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Microsoft was recently asked about the DVD format holding the Xbox 360 back in terms of its lifespan, suggesting that embracing Blu-ray would have been a better long-term solution. "I think people now recognise what a smart decision it was to keep the pricing low, and actually Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format," UK Xbox head Stephen McGill told Xbox 360 Achievements. "People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming, so we offer full HD 1080p Blu-ray quality streaming instantly, no download, no delay. So, who needs Blu-ray?"
It appears that the departure from focusing on HD physical media early on forced the Xbox team to look towards digital downloads for future products. Now, the company says streaming HD content defeats the need for Blu-ray. While streaming content is definitely the future, and will eventually kill physical media, we're thinking Blu-ray isn't going away anytime soon: discs and players are selling just fine. Furthermore, there are still many consumers who find themselves on a capped Internet connection, and if they want HD, Blu-Ray is still the way to go.
Many people are seeing this stance from Microsoft as a demonstration to side with Apple, which also hates on Blu-ray, but the fact is the company has always been against Blu-ray due to its fight in the console market with Sony. Interestingly, Microsoft recently used Blu-ray as one of many arguments against Apple's Macs.
User Comments: 38
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I used rip them all of the time. I've never had a movie greater than 15 gigs. I'm talking Avatar, dark night, pirates of the caribbean, district 9, 9, iron man,and watchmen. a ton of newer movies that would take better advantage than something digitally remastered. This is, as I said, with subtitles and audio.
@richy: Blues brothers is a decade old. I'm aware that old movies are cheap.
30 dollars is the max that I've seen them recently but 25 isn't that far off. The cheapest I can find Iron Man 2 is 20 bucks and I'll admit thats cheaper than I expected but that's after checking 9 sites. For someone that used to wlk into target and walmart and buy 4 DVDs a week, thats not good enough. Once the price comes down further then I'll be interested.
I'm just saying, in my personal experience, I went from move aficionado to the casual theater showing and occasional download. My excitement over blu ray died years ago, maybe in another year or two it'll be decent.
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I agree that optical disk is on its last legs - and it's probable that bluray will be the end of it... but I don't think there's currently a viable alternative for audio and videophiles.
Not far from the truth, if I had a good connection (like PH described earlier) I wouldn't even bother about any optical drive in my PC ..... but for now I do need it, and it doesn't bother me that it isn't a blue ray, perhaps I'll be among the last few who are holding out for something better, or else BR to get dirt cheap like DVDs are. Beside, if I like a movie, I prefer to watch it in cinema anyway instead of being a couch potato
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LNCPapa said:
I'm lazy and surprisingly not fat, but a couch potato nonetheless so I dump lots of cash into my home theater and prefer to watch things at home. I'll go to the movies occasionally, but having small kids limits how often I can do that. I'd like to call myself an audio and videophile, but in truth I don't spend nearly the amount of money I used to on AV stuff so I'm more of a fan than fanatic these days - maybe when I start my midlife crisis I'll be back
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maybe when I start my midlife crisis I'll be back
Perhaps you may choose to buy an motorcycle to celebrate the occasion?
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LNCPapa said:
Not a bike - but a sports car for sure. And whatever is the biggest TV I can get under $10k at that time.
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Blue ray....why don't they just make 3D like in the movies?it would be awesome...
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@LNCPapa
sports car, ..... considering that you are in NC, will it be a muscle car?
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Maybe the next format will be solid state, cartridge type things. There are already 64GB SD cards, sure they are insanely expensive. But 32 GB ones are about 1/4 the price, so waiting for them to drop to 'reasonable' levels might not be too long. If a 64 GB one could get down to less than $20, then movies might start appearing on them. Some Blurays are already $40, get the SD Card version for $45-50 and it would never scratch..
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That is a very good point SNG, that may give these companies some leverage as well with regard to implementation of DRM or other restrictive options.
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I can't bloody stand Microsoft and their ego...(Writing this on a windows 7 OS.. lol)
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teklord said:
The next HD optical format after Blu-ray may not be too far away but I still think MS should embrace it for it's next-gen game system before the next format is released. Until fast internet connections are easily accessible to all people, they will still need the physical disc because they don't want to wait days for one movie download.
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Maybe the next format will be solid state, cartridge type things. There are already 64GB SD cards, sure they are insanely expensive. But 32 GB ones are about 1/4 the price, so waiting for them to drop to 'reasonable' levels might not be too long. If a 64 GB one could get down to less than $20, then movies might start appearing on them. Some Blurays are already $40, get the SD Card version for $45-50 and it would never scratch..Here we'd be going "Back to the Future" so to speak. After all, isn't this what the Atari 2600 was all about?
I actually think that we spend too much time nitpicking the reproduction quality, and not enough nitpicking the content. To be sure, VHS is no longer watchable, (for the most part), since we've been spoiled by HD. But DVD, with (upconversion), is still great stuff. As for all the BS "premium content" that Blu-Ray has to offer, I find that you can only watch a "making off" featurette a maximum of once. Well, unless the ingenue is next to naked. Beyond that, they usually manage to ruin the "suspension of disbelief" effect altogether, with the "how we did that shot" shorts. Call me foolish, but I still want to believe the the planet "Pandora", actually exists.
Many of us spend so much time talking about quality, and then stand around trying to watch Hi-def content on a smart phone. That's paradoxical, if not outright idiotic.
Oh, and I'd still like to point out, if we let the optical disc die, due to laziness and complacency, then the content providers have us exactly where they've been trying to herd us for years, right where they can control the content, and make you pay the max for it.
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Ha Microsoft is so silly. As a gamer and an owner of their console I have to say they are making a mistake. Blu Ray is good. And in the future they really are going to be taking a dive for this. But I am sure they do not care considering that they have enough money that a loss in the Blu Ray market is barely going to hurt them. Way to go Microsoft. If game developers would just start making games for Linux based computers I could finally stop using their retarded OS lol.
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