As most of you know, Blockbuster filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. Most experts chalk this up to a combination of streaming video and Netflix killing brick-and-mortar rental stores. Now that Blockbuster is pretty much dead, who will be the next victim? Will it be the Blu-ray format? Microsoft UK Xbox & Entertainment director Stephen McGill believes so (though he’s obviously biased). He told Xbox 360 Achievements:
Blu-ray is going to be passed by as a format. 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?
What do you think? Will the convenience and immediacy of streaming video kill Blu-ray? Or are Blu-ray’s fantastic picture quality and uncompressed audio enough to keep the format going? Kindly vote in today’s poll and state your case in the comments section.
[poll id=”72″]
No. There are ppl who cannot get hispeed Internet, caps, and those who invest a lot in their set up to settle for compression.
Not in the US anyway.
i choose ask again later, as smartguy stated there are some people who have ISP's with caps so to avoid being charged more for internet they will avoid this. Until ISPs remove their caps it's hard to declare the downfall of Blu-ray, especially when half of population has barely adopted the blu-ray format.
@smartguy That's more of an American issue and a problem in a few other countries as well. Not only is America behind in terms of broadband speed and penetration, its consumers have to deal with telecom idiocy.
@Ray
Yes I fully agree. I'm not very impressed with the HD from Netflix either. I rented an HD movie from Zune to see how it looked and while it was better, the price was too steep.
The way to solve that "telecom idiocy" problem is to lower the barriers to entry in that market and allow "mom & pop" and other start-up companies to sell us broadband service. In essence; the more companies you have trying to provide you with a service, and the more competitive the marketplace is, the better and cheaper service you will find.
The telecom oligopoly needs to end for consumers to be empowered.
In the meantime, I should think that old-timers would like to have the physical copy of whatever their entertainment is while the younger generation that is growing up with digital distribution may think that it (DD) is the norm and eventually make the disks of tomorrow what records are today.
-M
@Iceman Good luck with that!
I went with ask again later. I would agree with everyone before me that there are a lot of problems with high speed internet, ISP's, caps, etc. If those things disappear like Ray made it seem other countries have found a way of doing (I would love to know more about how other countries handle their issues like this) then I think digital distribution has a great shot at taking down blu-ray shortly after that happens. I would prefer digital distribution of HD content if I had all of the means necessary, but who knows when I will get a tv capable of HD. By that same token, who knows when I would get a blu-ray player either. Digital distribution and streaming is definitely the way I would rather go in the long run though.
@Iceman
Even though I am not that old, I do usually prefer to have physical copies of what I buy. I have no good reason for it all, and I am trying to break myself of it, but I do not fully trust digital only. I like having discs of tv shows, but the digital copies I have "obtained" are what I prefer to watch more often than not.
@bsukenyan It's not a matter of other countries making the issue disappear. For many cases, they didn't have the issue to begin with. For example, most telecom companies in America are holding back on technology because they don't have competition. That just sucks.
Rpad said it right, thats how it is.
ill only say this
lower the price of blu ray movies..its 2010, no one wants to pay 30 bucks for a movie (granted you can get them on amazon for about 20, but still this is too much)
@Thundercracker
I said that last night talking to a friend. Why are new DVDs priced at $20? That format is so cheap and you'd think they want to compete favorably with the rental market. A new blurry should be about $15 max whereas DVD starts at $10.
I'd honestly buy more movies at those prices.
I also feel like the guy from Tomorrow Never Dies because I type very fast with one hand now on my iPad.
@ SG
Where is the other hand, on second thought dont tell lol.
@ Rpad
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@BB
Lol :)
Not being a tech-guru, can someone tell me why I can watch a movie on cable in HD and digital surround, but when I stream something from Netflix or PSN, it's in HD but without digital audio? For me, it'll be Blu-ray until streaming can give me the audio that I want.
@R-Pad- I see others wishing you a happy birthday. I missed when it was, but I'll still say it:
Happy B-Day Ray! I hope you had/are having/will have a good one! I'll raise a pint in your favor later tonight! Thanks for taking the time to run this site. Even though I don't say much, I still feel like a part of this little community of gamers here.
@Redd
Netflix doesn't pipe in surround data because of the bandwidth. I'm on a 20meg connection and it still doesn't happen for me. I did get some good graphs showing how much bandwidth you need for Netflix. I'll email them to Ray so he can post them if he so chooses.
Thanks!