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Friday May 8, 2009
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Research Group NPD this week released a study tracking the sale of Blu-Ray sales in the US. According to the numbers, players have risen some 72-percent over the same period in 2008. The report also found that consumer awareness of the format is at an all time high of 92-percent.
While the drop in Blu-Ray players has been a factor in their increase in sales (the average price of a player dropped from $393 to $261), the study found that many of the consumers surveyed still find them too expensive. Other consumers said that they are satisfied with their standard definition DVD players.
For more info on the latest Blu-Ray players, we've got a buying guide up at PCMag.com.
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May 8, 2009 3:44 PM
I own two stand-alone Blu-Ray players. Both provide impressively crisp, clear, and sharp images. I found, however, that my internal Blu-Ray DVD player for my PC plays even more flawlessly; and it has never refused to play a DVD (using Cyberlink software). On the other hand, there have been a couple of occasions when my stand-alone players couldn't handle the code on a new Blu-Ray release.
One caveat, the movie studios have requested that Microsoft, for security reasons, makes the necessary drivers available only on 64-bit systems. It appears that Microsoft intends to comply.
Finally, Blu-ray images are at least startling to almost any observer; but until prices descend both for the players and the DVDs, the sale of these units will not, in my view, grow exponentially. It is more likely that the Internet may be the final delivery system for HD content.
May 8, 2009 4:45 PM
The player price is too high for mass market but a bigger impediment is the actual cost of new release discs. $30 at most stores is simply too much to pay for most folks, especially when the same DVD copy of the movie is $15 to $20. If the media cost was reduced to match DVD prices I think lots of folks would take the plunge. BDs are significantly better (VERY NOTICIBLE) on TVs at 50" and larger.
Lower the cost of the media (Movies) and blu-ray will come around.
AHHH, rant time. I often hear folks on podcasts commenting on the death of physical media, most often Blu-Ray is singled out, and how we're all going to be downloading HDTV to our computers and media extenders over streams etc. Let me ask a question ... If I take a movie encoded at 355x200 and upconvert it in Quicktime Pro to display at 1920x1080 is the resulting video HD? NO!!! Places that purport to deliver HD are merely sending super, ultra, amazingly compressed video down the tubes to be displayed at 1280x720 (the minimum rez folks seem to consider and incorrectly identify HD).
Death to all who say this is HD. :-) How about defining HD as a bitrate. BD discs can run up to 40Mbps, I believe broadcast TV runs at around 19.39 Mbps in ATSC. DVD runs up to around 10.08 Mbps. So, I'm would suggest that at a MINIMUM, HDTV be considered actually HD if it has a bitrate in excess of 10 Mbps. Truth in advertising should kick in and tell folks that they are looking at a wide screen aspect ratio program in LOW DEFINITION when they view "HD" streams from the online services.
Rant over.
note: bitrates discussed are transport layer not display layer
May 27, 2009 8:07 AM
Anyone who has seen blu-ray operating on a Full HD TV will realise that the price difference between a standard def player and a blu-ray player is more than worth it.