Has Blue Ray Failed?

[Anonymous]

British Video Association figures
Blu-ray in first 6months of 2009, 3.1 million discs
DVD sales in same period 100 million discs.
So 3.1% of disc sales are High Definiton.

Blu-ray will succeed if player and disc prices continue to fall, it has to be a no-brainer choice not a more expensive premium option.

High Definition is arguably not a rip roaring success in the UK. The analogue switch off will force people to buy a new set top box and with DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 both promising better quality via High Definition and the simple unavailability of standard definiton TV sets. I can see that being a major boost.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc Annual Review 2009
9.442 milion direct subscirbers. 34% of subscribers are SKY+HD. So 3.210 million SKY+HD subscribers.
UK number of Households >25.7 million. So less than 12.5% of Households receieve direct SKY HD.
More will get it via cable companys but they have a combined total of less than 4 million subscribers and most of them will be non-hd subscribers.

Ofcom digital television update Q3 2009
0.640 million freesat at end of September 2009. 79% are HD receivers. So 0.506 million freesat HD viewers.
UK number of Households >25.7 million. So less than 2% of Households recieve freesat HD,

 

[kinda]

For me personally, though I love films and like my AV stuff:-

- I've got a 36" CRT at about 7 or 8 feet, which is big enough at that distance and looks better with SD material than an LCD or plasma would

- If I upgrade it will cost me a load of money and I'll only get better results when watching BlueRay or once HD TV gets a proper rollout, (I'm off Sky and staying off).

- I don't know even if I had the setup I'd be prepared to replace DVDs, or even always buy new on BD if a DVD was available

- Is something else around the corner?

I think if people need to replace equipment, or are going for a very big picture, like a projector, BluRay probably makes sense, but I'm not sure it does for everyone, especially given the prices. I think until there's more HD content, and BD players and disks are the same price as DVDs it might well struggle for a while.

 

[robjcooper]

Re: the Godfather Collection:
'Apparently the original film material deteriorated to the point that they could not do much to improve it, if at all.'

From Wikipedia:

The Coppola Restoration

After a careful restoration of the aging first two movies, The Godfather movies were released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 23, 2008 under the title The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration. The work was done by Robert A. Harris of the Film Preserve. The Blu-ray box set (four discs) includes high-definition extra features on the restoration and film. They are included on disc 5 of the DVD box set (five discs).

Robert A. Harris is a film historian and preservationist who specializes in restoring the large-format widescreen films of the 1950s. He has restored and reconstructed a number of classic films including Lawrence of Arabia (in 1989), Spartacus (1991), My Fair Lady (1994), Vertigo (1996) Rear Window (1998), as well as The Godfather and The Godfather Part II(2008). He frequently collaborates with James C. Katz.

Their pristine restorations of classic films have earned a great deal of respect from cinephiles and critics.

So much for Amazon Reviewers !?

 

[HDNumpty]

to return to the earlier format discussion, perhaps a more representative sample could be taken from the popular and well-used LOVEFILM service on titles available:

Blu-ray 1,732
DVD 60,835
Download 2,398

By this reckoning, the download market is growing marginally faster than Blu-ray despite the lower quality being more like VHS, with the best quality no better that DVD (PAL) with DD 5.1 surround.

I think it more likely that TVOD in HD will take over from Blu-ray within the next 10 years.