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+--- Thread: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! (/showthread.php?tid=55379)
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - dk62 - 05-22-2008
SACD and DVD-A were marginal improvements over CD, requiring specialized equipment. As MP3s have shown, most people are willing to sacrifice sound quality for convenience, which may have something to do with the fact that people progressively lose hearing faster than sight and with the fact that classical music is not in the mainstream any more.
BD does have video (and audio) quality that is way beyond DVDs if you have appropriate equipment and if you have it set up correctly. The question is which percentage of people will fulfill these two criteria. The price of discs is not as high as it was with LaserDisc, and more and more people are getting big screen HDTVs, so it has a fighting chance. I thought DVDs were good enough until I watched enough HD movies on cable and decided they were not. The mainstream big-budget movies are those that benefit the most from quality presentation.
Downloadable quality content is years away, because of infrastructure demands. Low-income young segment, particularly those used to watching content on computers, may be interested in it regardless of quality, though. But the fact that most people on this forum decided they were willing to pay top dollar for good computer experience, does not mean they are willing to do the same for movie watching (or cars, or food, etc.). So the diversity of opinions is not surprising.
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - wave rider - 05-22-2008
[quote BigGuynRusty][quote wave rider]I got the impression that BGnR has some vision issues...
I could be wrong though.
=wr= Sorry, not anymore.
Call my Eye Doctor if you want.
But for about two years I was legally blind, and for about eight months stone blind.
[...]
I remembered some mention of it (and none of the specifics); I'm very happy to hear your vision has resolved.
My remark was intended for Drakesgirl. Offhand rhetorical questions like "Are you blind?", "Are you crazy?", "Are you stupid?", and so on may well be answered in the affirmative.
I mean, if someone arguing with me ends with "Are you handsome, well liked, and reasonably intelligent?", there is a chance it could be true...
=wr=
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - BigGuynRusty - 05-22-2008
[quote wave rider]I remembered some mention of it (and none of the specifics); I'm very happy to hear your vision has resolved.
My remark was intended for Drakesgirl. Offhand rhetorical questions like "Are you blind?", "Are you crazy?", "Are you stupid?", and so on may well be answered in the affirmative.
I mean, if someone arguing with me ends with "Are you handsome, well liked, and reasonably intelligent?", there is a chance it could be true...
=wr= It went Real Well! Thanks!
BGnR
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - dk62 - 05-22-2008
And Sony does not have the monopoly on BD - if it did, I would never have bought a player.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - N-OS X-tasy! - 05-22-2008
[quote dk62]And Sony does not have the monopoly on BD - if it did, I would never have bought a player.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association
Yes, that was the other point I wanted to getting around to making. While Sony does own many of the patents behind BR, the same was true of Toshiba for HD-DVD... as well as current DVD technology!
The real reason Toshiba fought so hard for HD-DVD preeminence is because they know their DVD gravy train will soon come to an end -- they wanted to replace DVD technology with technology also owned by Toshiba so the gravy train would keep on rollin'. This is also why much of HD-DVD technology was based on extensions of current DVD technology, where BR technology represents much more of a break from current DVD technology.
As the primary patent holder for much of BR technology, it is in Sony's best interests for the technology to succeed. In the CE market segment, that only happens with volume sales resulting from ever-dropping prices. This is exactly what happened with VHS, CD, and DVD -- BR will be the same.
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - Grateful11 - 05-23-2008
I saw a Magnavox Blu-Ray player at W-M for $299.
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - mikebw - 05-23-2008
You can also get refurb units for around $250
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - deckeda - 05-23-2008
[quote dk62] ... I thought DVDs were good enough until I watched enough HD movies on cable and decided they were not. ... /quote]
People tend to have similar reactions when presented with top-notch audio, but the exposure to that is far, far less than it is with top-notch video.
It's perfectly reasonable that most people are happy with mediocre sound, or sound they think is really good until they are exposed to better. But once it happens, all of sudden "convenience" and tiny file sizes aren't the priorities.
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - dk62 - 05-23-2008
[quote deckeda][quote dk62] ... I thought DVDs were good enough until I watched enough HD movies on cable and decided they were not. ... /quote]
People tend to have similar reactions when presented with top-notch audio, but the exposure to that is far, far less than it is with top-notch video.
It's perfectly reasonable that most people are happy with mediocre sound, or sound they think is really good until they are exposed to better. But once it happens, all of sudden "convenience" and tiny file sizes aren't the priorities.
But acoustics of the room(car), ambient noise, loss of high-frequency hearing with age, and predominant type of music all make pristine sound reproduction more difficult to mass market. Personally, I have a decent-size library of both SACD and DVD-A, but I am not too surprised they never caught on with the broader public.
Re: Sony Wins the Battle But Loses the War. Some of us knew this would happen!! - mikebw - 05-23-2008
yeah, you really need high quality amplifiers, speakers AND a good room to listen to this stuff in to notice the difference. CD players in cars was never really that great in terms of sound quality, i mean better than tape for sure, but against good mp3 there is no difference due to road noise.