Is it possible BluRay will NOT win?

[Descendency]

Why is that everyone is basically saying "good job Sony! You finally won one." dvd TROUNCES BluRay in sales. It's not even close. Could we be looking at the another Laserdisc?

[boffo]

Even if they never beat DVD, Sony stands to make a load of money off of Blu-Ray. In the overall movie market it might not be a win, but to Sony it is.

[Matthew]

They "won" over HD-DVD. Will take a while, possibly not ever, before BluRay trumps DVD in sales.

[willay]

I'd say its a 60-40 shot blu ray will eventually be the biggest format

[Icemage]

Blu-ray has a lot of momentum right now. We'll see how things go in the next year or two, but it has two big things going for it.

(1) Everyone in the commercial industry wants it. Seriously.

Brick and mortar stores know their days are numbered if they don't find something to prop up the optical disc DVD sales that have been fading for the past 14 or so months now.

The movie studios know there's only so many "remastered" DVD copies of every movie on the planet that you want to buy. But hey, stick a new "Blu-ray" name on it, provide a sharper image, and get some more control over who copies it? Now they're interested.

I'm sure Netflix and Blockbuster are now happy to find a new medium that can compete realistically with video on demand downloads. The amount of data stored on a Blu-ray disc is too large to comfortably transmit over the Internet with anything but the most rock solid of fiber optic connections these days, and that doesn't look like it will change any time soon for the vast majority of people in the world.

(2) HDTV

HDTVs are the hottest consumer item on the planet. Hotter than iPods. They can't sell enough of the blasted things. And what better to go with your HDTV than an HD player that will make the most of it? And bonus - it plays your DVDs too!

---

You won't see it today or tomorrow, and you'll probably never directly notice it, but over the next year or so and beyond, assuming that they can keep the Blu-ray momentum going, you'll see a concerted marketing push from everyone involved to suggest to you that Blu-ray is "better than DVD". And once that happens, some weird things might start happening.

- Blu-ray editions, with more space available, might start getting more extra features than their DVD counterparts (right now it's 50/50 coin flip which version is more feature-rich depending on the movie studio).

- Like we're seeing right now with Blu-ray releases versus HD DVD, there may come a day when Blu-ray releases end up hitting the market first, before the DVDs.

- Just as vinyl records and VHS tapes eventually got phased out, we may start seeing DVD get phased out at some point. The compact disc just took its first wound in this fashion; on Jan. 29, musician Neil Young announced that his new project would not be released on CD, but only on Blu-ray and DVD.

Neil Young : ‘Archives’ on DVD and Blu-ray - not CD - this fall

Will any/all of these things happen? Maybe. Maybe not. We'll have to wait and see how well the manufacturers, studios, and retailers get their act together in brainwashing the masses into thinking "new is better".

[chedabob]

Vinyl -> Tape: Better quality, smaller, longer recordings, could master your own copies
Tape -> CD: Smaller, even better quality, even longer recordings, more durable

VHS -> Dvd: Vastly improved picture quality, size, special features, subtitles, surround sound, more durable

DVD -> Bluray: Higher resolution.

Noticing a trend here?

[PirateThom]

Originally Posted by chedabob

Vinyl -> Tape: Better quality

Tape better quality than vinyl?

You must be joking.

[chedabob]

Originally Posted by PirateThom

Tape better quality than vinyl?

You must be joking.

Yes. I have a pretty large collection of both, and the tapes are much clearer than the LPs.

[PirateThom]

Originally Posted by chedabob

Yes. I have a pretty large collection of both, and the tapes are much clearer than the LPs.

I don't have an LP/Tape deck anymore (long story), but I always found the vinyl to be better than tape and CD. Tape tended to have a lot of fuzziness and CD wasn't as warm sounding.

Then again, I really like vinyl.

[chedabob]

Originally Posted by PirateThom

I don't have an LP/Tape deck anymore (long story), but I always found the vinyl to be better than tape and CD. Tape tended to have a lot of fuzziness and CD wasn't as warm sounding.

Then again, I really like vinyl.

Vinyl has come a long way, but on older LPs you can hear a significant difference. I have some new LPs as well, and they are pretty clear, but still crackly, and very bassy.