Comments on: Sony beefs up Blu-ray strategy

New real-time movie database, called MovieIQ, will be included with several new Blu-ray Disc releases this fall. Plus, a new Blu-ray-enabled notebook.

[jessiethe3rd]

Let me see here... buy a Blueray disk for 30 bucks / 25 bucks or download a movie via Xbox Live at 1080p and stream it for 6 bucks.... Blueray's days are numbered and all the foo foo services pale in comparison to realtime streaming of movies.

[cyclone]

All 1080p isn't the same. Xbox 1080p will have DVD-quality sound, not lossless 7.1 which Blu-ray offers. Further, it's likely Xbox will provide at most a 6Mbit stream. Blu-ray can use up 6Mbit just for audio, and can provide up to 40Mbit for the video. There is a quality difference. Not to mention all the other goodies on a typical Blu-ray disc which aren't offered via streaming (bonus content). Oh, and what happens when your ISP gives you a 15GB/month cap (as Time Warner has already done in some markets)? That 2 hour movie at 6Mbit/sec just used up 30% of your monthly quota. Hope you didn't plan to watch more than three movies this month (and no YouTube, Hulu, or other video).

[viper396]

As much as I like Xbox live you are being very short-sighted and unrealistic. Streaming is not the answer to everything nor does it fit in to every situation. There will ALWAYS be a need for physical media such as Blu Ray or DVDs for distribution and actual ownership. Many people do not have the bandwidth, nor the desire, to download a movie in order to watch it. Alot of people like to actually own the disc for viewing at *anytime*, *anywhere*, not rent it by being tethered to an box and streaming it. God forbid you ever have kids and they like to watch a movie multiple times. In those situations paying $6.00 a pop would be stupid versus outright owning it. Additionally, the movies online are rotated out so there is no guarantee that the movies you like to watch will always be available when you want to watch it.

Incidently, the 1080p you get off Xbox live is highly compressed and pales in comparision to a full HD image off of a bluray disc.

[Alphaman63]

My local Target is selling Blu-Ray releases for as little as $14.99. Basically, for the price of renting an inferior quality d/l twice, you can have a permanent, high-res, high-quality, un-deletable copy.

And prices are *still* coming down more.

Considering that 75% of the US still doesn't have broadband, the download promoters don't have much of a leg to stand on.

[bridgerbot]

First, the Xbox can't service isn't anything more than an upscaled DVD, which is a much lower quality than Blu Ray.

Second, "Blueray's days are numbered"

You certainly didn't make your case, if you think people aren't going to buy movies just because they can rent it for a small amount, you're clearly wrong. People can rent/download DVDs at video stores, netflix, xbox live, and the PS3 for $2-$4 and upscale them, and none of those has stopped people from buying DVDs (or Blu Ray for that matter).

You're just looking for reasons to hate on Sony in favor of the Xbox. Take your petty bigotry elsewhere.

[Mr. Dee]

Does Blu-Ray really matter anymore? If this thing was released in 2000 or 1999 I would be ecstatic about it. But with the web and 24-7 access to the Net, it just does not come across as overall interesting anymore.

[renGek]

I agree. Its a pointless format. A lame business model in the hopes that you will rebuy all of your movies.
Just sell everything over the web already. They've delayed that long enough.

[hughugme]

I had three Sony laptops, two the screen went blank, the other one the built-in webcam broke. I hate Sony.

[lkrupp]

I rented a movie from iTunes and watched it on my Apple TV for $4.99. It was the HD version of Taken and it looked great! That's the future, not Blu-ray.

[monkeyfun14]

Thats not full HD thats compressed garbage.

True HD takes up around 20gb's in size.

[maverick11359]

Unfortunately ,unless you see and hear the difference you'll never know theirs a huge difference.Your basically only watching upscaled DVD quality compressed video and compressed Dolby audio via iTunes..A far far cry from a uncompressed HD. Blu ray 20gb movie ..Once you've witnessed the real Macoy you just can't watch streamed garbage anymore.It's like owning a Ferrari and having to go back to a cheap GMH Holden ,it makes you want to cry!!!

[Stormspace]

Blue Ray -- Yawn

[KingV911]

Seeing as you called Blu Ray "Blue Ray" it's obvious you aren't important here.

[monkeyfun14]

Well this is a good step and lol @ trojan2go ad.

[RompStar_420]

Some people like to collect movies, and some people don't have internet :- )

Disk always play no matter what...

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Actually, if you don't have your Blu-Ray player hooked into the Internet so the discs can phone home to make sure you're not a pirate, then the discs don't always play.

[cyclone]

Sorry, Btmn, you're wrong. Blu-ray players *never* "phone home" for content. Don't believe me? Unplug your internet connection, the disc will still play just fine. Yes, occasionally firmware updates are required for certain discs, but you can update your firmware, unplug your network, and the disc will play just fine.

[KingV911]

Btmn, you are wrong.

[esiders]

Sony need to make Blu-ray disks more affordable. It is all about the bottom line. Until they realise that they are not going to sell that many.

[KingV911]

Blu Ray sales have been increasing pretty dramatically for the last year or more. Some new titles actually outsell their DVD counterpart. All new technologies are (more) expensive at first. DVD players and movies cost as much as Blu Ray items when they were new.

[magicmaster]

Preposition:
(1) Selection is limited
(2) Price too expensive per disc
(3) Blu-ray needs proper cables, TVs and players THAT supports blu-ray, and those are not cheap.
(4) Plus, DVD quality is satisfactory to me. Who wants to see wrinkles on actor's face?

Conclusion:
I will stick to DVDs.

[deric_raymond]

1. Selection is growing by the day.
2. Prices are coming down; the prices are nearly equivalent to what DVD prices were for the new technology at the time
3. Cables? Component or HDMI is just fine. And if you don't have an HD tv by now, it's time to upgrade: HD tv's aren't that expensive, and, again, the players are the equivalent (actually cheaper) than DVD at the time of its inception and a year later
4. Quality? You were probably saying the same thing about DVD when it proceeded VHS--- too expensive, VHS quality is fine, who wants to see anything clearly at all?

Conclusion: You'll stick to old technologies until they become commonplace before buying them.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Actually, deric_raymond is wrong.

When HD DVD was canceled those discs were dumped into discount bins for prices between $1.99 and $4.99, depending on the movie.

At that same time, Blu-Ray was pulled from Las Vegas area retail stores (Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart) for a good six months, until after Christmas of 2008. The movies returned in early January after the players didn't sell. Now those Blu-Ray titles are all in the discount bin for about $2.99, while the DVDs of those same movies are selling for near $19.99 and above.

For your third point, that's moot for most Americans. When Americans buy an expensive device like a TV, fridge, or car, they expect a certain amount of time for use from the device. A TV should last 30 years, a fridge forever, a car to 100,000 or 200,000 miles. There's a reason that almost 75% of American viewers don't have HDTVs.

For your fourth point, most people can't tell HD from regular, stereo from mono, PS3 from Wii, Apple from Windows. The majority of consumers are morons who don't want to know the technics of a device, but just want to play. When a Blu-Ray player needs to phone home or stops working because of scratches and fingerprints, well, that just doesn't help, now does it?

Get out of your little bubble once in awhile and see the real world. It's totally different that what you think. And that's where magicmaster is coming from.

[cyclone]

Let's see, HDMI cables start around $4 online, or $6 at Fry's. HDTV? If you don't have an HDTV this is a pointless discussion, otherwise *any* HDTV will work with any Blu-ray player. And Blu-ray players start around $130 - if that's too much then you're just not the target market, which is fine, but for those who seek true HD audio and video Blu-ray costs are quite modest.

[tkspyder]

To BtmnHatesRbn,
What Planet are you living on!!? I have never disagreed with someones' comment so much.
By the way, can you grab me some of those Blu-ray titles that are in the bin for 2.99? That's an awesome deal!!!
I hope you weren't stupid enough to purchase an HD-DVD player. Because that is exactly the reason why those L.V. retailers pulled blu-ray off the shelves temporarily, to fool suckers into buying their worthless inventory of HDDVD.

[viper396]

@BtmnHatesRbn. To use your own words against you..."Get out of your little bubble once in awhile and see the real world."

You're using irrelevent details just to fit your arguement.

1) Citing examples with HD-DVD are irrelevent. Blu ray selection is in fact increasing. Simple logic proves that every new Movie release means an increase in selection. Every new release comes out on Bluray and the release list on bluray.highdefdigest.com confirms that. Even many older back catalog of movies are being released on Blu Ray.

2) Why would every store in Las Vegas pull Blu-Ray? (If that is true, I'd like to see some real evidence because I smell a story conveniently made up to fit your argument).
Walk into any store in the rest of the country and blu rays movies average $15~$25, the same as many DVD's, and the prices are steadily dropping.

3) Many people keep their equipment for years, that point I agree. But the fact is they all do eventually purchase new ones and stores are in fact selling them everyday. Standard Def equipment isn't even being sold in some places and the prices of HD is in fact falling. Nearly every TV sold now is HD capable and with the Government mandated transisiton to Digital the number of people with HD can only go up. You're fighting a losing argument by implying otherwise.

4) Maybe in you little corner of the universe most consumers are alll morons who can't tell Stereo from Mono or HD from standard but in the rest of the world many can. Either way, the progression of technology means you will be buying into it eventually.


deric_raymond was very correct in saying "You'll stick to old technologies until they become commonplace before buying them. "

[KingV911]

DVD is satisfactory for most people. But start watching DVDs on a 50" TV and it's limitations start showing. If you like watchin movies with the best possible video and sound you will watch Blu Ray movies. Blockbuster Total Access for 15-20 a month you can rent all the BluRays you want, same as DVD prices. It's great!

[KingV911]

DVD is satisfactory for most people. But start watching DVDs on a 50" TV and it's limitations start showing. If you like watchin movies with the best possible video and sound you will watch Blu Ray movies. Blockbuster Total Access for 15-20 a month you can rent all the BluRays you want, same as DVD prices. It's great!

[gsmiller88]

So essentially, Sony is just now adding features to Blu-ray that HD-DVD had two years ago?

Bravo, Sony, big pat on the back!

[shagless]

Here here!! HD-DVD has internet right with their discs from the beginning. Real shame so many people decided to pay the bully Sony instead of actually seeing what the technology was doing. Blu-ray BD-Live has been sketchy at best and a waste of a really good opportunity. Not enough studios use it well. Plenty of capacity and internet ability with most recent players (especially PS3) this should be helping move things forward, instead stagnant and boring. Of course you will buy a DVD or a less quality (despite what they claim) digital version. At least now studios are starting to offer digital copies with their blu-rays. Now enhance that and make it part of the bd-live experience. More info, more features, more digital content.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Ditto.

[maverick11359]

True ,but not everybody lives in America ,and living else where like Australia we didn't see the features on HD-DVD anyway, all we heard was it had a smaller capacity for storage compared to blu-ray and according to reports today Blu-ray has surpassed HD-DVD quality of yesteryear .In OZ we are only now getting behind Blu-ray a couple of years latter from the rest of the world, as usuall Aussies love to sit on the fence , make more informative decisions,in other words to see which technology wins out.We did it before and we've do it again,thankgod we never had NTSC (Never Two Same Colors)broadcasting and waited for PAL.

[cdxskier6]

For real jessiethe3rd, internet connections are sketchy. Why do you think people bother buying hard media? Because it always works!

[jtjt145]

Blu-ray may be growing in small parts of this world ... but at the bottom line:

Blu-ray = DRM (digital rights management = FAILURE

It's as simple as that! Don't waste your money!

[Deekman]

Why do you care about studios protecting their intellectual property? Oh, right, because you're a theif. You want cheap, pirated content, go to China.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Actually, I buy from iTunes because there isn't any DRM from me using the movie on my iPod, playing it via the video-out cable, and making a copy onto, drumroll, VHS!

[mickey918]

I know this is going to elicit a lot of name-calling and "What are you thinking?" comments, but here goes anyway:

HD-DVD had all these functions from the very start and their players were MUCH cheaper two years ago as were the discs. I have both formats now (I really didn't have a choice, did I?) I also think BluRay will die a slow death. Sorry if I offend the BR crowd, but, to me, this is a no-brainer.

[monkeyfun14]

HD-DVD already died...

Movies are already being made on bluray all the time.

The quality is much better and easier for movie studios to work with.

So how exactly is BR going to die.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Bad economy, no real difference to vast majority of Americans using normal TVs, has to phone home on certain high profile discs, can't have scratches or fingerprints otherwise disc won't play, recordable media too expensive and has been the same price since late 2005, and, well, nobody cares.

[Alphaman63]

Yes, BR will die a slow death. While on its way to that death, it will reach market saturation, surpassing DVD sales, and being the dominant media for watching videos. It will probably take at least 10 to 15 years for BR to die and be surpassed by the next portable media technology, just as it's taken DVD about that long to run its cycle.

Every new major release is currently being simultaneously released on BR. Now that BR players are at the $100 psychological wall, this time next year I (and contacts in the business) suspect we'll see BR being the dominant format on store shelves and in marketing, with a small footnote saying "also available on dvd". The year after that, it will only be "select titles available on dvd". The studios will go where profit will lead them, and giving consumers more (resolution, sound, features) will bring in more money for them.

[viper396]

BtmnHatesRbn, So far you?ve used, opinions presented as facts, lies, FUD, manipulation of statistics, ridiculous comparisons, and outright ignorance to present your arguments.

- I doubt you having any true insight into what a "vast majority of Americans" actually do and determine.

- A Bluray players having to "phone home" is really no different then tried, true and accepted technology such as Tivo's or DVR's, Cable boxes or Satellite receivers which also have to phone home periodically. Are you implying that this "vast majority of Americans" that you're apparently so close with have neither a phone line or a internet connection?

- "can't have scratches or fingerprints otherwise disc won't play". How is that any different then a CD or DVD that's scratched and won't play? Everyone has already accepted that as a basic limitation of any optical disc media and Bluray is no exception. What were you trying to argue with that fact?

It?s fairly obvious that you have no desire to get a blu ray player. That?s fine. But why the overzealous need to convince others? Why do you care? Do you think you?ll win something?

[a_flores]

Bluray? I never watch movie from DVD player (I do not have DVD player). In case I need bluray, it is merely because of its high capacity that I can carry 25GB of data in one bluray. Unfortunately, soon, we will have 128GB USB flash memory and soon we will have 500GB DVD from General Electric which I can open in any DVD player or any computer DVD drive. Cheers!

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Actually, there's no way to do 500 GB on a DVD. What you're refering to is the 2 TB disc made by Maxell that uses mirrors and holograms for writing the data onto the platter of the disc.

I hear rumors of this crap all the time (the 1.4 GB Sanyo-only CD-R in 1999). You show me how, on the current platter size, using a DVD-18, that GE, the strangest company on Earth, will develop a 500 GB DVD. GE is a joke and turned to "green" power because nobody wants to buy their TVs, radios, light bulbs, etc. anymore.

[Alphaman63]

Bulk Blu-Ray media can cost less than $4 a disc in bulk.

A 128GB flash card will run you close to $200.

Nope, don't think so. Not any time soon. Maybe someday, but by then, hopefully we'll have holodecks... ;)

[viper396]

@BtmnHatesRbn. Your an idiot. Once again you're pushing out more FUD and pretending to know more then you actually do. Do some real research for once and stop making up this crap. Your statements about GE are WRONG.
Everybody buys or uses some GE products. Just because a product doesn't explicitly say GE on the label doesn't dimish that fact.

GE is a a huge congomerate with an extensive amount of influence on the technology or products people use every day. Forbes ranks GE as the largest corporate entity on the planet and they're in everything from Finance to Aircraft engines to Power plants to home electronics. It's a safe guarantee that at over dozen items in your very own home have some component, technology, or connection to GE.

[mickey918]

Mr. monkeyfun, you obviously do not understand the way things in the business world works. It works on MONEY. The average person cannot pay what Sony wants for their technology. In fact, Sony just posted a 1.5 billion dollar loss for the first quarter of the year. BluRay will give way to streaming downloads and the PPV's on satellite HiDef. Sorry.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Hey, want about $ony operating losses since PlayStation was released in 1994 in Japan. That's a total near $45 billion, and banks in Japan want them to pay up. In Japan, $ony can't even get a loan if they needed it.

What really killed Blu-Ray is Apple not putting it in their computers. All optical disc tech requires Apple to succeed. CD-ROM on Apple II, DVD-ROM on the PowerPCs. If these were ignored by Apple, the tech would go by the wayside. I mean, even ZIP is still supported today.

[monkeyfun14]

You forget my friend that DVD's weren't always the most affordable media ever...

When they were first released they went for several hundred and it stayed like that for years.

Hell my first basic dvd player costed me $160

[trellusg]

The prices *are* coming down on Blu-Ray players, but Blu-Ray will not be adopted as widely as DVD was simply because the trend is away from physical media altogether as a distribution medium. The HD content I get from my cable provider through my Tivo HD in my living room or my cable company DVR in my bedroom is really sufficient. When it comes to movies, I find DVD quality to be quite sufficient. It doesn't mean I won't *eventually* buy a Blu-Ray player, but I am just not yet that in a hurry to do so. Besides, I have HD (and SD for some movies) movie streaming via NetFlix on my Tivo HD, and it's quite adequate. Is it the same quality as 1080p Blu-Ray? No, clearly not, but the quality is really good enough to suit my tastes.

[AJB7272]

Am I the only one who thinks BluRay is the biggest scam perpetrated on the buying public? The picture quality is not 100% better than an upscaled DVD picture, but Sony, after eliminating all competition charges monopoly pricing of up to 100% more than the DVD. Player hardware is often hundreds of times higher than DVD players. For what? No difference. It will be a cold day in heLL before I buy any more from Sony.

[Alphaman63]

No you're not the only one, but by the same token, there's still more than one person who think the US never went to the moon, or that there was a second shooter, or that the government is covering up UFOs at Area 51.

So, don't buy from Sony. Samsung and Pioneer make really nice BR players, as do dozens of other companies.

[Stormspace]

BluRay is a scam, but not in the sense you think. BluRay is an attempt to maintain control of copyright through the use of a newer form of DRM encryption. The carrot is supposedly better quality, however for people with sets smaller than 42" you can't tell the difference. Bottom line is that HDDVD and BluRay were both designed to lead us into the next DRM generation.

[Captain Bebops]

So I read the comments here and most people who downloaded the movie in another format weren't downloading any "extra features", they just wanted to watch the movie. I don't know why these marketeers seem to think hanging all kinds of bells and whistle trinkets on the disks are going help the platform any. Maybe they're just clueless. I have a first generation BD player and hate the waste of time that BD+ adds to loading a movie. The general public will hate it more since the inexpensive players will probably take minutes to load the movie too. People want to watch the movie not a loading progress bar!

Disks don't have to be that way and the ones that aren't often allow you to stop the movie and start back up again in the same place (something you can't do with BD+ disks). Clueless studio stuffed shirts concerned about that 3% empty on their 97% full glass making bad DRM decisions.

And I also have an HD-DVD player which has none of the above problems.

[TotallyMadeUpName]

To call MovieIQ the "first killer-app for BD-Live" seems pretty delusional to me. The first thing I would want to know is how to turn it off.

[mickey918]

I'm glad somebody finally mentioned all the "extras" that are dangled in front of you to get you to buy their disc (some even offer a "digital copy" that will only run on your computer. I absolutely HATE all the "crap" at the beginning of those BR discs. First is the FBI warning (in 3 languages), then the "we are not responsible for the content of the disc" warning (in 3 languages). The the trailers. Last night I tried watching "Sunshine" in BluRay and it had 15 trailers before the movie screen appeared. And do you notice they have disabled the "menu" buttons on the remote so that you have to "watch" all that crap? I don't think they realize you can use the "chapter forward" button to skip each trailer at a time. I don't give a darn about the "extras" on a disc. I never watch them anyway.

[KingV911]

you can FF thru each preview to speed up the process. But I know what you mean...