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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Monday, November 23rd, 2009 - 41 Comments »

Blu-ray Time?

“the $99 Insignia model during Best Buy

41 Comments »

41 Responses to “Blu-ray Time?”

  1. IOIOIOI says:
    November 23, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    It depends if they have the right profile or whatever the fuck that means. Apparently the BD player being sold at Wal-Mart is 1.1, and you need like 2.1 to make it a solid machine. The BD player from Best Buy seems to be of a better profile, but unless they are like the PS3. It’s still not time to celebrate.
    Looking at the reviews of the insignia on the Best Buy website. I would reckon that their BD player is still balls, and we are a year away from BDs really breaking.

  2. martin says:
    November 23, 2009 at 9:53 pm

    Dude, what fucking school did you go to? I want to slap English teacher upside the head. Looking at that last sentence of yours, I’m completely stumped as to why you would put a period smack dab in the middle of it.

  3. Blackcloud says:
    November 23, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    I’ll say again that it all depends on the software side. BD prices seem to be going down, including for new releases. They need to be at or near par with DVD prices. Once that happens, Blu-ray will have its [insert metaphor here].

  4. KamikazeCamelV2.0 says:
    November 23, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    Furthermore on what Blackcloud said, do these players play old DVDs. Cause I don’t wanna buy 300 blu-ray titles just cause a machine won’t play the copies I have on DVD.

  5. IOIOIOI says:
    November 23, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    Martin, I want to meet your momma and slap her in the face and then I will kick her in her bush, for raising such a fucking asshole. It’s a typo you disgusting piece of skin on Andy Garcia’s shoulder. Seriously, you act that way again, and I swear to god and his sister Jane, that I will send Chucky over to your fucking house.
    Seriously though you arrogant motherfucker, why on earth did you go with MARTIN? Did you miss the whole MARTIN S thing? Seriously, what the fuck were you thinking?
    Camel, all of the BD players are backwards compatible, and usually upscale the disc as well.

  6. jeffmcm says:
    November 23, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    Martin and Martin S are two different people, IOI; it’s not a typo if you do it in EVERY POST; awesome response though!

  7. sharonfranz says:
    November 23, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    It’ll happen slowly. You can buy DVD players for $30, and those cheap bastards play everything – CDs, MP3′s, VCD’s, recordable DVDs, and can programmed to play all regions.
    I, myself, own a blu-ray player and am starting a BD collection. Because they’re backwards compatible, I think the transition might be sooner than VHS to DVD. It’ll still probably take another 3-5 years mass adoption. I don’t hear people buying DVD players for gifts anymore.

  8. KamikazeCamelV2.0 says:
    November 24, 2009 at 2:28 am

    I think people may also be purchasing the bigger and better TVs first. No point owning a Blu-Ray if you can’t watch it on a decent TV. Then once they’ve paid off that extravagance they’ll go for the BR player.

  9. The Big Perm says:
    November 24, 2009 at 6:22 am

    Can I change my screen name to lOlOlOlO (in case anyone is confused I used small l’s and capital o’s instead of letters). DP, hook that up, thanks.

  10. The Big Perm says:
    November 24, 2009 at 6:23 am

    Ha, I meant numbers. I USED letters.

  11. Bennett says:
    November 24, 2009 at 7:16 am

    I think that the $99 price point is important. Granted I do not think that in these economic times most people will rush out to get one, but if your DVD player breaks and a Blu-Ray is $99, I think that would be a strong temptation.
    As much as I love the Netflix streaming, if they could just put HULU on the players, I would be quite happy.

  12. Blackcloud says:
    November 24, 2009 at 8:06 am

    Kam, Blu-ray players play DVDs. They’re all backwards compatible. Seriously, just buy a PS3. Best on the market, and it plays some kick-ass games. It’s real cheap in the States now. I know you get screwed in Oz on game prices, but it’ll be cheap sooner or later down there, too.

  13. Dr Wally says:
    November 24, 2009 at 8:30 am

    I think the real break-point for Blu-Ray is a 50% share of sales on a blockbuster title, and i think it’s inevitable. Wolverine and Watchmen both hit over one-third on Blu-Ray, and it’ll be interesting to see the share for Star Trek. I think Avatar (due on BD in the Spring) could be the one to break that magic number.

  14. Eli Glasner says:
    November 24, 2009 at 10:24 am

    I recently had to replace a busted DVD player.
    At the local Big Box electronics store the majority of DVD players for sale were Blu-Ray.
    There were some non Blu-Ray devices but they were quite low end.
    In the end for a decent player, it made sense to upgrade to Blu-Ray.
    I think the tipping point is here. A lower price point for Blu-Ray DVDs will cement that.

  15. hcat says:
    November 24, 2009 at 11:50 am

    Just got a blu-ray for my birthday and am loving it. Some of the new releases are priced at 19.99 and plenty of catalog titles online are under twenty. So pricewise I am paying approx the same for some blu-rays as I did for VHS 10 years ago.

  16. Joe Leydon says:
    November 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    You know a movie has evolved from arthouse novelty to mainstream attraction when you hear people referencing it on sports talk radio.
    You’ll know Blu-Ray has evolved from upscale novelty to mass product when — well, availability at Wal-Mart and Target is a good sign. But you’ll really know the tipping point has arrived when you can rent a BR disk at a Redbox.

  17. martin says:
    November 24, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    I’m personally thinking of going back to VHS. Between the scratched discs that don’t play back properly, to the warping with age, and the overall headache of dealing with menus and a fancy remote control, I’m just tired of these digital formats. Analog tape looks better anyway IMO. It’s just a matter of time before the true tastemakers like myself get tape back onto the market as a saleable medium. I’ve been asking my local guy at blockbuster if he’s heard any rumors about VHS making a comeback and he gives me this weird face, but he’ll see, it’s just a matter of time before people see the real benefits of analog over digital.

  18. hcat says:
    November 24, 2009 at 12:37 pm

    I am a vinyl guy myself and while i still have a vcr hooked up in the basement so I can watch everything I bought in my youth (I think I have only upgraded two titles from vhs to dvd since switching formats) I would never want to go back. I do miss cathode ray TVs though. I need a cheap tv to through in front of the treadmill and the cheapest in stores is around $200. Just a few years ago you could get a small CRT set for around $75 this time of year. and I miss my damn rabbit ears.

  19. Eric says:
    November 24, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    The best dead format to be buying right now is HD-DVD. This week I paid $80 for almost twenty movies.

  20. Joe Leydon says:
    November 24, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    Sounds like when I was picking up Laser Discs for about $5 a pop.

  21. tfresca says:
    November 24, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    Your rabbit ears still work you just need a digital converter unless you have a modern tv. You’ll get better reception than ever. I just don’t think most people can afford TVs big enough to see the difference on Blu-ray.

  22. The Big Perm says:
    November 24, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    I also hate DVD menus and shit. Pop in a DVD, and here comes the trailers. Then you go to the menu and then here comes FBI warnings and five other screens that half the time you can’t skip. So I just rip all of my DVDs and put them on the computer attached to the tv (posting on blogs and ripping DVDs is the extent of my useful computer knowledge).
    I guess those FBI warnings don’t really work.

  23. christian says:
    November 24, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    At leas with VHS I could fast forward through all that digital excess that DVD makers seem determined to force us to sit through — my biggest pet peeve? A menu screen that goes through some flashy BS before it gets to the damn selection. And then you have to wach that every single time…

  24. Oddvark says:
    November 25, 2009 at 1:29 am

    One thing I miss about VHS is being able to turn off the player/take out the tape, and come back to where you left off with no effort at all.
    Now with DVD, I’ll pause a movie to answer the phone, and if the call runs long, I’ll return to the TV and my DVD player will have turned off with no memory of where I was on the DVD. (And then I have to deal with all those stupid menus/warnings just to get back to where I was.)
    Do the fancy new Blu-ray players have an easy “resume”/memory feature?

  25. Joe Straat says:
    November 25, 2009 at 5:20 am

    Actually, Blu-Ray does have a memory feature, but-at least for mine-you can’t just turn off the player. You have to hit stop once, turn it off and then it will remember, unlike my DVD player and computer that just remembers where I left off.
    I’m not replacing most of my old DVDs, however. I got Fight Club on Blue-Ray last week, and it wasn’t that much of an improvement, honestly. The newer movies I can tell a HUGE difference, but the older ones, well, some transfers are better than others, I guess.

  26. hcat says:
    November 25, 2009 at 6:44 am

    My Phillips DVD player goes right back to last played scene on a DVD even a week after I have taken it out of the player, I was pleasently suprised when I found that out. Also all the subtitles still come up when I put it on 2X speed so if the movie is turning out to be a bit of a dog, its getting late and I want to have it back in the mail the next day I can watch the remainder in half the time. Its a great machine, the blu ray, though a better picture does take forever to boot up and the machine itself makes a humming noise (this is normal right?)
    As for the rabbit ears, my wife insists on cable even though she still can’t find anything to watch so we end up on fucking HGTV half the time. The limitations of VHF viewing kept me watching movies instead of wandering around the channels for 90 minutes checking out bits and pieces of what is on.

  27. Eric says:
    November 25, 2009 at 7:15 am

    I had plenty of VHS tapes with a ton of previews and crap before the feature, so that wasn’t new with DVD.
    If memory serves, part of the HD-DVD spec was a requirement to go directly to the main menu of the disc, rather than any previews or warnings.
    HD-DVD also had no region coding. Sigh.

  28. martin says:
    November 25, 2009 at 7:47 am

    I was actually joking above about VHS over DVD. There was some truth in that though, I seriously don’t like the “forced” ads on DVDs that you can’t skip past, the excessively overdone menu systems, and the fact that the disks are fairly easy to damage. I worked at a video store for awhile and all the time people would complain about certain disks not playing or freezing, etc because of scratches. So if someone said yeah, we’re going back to tape format but very high quality, like D2 or whatever the highest end tape format is now, I wouldn’t mind. Honestly the only things I like about DVD anymore (tired of the extras, commentaries, etc.) is the chapter skipping ability, and the high quality picture and sound. And since I watch most videos only once anyway, the chapter skipping isn’t a huge bonus, and on tape u could still get high qual picture and sound.

  29. mutinyco says:
    November 25, 2009 at 7:54 am

    Fuck, and here I am still mourning 8-track…

  30. Eric says:
    November 25, 2009 at 7:58 am

    Did somebody say we’re going back to tape format but very high quality? My friend, we’ve already been there:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS
    Sad, quiet fail.

  31. christian says:
    November 25, 2009 at 9:28 am

    The Digital Revolution is half bullshit. I have VHS and cassette tapes from the 80′s that play just fine while most of my cd’s and DVD’s are scratched or damaged. Suckers.

  32. hcat says:
    November 25, 2009 at 10:45 am

    All my VHS play fine but all my audio cassettes have crapped out (though that may be due to an overaggresive car stereo). The only one that still works is 1984 which I purchased at the age of 11. Next to a few comic books that might be the earliest piece of media I still own.
    Just one more point about durability. I have a two year old daughter and thought the bulky video tapes would be better to keep on the bottom shelf then the more fragile DVDs. Eventually she found the tape inside of the casing which makes a really cool whizzing noise when violently pulled from its wheels. Poor Chili Palmer never saw it coming. I have since rethought the storage and upgraded Get Shorty to DVD.

  33. The Big Perm says:
    November 25, 2009 at 10:48 am

    Oddvark, get a Sony DVD player. The ones I have owned all have a feature where it will remember where you were on the last five discs played. You don’t even have to do anything special for that to happen, just pop them out and later it will remember where you were. And mine is a relatively cheap one too.

  34. martin says:
    November 25, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Big Perm, I disagree. Oddvark, listen man just get a VCR and never have to worry about this digital bullshit complicating your life.

  35. Me says:
    November 25, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    Forget VHS. Just get a library card. With a bookmark, you can always jump right back where you left off. Though you still have to get through the copyright warnings.

  36. The Big Perm says:
    November 25, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    Ugh, I hate the subtitles in books.

  37. Me says:
    November 25, 2009 at 2:31 pm

    Well, you can find them dubbed, but then you’re right back to the tape versus disc argument.

  38. martin says:
    November 25, 2009 at 7:07 pm

    Yeah gotta go with tape on audiobooks too, like VHS you automatically start up where you stopped in the book. wtf you gonna do with a CD, try and fast forward 2 hours or whatever to hit that exact minute you left it off at? f that.

  39. tfresca says:
    November 26, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    Watching Blu ray of Star Trek. really can’t tell the difference between that and a standard dvd being upscaled. I too have cable and spend an inordinate amount of time watching HGTV. I really like the real estate interventions. Somehow I find it perversely entertaining watching people who gambled on the housing bubble crash.

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