HD is dead long live Blue ray
20/02/08 20:26 Filed in: Media
For many observers of tech news, this weeks
announcement that Toshiba is stopping
production of HD DVD equipment and that
therefore HD is DVD is dead falls in the
category of old news. So what does this mean for
the future of home entreatment.
Well if you ask me, not that much really.
It is true that now HD is dying and more importantly with the story making it on to the national news here in the UK, people now know it's dying. The fact that the news is now getting spread out side of us hardcore techies means that the death will be hastened. And I guess it's important that people know, because looking at the shelves of my local music/video shop, it's hard to tell which format is winning. For a time last year there where defintaley more space for Blue ray disks than HD, it was probably a 70/30 split. Then for some reason (maybe price drops) towards the end of the year the balance was about 50/50. Although looking at the titles closely you could see that there where more newer titles on Blue Ray.
So why don't I think this news is that important? Well firstly on a personal level I don't have a player for either format (my friends with xbox 360 external drives a probably feeling a little ill right now!). But also the in fighting between the two formats has held back wide spread acceptance of the whole HD video thing and now there is only one real format to choose, I think the damage is done.
I think this for two reasons. 1, I don't think to the general public the extra quality is worth the extra expense. It's not like the difference between DVD and VHS. There you didn't need to change your TV set to see the difference. With Blue Ray you do. Yes it's hard not to get a set now days that doesn't have an HDMI socket on it, so HD sets are slowly spreading, but for most people this will only happen when they replace an old set. Your average Joe is not going to rush and buy a new TV set just so he can then buy a new DVD player and then re-buy all of his favorite films again!
The second reason is that HD downloads are beginning to come in now and I think these will make the whole DVD thing irrelevant.
On this I tend to agree with Steve Jobs. I don't always want to own the moves I watch. Okay to look at my DVD collection you might not believe that. But of my 100+ DVD's I've probably only watched 5% more than once. I would have been quite happy to have rented the other 95%. So why didn't I. Most of them I bought with in the first few months of getting my first DVD player. In those days I definitely thought more was better!
So the way I see things going from here is that Blue Ray will build market share slowly, but that downloaded content is growing and with continue to grow and will in a few years out pace Blue Ray. I give Blue Ray 5 years before we see a story like this about it!
It is true that now HD is dying and more importantly with the story making it on to the national news here in the UK, people now know it's dying. The fact that the news is now getting spread out side of us hardcore techies means that the death will be hastened. And I guess it's important that people know, because looking at the shelves of my local music/video shop, it's hard to tell which format is winning. For a time last year there where defintaley more space for Blue ray disks than HD, it was probably a 70/30 split. Then for some reason (maybe price drops) towards the end of the year the balance was about 50/50. Although looking at the titles closely you could see that there where more newer titles on Blue Ray.
So why don't I think this news is that important? Well firstly on a personal level I don't have a player for either format (my friends with xbox 360 external drives a probably feeling a little ill right now!). But also the in fighting between the two formats has held back wide spread acceptance of the whole HD video thing and now there is only one real format to choose, I think the damage is done.
I think this for two reasons. 1, I don't think to the general public the extra quality is worth the extra expense. It's not like the difference between DVD and VHS. There you didn't need to change your TV set to see the difference. With Blue Ray you do. Yes it's hard not to get a set now days that doesn't have an HDMI socket on it, so HD sets are slowly spreading, but for most people this will only happen when they replace an old set. Your average Joe is not going to rush and buy a new TV set just so he can then buy a new DVD player and then re-buy all of his favorite films again!
The second reason is that HD downloads are beginning to come in now and I think these will make the whole DVD thing irrelevant.
On this I tend to agree with Steve Jobs. I don't always want to own the moves I watch. Okay to look at my DVD collection you might not believe that. But of my 100+ DVD's I've probably only watched 5% more than once. I would have been quite happy to have rented the other 95%. So why didn't I. Most of them I bought with in the first few months of getting my first DVD player. In those days I definitely thought more was better!
So the way I see things going from here is that Blue Ray will build market share slowly, but that downloaded content is growing and with continue to grow and will in a few years out pace Blue Ray. I give Blue Ray 5 years before we see a story like this about it!
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