Who Cares about Blu-Ray?

Shane Burley writes:

"After the dust settled between the two relatively similar formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray, it seemed like Blu-ray was the official winner. This seems contrary to conventional logic because adult film companies, by far the largest sellers of home video discs, almost roundly accepted HD-DVD as the new standard. So the only way Blu-ray could possibly have won without the support of porn companies is by bringing their product to a new market-but was that market really looking for another physical video format?"

[tk]

BR making inroads... as result many BR haters downplay it. One of 100 similar "articles" and blogs trying to tell the consumer that he bought his HD TV to watch SD content.

[thereapersson]

All those compressed movies, offering compression artifacts and macro blocking... boy, I'm glad my cable service offers that!

Oh yeah, and I can't forget, upscaled DVD's are true HD! Who needs 1080p when my 480p signal stretched across a 1080p screen will do just fine!

Yeah man, screw Blu-Ray. Who needs a better picture?

[Lanoire]

And here I thought Blu Ray had dismissal sales and will die because digital downloads is taking over by the end of 2008.

I mean isnt that what Microsoft said just 5 months ago?

Man, what a joke.

[thereapersson]

Look at who submitted this article.

Hey BloodySinner, i'm glad you decided to pair up your flamebait anti-blu-ray article with a picture of equal flamebait merit, lol...

[SL1M DADDY]

Yet another stupid BD hater blogging about the format with little to no truth or substance. Golly guys, what happened when Iron Man was released on BD? Oh yeah, it broke tons of records and sold tons thus proving that BD is on it's way in and DVD is slowly on its way out. Can't wait to see what these idiot critics say when the Dark Knight is released.

[Ateanboy]

@thereapersson

I LOVE the way people think that Downloads are the future... It makes me realize how gullible people can really be...

If most people are like myself, and I think they are, then most people will like to know that the movie they've purchased is in a physical form, a secure form. I can take that movie where ever I want. A friend's house, a relative's house, etc. And when I'm bored of it, I can even SELL the movie forward, or let a friend have it for free.

These are ALL things that CAN'T be done with movie downloads. And this is why digital content will NEVER be the future.

With that said, I suspect that the people who don't care about blu-ray are the people who have never seen a Blu-ray movie on an HDTV. After 1 or 2 blu-rays you get spoiled, and you never want to watch a normal DVD ever again.

Trust me.

[Gothdom]

as I stated before, I'll believe in the possibility of Digital Downloawds when the Internet Service Providers stop being jerks.

[red5ive]

you speak the truth brother. i really want everything on bd now.

[pwnsause]

wow, these HD-DVD fanboys keep on trying even though their format is dead.

[The Stuttttterer]

Just Look at who Sub-bbbmited it

[meepmoopmeep]

^^^

lmao at your username and the way you comment.

[Sarcasm]

Simple Jack, is that you???

[BLuKhaos]

I guess some people like having a turd smeared across they're eyes.BLu-Ray is like sex to your eyes.

[Kakkoii]

It's not like the DVD porn industry is even that big anymore anyways, the internet has stolen so much of it's profits. It's mostly porn paysites that make the money now. While other stuff is just downloaded for free. Or most people stick to the free porn clip type porn sites, as there is usually more interesting porn to watch there than the plastic looking generic porn that's sold mostly these days.

[xhairs9]

Hooray for longer porns!

[chewmystink]

Stop with shoving digital download service down our throat which is what this article is getting at.
You run with digital download service and I can guarantee thats when movies will become a disposable item. A consumer isn't going to see the "worth" of all these movies sitting on their hard drive, that they have paid top dollar for and cannot sell, trade or buy second hand. You will just see more so of a shift to people downloading movies through peer to peer or other mechanisms instead of paying a provider for it.
Then the argument will be that paid for movie services are of better quality than a divx/xvid download, which is the same argument now between dvd and bluray so it goes both ways. Also encoding techniques are getting better and we could shift away from divx/xvid encoded movies on the peer to peer networks.
Please just give it up, bluray is here to stay and has that many more cons to it as a format than a digital distribution service that only the blind analysts and companies with vested interests ie Micro$oft keep pushing for digital distribution model which will be there but will always be a niche market due to so many limiting restrictions of it's use.

[nos4speed]

Couldnt agree more! Blu-ray is like watching a whole new experience the quality is sooo good. And I hate the idea of digital download service, I could go to my local store and get a blu-ray quicker than I could download a low quality movie, then theres the idea of having somewere to store all these movies, low quality ones look crap, high quality swallow space like a basking shark! and of course you cant forget about insurance....If I have a collection of 50 blu-ray movies and have a house fire then my insirance will cover it, but most insurance firms dont cover downloads. To me download movies seem like to much effort for too little benefit.

[Ju]

Buuut... DD is the future. That's why there is a console without a HDD - and w/o BD drive. Hm. err...

[user858621]

I Do!!! loving the thing!! ordered season 1 of terminator and damages :D next week it'll be heroes seasons 1 n 2 :D wooo!!!

[B-Rein]

I DO!!!!! if you own blu ray dvds then youll see, (they dont get damaged easily) they hold alot of data and also they look quality

[Counter_ACT]

Apparently half a million Iron Man fans care about Blu-Ray.

[Megatron08]

half a million is a joke when it comes to movies sells. it probably sold like 50 million copies on dvd.

[PirateThom]

How many people own DVD players?

Think about it.

500,000 for a format that isn't mainstream is fantastic.

[BlackCountryBob]

In the year 2000, Gladiator was the first film on DVD to sell over 100,000 copies in 1 week! DVD does sell a lot more than BD now but considering the point in its development, BD is selling like hotcakes.

BD is a great format and it will be a cold day in hell before I go all D/L; its not a fanboy thing but a desire to keep control of my content and not have it taken away from me when the DRM is scrapped as provider X has decided to close its store.

[Ju]

I just can see it coming. Copy your whole DRMed library to a new server when the old one dies. Oh, I will enjoy reading the blogs then. We will get "private system admins" then.

[theEnemy]

Now wait on December, when "The Dark Knight" lands on Blu-Ray.

It will own the sales of Iron Man. :)

[Karum]

I stopped reading when I got to here

"and now we are likely going to take a final step into complete digital data storage and distribution."

Digital distribution other than music (e.g. iTunes) and movie piracy we are not anywhere close to complete digital storage and distribution. The reasons for this are so blindingly obvious I really have no idea how or why idiotic "journalists" like this can actually write this kind of junk.

Digital distribution and storage will probably be mainstream some day but it won't be any time soon.

[thereapersson]

Also, we can't forget that many ISP's are now imposing bandwidth caps on their services, effectively neutering any chance of digital distribution to ever make a major impact.

When data providers are taking backwards steps in today's forward-moving world of technology, disc-based media will continue to be the dominant form of content delivery.

[Megatron08]

DD will probably surpass blu ray shortly after netflix is released on the 360. 500,000 is easy to catch up to when you can get unlimited movies/tv for a 1/4 of the price of 1 movie

[PirateThom]

Enjoy your lossy digital format. :)

[thereapersson]

Considering there are more people than that who have PC's and are Netflix subscribers, and who can also get that same content through their web browsers. The amount of movies in the Netflix "view it now" service is VERY limited when compared to the amount of movies that are currently available for rental by mail; that also, incidentally happens to be the EXACT service that XBOX 360 users will be utilizing on their consoles.

Oh yeah, and not to mention the fact that those movies are of relatively average quality, with some ending up looking worse than DVD's. Trust me, I've been a Netflix user for about a year and a half, and I've gone through a good portion of the "View it Now" category.

Come on dude, if you're going to provide an argument against this subject, at least come up with something better than that.

[Karum]

How many of those 120 gig 360 hard drives do you plan on purchasing to support your digital storage/distribution habit?

lol be serious here

[Bubble Buddy]

Megatron: This is why the Decepticons always lose. You're always wrong.

[meepmoopmeep]

yeah, the engineers developing both HD-DVD and Blu-ray only made it solely for the porn industry.

give it up already.
suck it up and move on with your life.

[thereapersson]

This author using the idea that the porn industry will control the way the market adopts such and such disc media is ridiculous, and has been shot down so many times one would get the idea that this guy just likes to hear himself talk.

[ScottEFresh]

Now that I've seen Blu-Ray in full action I will never go back to regular DVD if I don't have to. Blu-ray or bust...Transformers...Ironman. ..even the Mission Impossible series...just look amazing (amazingly better then regular old DVD).

[kratos-i-am]

I'm surprised people haven't considered Blu Ray for SD content that's spread on multiple DVDs like TV shows, old movie collections e.t.c. Can you imagine putting all of that content on one disc! When you also consider the fact that Blu Ray costs the same to produce as regular DVDs its really a no brainer. And yes it DOES COST THE SAME AS REGULAR DVDs! Just look up:

http://electronics.howstuff...

"The design of the Blu-ray discs saves on manufacturing costs. Traditional DVDs are built by injection molding the two 0.6-mm discs between which the recording layer is sandwiched. The process must be done very carefully to prevent birefringence.

1. The two discs are molded.
2. The recording layer is added to one of the discs.
3. The two discs are glued together.

Blu-ray discs only do the injection-molding process on a single 1.1-mm disc, which reduces cost. That savings balances out the cost of adding the protective layer, so the end price is no more than the price of a regular DVD."

[BlackCountryBob]

I kinda like that idea, if I had the option of an entire series of West Wing in SD on a BD for less than the cost of the 5 or 6 disk normal DVD then I am in.

Obviously HD material would be better but given that an entire series in HD would cost so much more I like the idea of the option being available. Its something I hope someone tries.

[Mike134nl]

Simply because I believe it is only a transitional medium, which needed 1-2 years of more development (didn't had the features of HD-DVD and slow reading speed).

But more likely to be replaced within a few years with for example The Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) wihch has a transfer rate of 1 Gbit/s (125 MB/s)and a capacity of 3.9 terabytes.

[meepmoopmeep]

what about Super-Crazy-Volitle disc that comes after that?
or Crazy-Super-Holographic-Uber-C apacity disc after that?
or...
or...

see what i'm getting at here?

[Marty8370]

The Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) is a long way off. They cost over $15k right now, hardly an alternative too Blu-ray.

As long as internet connection's are slow and expensive 'Digital downloads' will never replace Blu-ray as the HD media of choice.

Blu-ray has a nice upgradeable path that will see it reach Tb's of storage in the future.

[Megatron08]

and 10 years ago lcd tv cost like 40k. Plus they already have tv's that are over 1080p meaning that blu ray will be worthless in a few years. No new dvd format is goin to be successful till they come up with a standard res for all tv's.

[meepmoopmeep]

^^^

yeah, and people grow $ on trees and update their expensive home theaters every other year

[madjedi]

You sound like a bitter hd dvd fan mike, my 1x ps3 blu ray drive starts the movie 17 seconds after i push the icon. And as the newer players (non ps3) start coming out 1-2 yrs from now, i don't see why they would not increase the read speed on the player.

Hvd disc over taking blu ray as a movie format in 1-2 yrs lmao, last i read about it a few yrs ago they were 15k per player and $120 per disc vs $251 for a sony br player and 8-$11 per disc.

So exactly when are the 4k+ tvs hitting market are a semi reasonable price say under $1500 for a 40+ inch tv?

And the better question when are we going to see cable channels/movies delivered in 4k+/ultra high definition resolution.
Which would actually require more space than blu rays can hold, i believe pioneer is making a 600-800 blu ray disc?

Until 3-4k tvs and 3-4k content is standard/widespread enough, in either a movie disc or broadcast format, hvd's are utterly pointless as a movie format.

Considering how much money the entertainment industry has invested in blu ray, i would guess it is going to stick around for another 7-15 yrs.

I like advances in technology as much as the next guy, but if it isn't going to be used practically, it's nice but useless.

@megatron
Last i read about 2-3 days ago iron man 7.2 million dvds, 500k blu rays us only it hasn't hit anywhere else at that time, thats almost 8-9% of the sales so far. Not too bad since the install base for dvds is probably 10x greater than blu rays install base.

edit i had it at 700k i couldn't find the link again, so i changed it to 500k.

[IsThatSo]

It wont be the next DVD, more like the next UMD.

[PirateThom]

Wow, way to tow the Microsoft company line.

[kindi_boy]

educate, point out anything that is relevant to anyone or even make sense worst read of my life.

[Ju]

I think if you apply for a job @ MS, you need to sign a contract to blog at least once a month with a subject representing the company's line of interest.

[LukeTheBadguy]

I know quite a few people that have had issues with sony cds on there computers these people will never buy sony trojan blue rays no matter what they will stick with the current format.

[Ju]

Good for them. So they buy disk (as in floppy diskettes) still, hah? No loss for society, I think.

[tk]

1) Watch SD content on an HD-TV
2) Watch a compressed 1GB file in 1080p with artifacts, color compression and lossy audio

Simply put - the content providers care about BR. And they will make the content available more and more on BR. With HD-TV sales increasing, so will the BR sales increase. Except of course if SD TV sales will resurge and kill HD TV sales - which will mean 480p for everyone.

[PirateThom]

Some people are so millitant against Blu-ray for some really questionable reasons.

You won't buy Blu-ray for whatever reasons, but you'll happily pay to download download DRM ridden, sub HD quality rental movies?

I don't understand where the logic is. Although, I think I know why many of you hate Blu-ray (read: Fanboys), if HD-DVD had won I'm sure it would be the format of the future and the only choice for HD. Get over yourselves, Blu-ray was the undisputed winner. More people bought Blu-ray movies, not that hard to understand. If you didn't want Blu-ray to win, maybe you should have bought an HD DVD player and some movies and voted with your wallet.

If Blu-ray lasts 10 years, then it's about the same as DVD, so there's really no excuse. VHS didn't just disappear when DVD released, so why do you expect DVD to disappear instantly with Blu-ray?

I don't even buy new movies on DVD anymore, Blu-ray's are barely more expensive than the DVD versions (less than £3 usually). The leap in picture quality more than warrants the cost of less than a movie ticket.

[Karum]

Agree with you there Thom, the BR prices on play.com are awesome, no more than £3 or £4 from it's DVD equivalent. The only "significant" difference in price is when you buy a DVD without the second disc with bonus features which often go for like £9.99 but who really buys that stuff?

[kratos-i-am]

Yeah I know just looking for hits. I just happened to notice the broken PS3 picture he's obviously a fanboy. lol you have to physically bash a PS3 to get it to look like that! While, with an Xbox 360, it slowly kills itself from the inside!

You know i'm starting to hate these opinion pieces. Seriously, if you look at the whole list of supporters of the format and it's obvious benefits in the long term relating to DRM protection, affordable (same price to manufacture as DVDs), the storage space, portability and transferability (lol someone mentioned flash drives by Toshiba as a substitute how much more expensive would that be?), and ability to purchase as a physical product that does not require hidden expenses such as the case with DD where you need an internet connection which has unlimited data limits + has to be fast. Blu Ray has to be the next mainstream format.

[-Neon-]

As long as I keep finding blu-rays for £9.99 at my local gamestop I'll keep buying them...

[Gam71]

I don't care for blu-ray and won't until its finished and at a reasonable price. £100

Don't give me that buy a ps3 crap because i have so many games consoles i don't want another one.

You wouldn't buy a ps2 if you wanted a cheap no frills but has access to all the features on the disc dvd player.

Lower the price and finish it and i'll take one.

[Marcus Fenix]

blu-ray has a long life 2 live, in gaming and in movies.

[crillyconlig]

because ive just played/watched mgs4 and would of loved swoping dvd9's the whole time............. bluray is needed, for high quality movies and games, compressed 'hd' movies are horrid

[makingdamage]

Who´s still cares about the dvd?
It´s time to move on people.
Dvd was then, bluray is now.

[Sarcasm]

Wow when it rains it pours doesn't it? Anti Blu-Ray articles left and right.

It's not like it's going to make it magically disappear with such articles. It only worked on HD-DVD.

[DoctorXpro]

Im still on DVD

[Marty8370]

Are you back in the dark ages also.

[DeZimatoR]

So many Microsoft fanboys wishing and praying Blu-Ray will fail...lol, its sad.

I stil don't understand why they hate Sony so much, I really don't. Its kinda stupid to hate a company which brought so much to gaming is it not?

Anyways, ppl said the same thing about DVD; 'Sony is forcing a new format (DVD) with the PS2', 'CDs are just fine, what do we need DVD for?', or the most amusing 'the PS2 will fail, and so will DVD'.

This BR hate campaign is no more than a desperate attempt by M$ to try and force 'their own format', Digital Distribution, because it would be obviously them the ones who would profit the most if DD was adopted widely.

I mean, they (M$) entered the console biz in the first place to try and snap up the profit Sony and Nintendo were making, because they were 'destroying' PC gaming.

If you can't see that all M$ is doing is sabotaging everyone else, then you are clearly not seeing the bigger picture.

[Jdoki]

The only reason I am not all that interested in Blu-Ray is because of the price per disc.

£16.00 per disc (on average) is too high, compared to half that for DVD.

[PirateThom]

Dark Knight DVD - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dar...

Dark Knight Blu-ray - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dar...

[Jdoki]

I'm sure you could find many more of these anomalies, but in general your example is the exception, not the rule.

The situation is actually a lot worse when you look at older titles recently put on Blu-Ray. The price difference is even bigger.

This is just a personal opinion on why I'm not interested in Blu-Ray. One example isn't going to change that - I don't think the increase in picture quality justifies the higher price - we're not paying by the pixel!!

It costs no more to encode in 1080p - and apparently Blu-Ray disc manufacture is now almost as cheap as DVD... So where's the parity in pricing? Plus most films create the extras while the full film production is going on - again no extra cost between DVD and Blu-Ray. And also, many film release with Standard Def extras on the Blu-Ray.

Until Blu-Ray discs can be picked up (nearly) as cheaply as DVD's I don't think the format will challenge DVD any time soon.

[mpmaley]

The porn argument is a complete joke and isn't plausible now.

Iron Man Blu-ray would like a road with all of the "ZOMG BLU-RAY WILL DIE" crowd. And expect TDK to break a million in its first week. B-R is here to stay, it will slowly replace DVD and then sell alongside DD if it can ever get past crawling and start walking on its own.

[enjoi187]

the people who can afford it..

[MADPIRAHNA]

Microsoft's add-on is up and running. Oh wait maybe not, it cant play games. HDTV hasnt even fully penetrated the market of the average consumer yet. Give it more time and a price drop. Who spreads this crap, the OP.

[morganfell]

Are you still using VHS tapes? After all you seem to be late getting news. There is no MS add-on.

[skyfire2261]

I have to disagree with you. I would prefer to download movies (and games but lets stick with movies since that is the topic at hand).

Why would you take your movie somewhere? I like most people who rent them take them HOME and watch them there. Buying movies is rather pointless unless you think you will watch a movie over and over which to me is quite asinine.

As for your physical copy point. That is something that will disappear with time and education. Discs and digital distribution do the same thing. They bring the content to the user. One just does it faster and cheaper then the other.

Infact, going to your previous point about playing a movie elsewhere. You can still transfer your movie to a Flash card and take it to your friends house and play it there that way. I think Flash media will very much be an extension of Digital distribution for this reason.

Plus lets not forget Physical media can be stolen (I speak from experience.)
Do you really think a store will give you another copy? not a chance. IF (and thats a big if) for some reason you downloaded a movie and it got corrupted or whatever, you can just download it again for free like how sony does it with there games. up to 5 times with them as i recall. that is MORE then fair.

I can think of many more reasons to go Digital over physical but i'm sure you get the jist of it.
Digital distribution is still in it's infancy. In fact it's biggest hurdle isn't making people buy online, it;s getting the bandwidth speeds up to snuff that will hold it back.

[Bell Boy]

Forgive me but the last time I looked in any major retailer I noticed the rows and rows of DVD, Blu-Ray and yes even CD's. I guess the retailer's just do this for the good of their health The mass market seems to still want to physically own their purchase.

Last year I was able to give my nephew in the UK a copy of a few PSN titles even though I live in the US now , but guess what if I had spent Christmas back in the UK I would have given him a physical copy so he could actually have the excitement of unwrapping his gift!

I love my gadgets but I seriously think it will be many years before physical media is replaced, people like buy things on impulse a lot of the time why do you think retailers even place movies by the checkout for the last minute bargin purchase

[Karum]

Dude seriously, your entire argument, point and post is complete and utter fail simply because you decided to use the hypothetical situation of someone's home being broke into and stolen as a reason as to why DD > physical media.

Whose to say the same thief won't steal your gaming console whose HDD stores all your digitally distributed content or even your PC.

Thieves don't mess around you know, they'll likely go for valuable items like a console or PC before going for your movie collection lol.

Please think before posting next time.

[jro211]

Ya'll can jump on the digital download bandwagon all you want. I love Blu-Ray. I'm going to venture to say that those that are against Blu-ray probably aren't taking full advantage of the experience. When I watch Blu-ray movies I'm blown away by the picture and sound. I can't see how digital downloads can even bring that kind picture and sound to you living the way a disc can. Now, since my PS3 crashed, I don't ever want to rely on any storage media to house my media because who knows if I'll ever get it back. I mean think about this for a second, how else is this download hype suppose to work. Other than places like Netflix that allow you to stream media, where else are you to store your movies. Gaming systems and computers crash, and if you are lucky the hard drive won't be the cause because if it is, you stand to lose all your media. That doesn't sit well with me. At least if I have the disc I know I haven't lost it. I'm not sure how downloads will work but, will they be able to deliver the same quality movie through streaming media as Blu-ray does? Doesn't seem likely. I'll stick with Blu Ray.

[OldGamer]

I haven't bought a dvd since I bought my first blu-ray title. I have over thirty blu-rays and love them. I refuse to accept digital downloads are taking over. There are still many, many people who want discs and either can't or don't want to download movies.

I think the major issue holding blu-ray back for a more widespread acceptance is the price of the players and the discs. Once they become more affordable to a larger audience, I believe they will be the default physical format.

[shysun]

Didn't Ironman just break all kinds of records?......Does he know this?

[canadascream]

i will switch to digital download when they are

- non-bitstarved
- full 1080p
- have uncompressed audio
- include hd extras
- storable on non-failing solid state drives
- can be downloaded efficiently, and not central server dependent
- and priced competitively (considering bandwidth rates, storage solutions, and lack of the extra costs of physical media)

but that will not happen any time soon.

that is the bottom line, when that happens i'll happily switch. until then i'll just enjoy my blu ray format which has ALL that right now and can be found cheaper than dvd sometimes if you look for the deals.

any "journalist" saying otherwise is unqualified, paid off, bitter, or just dumb. there is no argument to this. the only reason blu ray will not within a few years become the mainstream, is the economy and people just can't afford it. and if they can't afford it, then they most certainly won't be able to afford digital download (high-speed bandwidth-capped internet, storage solutions, hundreds of dollars of download boxes to "rent" content). seriously who hires any of these people?

also i would NEVER pay a CENT for 720p video, unless there is no other option available (or if the movie was made in 720p). you go to HD cuz you value quality, and going for "middle" quality makes no sense.

[asyouburn]

the future is 4 head vcr's. why buy dvd'd or blu ray, when tapes are so cheap? you can even record dvd's onto tapes with the wave of the future VCR "recorders"

[Fade_Walker]

Blu-Ray movies I don't care about because I am just fine with the quality of my DVD. But for games it was a brilliant idea and so far it's worked to Sony’s advantage!

[Naked-Snake]

Too bad because i do and i am loooving it.

[boJABER]

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooool shame on the guy who wrote this. he should stick to 8-bit era

[Egzekutor]

I care about Blu-Ray.

It allows PS3 owners to play a massive game on 1 disc without having to change from 1 to 4 discs. Also it allows developers to put insane amounts of detail onto that BD Disc.

It allows developers to take the computer entertaiment to the next level, like Heavy Rain and Killzone 2.

[Expy]

Who cares? Everyone who isn't an XBOX360-only partisan.

[llMurcielagoll]

I noticed that BD haters prefer upscaled DVDs or even ordinary DVDs over Blu-ray discs. Well I will not be against them. Yet if people hate the new stuff in the market they will fall behind because technology, in general, is evolving so fast.

Please correct me if Im wrong.

[TheExodus]

Yes, but it's BD supporters will be falling behind the technology curve. I didn't buy my PS3 until Toshiba pulled the plug on HD DVD because Blu-ray is not consumer friendly. 360 & PS3, both serve as media servers & I happen to believe media servers are the future because of the convenience they offer that stand-alone players simply cannot:

* Kids want to watch Shrek 4 in the car, send a portable copy to an iPod
* Feeling frisky in Rome, but forgot to pack Lust Devils 8? Stream a copy from you living room in Anytown USA

Compliments of BD+ any content purchased on Blu-ray will be completely useless in far less than even the 5 years Samsung expects the format to last.

[gololo]

God...so many haters...I bet those are the ones who haven't seen BR on a 50+ inch 1080P HD tv with the at least 5 channel audio system...I have netflix and whenever I rent a movie and is not on BR i get soooo pissed...and yeah, netflix streaming movies are ok but still not HD quality...hard media will be here a long time, so instead of hating BR, embrace it already so the price drops even more :)