http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/09/03/samsu...ive-years-left/



An interesting view given its coming from the UK rather than the U.S.

It's certainly possible, at least for certain demographics. Not for home theatre enthusiasts though, as I don't see 1080p with lossless audio and extras being distributed any other way than on disc anytime soon.

The Middle East is not really pushing Blu-Ray. And most equipment comes from the UK as well.
The only choice for players at the moment is PS3 or the first generation Sony and Sharp and all of these are still 570 US dollars not to mention the cost of new release disks here that are selling for 57 US each.
I still can not understand why the company's do not push into large markets like these the potential for growth is huge and the cost of disks and players should be similar to the US as there is no tax.
If Blu-Ray dies Sony can only blame themselves. And don't even get me started on the Blu-Ray Players being SD region locked they sell region 1 and 2 disks here so there is always some disks you can not play on the new format talk about stupid.

Back here on Earth just about all the major CE companies are now making BR players mate and they're as low as $300 to $350 earth dollars

I hear sony have started a trade in program where each suicide bomber receives 72 Blu-ray discs when they trade in their bomb. Unfortunately when most get home and discover they have received 72 copies of Hannah Montana And Miley Cyrus: Best Of Both Worlds Concert Tour, they go and get another bomb.

With the Middle East having a population over 193 million people Don't you think this market could help get sales up and prices down for all of us?

Very funny momaw Buy the way I am an Australian living in Oman and Oman is one of the top 5 country's to live in,There is close to Zero crime and the Brits have been helping Oman for over 40 years.
I can tell you now that the family feels safer here then we ever did in Australia.

The Middle East has all the hi def TVs but no choice of Hi def players to use with all those TVs

but what are you doing about getting prices down for your country men, down under

The Howard Government was thrown out of office at the last election so we are all feeling a lot safer now .


C.M

What can the individual do ?

Buying crumby movies only encourages them to produce more. As long as Hollywood keeps turning out the same old story lines, predictable plots with proven formulas, there is not going to be any incentive for the emotionally challenged to take it up a gear and be impressed by this improvement in viewing......regardless of whether they have a HD TV or not.

C.M

I thought it was Transformers.

seeing the B&M stores here in LA / Orange County / Vegas for the past 2 weeks - I'll give Blu-ray less than 5 yrs left.

its OVER PRICED !!!

Forget all what people keep writing about how çheap' they find Blu-ray discs via Amazon - its the 'discretionary' spender whom makes or kills a format.

I've (sadly) been to multiple Walmarts, Kmarts, Best Buys, Circuit City and Frys over the past 2 weeks here on the West Coast - and this format has IMO limited appeal. You only need to check out the areas of the stores that they sell these products - normally with CDs and DVDs - and these parts of the stores are DEAD !!!! It's just another product line - nothing more nothing less.


Even DVD seems to be DEAD here - I've seen no one with a DVD in their hands. Whats going on in this country called the US ??


If this format fails to get the discretionary spender - then its bye bye

If you cant eat, root, drive or shoot it then the yanks dont care.

lolol - add that it needs to be in a scooter as well

Hey that's me.

Financially, the US is ' on the rocks ' and it is likely to be that way for many years to come.

Blu-ray is all about high definition and is seen by many as a visual luxury as it is priced to give that impression. So, having little appeal to those that have greater priorities in life, it is very unlikely Blu-ray will be the redeeming success story Sony had hoped for it.

Rather, one that dwindled for a while and then was overtaken by downloadable technologies that are more adaptable to consumer needs.


Edited for readability.

C.M

not likely in Australia with our rediculously expensive capped broadband, not to mention our slow speeds. To embrace this technology, Howard (and now Rudd) needed to invest in broadband infrastrucure, which they didnt. Remember, even in capital cities, there are cable/ADSL blackspots.

hear, hear...

most consumer broadband still starts at 400mb limit per month, not enough for a ripped AVI movie and most people wouldn't even know where to look for one. It would take the next generation at least for this technology to become viable so will fall behind available video technologies. Blu-ray sales are increasing and remember, there are STILL VHS recorders out there

There are much more universal,flexible, cheaper,and much higher bandwidth devices available now than that of a broadband cable solution. The only limitation at this moment is its implementation and the initial device cost of around $165 for 32Gig. In fact, the said device is a no-brainer .....quite simply ' Plug & Play '.

C.M

Though there are plenty of broadband plans that offer much more than that. Certainly I haven't used a plan anywhere near that low in the past decade of broadband use. That's not to say I have enough bandwidth to get all my content in HD from there. I do have enough to get most of my fictional TV content in SD though.

As for 'most people' it depends on what you class as most people. Its certainly true if you include all people. After all there's still a good portion who aren't connected to the internet at all or know how to use a computer.

I'd be curious to know how much use the ABC's iView gets and how much use the iTunes movie and TV content is generating. I expect those kinds of things would get more mainstream use than channel BT, even if Australia has the highest per capita use of it.

Hmm...I get more than that on DSL for less than that. I think I'm paying $65 for 48 GB.

Yes, but that is a monthly download....every month ...for say a 24 month contract. I 'm speaking about a 32Gig Flash drive with a 20MB/s write speed paid for once, with the prospect of prices falling .

Sony is already engaged in selling DVD movies on 2 Gig USB drives now (pathetic, I know) but as they are amongst the market leaders in Home Entertainment, being second to Samsung, there must be some incentive behind it.

If future movie releases sold at video outlets were also available as a downloadable product for a customer's pen drive then the manufacturing and disc distribution costs could also be minimized for the studio, I think this will happen sooner than later. Eventually pen drive downloadables may well become the norm ?

As it is, the poor uptake of Blu-ray as a format must be causing the Studios and the OEM's to reassess the viability of the disc based formats, and from a profit point of view are prospecting elsewhere for the future years. Either way we consumers will be the last to know.

C.M

im getting out of here as its turning into another flash card thread.

Not to worry it has all been said before and a rehash gains nothing, but the point is that Sony has now decided to test the market with USB movie sales (highly compressed no doubt) to see if there is an avenue unexplored to gain revenue, and as such may cause a shift of focus in movie mediums.

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/604788/ghos...-usb-stick.html

C.M