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Posted by Sean Black on 03/22/07 13:08
In article <QDtMh.15618$267.8500@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net>, Temsonic
<dim.sp@miau.diolch> writes
>
>"RCE Defiant" <peterfcukthespimstones@hotcoldmail.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:56evjaF280u9hU1@mid.individual.net...
>>I initially thought HD due to the monster that is MS being behind it but
>>now it's looking more and more like Blu-Ray film media sales are
>>outstripping HD by 3:1 whihc don't look good for the HD camp. I'm holding
>>off buying any next gen media reader until HDMI 1.3 is out and the dust
>>settles on the format scuffle. What are your thoughts on who's going to
>>win? I've seen a few drives come out that will play both formats so it
>>looks like manufacturers are edging their bets.
>>
>
>The real problem right now is that the non-AV enthusiast public (i.e.
>probably more than 90%) have never heard of or don't care about HD-DVD or
>Blu-ray, and it seems the majority of the rest of us are taking a
>wait-and-see approach, firstly because of the format war and secondly
>because of stupidly high pricing. Naturally the war will be decided by who
>sells the most units, and to sell large numbers the product needs mass
>market appeal.
>
>Joe public only really got to grips with DVD and widescreen CRT TV's a few
>years ago and they're already being told it's all out of date, and from what
>I gather most of them can't see any particular benefit from HD other than
>the associated bigger screen sizes. I firmly believe that the main driving
>factor behind the public's willingness to jump from VHS to DVD wasn't solely
>about picture and sound quality. Yes, they were part of it, but it was
>mainly the move from tape to disc - which suddenly enabled menus, chapters,
>optional subtitles, different audio tracks, angles, non-linear extras, etc -
>which caught their imagination.
>
>To the AV enthusiast, improved picture (including anamorphic widescreen) and
>sound (DD5.1 and DTS as standard) are the best features of DVD over VHS, and
>those features are improved again with the HD formats, but we're talking
>about mass market appeal here, not what the enthusiasts think. How many
>posts do you remember on this and other forums along the lines of "How do I
>get rid of the black bars?", and even now I know very few people with a 5.1
>system to actually take advantage of what's available to them on the discs.
>Most people still don't appear to have learnt how to set up their widescreen
>TV's properly, HD is the least of their worries.
>
>There's also the costs involved. It's only recently that the prices on HD
>panels have started to come down to more sensible levels. Even so you're
>still looking at almost £1000 for a really decent one and that's before you
>shell out another thousand for a Blu-ray player... Most people would _never_
>pay a grand for a media player no matter how all-singing and dancing it is,
>they live in the real world where even £100 is a lot of money to justify
>spending on a new toy, let alone one where they might struggle to appreciate
>the difference between that and something they can pick up for £20 in Tesco.
>
All valid points, but to be fair you can get a UK Blu Ray player for
under £500 now, I believe some places are doing the Samsung for £450,
even less if you don't mind importing.
By all accounts the PS3 is a pretty good Blu Ray player too, even if it
does have it's limitations.
--
Sean Black
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