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12/01/09
I'll say it again; we are digitizing all forms of media, unless you think some movie was the greatest epic of all time and you want to watch it over and over and pass it on to your kids as a keepsake, you should not be buying DVDs OR Blue Rays in any measurable number.
I almost retch when I see the DVD clearance bin and shoppers loading up on all these "bargain" copies of Chevy Chase (etc., with apologies to Chase fans...) movies. Can't you all see that we're only a few years away from streaming IT ALL ON DEMAND and your precious collection will be headed to the landfill???
The Netflix model will eventually expand so that only the rural unconnected need have a physical DVD any longer to watch anything they want. And if the U.S. could ever get with the program to connect everyone with high speed bandwidth we wouldn't need those (gov't, business, I don't care who does it, let's just get it done).
What I don't get is why Netflix hasn't already moved at least a little closer to this with an subscription fee that is a halfway step between their current offerings. For example, for the $16.99 fee that they now charge for 3 DVDs at a time, you would get only 1 DVD at a time, but you would get an expanded access vie streaming to ALL their movies except new releases within their first 6 months after release. This should easily be more profitable than buying DVDs, round-trip shipping costs, labels, packaging, broken DVDs, etc. etc. etc.
I suspect that some Hollywood Cromagnum is preventing something from this from occuring.
I would be all over a plan like this. Netflix? Anyone? Bueller?
12/01/09
Double-sided laserdiscs were sometimes done as basically two discs glued together, and as temperature and humidity changed, they would flex, and separate, corrupting the information on them. A CD sized disc should be much more robust though, and better made in the first place.
12/02/09
We are already seeing data caps, and more are coming before they go away. If the datacaps become the standard, then the on demand dream will be just a dream.
I know I don't want to pay twice to watch everything, once for the content, once for the cap overages.
12/02/09
12/01/09
Hey, it's the only way I can buy the BR and still play it on my Macbook, right?
12/01/09
I think it failed because I never saw it ever since.
Wouldn't work for me because I tend to leave DVDs around, so I need a side to put it on.
12/01/09
I told them they should have made DVDs out of adamantium, but engineers never listen to me.
12/01/09
12/01/09
.....Shit.
12/01/09
I don't think this is difficult to do. All they had to do was use a 2 sided BR disc and just burn one side with the lower resolution DVD pits. Or am I mistaken?
"The release will mark the first time the Bourne trilogy, one of the highest grossing action movie franchises in history, is available individually in Blu-ray's™ renowned perfect picture and purest digital sound."
Is this an outright lie? I thought the Bourne BR discs were already out?
12/01/09
12/01/09
This is staright bullshit. This si why I dont support blu ray and refuse to buy any of their movies.
I buy my dvds and download blu ray rips FUCK SONY...
12/01/09
12/01/09
Not a bad idea, though. Buy a movie, and eventually upgrade to a Blu-Ray player, and you don't have to rebuy the movie!
12/01/09
12/01/09
Truthfully, it is not a bad idea. In addition to what Kaiser-Machead wrote, it might appeal to folks planning to buy a Blu-Ray but who haven't yet, though that seems a pretty narrow segment, especially now that you can find Blu under $100.
12/01/09
I don't buy Blu-ray discs because they are still too expensive, though I have a PS3, but if the price were to come down......
You see. If the industry adopted a "flipper" disc only standard of production/stopped selling DVD only discs you would see a price drop on Blue-ray discs thanks to production/demand numbers, and you would likely see an increase in Blue-ray player sales as more and more people will say "eh, might as well," which would likely bring up production numbers/down cost for Blue-ray players.
So, aside from painting an inaccurate picture of a stupid product, why don't you tell us why this is actually a "terrible" idea. And yes, you do concede that the idea is as terrible as you want to say it is, but you still run it down as being absurd.
12/01/09
12/01/09
12/01/09
Netflix streaming FTW
12/01/09
I would have no complaint if I could pick them up for $10 a piece. I'm really basing affordability on the prices at places like Target and Best Buy.
12/01/09
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12/01/09
12/01/09
@pokeyg23: True, they are out there and "affordable", however my comment was to not expect to see them at $10 (that's just a bit unlikely at this point).
12/01/09
12/02/09
I'm also not that familiar with the Netflix streaming (as it's my friends account, not mine), so wouldn't the special features be available as well since they are offering basically the same thing except you don't have to wait for the physical disc?
I'm also not an expert with the difference between lossless and lossy audio. I know a decent bit, but really, I'm not going to be able to tell the difference, and I have a decent A/V setup.
Currently, I don't have to worry about a download cap, so yeah, I can see your point there, but it's not going to be that way forever...
12/01/09
12/01/09
12/01/09
Unless you can clearly tell the difference, or you have a home system that's begging for 1080p goodness, going Blu-Ray is not worth it.
12/01/09
12/01/09
12/01/09
12/01/09
i could see consumer confusion about the quality of blu-ray when they accidentally put the dvd side in. i know with two discs it's also possible, but i guess less so.
12/01/09
12/01/09
I won't get started on how "digital copies" are, frankly, kind of insulting. Suffice to say, if I got a package containing a Blu-Ray, a DVD, and a "digital copy", you better believe somebody I know is getting a free copy of Enchanted.
12/01/09
12/01/09
12/01/09