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Toshiba's Back: A New Old Marketing Strategy

ScrubletScrublet Registered User regular
edited August 2008 in Debate and/or Discourse
Recap: The end of the format war signaled to the market that the consumer would rather pay more money for the higher technology of Blu-ray then the somewhat cheaper and technologically inferior HD-DVD. Toshiba threw in the towel after Warner's decision sparked Wal-Mart (and others, but that was the big one) into deserting HD-DVD. What happened next? Nothing. While the PS3 continued to drive sales figures up for blu-ray players, the market didn't see the huge leap of blu-ray sales Sony hoped the end of the format war would bring in. This led many to conclude that while some consumers are willing to shell out the extra money for Blu-ray (~$300 a player + $25-35 a disc or $7-20 if you're willing to buy from independent sellers online), most are still content to buy cheap 1080p upconvert players and watch their DVDs at near-HD quality.

Enter Toshiba's newest strategy. The idea is to improve the upconverting process by the addition of features with names like "eXtended Detail Enhancement", adding "edge enhancement" and "color/contrast modes". The price-point is $150. Obviously Toshiba is still committed to the "low price, almost as good" plan.

Bomb or bust? Would you buy it rather than blu-ray? Are both ideas full of shit and 1080p upconvert is fine?

subedii wrote: »
I hear PC gaming is huge off the coast of Somalia right now.

PSN: TheScrublet
Scrublet on

Posts

  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    Shouldn't this be in the tech subforum? Anyway...

    No one expected BD to boom. It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    Satan. on
  • ScrubletScrublet Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    Shouldn't this be in the tech subforum? Anyway...

    No one expected BD to boom. It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    I almost threw this in there, but a quick look showed almost all games, and since this isn't really game tech I didn't. If I was wrong maybe someone can throw it over there or lock this one for me...

    My view is there's a screen size where it becomes an issue. When you start hitting the bigger TVs or even home projectors, which are not near as far out of range for many people as they used to be, a definite quality issue arises. Maybe not enough to warrant rebuying your whole collection. But enough to start buying NEW movies in blu? I'm sold.

    Edit: I officially noticed for the first time that G&T actually has subforums, and one of them is for non-gaming tech. Normally I stick in H/A and lurk D&D. I feel like a complete dumbass, and if someone locks this I'll restart over there.

    Scrublet on
    subedii wrote: »
    I hear PC gaming is huge off the coast of Somalia right now.

    PSN: TheScrublet
  • JohnDoeJohnDoe Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Most people don't buy new TVs, DVD players, and new collections of their favorite movies/tv shows every time something new comes out. Uptake increase in time as more people replace their old equipment and HD stuff is cheap enough to justify the upgrade.

    JohnDoe on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    edge enhancement is not a good thing!

    why would anyone ever buy that? you'd have to be into tech enough to think it was the product you wanted while somehow not knowing anything about the difference between dvd and blu-ray.

    poor move.

    edit - my first sentence has nothing to do with the rest of the point.

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • NocturneNocturne Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    JohnDoe wrote: »
    Most people don't buy new TVs, DVD players, and new collections of their favorite movies/tv shows every time something new comes out. Uptake increase in time as more people replace their old equipment and HD stuff is cheap enough to justify the upgrade.

    This.

    I still don't have an HDTV (or even a flatscreen of any kind), and have my regular DVD player. I don't watch enough TV or movies, nor do I care enough about a tiny amount better picture quality, to warrant replacing this outright. When my current television dies, I will replace it with an HDTV. When my DVD player bites the dust, I will replace it with a Blue-Ray.

    So yeah, there are a few people who love to be on the cutting edge and will go out and buy the newest and best stuff as soon as it's available. The other 95% of humanity will wait until they have some sort of reason to.

    Nocturne on
  • SenjutsuSenjutsu thot enthusiast Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Doomed to failure.

    Better has a hard time displacing Good Enough unless it is hugely better. So why would Toshiba's NuImprovedUpscalarZ, which is a bit better than other DVD players but less better than BluRay, take the world by storm?

    If you already feel a $50 DVD player gives acceptable results on a 50in LCD, and a lot of people seem to, why would you buy either? Most of these people still hook their shit together with coax anyways

    Senjutsu on
  • monikermoniker Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Nocturne wrote: »
    JohnDoe wrote: »
    Most people don't buy new TVs, DVD players, and new collections of their favorite movies/tv shows every time something new comes out. Uptake increase in time as more people replace their old equipment and HD stuff is cheap enough to justify the upgrade.

    This.

    I still don't have an HDTV (or even a flatscreen of any kind), and have my regular DVD player. I don't watch enough TV or movies, nor do I care enough about a tiny amount better picture quality, to warrant replacing this outright. When my current television dies, I will replace it with an HDTV. When my DVD player bites the dust, I will replace it with a Blue-Ray.

    So yeah, there are a few people who love to be on the cutting edge and will go out and buy the newest and best stuff as soon as it's available. The other 95% of humanity will wait until they have some sort of reason to.

    By then digital distribution will probably have taken hold and the choice will be between blue-ray and an getting an external hard drive to hold crap you downloaded. At least I hope it does, anyway. I'm so lazy I'd watch an episode of Firefly on Hulu rather than dig out the DVD, even though it's just 3' away.

    moniker on
  • psychotixpsychotix __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    Bomb or bust? Would you buy it rather than blu-ray? Are both ideas full of shit and 1080p upconvert is fine?

    The idea is fine and it fits a need. The real problem with blu-ray (and HD-DVD for that matter when it was alive) is nobody wants to buy all their movies again, and there isn't enough of a justification for that. We are also moving quicker to the age of digital distribution. It's hard to justify buying more disks that I have to store and put in the drive when I can just build a media center or file server. Physical disks are just a pain in the ass. Trying to force a new optical medium, at a much higher price point, right at the time when people are moving away from physical disks wasn't the brightest idea.

    For $150 a device that makes all your old media a bit better, and doesn't require you to buy everything all over again in what is a dead end business distro model makes a lot of sense.

    psychotix on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    psychotix wrote: »
    Bomb or bust? Would you buy it rather than blu-ray? Are both ideas full of shit and 1080p upconvert is fine?

    The idea is fine and it fits a need. The real problem with blu-ray (and HD-DVD for that matter when it was alive) is nobody wants to buy all their movies again, and there isn't enough of a justification for that. We are also moving quicker to the age of digital distribution. It's hard to justify buying more disks that I have to store and put in the drive when I can just build a media center or file server. Physical disks are just a pain in the ass. Trying to force a new optical medium, at a much higher price point, right at the time when people are moving away from physical disks wasn't the brightest idea.

    For $150 a device that makes all your old media a bit better, and doesn't require you to buy everything all over again in what is a dead end business distro model makes a lot of sense.

    I'd need to have evidence of serious tests before I'd believe this can actually get much more out of a DVD than a ps3 or other high end upscaling player. (for example, watching it myself :D)

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • psychotixpsychotix __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    Variable wrote: »
    psychotix wrote: »
    Bomb or bust? Would you buy it rather than blu-ray? Are both ideas full of shit and 1080p upconvert is fine?

    The idea is fine and it fits a need. The real problem with blu-ray (and HD-DVD for that matter when it was alive) is nobody wants to buy all their movies again, and there isn't enough of a justification for that. We are also moving quicker to the age of digital distribution. It's hard to justify buying more disks that I have to store and put in the drive when I can just build a media center or file server. Physical disks are just a pain in the ass. Trying to force a new optical medium, at a much higher price point, right at the time when people are moving away from physical disks wasn't the brightest idea.

    For $150 a device that makes all your old media a bit better, and doesn't require you to buy everything all over again in what is a dead end business distro model makes a lot of sense.

    I'd need to have evidence of serious tests before I'd believe this can actually get much more out of a DVD than a ps3 or other high end upscaling player. (for example, watching it myself :D)

    And you probably won't, but from a stand point as a stand alone player, say when your DVD player breaks it's an option.

    I see any sort of optical disk based system currently as a stop gap, or a way to keep your old collection around.

    It makes far more sense just to store everything on an HD and go with digital distro, and things are already moving rapidly in that direction.

    Now if I have to replace a dead DVD player, this looks interesting. So I can see a market, but I think any attempts to push a new optical media at this point are doomed to failure.

    psychotix on
  • tofutofu Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    We have a 42 inch 1080p LCD screen and our DVD player (not a fancy one by any means) upconverts to 1080i and the picture looks fantastic.

    I'm not sure what the problem is.

    tofu on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I'm not sure which problem you're talking about so I can't help you.

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • tofutofu Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    The problem with HD content!

    tofu on
  • YarYar Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    That's the real rub here - the difference between regular TV and 480p DVDs was great. Going from there to HD... a lot of people won't notice.

    Yar on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    tofu wrote: »
    The problem with HD content!

    what?

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I couldn't figure out why I never "got" the value of upconverting players, and then it dawned on me that I've been using a PC as my DVD player for years and it's been doing it automatically.

    EDIT:
    Yar wrote: »
    That's the real rub here - the difference between regular TV and 480p DVDs was great. Going from there to HD... a lot of people won't notice.

    Also this. Going from VHS to DVD was just amazing in picture, sound and functionality (not to mention lifespan). Going to BD is just picture and only noticeable on fairly high-end displays in the first place.

    electricitylikesme on
  • psychotixpsychotix __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    I couldn't figure out why I never "got" the value of upconverting players, and then it dawned on me that I've been using a PC as my DVD player for years and it's been doing it automatically.

    EDIT:
    Yar wrote: »
    That's the real rub here - the difference between regular TV and 480p DVDs was great. Going from there to HD... a lot of people won't notice.

    Also this. Going from VHS to DVD was just amazing in picture, sound and functionality (not to mention lifespan). Going to BD is just picture and only noticeable on fairly high-end displays in the first place.

    Uncompressed sound is nice as well, but again only noticeable on high end equipment.

    psychotix on
  • khainkhain Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    Why is rebuying your collection always brought up? Both formats were backwards compatible and while I'm sure the studios would love for everyone to rebuy their movies you don't need to. Its because of this that I think Blu-ray will eventually split the market with digital distribution assuming the prices drop to a reasonable level.

    khain on
  • KalTorakKalTorak One way or another, they all end up in the Undercity.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    moniker wrote: »
    Nocturne wrote: »
    JohnDoe wrote: »
    Most people don't buy new TVs, DVD players, and new collections of their favorite movies/tv shows every time something new comes out. Uptake increase in time as more people replace their old equipment and HD stuff is cheap enough to justify the upgrade.

    This.

    I still don't have an HDTV (or even a flatscreen of any kind), and have my regular DVD player. I don't watch enough TV or movies, nor do I care enough about a tiny amount better picture quality, to warrant replacing this outright. When my current television dies, I will replace it with an HDTV. When my DVD player bites the dust, I will replace it with a Blue-Ray.

    So yeah, there are a few people who love to be on the cutting edge and will go out and buy the newest and best stuff as soon as it's available. The other 95% of humanity will wait until they have some sort of reason to.

    By then digital distribution will probably have taken hold and the choice will be between blue-ray and an getting an external hard drive to hold crap you downloaded. At least I hope it does, anyway. I'm so lazy I'd watch an episode of Firefly on Hulu rather than dig out the DVD, even though it's just 3' away.

    Incidentally, do the Hulu episodes of Firefly have deleted scenes inserted into them? I just started watching them again and there were some lines that I didn't remember from when I used to watch them over and over and over...

    KalTorak on
  • Apothe0sisApothe0sis Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I'm not so sure that HD-DVD was less technologically advanced compared to Blu-Ray. The Blu-ray discs themselves are obviously a better technology, but the standard itself is kind of not.

    A lot of Blu-Ray's approaches were simple brute force - namely, better quality by just not compressing things as much, as opposed to HD-DVD which did things cleverly - their approach is more advanced codecs and that sort of gear.

    Apothe0sis on
  • psychotixpsychotix __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    khain wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    Why is rebuying your collection always brought up? Both formats were backwards compatible and while I'm sure the studios would love for everyone to rebuy their movies you don't need to. Its because of this that I think Blu-ray will eventually split the market with digital distribution assuming the prices drop to a reasonable level.

    Because the companies do you want you to do this, and when DVD's came out people did replace all their tapes. The same crap happened with CD's (different media, but still media). There is a history here were companies can push out the next "improved" format and expect everybody to move to it.

    No matter how good upconverting things has become a lot better then it once was. But it's still not as good as having the original source and you can't touch uncompressed sound. However in order to really get the most out of HD media you need pretty high end equipment. To the average consumer the benefits simply aren't there.

    Now if you compare other media shifts, VHS -> DVD or say tape -> the jump in audio/visual quality was larger. But, far more importantly, the jump in convience, ease of use, ability to store, was also massive. There is no such jump here. And with media centers, game consoles that function as media centers, digital distro you can argue that going to any sort of optical bases storage is a move backwards.

    People are rebuying all sorts of old crap they used to own (or still do) in other areas. Movies/songs/shows via various online methods are soaring, and in many cases the quality is even crappier then before.

    So it's not as if rebuying your colection didn't happen before in the past, and it's not as if it's not still going on now. It's that people aren't doing with HD media.

    psychotix on
  • tofutofu Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    The problem with HD content!

    what?
    The problem with standard definition DVDs!

    tofu on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    tofu wrote: »
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    The problem with HD content!

    what?
    The problem with standard definition DVDs!

    oh. I have no problem with them, I just wanted to make clear they are not and never will be blu-rays.

    some people don't care, some people don't even see a difference, but that doesn't mean, given the right equipment, that there isn't a true difference.

    that's all my opinion on this is. you can add as many names as you want to a dvd player, it can't get higher quality out of lower quality, can't get higher resolution out of lower resolution, can't get uncompressed audio out of compressed audio.

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • tofutofu Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    The problem with HD content!

    what?
    The problem with standard definition DVDs!

    oh. I have no problem with them, I just wanted to make clear they are not and never will be blu-rays.

    some people don't care, some people don't even see a difference, but that doesn't mean, given the right equipment, that there isn't a true difference.

    that's all my opinion on this is. you can add as many names as you want to a dvd player, it can't get higher quality out of lower quality, can't get higher resolution out of lower resolution, can't get uncompressed audio out of compressed audio.
    Of course you don't get any more quality but 480p still looks great at 42". You have to spend thousands of dollars to really notice the difference of the new HD standard and the average consumer isn't going to.

    tofu on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    tofu wrote: »
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    The problem with HD content!

    what?
    The problem with standard definition DVDs!

    oh. I have no problem with them, I just wanted to make clear they are not and never will be blu-rays.

    some people don't care, some people don't even see a difference, but that doesn't mean, given the right equipment, that there isn't a true difference.

    that's all my opinion on this is. you can add as many names as you want to a dvd player, it can't get higher quality out of lower quality, can't get higher resolution out of lower resolution, can't get uncompressed audio out of compressed audio.
    Of course you don't get any more quality but 480p still looks great at 42". You have to spend thousands of dollars to really notice the difference of the new HD standard and the average consumer isn't going to.

    I agree.

    but they also won't notice a difference from this player. that's my point. I don't understand who would buy this.

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • tofutofu Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    Variable wrote: »
    tofu wrote: »
    The problem with HD content!

    what?
    The problem with standard definition DVDs!

    oh. I have no problem with them, I just wanted to make clear they are not and never will be blu-rays.

    some people don't care, some people don't even see a difference, but that doesn't mean, given the right equipment, that there isn't a true difference.

    that's all my opinion on this is. you can add as many names as you want to a dvd player, it can't get higher quality out of lower quality, can't get higher resolution out of lower resolution, can't get uncompressed audio out of compressed audio.
    Of course you don't get any more quality but 480p still looks great at 42". You have to spend thousands of dollars to really notice the difference of the new HD standard and the average consumer isn't going to.

    I agree.

    but they also won't notice a difference from this player. that's my point. I don't understand who would buy this.
    How...are you?

    tofu on
  • ScrubletScrublet Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Apothe0sis wrote: »
    I'm not so sure that HD-DVD was less technologically advanced compared to Blu-Ray. The Blu-ray discs themselves are obviously a better technology, but the standard itself is kind of not.

    A lot of Blu-Ray's approaches were simple brute force - namely, better quality by just not compressing things as much, as opposed to HD-DVD which did things cleverly - their approach is more advanced codecs and that sort of gear.

    "Not compressing things as much" equals better quality. Bigger discs are also better quality. The only real flag HD-DVD could ever wave was price-to-performance ratio. It died when that gap started to narrow. And yes, it got to wave its banner about online interactive content, but people cared even less about that than the currently-debated worth of picture quality.

    Scrublet on
    subedii wrote: »
    I hear PC gaming is huge off the coast of Somalia right now.

    PSN: TheScrublet
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Senjutsu wrote: »
    Doomed to failure.

    Better has a hard time displacing Good Enough unless it is hugely better. So why would Toshiba's NuImprovedUpscalarZ, which is a bit better than other DVD players but less better than BluRay, take the world by storm?

    If you already feel a $50 DVD player gives acceptable results on a 50in LCD, and a lot of people seem to, why would you buy either? Most of these people still hook their shit together with coax anyways

    Somebody mentioned that it might have a market with those whose players just up and died (and we actually have one finally giving up the ghost right now, though it's not our primary anymore)...I still say the average person at that point is either going to buy the "normal" upscaling DVD player that costs half as much (or less), or finally spring for the BR player.

    I just don't see much market for the midrange player here, especially since it seems the midrange player will be coming in significantly over the $99 price point (which is a pretty big psychological barrier).

    Also, hooking a DVD player up using coax is a crime against humanity.

    mcdermott on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    tofu wrote: »
    How...are you?

    :D

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    khain wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    Why is rebuying your collection always brought up? Both formats were backwards compatible and while I'm sure the studios would love for everyone to rebuy their movies you don't need to. Its because of this that I think Blu-ray will eventually split the market with digital distribution assuming the prices drop to a reasonable level.

    Because why should I spend $400 on a Blu-Ray player if all I'm going to do with it is watch DVDs? I can watch them on a $30 DVD player.


    As for Toshiba? They're just entering into the mid-level DVD upconversion market. Everyone's got some acronym'd name for their upsclaing tech, whether it's Anchor Bay's DVDO-iScan or Faroudja's DCDi.

    BubbaT on
  • VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    BubbaT wrote: »
    khain wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    Why is rebuying your collection always brought up? Both formats were backwards compatible and while I'm sure the studios would love for everyone to rebuy their movies you don't need to. Its because of this that I think Blu-ray will eventually split the market with digital distribution assuming the prices drop to a reasonable level.

    Because why should I spend $400 on a Blu-Ray player if all I'm going to do with it is watch DVDs? I can watch them on a $30 DVD player.

    As for Toshiba? They're just entering into the mid-level DVD upconversion market. Everyone's got some acronym'd name for their upsclaing tech, whether it's Anchor Bay's DVDO-iScan or Faroudja's DCDi.

    no one is saying you should buy a blu-ray player just to watch dvds with it. that would be stupid. but if you get that blu-ray player for blu-rays, it's not like your dvd collection becomes worthless. in fact if you don't already have an upscaling player it becomes worth more.

    Variable on
    BNet-Vari#1998 | Switch-SW 6960 6688 8388 | Steam | Twitch
  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Your DVDs don't become worthless when you buy a BR player, but they become fairly pointless. Outside of PS3 owners, I'd assume the main reason people are buying BR players is because they're unsatisfied with the video/audio quality of DVDs, upscaled or not.

    The people BR is targeted at right now, those are people who watch and buy a good amount of DVDs. And if they care so much about video/audio quality that they spend $400 on a player, then they're going to want material that takes advantage of that player. And that's not DVD.

    Yes, playing DVDs on a BR player can be a stop-gap solution while waiting for LotR or Star Wars to hit BR. But it's a stop-gap with a $400 player expense, and you can get the same upscaling DVD results for $300 less from Oppo.

    BubbaT on
  • ScrubletScrublet Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    BubbaT wrote: »
    Your DVDs don't become worthless when you buy a BR player, but they become fairly pointless. Outside of PS3 owners, I'd assume the main reason people are buying BR players is because they're unsatisfied with the video/audio quality of DVDs, upscaled or not.

    The people BR is targeted at right now, those are people who watch and buy a good amount of DVDs. And if they care so much about video/audio quality that they spend $400 on a player, then they're going to want material that takes advantage of that player. And that's not DVD.

    Yes, playing DVDs on a BR player can be a stop-gap solution while waiting for LotR or Star Wars to hit BR. But it's a stop-gap with a $400 player expense, and you can get the same upscaling DVD results for $300 less from Oppo.

    I don't agree with this. I mean I love my Blu-rays. It'd be sweet if someone could finance me to replace my entire collection with them. But since they can't, I'm fine watching them upscaled. But I'd sure as hell rather buy newer better movies than more older quality movies. I haven't replaced a single normal DVD...as many people mentioned they still look great. I AM only buying blu-ray from now on. And if you know where to go online (blu-rayboxset.com, etc.), it isn't even more expensive for most titles after you get over the $300-400 entry fee of the player.

    Scrublet on
    subedii wrote: »
    I hear PC gaming is huge off the coast of Somalia right now.

    PSN: TheScrublet
  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    So when LotR or whatever your fave movies are hit BR you're not going to buy them because you still have the DVD version?

    BubbaT on
  • ScrubletScrublet Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    BubbaT wrote: »
    So when LotR or whatever your fave movies are hit BR you're not going to buy them because you still have the DVD version?

    Good point. But we're talking LotR here. And Star Wars. My current movie/tv season count is pushing 170. There are maybe 5 (def no more than 10) of those sorts of examples.

    Scrublet on
    subedii wrote: »
    I hear PC gaming is huge off the coast of Somalia right now.

    PSN: TheScrublet
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    Scrublet wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    Shouldn't this be in the tech subforum? Anyway...

    No one expected BD to boom. It was silly. Consumers are finally used to DVD and don't see this supposed quality bump as a reason to buy their entire collection again already. Upconverting works fine for most people.

    I almost threw this in there, but a quick look showed almost all games, and since this isn't really game tech I didn't. If I was wrong maybe someone can throw it over there or lock this one for me...

    My view is there's a screen size where it becomes an issue. When you start hitting the bigger TVs or even home projectors, which are not near as far out of range for many people as they used to be, a definite quality issue arises. Maybe not enough to warrant rebuying your whole collection. But enough to start buying NEW movies in blu? I'm sold.

    Eh. I work in AV at a major university and we have a couple rooms that have 1080p projectors, BD setups and honestly you're not noticing a gigantic difference on a 20' screen between an upscaled DVD and the BD equivalent. Sure, buy the new stuff in BD if you're really anxious to have that sort of better image. The public at large? Couldn't care less.

    Satan. on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    Scrublet wrote: »
    BubbaT wrote: »
    So when LotR or whatever your fave movies are hit BR you're not going to buy them because you still have the DVD version?

    Good point. But we're talking LotR here. And Star Wars. My current movie/tv season count is pushing 170. There are maybe 5 (def no more than 10) of those sorts of examples.

    So are we talking about the public at large, or just you? I'm confused now as to the direction of this thread. If you're looking for someone to talk you out of / into buying BD stuff, this isn't really the place to do it.

    Satan. on
  • Toxic ToysToxic Toys Are you really taking my advice? Really?Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Really if we are talking the public at large, many of them still own VHS players. They are happy watching movies on VHS if the price is right. The last movie I bought on tape was 2005. I'm sure that people would still buy them if stores sold them, so the argument for DVD sales is a little forced when major retailers stopped carrying the format. Buying HD format anything is still in the relm of people looking for the best of the best, not the every day consumer.

    Toxic Toys on
    3DS code: 2938-6074-2306, Nintendo Network ID: ToxicToys, PSN: zutto
  • KevinNashKevinNash Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    My problem with Blu Ray is they are charging 35 bucks for borderline ownership worthy titles like Xmen 3. 18 bucks for blazing saddles? Why?

    I just can't bring myself to pay twice as much for HD titles. In the meantime I'll just rent them with netflix (no extra charge for blu ray) or put up with standard DVD via HDMI.

    For the record I also won't pay 5 bucks for an HD download at the playstation store or on itunes.

    The price will drop eventually.

    KevinNash on
  • Wonder_HippieWonder_Hippie __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2008
    Aren't the HD titles on the PSN only rental anyway? That's kind of shitty.

    Wonder_Hippie on
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