Embracing blu-ray
- Thread starter Pawnless Endgame
- Start date
Soldato
Ya, obviously milage varies according to eyesight but this is a good basic reference to get started:
Well while you're waiting for another 5-10 years for the bandwidth for Blu-Ray quality to be streamed we'll be enjoying movies in full 1080p with lossless sound
Soldato
- Joined
- 20 Jun 2010
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- 3,251
Well while you're waiting for another 5-10 years for the bandwidth for Blu-Ray quality to be streamed we'll be enjoying movies in full 1080p with lossless sound
Of course, you assume a source has to be live streamed, and not pre-downloaded. You are assuming 1 second runtime must be transferred in 1 second or less for immediate consumption. That's convenience culture taken to an extreme.
'Hey, want to watch batman later?' 'Sure, ill just get it downloading now'
There is a 1TB hard drive on OcUK right now for £35.74
Thats enough room for 20 uncompressed Dual Layer BluRay Discs
Do the math, its more than viable
the cost of storage is irrelevant, its been cheap enough for years
for d/l to be feasable, a high % of population HAVE to have a fast and reliable service from their ISP , which just isnt in existance currently and wont be for years (infrastructure just doesnt exist)
Not only that, I just cant imagine a lot of people having the patience to wait for 90 minutes or more to d/l something for future consumption, completely diff from mp3's that take a fraction of the time
Screen size is very important, very unlikely you will ever find a 1080p tv under 40 inch because at distance a smaller screen will not show the detail
personally always thought 50 inch was optimal for 1080p unless you have lots of space
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But people are perfectly happy to drive to their local DVD rental place or even wait a few days for things like LoveFilm rentals? 90 minutes would surely be a huge improvement on that!
Also, I suggest you have a look at current TVs as there's loads of 1080p 32" TVs out at the moment. Debatable whether it's an advantage to have 1080p at that size, but it saves the need for scaling from 1080p -> 1366x768 which is always going to be a good thing
Also, on XBOX360 Microsoft have been offering 720p streaming with 5.1 AC3 for quite some time now, they must see a userbase/market for that with current network speeds. With FTTC and so on it's not impossible to imagine them upping it to 1080p, though not at BluRay bitrates yet (which is clearly important as a low bitrate 1080p video could obviously end up worse than a good quality SD video)
Soldato
We will not be moving from physical media to just downloads anytime soon for the following reasons.
1 ) 9 million adults in the UK have NEVER used the internet - This is a massive market that retailers are not going to leave out.
2 ) Internet is only available to 73% of homes - Again far to many people to leave out.
3 ) The average speed in the UK is 5.2mb However i have no doubt that VM high speeds are pushing up the average as only 13% of DSL customers reach their advertised speeds. and VM is only available to 49% of the population.
4 ) The current infrastructure would not be able to handle the increased demand for bandwidth we already have traffic shaping , throttling. When people use their internet at peak times there speeds drop 18%. The majority of people also have very small download limits. Although VM and BT are investing in Fibre these current investments will be used to combat these problems at current consumption levels. It would take a 2nd massive investment to bring the infrastructure to be able to handle people regularly downloading files between 4gb-25gb which is more then a large majority download in a month or even a year.
For example Avatar sold 224,000 in Bluerays in the UK in 1 day thats 5.6million GB in 1 day and thats not even taking into account DVD sales of avatar + the other Blueray or dvd quality downloads people will be making and then add the usual internet activities. Do you really think it would handle it?
5 ) Download limits are the biggest problem lets look at the download limits at one of the most popular packages.
Sky Broadband most popular is the free BASE package which offers 2GB a month which equals half a dvd a month for unlimited it costs £7.50 more a month. With the cost of the new investment and more people downloading large amounts its likely that this will cost more.
6 ) The average person will not want to watch films on the computer , They will want to watch films on there tv. This means we will need everyone to have a internet able tv with large storage. Or Large external hard drives which would be plugged into a media centre add on. All of which will cost extra money for the consumer.
7 ) Costs - Logistics and packaging account for only 15% of a retail dvd , So if there is any discount at all from downloading then it is not likely going to be a drastic amount as the movie industry and retailers will not want to loose there profits + the added costs of storage and bandwidth they will now incur.
Assuming the average DVD costs £10 and the retailers knock off the packaging , logistics and another 5% off the price and take the hit for hosting and bandwidth the price of the dvd will now be £8 if you already have everything you need ( internet tv or large storage devices and unlimited broadband ) If not then it would work out more expensive or at least take a very long time to break even )
8 ) Other considerations. DRM how will you be able to view these files on different TV's in your house or on the move. What happens if your hardrive dies or you drop it and you lose 50 Films costing a total of £400
Due to all this i see no point in skipping blu-ray in thinking that it will be made redundant anytime soon.
** All broadband statistics from ofcom report**
1 ) 9 million adults in the UK have NEVER used the internet - This is a massive market that retailers are not going to leave out.
2 ) Internet is only available to 73% of homes - Again far to many people to leave out.
3 ) The average speed in the UK is 5.2mb However i have no doubt that VM high speeds are pushing up the average as only 13% of DSL customers reach their advertised speeds. and VM is only available to 49% of the population.
4 ) The current infrastructure would not be able to handle the increased demand for bandwidth we already have traffic shaping , throttling. When people use their internet at peak times there speeds drop 18%. The majority of people also have very small download limits. Although VM and BT are investing in Fibre these current investments will be used to combat these problems at current consumption levels. It would take a 2nd massive investment to bring the infrastructure to be able to handle people regularly downloading files between 4gb-25gb which is more then a large majority download in a month or even a year.
For example Avatar sold 224,000 in Bluerays in the UK in 1 day thats 5.6million GB in 1 day and thats not even taking into account DVD sales of avatar + the other Blueray or dvd quality downloads people will be making and then add the usual internet activities. Do you really think it would handle it?
5 ) Download limits are the biggest problem lets look at the download limits at one of the most popular packages.
Sky Broadband most popular is the free BASE package which offers 2GB a month which equals half a dvd a month for unlimited it costs £7.50 more a month. With the cost of the new investment and more people downloading large amounts its likely that this will cost more.
6 ) The average person will not want to watch films on the computer , They will want to watch films on there tv. This means we will need everyone to have a internet able tv with large storage. Or Large external hard drives which would be plugged into a media centre add on. All of which will cost extra money for the consumer.
7 ) Costs - Logistics and packaging account for only 15% of a retail dvd , So if there is any discount at all from downloading then it is not likely going to be a drastic amount as the movie industry and retailers will not want to loose there profits + the added costs of storage and bandwidth they will now incur.
Assuming the average DVD costs £10 and the retailers knock off the packaging , logistics and another 5% off the price and take the hit for hosting and bandwidth the price of the dvd will now be £8 if you already have everything you need ( internet tv or large storage devices and unlimited broadband ) If not then it would work out more expensive or at least take a very long time to break even )
8 ) Other considerations. DRM how will you be able to view these files on different TV's in your house or on the move. What happens if your hardrive dies or you drop it and you lose 50 Films costing a total of £400
Due to all this i see no point in skipping blu-ray in thinking that it will be made redundant anytime soon.
** All broadband statistics from ofcom report**
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But people are perfectly happy to drive to their local DVD rental place or even wait a few days for things like LoveFilm rentals? 90 minutes would surely be a huge improvement on that!
Also, I suggest you have a look at current TVs as there's loads of 1080p 32" TVs out at the moment. Debatable whether it's an advantage to have 1080p at that size, but it saves the need for scaling from 1080p -> 1366x768 which is always going to be a good thing
people who buy those 32" sets need to watch out - its poiintless buying them (proven fact not my opnion)
Paying for a 1080p screen (ie much higher price than a 1366*768 one) and not actually seeing the detail generated from given distance doesnt make it worth while
difference with getting a physical disc and a d/l are too numerous to mention (failed, delayed downloads, likely to be worse quality, and d/l itself - being a large file- restricts the use of the pc to some extent)
(most people who care about the music on their ipod etc change the bundled headphones immediately to get the best possible quality for their money, its exactly the same - to a lesser degree admittedly - as having a 1080p screen at such a small size on a tv (not a monitor which is designed to be sat a lot closer to))
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I love bluray but I am also looking forward to...
Holographic Video Disc
Holographic Video Disc
Soldato
Having owned a surround sound setup since 1987 
I can safely say I've been an 'early adopter' of most of the video formats since then (as soon as I could afford them) I'm still waiting for HD content downloads for HTPC's to become mainstream (& cheap) though.
Except blu-ray 3D. Don't get me started on that topic thanks.
I can safely say I've been an 'early adopter' of most of the video formats since then (as soon as I could afford them) I'm still waiting for HD content downloads for HTPC's to become mainstream (& cheap) though. Except blu-ray 3D. Don't get me started on that topic thanks.
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Soldato
Until there's a need for more space there's no point changing the format. Hmmm I wonder what format ultra high definition will be in ?
MW
not a digital download thats for sure the broadband in the UK just wouldn't cut it
I only buy Blu-Ray now.
I was an early adopter - I knew Sony would not lose this battle of the formats and backed them early on over HD-DVD.
So I went the PS3 route - giving me one of the only fully upgradeable Blu-Ray players.
Since that purchase I don't honestly think I've bought anything on DVD over Blu-Ray.
My "favourite" films have all been re-purchased on Blu-Ray (where the format has made a difference).
Fully embraced.
I was an early adopter - I knew Sony would not lose this battle of the formats and backed them early on over HD-DVD.
So I went the PS3 route - giving me one of the only fully upgradeable Blu-Ray players.
Since that purchase I don't honestly think I've bought anything on DVD over Blu-Ray.
My "favourite" films have all been re-purchased on Blu-Ray (where the format has made a difference).
Fully embraced.
Soldato
I couldn't see any difference between DVD and Blu-Ray, but that's mainly because my screen isn't really big enough to tell - 32" 1080p. I'm sure if I had a bigger screen the differences would be more noticeable. Having said that, I just stream HD from Netflix or Blockbuster now anyway and hardly ever buy discs anymore. The only things I buy are the few "must haves" - LOTR, Pixar stuff, etc.
Soldato
I switched to blu-ray pretty much as soon as I had an HDMI capable tv. I only buy blu-ray discs and tend to pick up older favoutire movies as they are released.
Keep an eye out for US releases that are non-region coded such as the five disc special of Blade Runner. So much better than the crap we got fobbed off with and cheaper to boot.
Keep an eye out for US releases that are non-region coded such as the five disc special of Blade Runner. So much better than the crap we got fobbed off with and cheaper to boot.