Blu-ray Is Overrated

Written by Kyle Buckley
October 27th, 2008

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After reading content at a Blu-ray centered website, you would think that Blu-ray is the second coming of entertainment. Supporters and fans of the format overly promote and encourage adoption of Blu-ray. During the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war, support from exuberant fans and organizations was needed for a Blu-ray win. Now that Blu-ray has been victorious, you would think the ardent passion of the format would calm, but not so. In my opinion, this overzealous behavior could grow to be one of Blu-ray's detriments. I for one and weary of hearing from Blu-ray fans and whenever I see an ad promoting Blu-ray, I get a sour taste in my mouth. Blu-ray is not the end all and be all.

Based on the avid fervor of its fans, Blu-ray will change the entertainment and computer industry and also change your life and lifestyle for the better. Hardly.


First off, with technology changing so rapidly these days, the optical high-definition format war may have lasted too long for either of the formats to be successful. During such a format war, a majority of consumers are not willing to invest in a format that may lose and die in the near future. On a similar note, most consumers are going to fill their electronic wants anyway they can, which is why online digital content may be growing. It may very well be that Consumers got tired of waiting for the silly Blu-ray/HD-DVD war to end, that they moved on to other means to get HD content.

Earlier this year, industry analyst group Parks Associates estimated that only 5 million Blu-ray players would be sold in 2008. Due to the current economic turmoil, they have since amended the estimate, lowering it 25%. With the possibility of a long lasting and deep economic recession, several consumers may never adopt an optical high-definition format, but instead use other means to get HD content.

People rarely rush to buy the latest and greatest technology. Most of us upgrade computers, entertainment systems, and other electronics gradually. I, for example, have a standard definition TV, a standard DVD player, and a $150 5.1 sound system. It is likely, that when my current TV peters out, I will buy a new HD TV. Then when my current DVD player dies, I will replace it with whatever affordable alternative is available at the time—this may be a Blu-ray player, it may be a digital hard-drive based box, it may be something that has yet to surface.

Blu-ray is not going to change your life or your lifestyle. When you watch a movie being played from a Blu-ray disc and a DVD side-by-side, you will definitely notice that Blu-ray has a much sharper image. However, the added lines of resolution in Blu-ray are hardly worth upgrading your entertainment system. The number of movies available in Blu-ray format, although growing, is still pretty small. Most consumers who buy Blu-ray players are not going to replace their current DVD library with Blu-ray versions, even if they are available. They are still going to be watching their old favorites in standard-definition on their high-definition TV. Why? Because it is not worth the money to get the Blu-ray versions and they will still get the same entertainment value from their standard DVD library. Whether you watch movies in 1080p or standard-definition, Darth Vader will always be Luke's father, the velociraptors in Jurassic Park will scare you crapless, and Plan 9 From Outerspace will always be terrible.

Without question, Blu-rayis superior to DVD in quality and capacity. This superiority and the fact that it won the format war does not mean that every electronics manufacturer is going to rush to adopt the technology. Blu-ray may indeed replace DVDs as a new standard, but it may also become a curious footnote in tech history.

Filed Under: Other Tech

Comments 7

Comments

1. Your blog highlights some very valid points, particularly on the apparent lack of interest in blu-ray from the consumer. I have no interest in buying a Blu-ray player for the sole fact that there does not seem to be any buzz like there was when DVD format first came on the market. When comparing video to DVD the difference is dramatic, unlike the HD versions we have now when compared to DVD Also, the argument against buying a PS3 over an XBox360 also seems like a no-brainer, pay twice the price (up to £150 extra) for a games console which is barely graphically superior, but for the sole fact that it plays Blu-ray.....No thanks! There wont be marked interest in Blu-ray unless the cost of both the hardware and the disks drop considerably, and fast. Other competing formats just around the corner, plus downloadable content on increasingly faster download speeds may well kill off the need for any removable media entirely and orientate the market towards media storage devices.

   Posted October 30th, 2008 at 07:55 AM by dogtanian

2. Excellent points. I really feel that blue ray fans are damn annoying. My neighbor has spent thousands of dollars worth of purchases to make his high-definition home entertainment center. He brags about it every damn day. "I have blue ray!" My $599 home theater standard-definition system works great, and I didn't have to go into debt to get it. In my opinion, blue ray is for rich people who have a compulsive need to have top of the line everything.

   Posted November 1st, 2008 at 09:31 PM by dksBeet

3. Blu-ray fans are agonizing! One of my coworkers has blu-ray parties once a month. What a freakoid! I swear, it seems that every day he pesters me to look at getting a blu-ray player. First off, I don't have oodles of dollars, second off, most of the movies available in blu-ray are awful. My current set of DVDs are fine! Please give it a frickin rest blu-ray fans! Your cherished blu-ray is going to be dead in a few years anyway.

   Posted November 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 AM by gordo

4. 	I have a PS3 but I do not have any Blu-ray discs to watch. Eventually, I will start my collection of Blu-ray disc once I have my HDTV and when I do, I will not buy those movies I already owned in DVD, just the upcoming movies and/or movies I don't have in my DVD collection.
   	Posted November 6th, 2008 at 06:47 AM by noodle0621

5. Blueray is great.. BUT... The whole blueray/ dvd/vhs thing reminds me of the vinyl/ cassette/cd thing. I was suckered into replacing all my vinyl with cassette, then my cassettes with CD's. I have spent a small fortune buying the same music 3 times over. But I won't be doing the same with blueray. Yes, blueray is great, fantastic, super etc. BUT my blueray discs will only play in one place in my house - on my PS3. That is why I only have 4 blueray discs. My 200+ DVD's will play in my study, on the TV/DVD player in front of my treadmill, on my portable DVD player when I travel, and on my laptop at work in my lunchbreak. I can also afford to feed my reg DVD players - prices for good older movies are about ones sixth the price of bluerays. And at the end of the day when you have seen a movie you have seen it. Movies, imho, do not stand up to repeat plays like music does. I sometimes wonder why I even own so many DVD's.

   Posted November 10th, 2008 at 11:14 PM by shepsnoop

6. Missing the point? I wonder if you are missing the point, as it were. HD is driving Bluray, and not the other way around. HD TV analog/digital broadcasts, STBs streaming HD, etc. offer consumers a visual/auditory experience next to none, compard to SD TV. Once the consumer commits to an HDTV, with its associated costs (cables, speakers, a new STB, etc) the cost of replacing a perfectly capable upscaling DVD player becomes trivial. We have a multiplicity of TVs at home, only two of which are HD, and those two have HD STB from Comcast and Bluray DVD players. When the other 4 TVs in the house are replaced with larger HDTVs, it makes little sense NOT to replace the DVD player. The costs of individual Bluray DVDs are plummeting and the players themselves are now in the $250 range, not a major expense compared to the HDTV itself (medium to upper bracket sets, not noname 720p models). I agree that Bluray adoption will be much slower than that of CDs, but there's a long way to go before streaming HD video is either practical or affordable, or has the PQ offered by Bluray. I would not sequester Bluray in the corner with SACD, DVD-A and the like quite yet.

   Posted November 15th, 2008 at 11:59 PM by ishan

7. 	If you have front projection blu ray is awesome, you def notice the difference, 50 inch tvs, not so much
   	Posted October 20th, 2009 at 11:01 PM by Ryan (guest)

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