Blu-ray facing slow adoption among PCs

[Matthew DeCarlo]

According to research firm iSuppli, Blu-ray drives have a long path ahead before establishing a strong presence in the PC arena. The firm concluded that despite the accelerated consumption of Blu-ray players, as well as more and cheaper high-definition movie titles, few PCs are Blu-ray equipped. It is estimated that by 2013 Blu-ray drives will be present in 16.3% of shipped PCs - up from 3.6% this year.

iSuppli senior analyst Michael Yang said the technology would eventually find success, but that success will be limited in the PC sector through the next five years. Yang went on to add that cost is the primary hurdle. Consumers are simply unwilling to pay a premium for high-definition PC drives. Rightfully so, overall there is a pretty limited library of Blu-ray content.

Yang compared Blu-ray's transition to dominance with previous eras of storage media. The 3.5" floppy drive lived for some 15-plus years before falling out to CDs, which eventually succumbed to the present DVD. The change is typically stimulated by a rapid adoption in everything including music, games, and movies - a crucial phase that Blu-ray has yet to hit.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/35981-blu-ray-facing-slow-adoption-among-pcs.html

 

[Richy2k9]

hello!
seems like they should concentrate on having cheaper BD-Burners & BD-Rs, BD Drive only won't make it.
cheers...

 

[Burty117]

Completely agree, the media is almost the same price as DVD's but the players are an insane price! once they're down to £30 or less then the ball will get rolling =)

 

[Guest]

i don't think the music industry has ever embraced 3.5" floppies or DVDs

 

[Burty117]

Thats not true, go to HMV in london and theres loads of DVD music there, just showing live tours and music videos mainly, but they did try, When I first saw them i was actually shocked as to hom many there was!

 

[-Kestrel-]

The reason Blu-Ray drives aren't found in more PCs--especially home-brews--is because the software to play Blu-Ray discs ranges from nonexistent to horrible. I must admit, though, one thing I miss after moving from Windows to OS X is NOT having my internal BD player available anymore.

 

[TomSEA]

Blu-Ray is the poster child of how not to implement new technology. Toshiba and Sony engaged in a needless HD technology battle against each other, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars pushing their own version of HD. Toshiba eventually won and said, "Yippee - here it is, the best thing since sliced bread. Everybody buy one!" Only there were no players, no media, and a lot of confusion as to exactly what it was. On top of that, the pricing for everything from media to players was off-the-charts compared to normal DVD technology, and still is in some cases. And as Richy2K9 and Kestrel mentioned, burners are expensive, few and far between and software is clunky as hell.
And this is for a technology that has been out for over a year and a half now.

 

[Guest]

Have to agree with what has been said before, too expensive and software to work with it is pretty poor to average.

Although it was Sony who actually won the HD Technology battle against Toshiba, Sony developed Blu-Ray hence the PS3 coming with a Blu-Ray player, Toshiba came up with HD-DVD which was dropped early last year.

 

[TomSEA]

Yup, that's true - I stand corrected.

 

[SNGX1275]

The problem is all the damn copyright protection on top of the cost. I have to have a HDCP compliant video card and monitor before I can watch a BluRay movie on my computer.

 

[LinkedKube]

I just use windows media classic to play blue ray movies, like a previous poster said, the software sucks, even the firmware for stand alone blueray players have issues and is hard to update.

 

[habbfan]

Blu Ray 2 G*y

This tech is a non starter. Too many restrictions. Too expensive to implement. Too expensive for both equipment and media compared to DVD. Economic down turn and increased internet options result in something that will not fly. It will hang on in much the same way that vinyl LP's do, expensive, rare and of questionable value.

I only purchase DVD under $10. I rip them to a reasonably high bit rate and burn them to DVD to play on my DIVX capable player. It upscales and I get quite good results. Of course, I am older and have somewhat less than 20/20 eye sight but it does the trick. I have been to see the difference side by side and really couldn't tell of much difference.

This thing reminds of one of the key reasons VHS beat Beta. The Beta cassettes could record about 1 hour and the VHS could record 2. Sony thought people would only want to record TV programs and not 2 hour movies. Recording FTA movies and the rise of a home rental market settled the issue. An earlier example of Sony's wrong headed decisions.

The rather large collective yawn that has greeted the full scale advertising assault fo Blu Ray should be obvious to all concerned by now. We have seen the demise of the home video rental market come ever closer, there exists fewer outlets for spontaneous purchase or rental of these BR physical disks. The selling job required to push these into a majority position is going to be huge. I don't believe the firms behind this have the time, money or stomach for the losses they will incur.

 

[gguerra]

Not as bad as some people think and it will only get better

Current Pricing (Approximate)
LG DVD Burner $140
Sony BD-ROM $79
Generic Brand 25GB BD-R Around $3
Software: to "Backup BD's AnyDVD HD ($79)
w/ImgBurn (free)
Playback software: PowerDVD, WinDVD or my favorite Total Media Theatre

This software solution is adequate. AnyDVD HD will Rip to the Hard Drive in either BD Structure or Image file (ISO). Imgburn which is free will then burn it flawlessly. The only thing missing although not completely (BD Rebuilder) is good software that will "squeeze" a 50GB on to 25GB BD-R

The only thing that is still pricy are the BD-R 50GB which are required for most movies out nowadays. They are around $10 each in quantity

Give it 6 months to a year and things should improve

I have been to see the difference side by side and really couldn't tell of much difference.

And as far as not seeing the difference in "upscaling" DVD players and true Blu-Ray you would have to be blind not to tell the difference (no offense). Try watching a superior quality Bluray like Dark Knight on a 52" 1080p LCD and you will be amazed.

 

[Julio Franco]

Use of Blu-ray media for data storage I dare to say is almost non-existent. My guess is that drives won't become mainstream until the marginal price of including one on a fully equipped PC vs. a standard DVD drive comes closer to zero.

 

[Guest]

Toshiba didn't eventually win, Sony did, BluRay is Sony's standard. Recently I read some news about Toshiba applying to join BR group.

 

[captaincranky]

Toshiba didn't eventually win, Sony did, BluRay is Sony's standard. Recently I read some news about Toshiba applying to join BR group.

I've always had an unanswered question about this. It doesn't seem that Toshiba can actually lose with respect to Blu-Ray vs HiDef DVD. TSST is Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology. Samsung championed Blu-Ray. So, since they already build drives together, one would think that Toshiba is already in the Blu-Ray business. Now, whatever extravagant licensing fees Sony can extract to let them use the format, are another matter altogether.

The entertainment industry seems really out of touch with the economy, if they think they are going to get rapid adoption of Blu-Ray, in light with the prices they charge, There is apparently no portion of people's "disposable income" they feel they're not entitled to.

 

[SNGX1275]

Blugay goes against the trend of technology. Things are supposed to get better and cheaper.

Instead, its better than dvd, more expensive than dvd but requires expensive players, and more restrictive. I don't think there is really any technological reason that it should still cost 5x what a dvd player does. Now that BluRay has won the HD war, and did so like 2 years ago now, if the REALLY wanted widespread adoption they'd sell the players at or below cost of production. Make a cheap player for $50, an enthusiast player for $80-100 and a high end one for $150-200 and people will jump all over it. Once the hardware is in the homes the disk sales will come.

 

[captaincranky]

"blugay", SNGX? I've never heard it called that before.

Although, if they sold the players as loss leader items, I fear they'd want to raise the price of the discs even more. Sort of like the relationship between ink and printers.

Ten years from now when UV-Ray disc players are beginning to be availablem Blu-Ray discs and payers will be affordable, just as DVD is now. And you talk about DRM....you just wait.

 

[SNGX1275]

yes, blugay.

Nah they wouldn't raise the prices, well they might, but I bet a buisness model could be made up showing that they could sell the players at a loss and gain money on disk sales. Isn't that what MS did with the xbox? Plus, I'm sure people, including me, would pick up a player for $50 or less, and then be like "well I've got the player, I guess I need to start buying some bluray disks for it".

Toshiba tried this when they saw they were probably going to lose, and they sold HD-DVD players for $100 at Wal-Mart. I got one of them actually. I bought it knowing they'd probably lose, but there were a few good titles out on HDDVD, and I got Planet Earth gifted to me. I don't care how bad HDDVD lost, Planet Earth on HDDVD still looks f-ing fantastic on my 46" bravia.

 

[freythman]

Don't worry about DRM, cranky, if it can be created, it most certainly will be cracked... Nonetheless, when Blu-Ray Burners become cheaply available, or my favorite games are on Blu-Ray, then I'll succumb to the rushing Blu tide.

 

[captaincranky]

Is That Anything Like "GAYDAR"......?

yes, blugay.

Nah they wouldn't raise the prices, well they might, but I bet a buisness model could be made up showing that they could sell the players at a loss and gain money on disk sales. Isn't that what MS did with the xbox? Plus, I'm sure people, including me, would pick up a player for $50 or less, and then be like "well I've got the player, I guess I need to start buying some bluray disks for it"..

I agree, to a point. I just don't think the disposable income is around ATM. I bought my first DVD player, (Pioneer), when after the price dropped to an astounding $129.95, and a stand alone DVD recorder, when the price dropped from $1000,00 to $289.95. People are stupid and lazy, I fear that the internet will captivate more and more of the weak of mind, as a sole source of TV and Movie entertainment. I can't relinquish the notion that, something tangible, like a DVD, is the only way to own and enjoy video media.

Toshiba tried this when they saw they were probably going to lose, and they sold HD-DVD players for $100 at Wal-Mart. I got one of them actually. I bought it knowing they'd probably lose, but there were a few good titles out on HDDVD, and I got Planet Earth gifted to me. I don't care how bad HDDVD lost, Planet Earth on HDDVD still looks f-ing fantastic on my 46" bravia.

The oddity here is, many people can't tell the difference. I was at Walmart, and some people were looking at the TVs. I showed them how to tell a TN panel, from the better types. "See look, it almost goes into negative when you view it off axis". "Well that doesn't matter does it", was the reply.

The problem with format change, is you're expected to buy all new copies of the same things you already. When the discussion turns to Blu-Ray it's quality of reproduction far exceeds the quality of much of the source. Would I be branded an *****, it I bought the entire "I love Lucy" series on Blu-Ray? Probably not, but I damned well should be.

The thing that really brought this home to me recently, was watching "Transformers", in IMAX. I sincerely doubt that it was ever shot in IMAX, just a transfer to that format. Grainy, unsharp, and suffering dramatic amounts of rectilinear distortion at the ends of the screen.

I bought the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica, and standard DVD (upconverted) is way capable of showing the source's faults. I'm certainly not willing to spring an extra 20 bucks for a Blu-Ray set, to sit there and watch a s***load of video noise in the shadows.

Love those 720P newscasts though, you can keep track of how the anchorwomen are aging.

 

[SNGX1275]

I always hear that people can't tell the difference. I wonder how true that is. I bet if you try and compare HD to SD at Wal-Mart there probably is little difference, likely because walmart has split their component video 40 times to run to all their TVs.

I think though if you gave them a digital cable or a satellite source and showed them composite, svid, component, 720p hdmi, 1080p hdmi, they would be able to tell the difference between every one of them with the exception of maybe component and 720. I think a lot of the "I can't tell the difference" is either from people with really bad eyesight OR victims of poor setups.

 

[mailpup]

...they could sell the players at a loss and gain money on disk sales.

The problem with that is the ones making the Blu-Ray hardware are not the same ones publishing the disks.

 

[SNGX1275]

That is partially true. One of them making disks IS Sony though... Sony could sell bluray players at or below costs.

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ...
dont' worry! as usual all HW follows the same route, high price & scarce in the beginning & very cheap in the end .. we just need it to reach the pirates ... ha!
moreover i use Blu-ray on a PS3 & all i can say is WOW!, i on't still replace my DVD collection, they are upscaled on it, i need to start filling my Blu-ray collection for i can find media almost same price as DVDs online.
i really want a blu-ray drive on my PC, mostly for backup ... i do have a lot to do for i do video recording & multimedia authoring, the BD-Drives available are only half the price of a burner but still too expensive, mostly when we have to add BD-R (25Gb ONLY) price + the 2 hours of burning ... yes i know some having a BD-Writer .. it will be worth it when i'll have less than 1$ BD-R & burn time not exceeding 25 minutes.
so all the manufacturers out there .. release some cheap media & burners ... & let the world enjoy pure HD marvel ..
cheers!