Comments on: AP: Blu-ray still has a long way to go

By: Frink

Frink — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:12:15 +0000

According to a Reuters story Wal-Mart is offering a $100 Wal-Mart gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player in its stores - and that includes the PS3.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN0337087820080603

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:07:32 +0000

I have a regular and high definition DVD of the same movie and I have a hard time noticing any difference in quality. Maybe you need a big screen to notice the difference, but I’m not going spend up to $40 a pop on a Blu-ray DVD when it doesn’t seem much better than the regular DVD which I can get on sale at Circuit City for $3.99.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:59:10 +0000

The movie studios have a vested interest in keeping Blu-Ray prices high. They WANT people to move toward downloading movies. They don’t like to sell disks because once you have the disk, you can watch the movie for free as many times as you want. Downloaded movies can often be played only a limited number of times. Also, the studios are counting on people not backing up their PCs so that after a hard disk crash, or PC replacement, people will have to rebuy their videos yet again. The studios’ main goal is to get more money from their customers.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:27:35 +0000

blu-ray is simply a stopgap. i can download HD movies over my internet connected DirecTV box, although it does take a bit of time for them to arrive. i don’t think the average person cares to have a ton of media lying around anymore either. i wouldn’t buy one, unless you get the PS3 to play rockband, which is actually worth the expense…

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:26:46 +0000

Agreed, the discs themselves are 3 times too expensive. I don’t buy a regular definition DVD unless it is $10 or less. The same will go for BRDVDs.

A movie is not worth seeing for more than $10.

By: Sarge

Sarge — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:22:17 +0000

I wouldn’t mind getting a PS3 in order to play games and watch Blu-Ray movies on my HDTV, my brother has one and raves about how wonderful it is…but I already converted my VHS collection to DVD a while back, and above and beyond picture quality, I cannot see why I would sink thousands into a new technology which itself will become obsolete with each passing day. I’ll stick with what I got until either A) the price drops significantly, or B) when DVDs become obsolete.

By: Monkey

Monkey — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:57:39 +0000

I bought into the HD thing last fall but as soon as I got an AppleTV, I have no use for DVDs of any kind. For a couple hundred bucks, the AppleTV lets you rent or buy movies from the couch (even in HD), listen to all of your iTunes, buy songs from the iTunes store, surf YouTube, look at your photos, or watch home movies. You can store over 100 movies on it as well. My dvd player is collecting dust.

By: Blackmagic

Blackmagic — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:35:12 +0000

Blu-ray’s competition is not the DVD - it is downloading - legally and illegally - of HD content. I’m not sure the HD consumer wants to buy any disc’s at all. I’d hate to be in the business of selling or renting DVD’s at this point. The DVD has about the same chance as the CD did vs. downloading - and we all know how that turned out …

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:34:43 +0000

I solved the problem of a Blu-Ray player by just buying a Playstation3 — it was only about $100 more than a Sony Blu-Ray player, and while the movies are a little more expensive, the improved image quality is definitely worth it.

You get what you pay for.

By: WB

WB — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:23:44 +0000

Blu-rays are indeed still way overpriced. That is highlighted by another frustrating aspect - the packaging (which i know is a small detail when compared to pict. quality and bonus features, but nonetheless still important to many.) Nearly all the discs have terrible cover art, mostly just transfered from the standard dvds, none include any booklets of substance and most have the ugly blu-ray tab on the top. When you pay $25-30 for a disc you should get the whole package. The new “Bonnie and Clyde” BRD is a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping Criterion steps it up a notch in the fall - which i’m sure it will.