Comments on: Warner Movie DVDs Will All Have Blu-Ray

By: Universal Launches Blu-Ray/DVD Flipper Discs With Bourne Movie Re-Releases Â» DVDs Worth Watching

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:17:18 +0000

[...] formats on one piece of plastic: standard DVD is on one side, Blu-Ray on the other. While other studios are bundling DVDs with their Blu-Rays to try and convince customers to upgrade, this Universal [...]

By: Thom

Thom — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:52:42 +0000

I know people claim you don’t see a difference until you hit 40″ and up. That was news to me. My intial HD Television was a 27″ screen, and the difference between that and my previous standard def option was…massive. And HD DVDs and Blu-Ray were miles ahead of my DVDs…so I do not buy the argument that Blu-Ray is not any good until you hit 40″…

By: Augie De Blieck Jr.

Augie De Blieck Jr. — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:09:51 +0000

Don’t ever ever ever buy wires in the store. Monoprice.com is all you need. My sister needed an HDMI cable for Christmas. Could have paid $30 at Best Buy for it. Instead bought it at Monoprice with overnight shipping for less than $10. It’s where all the tech geeks go for cheap accessories, wires, etc.

I am not sponsored by nor was I paid for this endorsement. Thanks, FTC!

By: James Schee

James Schee — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:32:45 +0000

I won my Blu-Ray player, but it was still a little costly. I had to go out and buy an HDMI cable, which in a lot of places (including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target) was running at cheapest $40. For a CABLE to hook from the TV to the player.

Luckily there was a discount store called Big Lots in the area where I found one for $12.

I love it and my Plasma HD tv (about 40 inches I think…) and now can’t watch regular TV. Though my DVDs look great on my Blu-Ray player so I’m not replacing those I already have. Though I do try to buy new stuff in Blu-Ray, and the prices the last few months for most major releases are usually the same price (at times cheaper) than their DVD counterparts.

Will Blu-Ray eventually replace DVDs? I don’t know. Something eventually will, one thing about technology is that it keeps moving forward.

By: Charles RB

Charles RB — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:47:03 +0000

At this rate, I’m going to be less likely to get a Blu-Ray player because of how pushy companies are being with the format. (Also, money. Why pay extra when DVDs still work?)

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:35:08 +0000

My TV is a 32″ LCD TV set bought last month; a nice set, but not a giant-sized one (which is where most of the benefit of HDTV seems to lie from what I’ve read). That, and most of my viewing these days is cartoons…

Most Blu-Ray discs I’ve seen still cost more than their DVD counterparts, plus it still costs extra to buy specifically a Blu-Ray PC drive (which still isn’t standard-issue on computers) than a DVD one (as well as what blank Blu-Ray discs run).

Aware that ripping DVDs isn’t technically “allowed” either, but the DRM on Blu-Ray seems a lot more draconian to me (if it can be changed at will by the studios).

All in all, I’ll stick with DVD for the time being, thanks…

By: Thom

Thom — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:09:09 +0000

You can already rip a blu-ray to your computer as long as you have a blu-ray compatable drive and the software to do it. Technically, you cannot rip DVD’s-they are encrypted. You need special software to do that. So I am not sure why this shoud have any impact on switching to Blu-Ray. For the record, I have DVDs that are encoded in a fashion that any ripping software has trouble reading them. Disney has very solid encrypting these days, my Incredibles disc could not be ripped by three different rippers.

Every Blu-Ray I bought in the last three months cost less than the special edition DVDs. I got Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (a DVD/Blu-Ray combo) for $15.99. The prices have rapidly dropped-being within four and five dollars with DVDs. Heck, some older Blu-Rays already sell for $9.99.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:08:40 +0000

I won’t be interested in Blu-Ray until it’s as cheap as DVDs are (still rather expensive, and doubt making them “combo packs” will encourage them to lower the prices anytime soon), and as easy to use as DVDs (including being able to rip them to my computer—a digital copy thrown in isn’t a sufficient substitute for me…). Until then, will pass on this attempt at forced obsolescence of a format people only fully switched to several years ago (DVDs) just for the extra expense/the DRM on Blu-Ray discs (the latter probably the main reason they’re trying to push them so hard)…

By: Jim Kosmicki

Jim Kosmicki — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:56:08 +0000

How many of those players are Playstation 3′s? The total number of PS3s is about 11 million, so if they count (and I don’t know why they wouldn’t, as Sony artificially inflated the price of the system to include the Blu-Ray), there’s not really that many standalone Blu-Ray players. Or if they don’t count the PS3, then granting a certain amount of cross-ownership, the actual percentage is higher.

By: Shawn Hill

Shawn Hill — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:54:50 +0000

On the other side, the film fanatics I know swear by blue-ray, and have already upgraded their TVs to HD, and have no interest in watching my old DVDs on my old TV. I’ve never been an early adopter, but it’s made me already a mastodon in some circles.

By: Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:01:51 +0000

Well, they’re determined to force the audience to knuckle under, then.

Tough.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:21:06 +0000

Andrew, so you’re saying that the announcement was just that EVERYTHING was going to get a combo pack? I hope so. I’d love to be wrong on this. I’ve changed the headline to reflect that. Thank you for the sensible splash of water.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:39:57 +0000

There are Blu-ray burners/players for Mac… I am waiting for the blank media to drop before that kind of investment.

Personally, my answer to going digital download? Thank but no thanks. But hey, I still prefer to read an actual book to a page on the internets. :)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:32:31 +0000

I don’t see where the press release says they’re no longer going to sell DVDs by themselves. Poking around the WB website I see DVDs of Whiteout and The Invention of Lying both set to be released in January, 2010. Looking around other blogs, I don’t see anyone else who’s interpreted this press release exactly as you have.

These combo packs could actually be a good thing for the library I work in, where we’re already buying a lot of new releases in both formats.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:12:02 +0000

Argo, that’s a clever way to share. And Augie, that’s a good point about the TV — it’s not just upgrading your player, but your entire video system, too!

We have a combo VCR/DVD burner unit as part of our setup, so even if I wanted to move to Blu-Ray, that would mean adding a box, not swapping something out … and since we’ve still got a laserdisc player in the mix, I’m out of room! Seriously, we just added an Apple TV box, so I think we’re going to be moving a lot more stuff to digital/online instead of physical.

Thad, I love your point about BR on Mac. I hadn’t realized that, but it’s true: onerous copy-protection only hurts the legitimate customer.

By: Thad

Thad — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:06:48 +0000

Well, no, they’re making this decision to try to force 80% of the population to switch to Blu-Ray.

Like you say, it’s going to backfire.

Think I’ve mentioned in your comments before: a few months back I put together an HTPC, and wanted to buy a Blu-Ray drive with it, but found out that there is no Blu-Ray playback support at all on Mac or Linux, and even Windows support requires an additional $30 for PowerDVD. (There IS software to RIP Blu-Rays on Mac and Linux; the encryption hasn’t prevented them from being read, just from being played back on-the-fly. So as usual, copy protection only hurts people who want to use their product legitimately, and does absolutely nothing to stop piracy.)

I wanted to buy a Blu-Ray player, and to start building a Blu-Ray collection. But I’m not going to do it until the content providers pull their heads out of their asses (or, much more likely, the Linux and Mac developers finish cracking the encryption). I guess on the plus side, this would mean I wouldn’t have to replace my collection if the format DID finally catch on and make DVD obsolete. (A big “if” — as you say, the world’s moving toward digital distribution, and this is yet another move that will push users in that direction.)

All of which is moot as I stopped buying new-release DVD’s years ago after the umpteenth time I bought a no-frills version only to see a Special Edition release a year later.

By: Augie De Blieck Jr.

Augie De Blieck Jr. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:39:50 +0000

Ack. Pardon my previous typos. I know it’s versus its better than that. . .

By: Augie De Blieck Jr.

Augie De Blieck Jr. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:38:21 +0000

The adoption rate for Blu Ray is actually ahead of where DVD was at the same
point on it’s life cycle. And this Christmas will be huge for Blu Ray thanks to players dropping below $100 for the first time. Still, this is an odd move. Blu Ray is really only an advantage if you have a 1080p tv, not the cheaper 720p style. And screen
sizes need to be better than 40 inches to truly see the difference.

So I think they’re jumping the gun a bit here, tho we do need to thank Warner Bros (under a previous boss, grantee) for making DVD the success it was in the first place.

By: Argo Plummer

Argo Plummer — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:30:31 +0000

Yeah, I haven’t upgraded to blue-ray yet, and haven’t felt the need to. Still don’t. I hate that studios are doing this, but if the DVD version is still available, even as part of a pack, then people like me will still be able to get our hands on what we want. Maybe my step-mom (who swears by blue-ray) and I can strike up a deal–split the cost and I can get the DVD.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:26:18 +0000

Yeah, this surprises me that they would make this choice so soon. It’s not surprising that Blu-Ray is where it’s at for the rate of adoption, it’s pretty much moving at the same rate DVD did, but the studios aren’t being patient.

The only way I can see this working is if the Blu-Ray/DVD combos are set at a standard price of $19.99, since that seems to be the limit for a lot of people.