they arent able out of the box to play all the content. Why have anything online (which a movie studio can delete/move on a whim) when you have enough local storage?
I import discs like everyone on here, but the fact is buying on the street will be significantly larger for some time to come - few people import so its pretty unimportant in actual fact.
I believe all hardware bought now do have to be fully upgradable
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Now, perhaps. But what if movies go the same way as music in terms of how people want to consume them (I'm thinking ipod or similar)? Many people complain about how some CD's will not let them listen to the content how they want, how fair use copying is prevented. Managed copy is a compromise position to prevent this occuring, to allow you to store a copy on your PC or whatever of the film in full, and the fact that it's optional on BR means that it's another locked down format. This is getting especially important when laws have been passed making bypassing copy protection illegal.
Well, I'm sure that's ok then
You've never heard of fair use rights then? Mandatory DRM and no managed copy is consumer friendly? I really don't think so.
Because you want dynamic content, something that purely local, read only storage cannot achieve?
Actually, in an emerging, techy market the number who import will be higher, it certainly is for HD-DVD where people don't need to worry about arbitary restrictions that serve no benefit for the customer, only the studios (hence why it's consumer unfriendly). It's not simply about whether it stops people doing what they want to do now, it's also about whether the measures taken provide any benefit to the consumer or not. Putting random restrictions that do not benefit the consumer in the slightest (and will, more often, penalise the consumer) cannot be called consumer friendly, it's the exact opposite, even if it doesn't seem that much of a big deal now.
I would certainly hope so.
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Soldato
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Actually I think that is "all hardware designed now must have it". That does not stop them producing thousands of the units already designed which don't have this function, and people would be none the wiser until they try and use it.
I see where you are going - but its a whole new ball game ripping even an album compared to a 1080p film, the time taken, the storage used not to mention the potential degradation in audio /video with current rippers - may be ok for audio, but imo watching on a reasonably large screen you might as well watch an upscaled dvd than rip an hd-dvd/br
To be fair its the studios in general (of course which Sony/Columbia is one of the major ones) that wanted the DRM and region coding, as soon as they agree to it being removed - it just seems that its not that important to Paramount for whatever reason (im not knocking their decision, just stating a fact)
Of course I have - what about gaming discs for PS3 or X360, I believe you cant copy theise either, why should BR be treated differently?
When you buy a disc you know exactly what you are buying with any additional content (which should easily be accessable throughout the majority of the discs life) can you honestly see all the film studios keeping the same content for a disc released several years ago - I cant, as soon as they see access dropping on certain directories they will delete/ lose the files.
There are good and bad for both sides in this part especially - I for one want to access everything no matter when I watch the content, not be at liberty of the studio to hopefully keep it available
Why would the number of imports suddenly rise - I cant see any logic to this at all. Yes more and more people are on the internet, but majority are still shopping at the same stores - they are just electronic versions of the same highstreet variety.
I honestly cant see the majority of your comments affecting any significant % of the HD purchasers in the future (even IF
either/both grow to fuel the populations needs as a whole rahter than a tiny number as it is now)
How are they restrictions if the % of people dont even realise / are unlikely to ever use the facility? Every system world wide has restrictions of one kind or another, with it geared towards the majority of users (Sky for instance you cant create a reasonable copy of whats on the hdd without degradation)
As I said few seem that bothered about gaming discs- so why would this be any different (after all even at current prices BR's are around 1/2 the price of a game)
You are corrent - I meant released onto the market as of now
Given how quickly technology moves, it's not likely to be an issue in the future. When DVD launched, it wasn't an issue, it would take a day to rip and encode a movie, but now you can stream dvd quality movies without too much issue. HD content is already available 'on-demand', so that's not a huge concern, and it's not about ripping the content as such, it's about the allowance to legally and within the licence hold a duplicate copy on, for example, a portable video player or laptop. Not necessarily now, but in the future as well.
I'm not necessarily arguing the DRM should be removed, I'm disputing the fact that it's mandatory on blu-ray. The studio can't decide not to use it even if they think their customer's would prefer it...
Because we have a chance to do so? Because instead of trying to ignore or breach DRM, we can have a compromise system that works for both content providers and consumers, rather than one that works for the providers and consumers just have to ignore or illegally breach.
Depends, plenty of companies keep archives of all there internet stuff available. What about user created content? It's a huge area, as various websites show.
Indeed, but that applies to the content on the disc, if they have the facility to add or improve that content, or allow customers' to create more, why is that bad?
At the moment, the market is very small and niche, which is the sort of conditions imports thrive in. A quick check of somewhere like AVforums will support this. As they become more mainstream, it will be less of an issue, however, the idea that it's consumer friendly because most consumers won't notice is fundamentally flawed.
See my comments above. The question about whether a restriction is consumer friendly or unfriendly has little to do with whether most consumers are used to it or not, it's about who restrictions benefit.
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Im holding off till next year. Technology is getting out of hand and speeding ahead faster than i can keep up with it.
I got a sony AV 5.1 dvd player 4 years ago(£500) and replaced my VCR collection with DVDs, which at the time was a revolution.
Now here we are HD-DVD OR BLUE-RAY.
IMO Theres no point in getting either version unless you have one of the 50" Pioneer[ KURO ]screens.
Just add popcorn
I got a sony AV 5.1 dvd player 4 years ago(£500) and replaced my VCR collection with DVDs, which at the time was a revolution.
Now here we are HD-DVD OR BLUE-RAY.
IMO Theres no point in getting either version unless you have one of the 50" Pioneer[ KURO ]screens.
Just add popcorn
Soldato
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rubbish tbh. there are loads of sd dvd's that are prefectly watchable lol
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I was under the impression that HD-DVD was "winning" the race at the moment in terms of sales and adopters? Is this correct?
Nope, not in any sense.
Soldato
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why is it better?
Not at 110"
It's just a big blurry mess.They look great on the tele, but I notice the lack of detail in every movie compared to 1080p.