Microsoft: Blu-ray is Going to be Passed by as a Format

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Microsoft's UK Xbox and Entertainment Director is stirring the pot with quotes like this. So, is this guy onto something or just on something? Are digital downloads the wave of the future or is Blu-ray here to stay?

I think people may have spoken about that originally, but that's long gone. I think people now recognize what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?
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I never thought I'd say it but...

I hope so.

BluRay is a disaster for the Consumer. Screw Sony.

Maybe we can get HDDVD back since it's already developed and working perfectly :)
 
I doubt most people's internet connection can handle a 1080p stream... And I'm not talking about us power users here.

On a side note, I wish OSX supported blu-ray.
 
i completely agree, i put a bluray in mylaptop, signed up for bluray on netflix got in 5 or 6 blurays and took it off, it just wasn't that impressive (and yes i do have a native 1080p display). Maybe for the hardcore theatre enthusiast, but for the masses i just don't think so. (Bluray will probably be the same as laser disk, around but just not many people use it)

the digital streaming is just too convientent and the quality is actually really good. Add on that were devices like the Wii and Xbox360 (and win7 media player) support it and its hard to argue that its the way of the future.
 
I love Blu-Ray, and I won't touch a DVD these days. Also, there is 0% chance they offer Blu-ray quality streaming. If I were to guess, it won't even be close to the same quality.
 
The best way to avoid an argument or piss anyone off is to simply say:


I am not "anti" Blu-ray.

I am "pro" digital downloads.
 
piscian18 said:
more common than youd think. Even youtube supports it.
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Youtube, unless something has changed, uses some serious compression. That's why they can do "1080p" reliably. Whenever I try to fullscreen one of those feeds it looks like absolute dogshit.
 
TechLarry said:
I never thought I'd say it but...

I hope so.

BluRay is a disaster for the Consumer. Screw Sony.

Maybe we can get HDDVD back since it's already developed and working perfectly :)
Click to expand...

I thought you would. Remembering back to the format war.
:D
 
While I tend to agree with him about some things, Blu-Ray still features vastly superior audio options. Granted 99% of people will never know or care, but it is a factor.
 
Sure, 1080p streaming may be around, but until it can be offered consistently (w/o quality drops from bandwidth crunch), and until companies like Netflix can offer HD content with 5.1 surround instead of stereo audio, it is most certainly not a replacement for physical HD media in my book.
 
Most people can easily handle a compressed 1080p stream.

BluRay DOES have its advantages, for now... but technology for compression is always getting better.

BluRay is going to die within in the next couple of years.

Hopefully it will take a few Sony fanboi's with it.
 
TexasAg05 said:
Sure, 1080p streaming may be around, but until it can be offered consistently (w/o quality drops from bandwidth crunch), and until companies like Netflix can offer HD content with 5.1 surround instead of stereo audio, it is most certainly not a replacement for physical HD media in my book.
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Microsoft can already do so with its media technologies and has been doing so for a while now.
 
There is no point in having 1080 lines when you do so much compression that you're looking at a jumpy video that looks like it was made using Lego. Even DVDs look WAY better than youtube or any other streaing video at 1080p.

I bought an LCD TV with a built in player because the TV was a floor model and at a great price even without the Blu-ray player. I added it to netflix to try it out and I've fallen in love.

Then again... I guess none of this matters to those with poor eye sight.
 
I'll love it when digital downloads and streaming completely overthrow blu-ray but I think we're at least...5 yrs from that. We'd need some infrastructure first:
1. At least 60% (pulled out of ass, but a large percentage) of America needs 25MB or greater internet download speeds with either reasonable caps ( >2 TB monthly) or no caps at all. When downloading/watching a blu-ray quality HD movie may be upwards of 50GB, current pricing schemes and speeds wouldn't do so well.
2. DRM needs to be killed. A downloaded movie needs to be as open as an mp3 file. I want to be able to take it anywhere with me just like a physical disk. I'd pop it on a key and bring it to a friend's house if I wanted to watch it with them. You'd just have to trust me not to make an illegal copy just like you trust me not to make an illegal copy of your dvds and cds.
3. The library needs to exist. Even with all of the current streaming/downloading companies put together, one can't just download a movie of their liking in HD.
 
I agree, I've passed on BluRay. Digital downloads are all I need for my console and computer.
 
Im a huge Blu-Ray fan. No doubt about it. I embrace the BEST technology for the BEST experience. When digital downloads offer me that, ill be on it day one. Until then, nope.
I dont know whats worse, product fanboys, or the trolling fanboys who dont adopt the best technologys because they hate 1 company involved.
 
Watching a Bluray on a lap top even at 1080p is no where near the experience watching it on a 50", most people can not tell differance between 720p and 1080p at a screen size smaller than 32".

As far as streaming goes, it probably is the future, but it is most certainly not here yet. I have yet to see a "1080p" Youtube video that had near the same quality as a Bluray, there is just to much compression. Not to mention I have yet to see a steamed 1080p video with 7 channel PCM, DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD lossless audio.

Netflix, who's streaming service is very well done, still only offers 720p and stereo audio (although 5.1 is supposedly coming soon), maybe in 5 or so years, sure, streaming will be the place for Bluray quality videos, but it is not here yet.
 
"so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly"

He's lying and he knows that. He also knows that the interviewer knows that he's lying to him. What's worse is that people agree with an idiot like him.
 
1080p streaming from every place is garbage compared to a BR disc. Yeah I am a theater enthusiast so I guess I am biased. On my 60" screen I can easily tell the difference between a 1080p OTA HDTV signal and a 1080p BR disc being played from my BR player. All digital streaming and downloads are in the best case (though almost every one I have see is sub par) to a 1080p OTA HDTV signal. Also the loss of a lossless 24bit audio is also a gigantic problem IMO. But unfortunately with everyone these days using mp3 players and losing their hearing I guess it's to be expected that no one really cares about high resolution audio :(.

Still the main reason all you digital download supporters should be on MS's case for not having BR is for the storage space it gives to developers. They are the ones having to deal with the big problem of stuff not fitting and having to overly compress and/or remove content to fit on the tiny DVD9 discs. Still though, I am sure the very idea that all the current 360's in the market without one will make it's current owners feel their equipment is obsolete doesn't help them want to add a BR drive that would work for games also.
 
H-street said:
...Maybe for the hardcore theatre enthusiast, but for the masses i just don't think so. (Bluray will probably be the same as laser disk, around but just not many people use it)

the digital streaming is just too convientent and the quality is actually really good. Add on that were devices like the Wii and Xbox360 (and win7 media player) support it and its hard to argue that its the way of the future.
Click to expand...

While I agree with the analogy of Blu-ray=LaserDisc, Blu-ray is going to have a lot higher penetration. It will be the last optical format for consumers as things like streaming gets better and SDXC drops in price.

The whole reason there was an HD optical disc format war had less to do with consumers and more with each camp though the last optical format would be viable. The Blu-ray camp believe that "consumers want the most advanced format possible." and said that it would last 15 years or more and that justified the extra investment in completely new production lines. The HD DVD camp believed that "Consumers want high quality but didn't care about specs." and said that the format would last ten years and as such didn't warrant the substantial infrastructure investments. (I don't recall the exact numbers, but wasn't the cost of a full Blu-ray production line something like $1.5 million and the equipment to upgrade a DVD line to HD DVD was something like $100k?)

Fact is that today streaming can't touch the picture and sound quality of Blu-ray. That said it's hard to argue with just how convenient streaming is at a quality level that's "good enough" for a lot of people. Streaming is still growing, but the question remains of when it plateaus and what kind of share it as when it does so.

The only real wildcard is just how much the consumer electronic manufacturers are going to jam 3D down our throats. IMHO they are only doing it because they're pretty sure that 3D won't be streamable for a long time, making them the only providers. I for one hope consumers leave 3D out on the fringe.

Me personally? I will continue to RENT Blu-ray versions of movies that I missed in the theater and stream stuff off of Netflix or Zune Marketplace that catches my eye.
 
Microsoft needs something though- not really for movie watching but more for storing game content. It seems the storage limitations of DVD is really the reason Microsoft needs to go with blu-ray or some other format.
 
Just stopped in to give my usual rant about the infrastructure not being able to handle such a thing.

In 10-15 years... Maybe. But by then Blu-Ray will be the current VHS and we'll have had two format changes.
 
Steve said:
The best way to avoid an argument or piss anyone off is to simply say:


I am not "anti" Blu-ray.

I am "pro" digital downloads.
Click to expand...

I would never support digital download as long as the FCC doesn't enforce closed captioning laws on online contents (provided by television networks and movies of course, not private videos). Long live DVD and Blu-ray.
 
I don't always watch movies on a 120" projection screen, but when I do, I prefer Bluray.
 
Steve said:
The best way to avoid an argument or piss anyone off is to simply say:


I am not "anti" Blu-ray.

I am "pro" digital downloads.
Click to expand...

I'm "pro" digital downloads too, but I can't stream 30gb/hour yet I can cheaply rent bluray's through the post. When that changes count me in but that's not going to be for at least 5 years, probably more.

Even then a lot of people like owning a physical copy of stuff - not having to download and pay again every time they want to watch something.

Bluray is safe, whatever follows it probably isn't.
 
What a load of crap from this guy. Just because a stream is formatted in 1080p, doesn't mean it is the same quality as a HD source. I have yet to see a single stream that came even close to matching blu-ray's quality or even HDDVD for that matter.

Getting sick of these "blu-ray" is dieing digital is here morons. Physical media is not going away anytime in the near future and there are more reasons beyond just the format that confirm that. I could list a bunch, but I would be preaching to the choir and the others aren't capable of listening to logic.

Heck I don't even have the greatest vision and I can see a huge difference between DVD, DVD upscaled, HD Streams and Blu-ray. I only run on a Samsung b630 which while a good LCD clearly is not the greatest it does have a better picture then 90% of the garbage lcd's out there. I can only imagine how big of a difference the picture quality is on a screen with better resolution. Then again, I see people all the time raving about how good their picture is on their 50" $400 garbage LCD is, so clearly some people are just bloody blind.:rolleyes:
 
I can't disagree more about Blu-Ray being laserdisc. How many people do you know that owned a lasterdisc player? How many stores and rental shops carried them in any real quantity? How many movies were transferred to that format in comparison to VHS?
Now take a quick look at Best Buy and Netflix. How many PS3 owners are there again?
Not even close.
I'm not absolutely sold on the format or anything, but it's far and away beyond laserdisk.

Right now streaming movies can't touch BR's video quality (although some DO look good - see Apple's trailer website for instance) and there are almost none that do multi-channel audio of any sort.
Until every streaming movie is at least Apple trailers video quality and supplied with some form of at least Dolby 5.1, there will still be a pretty solid home for Blu-Ray.
It'll never be DVD or VHS, but it's still got a decent market that isn't close to dying any time soon.
 
Digital Downloads will NEVER take over for DVD/ Blu-Ray and i am glad. Different markets IMO and i hope it stays that way. A 1080p blu-ray is beautiful. A compressed blu-ray..not even close.

If digital downloads take over, you will have ads throughout the movie, buffering, low quality. Im completely against it.
 
"HD" streaming downloads aren't that great. The bitrate and compression looks terrible compared to a BD on a 100" projector. I won't argue about a little display...but true big screens...not even close.

Digital downloads aren't replacing discs. Not until the DRM is gone, and not until there's some sort of standard. People don't like having digital downloads from a dozen different places with different logins and different authentication schemes. Not gonna work.
 
Yeah, movie enthusiasts, or anyone who enjoys decent movie experience for that matter, isnt going to want to have to steam/download movies to watch them, they are going to want physical high-quality reliable blu-ray. Most (normal) people want a physical copy of a movie, not some digital download. I hope blu-ray is around for a long time.
 
Blu Ray is awesome to me, but not just for the 1080p video. I can be very happy with 720p, but the uncompressed ear candy makes it worth while.
 
My only gripe with Blu-Ray was the price, and even that isn't much of a concern anymore. I don't like the idea of streaming, as they will charge me for it and then what happens if I want to watch something and the network is unavailable, or they decide they don't want me to watch it anymore? This whole you pay and pay and pay and own nothing crap is going too far.
 
I was going to chime in but it's already been said. QFT to everybody in the blu-ray camp. Until they can stream those bit-rates I'll be buying blu-rays.
 
I'm not a fan of Bluray. I prefer the digital format, and have not had any issues or complaints streaming netflix at a relatively good quality onto my 1080p HDTV via HDMI from my laptop. I dont' suffer from graininess or perceived low quality streaming with the middle range internet service for my area (5mb/s down).

However, I do realize Bluray has it's niche. And that's exactly what it is - a niche. Sales are proving that. Some consumers are purchasing Bluray. But it hardly compares to those who are streaming and/or using dvd's. No one argues the quality advantages of Bluray vs all other mediums. They only argument is the majority of the market's adoption of Blueray. I, for one, don't own a Bluray player, and have NO plans of getting one. I would never utilize it enough to justify the cost.
 
I think Microsoft is still butt hurt they didn't make the right decision by rushing the 360 out when they did.

If they would have waited another 6 or so months to release the 360 they would possibly had two big things go in their favor:

1. Better grasp of their bad hardware heat design
2. HD DVD drives installed in all units


If they would have waited, I strongly believe that HD DVD would not have crashed and burned like it did.

Hate on Sony all you want, but they made the right decision by holding back the PS3 to include Blu-Ray drives.
 
Again, a lot of you are talking out of your ass. On usenet I can download UNCOMPRESSED bluerays in about an hour to an hour and a half (40GB files), with no ads, trailers, or copy protection.

Explain to me how physical bluray is better?
 
Have you ever even seen a blu-ray on your tv to compare? If you buy/rent DVDs from netflix or stores, then you will easily justify the cost of a blu-ray player.
 
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