There’s been a lot of talk lately about about whether or not Blu-Ray will ever overtake, or even really compete with DVD sales. Some suggest that Blu-Ray will be forgotten and that streaming media will be the format of the future. Assuming anyone even wants High Definition.
The Playstation 3! They might make some games for it someday too!
Right now DVDs are very popular, having replaced VHS. The advantages were clear, and the cost, size, and increased storage capacity meant that people could not only own movies at home, but entire TV shows as well. This DVD party went on for a long time and fun was had by all. Now people can buy a TV that is capable of showing higher quality images than DVDs can provide. Which leaves consumers two decisions: Do I buy the more expensive TV for the higher quality picture? And do I go and pay extra for HD content? Many people do not, in fact, do either of those. I’ve heard only 10% of people own an HD capable TV. And of the people I know who have HDTVs, very few have anything more than a DVD player.
Hold up a 24 television episodes on 11 VHS tapes and hold up a small DVD case that holds 24 episodes on 5 DVDs and anyone can point out a difference. But if you compare HD and SD, most people can’t see the difference. I’m normally the one who is all upset when people are watching a 4×3 picture stretched to fill a 16×9 screen (“Sorry if I’m the only one who can tell HIS HEAD IS TWICE AS WIDE AS IT SHOULD BE!”) But the simple truth is that to many people, HD is exactly the same.
Apple TV, Just like iTunes, but for $350 more!
To me, HD is not the same, it looks a lot better. I got myself a PS3 and I would much rather buy movies and TV shows on Blu-Ray than DVD if given the option. I buy a lot of movies and TV shows, but if I’m the only one doing it, I doubt I alone can lead Blu-Ray on to financial success. I mean, some people really liked beta-max, HD DVD, Orbitz drinks, and pogs. And you don’t see a lot of those around anymore. I suspect that HD will always be a smaller market. Because there are people living in the ass end of nowhere that just got themselves DVD players for their TVs who probably think “HD” is someones cousin and a “Blu-Ray” is something in the ocean that can sting you. For many people DVDs actually improved everything by making movies and TV shows more accessible. Whereas Blu-Ray lets them see the actor’s acne better if they walk up to the screen.
I know I know, that remote has way too many buttons!
Blu-Ray players are expensive, like $400 on average. Then there’s the cost of the discs. MP3′s bought online are quickly replacing CDs sold in stores. So why not the same for movies? When you can download a movie or watch it online, why would people shell out the money for expensive players and discs? I’ll tell you why! Remember the guy living in the ass end of nowhere? Let’s say they know what HD is and they want it. They could go buy a Blu-Ray player, and rent the discs from netflix or the local rental store. Or they could go the VOD route, and choose between iTunes, Netflix Instant viewing, Amazon Unbox, Hulu, Vudu, AT&T U-Verse, Time Warner On-Demand, XBOX Live Marketplace, Playstation Store, Joost, Verizon FiOS, etc… And people thought HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray was scary! There’s a lot someone would need to know about those services. Do they have a lot of movies? or only some? Do they have TV show episodes? Do they have HD content? is all of it available in HD? Do I need to buy special hardware? Do I pay per movie? per month? What kind of DRM does it have? Do I have to watch it on my computer or can I connect it to my TV? If I picked a service that goes out of business do I get to keep the movies I paid for? Let’s say the guy in the ass end of nowhere decides on one of the many On-Demand services above, it probably wouldn’t work over dial-up. They quite simply don’t offer broadband internet in many areas yet.
WTF is this thing?
If I buy a Blu-Ray disc. I’m getting up to 50 gigabytes of information. I don’t want to buy the hard drives it would take to store that much data, and I don’t want to have to use an internet connection each time i want to watch a movie. The internet can be unreliable and/or slow. So for me Blu-Ray is the clear option. For most people, DVDs are the only think that matters, and everything else is a niche market. I would predict that On-Demand will one day win out, but it’s going to take a lot longer then most people think as it will require technology where downloading and storing 50 GB files was as nonchalant as downloading an MP3. And until that happens there will be plenty of business for Blu-Ray.
But by then of course, maybe everyone will just be pirating everything because of all the DRM anyway.