Thoughts on Blu-Ray?

Not too sure where to post this, but this seemed best...

Anyway, what are peoples' thoughts on blu-ray technology (currently only put out by Sony, as far as I know)? Sony just started pre-orders for a blu-ray reader/player console with remote. Apparently SL holds up to 25GB and DL up to 50GB, which is crazy-talk for disks. Also, Sony is planning to release the first ever desktop computer that supports blu-ray playback/burning. Not available yet, but should be soon....



Here's the info on it:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...t-About_bluray



enjoy...



-adam

Yea they are putting Blu-Ray in the PS3. Its gonna be overpriced the first few months it comes out, then prices will calm down to somewhat normal.

any worth getting the player or comp - after prices come down obviously...

Well, actually there was a Newsweek (I think) article on this subject, and it's rival from Toshiba (I think). Unfortunately it's been awhile since I read the article so I don't remember much of the specifics... The basic point of the article was the battle between Blu-Ray and this other format that would be capable of 15GB. It's causing a big stir in Hollywood and other areas, because the 15GB is cheaper to make and faster, but obviously a lot less storage capacity. Plus, it's causing a divide between electronics companies (Hitachi, Panasonic, Phillips-Magnavox, etc.) as they start allying with one format or another. Let me see if I can find it...

EDIT: Ok, found it, but need a subscription to get to it . But the name of the article is "Closer to a Standard". And other articles are named "The Battle of the Video Discs", "Our 'Can't We Just Get Along?' Awards", and "The Last Battle". Very good stuff if you can get access to it. Oh, and BTW, the other format is called HD DVD (backed by Toshiba and Sanyo), while Blu-Ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic. Plus, it goes over the war of getting different production companies in Hollywood to sign on to their format (Fox is going one way, Warner Bros. is going another and so forth). Let's hope their's some sort of resolution to this topic...

I assume they're still going to make DVD's for 'old-fashioned' DVD players....if they didn't their sales would plummet.....



But yeah....I heard the first Blu-Ray DVD player is going to cost about $1,000.

I have kept up with the battle for about a year now I can feel a lot of wholes.

HD-DVD has been made capable of holding up to 45GB, which closed one of the gaps between the two. The normal consumers are likely to favor HD-DVD since it's cheaper and can practiclly be made on the same assembly lines as current DVDs. I personnaly like the transfer rates and new technology of (blu-Ray) BD-DVD. I can't tell you what the exact transfer rates are at the moment, but Sony is making their player backwords compatable, but currently the only devices that are going to by hybrid (both BD and HD-DVD) are going to be manufactured by LG.

Is it currently worth it? I think the question is better asked, "how much are the benefits worth to you?" If you're 720p resolution HDTV doesn't support the HD protection HDCP which simply stands for High Definition content Protection, your signal will automatically be down sampled to 480p. most HDTVs owned Today are NOT HDCP compliant, but most high end TVs made as of November or so are. So because of this you're current HDTV may not even be enough to fully utilize your BD-DVD player.

If you have any questions or want more info, please feel free to PM me.

It will be really difficult to decrypt movies ( to make back up copies) that are blue ray.

i'd assume so... probably even more so for those haulographic disks - heard of those? i wonder if they'll ever really go into retail sometime soon or if its just another brief experimentation that wont go mainstream for another decade or so...

Yeh I also heard that. It's pretty insane.

...well considering the first time I heard about DL dvd's , actually , it may have been cd instead, was in the early 90's.