bluray drives a standard now?

Electronics are a business. And in business, there nothing wrong with expecting to turn a profit for a technology you bring to market.

As for competition, you already mentioned video streaming, which is a direct competitor to disc. Although thanks to the greedy service providers that now meter every GB, its not the huge bargain it used to be.

 

I suggest looking elsewhere if you have metered internet service. In the US, you shouldn't have to deal with that.

 

No choice anymore Jeeves; it's become an internet streaming feeding frenzy. And in the metering scheme, the providers are all in one accord.

 

I know that the providers want to do that, but I don't know of they will be able to do it.

 

As far as Blu-Ray drives go I say no. Seems like everyone here is arguing pros and cons.

Other components of computer hardware are maturing far faster than ODDs are. Because of this I assume most of us will upgrade our computers before DVD drives become obsolete. Again, I am not saying Blu-Ray isn't the future. It's just not a "standard" right now.

 

Huh? The U.S. is the problem. There's probably no similar problem in bandwidth capping in Korea or Japan. At least I haven't heard of any.

See It's official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1 for example. That's why those who were saying that flash/optical etc will die because of content streaming are not saying this loudly anymore.

Granted it's still a lot of bandwidth, but it's not what it used to be.

 

Where did I mention either Korea or Japan?

I torrent heavily and I have never come close to that 250GB limit on my 16/2 connection with Comcast. I would have to try really, really, really hard to pull down 250GB of content in a single month. Even if I did hit that limit, I could go to Verizon and get faster internet speeds and no cap.

If you want to see true limitation, the US is not at all where you want to look. The UK and Australia currently have some terrible telecom conditions. The US has very few limitations in comparison.

 

YOU said U.S. has no limitation, I just prove you're wrong. Verizon??? LOL. Verizon is even worse than comcast. LOL. Search on google for 'verizon bandwidth cap'. LMAO.

Where did I mention anything about Australia or UK? I said Japan or Korea.

 

There is no cap on Verizon that I know of.

I have seen over 1TB in a single week with no problems.

I should said Verizon FIOS maybe there other services are different, it may even depend on your state or region.

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Back on topic another thing that just crossed my mind about the distribution of games & software on BR format.

Like I already said it wont happen in BR only format for an incredibly incredibly long time because companies would lose tons of money and customers.

Some people said they will probably do dual format releases after so long and I agreed that was a possibility, however in retrospect I am now starting to doubt that may happen.

Reason being is mostly cost. BR media is expensive. I would say that a game company with its wholesale price and bulk purchase power still has to pay atleast $2.00 per disk.

So if they were to have a dual DVD/BR release they would be losing $2.00 per game doing that and that is a lot of money for them actually. The profit margin for the game can be rather slim.

Plus it may go even more in depth. This is just speculation but I would assume that some game companies probably have there own DVD manufacturing plants, so they only pay for the cost of materials and employees and stuff. they do not have to pay the premium of paying somebody else to produce the game disks.

When BR first was coming out I read up on how it was made, and what usually happened was a DVD production facility was usually converted into a BR production facility. The conversion was very expensive.

If a game company did make its own disks, now it would have to convert a plant over, and lose part of there DVD production. In doing this not only would they have to make up the extra cost of the BR disk in the game box but the cost of the conversion.

Or build a whole new plant and that would be very very expensive, and of course the cost filters down into the game.

The third option is to pay somebody with a BR facility to do it, so now they pay the $2.00 or so for the disk + the middle man fee.

I cant see any company with money sense doing this for any reason when they know the DVD format is just fine and they have no actual advantage at all to use the BR format for there game. They can care less if its 1 disks instead of 4, they care about there profit and to release on BR right now would simply cut into there profit no matter how I figure it.

So I add yet more nails to the coffin to say that BR is not standard and will not be standard on computers for a very long period of time, the only reason to get one is to view BR movies on your computer.

 

There is no verizon bandwidth cap.

Way to disregard everything that I said. I will concede that Korea and Japan have better lines on the whole, but those lines are often in an urban environment and shared between entire apartment complexes. The US has far more land mass that the telecoms have to cover. Progress is hampered mostly by that fact.

You mentioned that the US is "the problem" when it comes to the worldwide well-being of the internet while completely missing the fact that the US is far from the worst case out there. We have it much better than most of the other english speaking countries in the world. You stated examples of countries that are better off than the US when it comes to infrastructure, while I posted examples of countries that are far worse off than the US when it comes to infrastructure.

 

Maybe it's regional, maybe it's different package, but Verizon has impose limitations on some of their broadband service before. Apparently it's true that the FIOS service has no cap.

And why would I want to discredit you? I don't care if you want to be misinformed. You spread false information, I corrected it. Nothing to do with you. News flash, the world doesn't revolve around you. There's nothing special about you being american. And yes, the U.S. is the problem. Greedy companies are everywhere. You don't see the problem in Japan. Why compare with a worse Internet services country like the UK if you want to get better? Your "we're better than others" attitude is what will bring the country down.

Back to the topic, the bandwidth capping is the reason why IMO digital content delivery won't be the only way to go moving forward. CDs/DVDs/blurays will live. But how long before br takes over for DVD, I agree it'll take a few more years before this happens.

 

If that's true, I assure you it's a glitch in their system waiting for someone to come up with a measurable solution. I suggest you enjoy it while you can, as it won't last long. Metered bandwidth is the future.

The last time I checked the U.S. was at the bottom of the list when it come to telecommunications advancements. If it's not the worst overall it's certainly the worst of the advanced countries.

 

Can you guys take the bandwidth discussion to another thread or into PM's I tried to get us back on topic....

 

Well the bandwidth was one of major negatives was it not? As to the topic:

As some lose, others gain. That's just business.

You were better off with your original supposition. Dual releases is already the case.

The market fluctuates all the time. Again you're referencing simple economics: short term loss vs long term gain.

As was the conversion for broadcast stations from analogue to digital and yet here we are.

I'm not totally discounting your negatives, but you can't hold back progress. Where would we be today if the Industrial Revolution never happened? Yes, I know it's an exaggeration, but I'm trying to make a point here. I just can't believe so many computer savvy people here are so resistant to progress.

You're only speaking for one division of a company. They also care about advancements and what's happening in the industry. Otherwise, they'd all still be selling CRTs. They still produce the monitor standard you know.

In fact, you haven't added anything significant or that hasn't been consider and won't be overcome. I suggest anyone that isn't yet convinced to get on the bandwagon and join the rest of us as we move into the 21st Century.

 

Not to get personal here, but the "rest of us" don't all agree with BR, or physical media of any kind really. The true 21st century is the move to pure digital - while full cloud services are a ways off still, take a look at steam as a major indicator of things to come. You don't consume any packaging or produce any (more) waste via digital downloads, nor do you even have to leave the house, so you can hug trees and not contribute to auto pollution and be lazy. Everyone except for brick+mortar retailers win. What is truly holding back tech/media's progress is the horribly slow adoption of fibreoptic networks by major ISP's on every continent sans japan, and the silly restrictions on things like bandwidth, speed and even port usage (ie: some restrict known torrent ports to ~100kbps, even though many legitimate torrents and programs suffer).

Oh and, if you want to laugh at ISP's, look no further than your northern neighbor. We aren't even on an island like the poor aussies, we share the same continent and same tech - yet canadian ISP's are among the worst in the modern world for bandwidth capping and limitations. We'd kill for your 250gb limits; we average 60-75gb limits with a paltry 10mb/s down.

 

I already acknowledged the validity of those points made earlier; and I'm not implying the don't have merit. But none were so valid as to override completely the need for a higher storage physical media--which I think will be with us for some time to come. And blu-ray disc is the next standard in that progression.

Again, agreed. But for the present, you should be thankful that isn't the case. It would put you at the mercy of your source provider without any alternative to keep him in check.

Exactly my point. The convenience of the download has already given rise to their greed. Once any physical media alternative is eliminated, their nickle and dime price gouging tactics will be unstoppable. Really, we should be in unity of this one.