Warner Bros. offers the 'truth' about Blu-ray

Many consumers are sticking with DVD, but it's not necessarily because of mistaken "perceptions".

In our recent review of the Panasonic DMP-BD55, we offered the view that Blu-ray has almost gotten its act together, after killing off HD DVD, getting more Profile 2.0 players on the market, and offering standalone players for less than $500. However, manufacturers are anxious to get more people on Blu-ray boat as quickly as possible, which is why we get e-mails from Warner Bros. attempting to clear up "confusion" about Blu-ray. According to the press release, the company did a survey of DVD owners that do not own Blu-ray players and found they have a "persistent lack of knowledge" regarding the new format. Warner Bros. offered three main "myths" that have confused consumers, as well as the company's response:

Perception: "I'd have to rebuild my movie library from scratch because Blu-ray can't play standard DVDs."
Truth: The switch from VHS to DVD made huge libraries of content obsolete. That's not the case with Blu-ray. Blu-ray players and PlayStation 3s can play ordinary DVDs! And not only can they play them, but the "upconversion" process makes them look even better!

Perception: "There aren't very many titles on Blu-ray."
Truth: The format war is over. HD DVD (the competing format) will not be coming back. All the movie studios are now backing one format: Blu-ray. Therefore, all the movies you love will be coming out on Blu-ray soon, and all major theatrical releases since 2006 are available on Blu-ray already.

Perception: "High-definition players are too expensive and I'm not ready to invest in new equipment."
Truth: There are Blu-ray players in the market for as low as $279 and this is expected to drop to $249 by Christmas. Also, PlayStation 3s are a great value, because for only $399 you get a Blu-ray player and a game console. Plus hardware and software companies are joining to offer consumers great package deals on Blu-ray players and PS3s with Blu-ray software.

While there's some merit to Warner's arguments, there's a whole lot of fact-bending going on. The truth is there still aren't that many titles available on Blu-ray right now. According to The Digital Bits, there are 772 Blu-ray titles currently available compared with more than 90,000 DVD titles. Yes, we're seeing many more new movies and TV shows released, but if consumers are expecting the same availability as DVD, they are going to be disappointed. Warner Bros. also argues that high Blu-ray player prices are just a "perception." That's debatable, but it certainly doesn't factor in the increased price of Blu-ray movies, which is significant. Not to mention the fact that if you really want to see the benefits of Blu-ray, you'll want a jumbo (50+ inches) HDTV.

And let's not forget that plenty of this confusion is not consumers' fault. Having several different Blu-ray profiles only added to this problem, as well as the vastly different audio decoding capabilities of the players. So while there have certainly been some misunderstandings about Blu-ray, it's not fair to frame buyers' legitimate concerns (like lack of titles and high player/movie prices) as myths. I say this as someone who does own a Blu-ray player and is willing to pay an extra dollar to rent Blu-ray movies from Netflix. But let's not pretend that the format doesn't need to make a lot of progress before it's a viable successor to DVD.

[Michael too]

In terms of affordability, $249 is a far cry from the $39 cost of a dvd player, and the per DVD price is considerably above the $5 bargain bin DVD's available from WalMart and during pre-Christmas sales.

[joshdeboer]

Why would you want a $249 blu-ray player or a $39 DVD player? I have an Oppo 981 and could'nt be happier. I can't wait till Oppo drops their BD player in the spring. YUM

QUALITY QUALITY!

[DJOmega6]

I have to correct one statement, Matthew. You do not have to have a 50+ inch HDTV to see the difference. I have a 42 inch and it's night and day difference between blu-ray and DVD. Even on a 32 inch, the difference is noticeable, especially in the better color.
With that said, I agree with the movie prices. They need to drop at least $5, preferably $10, to really hit that mass market price. I believe it will happen, but probably not until next year. I figure they'll try to bleed the well as dry as possible until they have no choice but to lower the disc prices.

[alenas]

I think the best deal at the moment is Xbox 360 ($299) + HD-DVD add-on ($39) + 100's of HD-DVD's for $5-$10. Those HD-DVD's are amazing value at the moment - if you even get only 20 movies - it gets cheaper to buy all of this than buy Blu Ray with a few movies :)

[friday04]

I have a terrific Oppo upscaling DVD player that looks fantastic on my 42-inch HDTV. I briefly had the HD DVD add-on for Xbox and I very briefly had a PS3 and the HD movies did look slightly better but not enough to warrant the added cost of going Blu-ray (or HD DVD). My DVDs look spectacular on the Oppo and I feel no reason at all to upgrade. Plus my price plan on Netflix is unaffected by today's announcement.

The way I feel about the whole thing is that Blu-ray was dead even when it was winning the war. I don't want more physical media in my house. I want less. I'm not buying DVDs anymore for the same reason. I can rent HD movies from Xbox and Apple TV. Sooner or later I'll be able to buy them in HD too. And I'd rather have that than another friggin' media box floating around my house.

[minhtule]

seriously, people who cant tell the difference between a bluray movies to normal upscaling dvd player and the stuff that u download from xbox or apple tv is either blind or never watched a bluray movies.. if u have a hdtv the difference in pq is huge but if you still stuck with the crt tv u wont see much differents.. so stop adding commments if u never experience watching a bluray movies on a 1080p hdtv..

[billytech]

Thank you Warner for pointing out the obvious to people.
Bottom line, in this economy - $279 for the player, and $20 something for new discs is not attractive.
While I agree that even the better upscaling disc players don't liik as good as HD DVD and BluRay - They DO look VERY GOOD. You're marketing an "upscale designer meal" as an alternative to a cheeseburger and fries in a "cash crunched" market that's not very hungry...

[Wes#1]

Consider:
HD-DVD vs Blu-ray war only ended this year, and Blu-ray is only 2 years old. Do you really think if fair to compare the number of BD titles to DVD, which has been around for 11 years? (And that "90,000 titles" of DVD is released, not available.)
You can get a BD player NOW for a lot less than $249. Name-brand models are easy to find online for under $200. These don't have "BD-Live", but who cares about that??
As for BD titles costing more, you get what you pay for. If you have a big screen, it's a must. If you're even *thinking* about getting a big screen in a year or two, you'll wish then that you'd been collecting BD versions of great films instead of standard DVD. Again, look online. I've never bought a Blu-ray disc that wasn't 30-40% discounted.

[Life_on_Mars]

Ditto DJOmega6's remark about screen size; Blu-ray looks light years ahead of DVDs even on a 42", especially if you have a plasma. Also, DVDs look vastly better than on upscaling DVD players, it boggles me that people can't see the difference.

As far as Warner Bro.s issuing a statement about the public's perception of Blu-ray being slanted, I have to agree. The average Joe doesn't have a clue about the nitty-gritty of technology and will believe anything said by friends who think they know about it, but don't have enough information. Even my father, who's worked in technology for the past 40+ years has misconceptions about Blu-ray because of something related to him from someone who flat-out didn't know.

[MadLyb]

Let's not forget the media, constantly telling us how the affordable units are lacking, especially when it comes to Profile 2.0 which is completely useless. If I want a video game, I will buy one.

The perception is completely based in fact. Walk into Wal-mart, Target, or Best Buy and the amount of retail space devoted to DVD vs. Blu-Ray is easily 3 or 4 to 1.

Next, look at the mess that is upconversion. A $150 Oppo unit does a better job of upconverting, than a $400 Blu-Ray player.

Finally, just look at the technology stack for HD. Multiple resolutions (480, 720, 1080) and interlaced or progressive, then add the varieties of displays (LCD, Plasma, DLP), different backlighting (CCFL, LCD), Refresh Rates. Then try to get it all to work with existing Surround Equipment. It is challenging for even knowledgable people and we didn't even get to Blu-Ray.

The reality is that when DVD came to market, the various segments of the industry came together and within a fairly short span provided a reasonably complete, simple, easy to use, and inexpensive solution for moving from tape to DVD. That has simply not happened with HD.

[shinelikeitdoes]

downloading and streaming media on demand is where its at. there is no way blu-ray is anything but an intermediary trend for techies and those with addictions to gadgets. the "next tech" is coming too fast to allow blu-ray a chance to ever fully mature.

[kalel33]

The Target I worked at, during the X-mas season, had a Blu-ray end cap. They showed a Sony player with an upscaling DVD player below that played on a 32" HDTV. People went by and talked about how great that looked. I loved telling them that they could buy an upscaling DVD player and that's what it would look like. People are happy with the output of a DVD player. Look at MP3s, people are happy with them, but they don't sound as good as a CD or the defunct DVD-audio.

[Wes#1]

This is part of the problem. Target has a "Blu-ray end cap" with NO BLU-RAY!!!! You are showing people upscaled DVD with nothing to compare it to... How the heck are they ever going to be enticed to buy Blu-ray when in-store displays can't properly demo it?

[walshbouchard]

I agree with most of the above mentioned resevations and plus points about Blu Ray , but the real truth as far as I see it is the constant profile changing for new Blu ray titles being released and the resulting programme and firmware updates to even play them, it seems to me the big movie companies have become so obessed with copy protection that they trown the baby out with the bath water, if you have a PC blu ray drive and power dvd its an absolute nightmare with these ever changing HDCP keys, I love high definition but I think the industry is killing it off before its even got off the ground, how are you going to get joe soap who wants to play a movie on DVD , just comes in throws it in his DVD player after a hard weeks work and and enjoys a movie with his family, no problem, works every time, DVD great innit!!!

Then he buys a blu ray player to be greeted with error messages and little leaflets in his case saying update your firmware as these discs may not play if you dont, and dont forget that all your hardware , thats TV , Player, and if you have a PC your graphics card and HDMI lead must all be HDCP, HDC....Wot sod that for a lark im sticking with DVD.

The people who point out that the difference against price id ridulous have also got a point DVD was 1000 times better than VHS, Blu Ray for Joe Soap( Public) is im afraid no where near as much of an improvement over DVD to warrant the effort ( along with all the aforementioned hassle) the format BLU RAY is unless they get their act together finished along with HDDVD, HI DEF however in whatever format will become the norm in the near future when TV channels are broacasting it as the default standard sytem for the entire country or indeed the world , people will demand, if they buy into it at all, cheap priced hardware, ultra reliable playback, excellent picture quailty in fact just like what the general public , that is those who are not interested in seeing the woven fabric of some actors dress or the HI DEF cracks between the bricks in ultra high detail but just want to watch a movie on a friday night with the kids. otherwise its all over for sony along with SACD which I also love, but just as in that case Joe public has spoken??

[HHaller2]

I'm still buying tons of HD DVD's now that they are cheap. Blu Ray discs can sit on the shelf and gather dust till the prices drop.

[mickey918]

What they DON'T tell you is that with Profile 2.0, BluRay phones home and tells Sony what your doing, whether or not you've removed the copy encoding and how many times you have watched the movie, among other things. Like HHaller2, I'm buying up LOADS of HD-DVD movies. Incidentally, Toshiba just upgraded my player to profile 4.0. Something going on we don't know about? ZDNet proclaims that BluRay is dead! Yeahhhhhhhhhhh.,
Mickey918

[KensingtonPark]

The thing that most people don't get in this space is that many purchasers and renters of disc-based entertainment use these in multiple environments (home, car/minivan, laptop, etc.). Unlike either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, only DVD can be reliably played and interchanged in every environment. While home theater videophiles can argue about the best quality, most people only want to view their movies in as many places as possible. This will only get better as that gets resolved. More Blu-Ray players in computers, cars and portable devices; even if they are downconverting, it doesn't matter. No one wants to pay for two copies of the same movie.

I cannot for the life of me understand why the HD-DVD proponents never emphasized this fact when they had their dual-sided HD-DVD/DVD discs.

[gordygg1]

I notice you rate the PS3 as possibly the best blu-ray player. It this rating due to vidio reproduction only?I have heard the audio reproduction is second rate. Would you respond to the audio quality of the PS3 as compared to other top rated blu-ray players.

[MrGadgetman]

A PS3 that has all of its updates will decode and play all current formats of Blu-ray Disc audio including DTS-Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. All you would need is an A/V receiver that can play 7.1 audio LPCM through HDMI. It also supports BD-live without the need to add memory. That makes the PS3 the most complete Blu-ray Disc solution.