# Is blu-ray a waste of time and money??



## TheCanadian1 (Sep 14, 2009)

I understand why Blu-ray was created...
- More info can be stored on a disc
- Better HD Video and Audio
- Interactivity
- More money for Sony (especially with the failure of HD-DVD)

I still can't help but feel we're being ripped off, why do we even need discs?

DVD was a worth-while change, compared to VHS (lol, the good ol days)

We're entering an era where Terabytes will be a common storage size and small flash cards are increasing Gigabyte by Gigabyte every year.

Aside from capital gain for companies like Sony, wouldn't it have been smarter to wait another decade and simply start putting media on chips? Then TV manufacturers could include a chip slot (some already do) and purchasing a device to play the chip would be inexpensive. Not to mention they wouldn't take up much space.

The solid state advantage of chips would mean no interruptions or device failures due to malfunctioning moving parts. The quality and speed of data transfer, as well as overall audio/video quality would be significantly improved. These devices would also make no sound as you're not spinning a disc or moving a laser.

Not to mention video rental stores would have tons of space, or could simply automate their service with an ATM style interface where you could watch video previews, game trailers, or look up movies/games in production/soon to be released.

The cost saving just seems smart and the more I think about it, the more I feel blu-ray was a bad decision. It certainly didn't take over the market like I assume they though it would.

This is why I will stick with DVDs and an HDMI connection.
I personally refuse to support blu-ray.

Any thoughts on this??


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## JayDontCareEh (Jul 16, 2007)

I don't understand all the hype, either. 

I think Blu-ray discs make most movies look like cartoons, kinda. I don't know... maybe it's just me.


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## Johnny_Genome (Nov 11, 2003)

Sure HD quality is great if you have the right screen size and are sitting the right distance away, but to most people the difference is barely perceptible. I don't collect discs and I rarely watch movies twice. Netflix standard DVD's and streaming over xbox 360 are more than adequate. Blu-Ray=LaserDiscs

It's a mute point anyway, in 10 years all discs will be incredibly rare -- maybe 5 years.


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## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

Yeah I don't get it. But then, I'm not their target market at all. I only really care if the actual content of a blu-ray disc is any good. Good sound/video has never really impressed me.


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## JEmerson (Mar 25, 2010)

I don't know, I think you tend to overestimate the technical competence of the average person. Sure, lots of us already do this stuff, but most people still don't really know how it works. They need the physical discs that they can buy at the store. I personally don't see discs going anywhere for a while. And there's certainly a large difference in video quality between standard def and Blu-ray. Now that the prices of Blu-rays have come way down, I think they're going to be adopted more and more.


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## cakesniffer (Nov 11, 2003)

I saw a few movies on blu-ray at my boyfriend's dad's, and I wasn't overly impressed. Everything was so sharp it looked crappy and was majorly distracting.


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## broseph (Jan 18, 2010)

My god what are you talking about man! I started watching everything in HD this year and I'm never gonna go back to DVD's.


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## RobAlister (Apr 4, 2010)

I'm definitely thinking of getting one, especially now that I have an HDTV but the price still bothers me. You're not just paying for more space and an HDTV picture but for a bunch of features that you probably don't want, need or will ever use. That's not the only thing that bothers me. How about the fact that just about every player has ridiculous load times or freezes up randomly? These things were rushed and produced before their time.


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## SilentWitness (Dec 27, 2009)

I haven't up-graded to Blu-ray and probably won't for a long while. By then, something new will supercede it.
I hear good things though, so I won't knock it.


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## Classified (Dec 7, 2004)

They did some crappy things to limit consumers choices.

However, when you are watching a movie on a 10 foot screen and are sitting 4 feet away, the 1920x1080 resolution looks a lot better than 720x480. The upconverting stuff works ok, but it still isn't quite the same.

I will agree that digital downloads are where things are going, but there would need to be a fiber 100 gigabit (1000x faster than average today) to allow me to download a 16 GB movie in a few minutes.


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## Futures (Aug 27, 2005)

Phoenix87 said:


> It certainly didn't take over the market like I assume they though it would.


They've kept prices inflated for far too long. Yeah sure they've come down, but it's still not low enough. A 50GB disc is still out of sight and the write speeds suck. Notice how almost nobody has a blu-ray burner and blank media.


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## companioncube (Sep 7, 2008)

it took a few years for dvd to become what it has now. i love hd media, its not so worth it when its just 720p , but 1080p is awesome and you a decent tv/monitor then you notice a big difference from dvd.

i'll be getting a blu-ray writer soon because i just like the fact i can back up 25gb single layer, 50 gb dual layer on one disc...........instead of a stack of dvds or having to buy 10TB of hard drives.

4K media is only a couple years away so you might just want to wait for that because that will be a massive, ridiculous jump from dvd, over 4 times more resolution


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## CircularThinking (May 9, 2009)

I like good picture quality so yeah Bluray movies are definitely worth it.

I don't think physical media will ever die and it will probably always be on discs, yes flash memory has tanked in price but it's infinitely more complicated and expensive to produce than a disc. The size they can hold is really irrelevant, you can get a 1080p movie down to 12 gigs without noticeable quality loss, the deciding factor is the production cost because it is what will determine the profit margins. No matter how good people get at producing flash memory, it will never be cheaper than printing a disc. 

In regards to streaming media, there will always be a demand for streaming content and that market will continue to grow but it will never match the quality you'll be able to put on physical media and you'll always be at the mercy of your service providers.


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## David1976 (Nov 8, 2003)

I think dvd is good enough for now and with an up-converting dvd player they look just fine... I think the future might be a bluray player with internet connectivity to stream netflix or rent movies online... it would also be nice for these devices to have hard drives for the ability to purchase the movie and keep it on the hard drive...


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## Micronian (Nov 11, 2004)

David1976 said:


> I think dvd is good enough for now and with an up-converting dvd player they look just fine... I think the future might be a bluray player with internet connectivity to stream netflix or rent movies online... it would also be nice for these devices to have hard drives for the ability to purchase the movie and keep it on the hard drive...


 A lot of HDTVs are starting to do this now. The only thing that I don't like is that the only way to make good use of an HDTV is to watch Blu-ray. Most of the stuff on TV that is supposed to be Hi-def is only 720p or 1080i--even most video games are done in 720p. Blu-ray is the only, most practical, way to watch 1080p content and make the most use of your expensive HDTVs--which I think is ridiculous!


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## Infexxion (Jun 29, 2009)

I don't see physical media going anywhere at least for the next decade. Digital distribution and physical media are working fine side-by-side right now, and there's pros and cons to each. But the problem now is digital distribution is the same price as physical media. If a game runs $40 in stores, it's usually $40 on Xbox Live or PS Store, and you don't get a physical copy, you don't get artwork, you don't get a manual.

So, I think digital distribution should run $10 below the price of physical media, and the two could coexist almost perfectly. 

But, I don't think Blu Ray is a waste of time or money. I mean, Blu Ray is just now hitting the spot that DVD's did in 2001 or 2002, going really mainstream. Blu Ray's are now usualy like $20-$25 brand new. I remember for the longest time new DVD's were $20 so I'm pretty sure price is no longer an issue, at least movie-wise and such.


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## drealm (Jul 7, 2009)

I dream day in and day out of the cloud creating a 100% streaming life that requires zero physical hardware on my end. The future is glorious.


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## gandalfthegrey (Feb 14, 2010)

when i watch a bluray rip the quality is like amazing and thats on a regular pc monitor but i font mind watching dvdrips or bluray rips

of course i think bluray is worth it as you can get bluray player with a ps3 which is good


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## Hank Scorpio (Oct 28, 2008)

It does seem like kind of an "intermediate" format to me, like laser disks. I don't think I even heard of laser disks until they were gone.
The other day I was watching this documentary "Planet Earth" on my dad's bluray and it was amazing. I guess some day I'll get a bluray player and start getting disks of newer movies but I'll still use my DVDs. I doubt people would have even accepted bluray if it hadn't played both.
I hate the idea of nothing but streaming. I like to own things. I don't have any faith that just because something's available on the internet today it'll be available tomorrow.


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## gandalfthegrey (Feb 14, 2010)

could just upscale dvds almsot HD qual


Hahaha 


... Your job will be to manage and motivate them. Give 'em the benefit of your years of experience.


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## companioncube (Sep 7, 2008)

Hank Scorpio said:


> I hate the idea of nothing but streaming. I like to own things. I don't have any faith that just because something's available on the internet today it'll be available tomorrow.


i think this too, i like to have my pc next too me, build my own computers, and my dvds etc the idea of the cloud is kinda cool, but i would still like to have my own pc etc. one day all we'll have is a monitor, a keyboard and a login. i don't really like the idea of all my files being held on some server no matter how much they tell us its protected and private. i like to keep all my stuff backed up on hard drives and dvd, and soon blu-ray.

one thing i did to save space is that i recycled all my dvd film cases (200+) lol and just have all my films in plastic wallets with the orignal covers, saved so much space.


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## strange (Apr 7, 2010)

My BD player was probably one of the best things I bought last year, the movies look awesome (for the most part...) and I'm always looking forward to picking up new titles as they come out! I can see it being a waste of money but only for the fact that adopting the new format has caused me to want to buy movies that I already have on DVD so I'm spending money on stuff I basically already have but aside from that I don't think it's a waste. A lot of people seem happy with upscaled DVDs and I think they do look good but there really is no comparison with a decent looking BD imo; I mean you can't really create quality/detail that is not already there. Nowadays I don't really see much difference in price between DVD and BD when buying online anyway.
As for movies on the physical medium going away, I really hope that this never, ever happens! It's bad enough the way they restrict playback with region codes and restrict backups and re-encoding the movie for other devices with encryption and when you take away physical access to the movie things will probably only get worse. Also, and this is the biggest issue imo, streaming might be OK for now but what happens when your internet goes down or the place you bought your license from goes under? You're locked out of something you paid perfectly good money for. I could be wrong but I think that with physical copies there are probably fewer variables that may restrict you from watching the movie.


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## lostfromreality731 (Jan 3, 2013)

seriously blu ray is just a waste of money unless you really want to change format for very minor differences.

I have over 300 dvds and about 4 blu ray disks (BR disks given to me as gifts in the past), dvds are fine, br's are not a good enough upgrade to replace dvds so i just stick with dvds, i honestly dont see any change in quality and i use HDMI on 50" plasma. 

vhs to dvd was a huge upgrade so replacing the media with a new format was relevent, but blu ray isnt really the same. i hope they never replace dvds with overrated blu rays, even blu ray cases are pretty crappy


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## rymo (Sep 6, 2009)

Does Blu Ray look great? I think so. Do I need to buy Blu Ray movies when I can just torrent them? No.


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## ImSorry (Dec 16, 2012)

But really though, now that High speed internet is so prevalent you don't really need it when you can stream HD just as easily.


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## Minato (Sep 9, 2012)

1080p is nothing. Wait until 2k/4k resolution becomes mainstream.


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## WhiteKitty (Jun 4, 2014)

If you got a big tv, you will know why...LOL. I love also my PS2 games, but my goodness...on the new bigger (not huge, sorry...but for ME its huge since I moved in with my dinky little screen) tv of ours now compared to the small square box of a screen of back in my high school age? it is SO hard on the eyes...as in it both makes eyes actually sore, and it looks awful XD. Clear images is better for your sight and well, once you see it, you don't really want to look back at a fuzzy screen with awful audio. I am also very visual so I can't help but upgrade. Newer dvds though arent all so bad, mind you....but older ones are quite noticable. If anything, old old stuff needs a HD makeover.

I also like owning my stuff too, I hate streaming aside Netflix. I did toss out a lot of dvd cases though, but my faves I keep, and my bluray cases I also keep.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

I hate DVDs or Blurays. I remember the first time I played The Matrix on DVD the menu when you popped the disk in was like "Do you want to know what The Matrix is?" and it proceeded to flash the entire movie in like 10 seconds so why bother watching it at that point.

I don't wanna see the movie flash before my eyes before I even watch it, trailers are bad enough. I also can't stand that there are advertisements on something I ****ing paid for. Advertising should be on products that are free. If I pay for a movie I dont want to have to watch ****ing ads before the movie plays.

Then there is the problem with trying to find the movie you are looking for. The disc might get misplaced or scratched. I would much rather have digital copy on my harddrive that I can search instantly and store infinite movies without all the wasted space that DVDs take up.


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## SouthWest (Dec 4, 2014)

Streaming bitrates are pretty bad, usually around 4Mbps, whereas Blu-ray is often at 24Mbps and you can see the difference. The lower the bitrate the less fine detail and more blocks will become visible. I can't even imagine what UHD/4K streaming would look like now.

Streaming will improve and the compression codecs will get better, but for the moment the best consumer image quality is on Blu-ray. I have my absolute favourite movies on Blu-ray while the rest are either on DVD or on my hard drive. I have now bought _Halloween_ six times because a new and better version has come out over the years.


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## knightofdespair (May 20, 2014)

Depends on what you're doing, but for the money I prefer these.

http://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Jewel-Titanium-SP064GBUF3J80V1T/dp/B00O4VAL32


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## fonz (Oct 15, 2008)

I've stopped buying them,I'm happy enough to stream movies now or download. It won't be too long until most movies can be streamed free at high quality. I still like to have a few of my favourites in physical form though...


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## knightofdespair (May 20, 2014)

The biggest reason is a regular DVD can't fit more than 20 minutes of HD content. Plus discs are designed to be semi-disposable where you can give them away or trash them and not be out more than a buck or two.


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## Ignopius (Mar 19, 2013)

I don't use physical media anymore. But Blu-Ray is much better overall.


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## foe (Oct 10, 2010)

Never had a Blu-ray player or even watched movies on it ever. Isn't it crazy how Blu-rays just came and went out like that. 2008-2013 life span maybe?

I know they were made in the early 2000s but I don't think they became popular until 2008-09 when that _Avatar_ movie came out.

DVDs were mainstream from the mid-90s until 2010? 15 years of mainstream lifespan wasn't too bad.

CDs had a great run from the early-80's to 2004. 20+year run is amazing.

I wonder how long streaming will last. Streaming 2013-???? lol


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## Shawn81 (Jul 9, 2014)

I haven't bought any in several years. I had about 450. I used to like to collect things like that and have them all nice and neat on a shelf ready to watch whenever I wanted. I stopped caring and just stream/download now. I did get a bit tired of buying a new BD just to have them release the "Director's Cut" six weeks later with all of the things they intentionally left off the first release to try and force you to buy it again, then the "Ultimate Edition" a few months later, etc. I'm just less wasteful with money these days.


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## knightofdespair (May 20, 2014)

SouthWest said:


> Streaming bitrates are pretty bad, usually around 4Mbps, whereas Blu-ray is often at 24Mbps and you can see the difference.


Yeah I was just going to mention this, often a blue ray disk contains up to 45GB of compressed movie data over 2 hours. Most people have caps on internet use around 200-250GB for an entire month before the ISP sends you hate mail. Plus most wireless is going to realistically top out at about 4MB a second as a physical limit on how much it can push wirelessly especially with multiple devices connected.


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## sabbath9 (Dec 30, 2014)

Blu-ray is awesome! We have a PS3 and a Blu-ray player that also plays Super-Audio CDs (SACD). We have a 7.1 surround sound home theater with 15" woofers and a 47" LED LCD, and the only way to get 7.1 sound or 1080p resolution is from blu-rays. I used to copy the blu-rays we get from Netflix, but can't anymore. Netflix's blu-ray library is pretty extensive and only $9 per month unlimited. We only buy a few titles now, mostly classic movies and concert films. Costco has blu-ray movies from $6.99, classics like "West Side Story" and "Sound of Music". The first blu-ray we bought was years ago, "A Clockwork Orange" from Costco for $10, incredible! I've only had a few discs go bad, including one of my faves "The Blues Brothers". Soon they'll have 4k blu-rays and we'll all have to upgrade again


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