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Still Haven’t Gotten On Board With Blu-Ray: YADF

April 25th, 2009

Interesting article over at the New York Times reminded me that although Blu-Ray won the next generation disc format battle between HD-DVD, that doesn’t mean Blu-Ray won the war.

It also reminded me that I still haven’t bought a Blu-Ray player, and at the rate things are going – may never get around to it.

There are other options to get HD content. Apple has had HD movie rentals available via the Apple TV for a while now, and the Netflix Roku box supports HD content. They recently added HD rentals provided by Amazon, which will also be available to TiVO users. Essentially, HD is being offered in more and more ways, via cable and the Internet, so a disc isn’t the only way to get this content.

Then there’s a feeling that I don’t want to deal with the physical media of discs ever again. I’ve been done with CDs for years now. Whenever I get a CD I immediately rip it into iTunes. All the music I purchase is via digital download. I see DVDs going in this direction as well. I sold pretty much all my DVDs last year and am really not looking forward to YADF (yet another disc format).

My reluctance is largely around price – I’ll likely purchase a stand alone player when prices drop to the $100-$200 range (which should happen this year). There’s also the off chance I’ll pick up a game console or a computer with a Blu-Ray drive in it, but Sony’s control over the format and the lack of Blu-Ray in Macs / Apple TV and XBOX are notable. But even if I do get around to buying a player, I plan to buy as few Blu-Ray discs as possible, renting them via Netflix, and looking forward to the day when all content distributed via the Apple TV and Netflix’s Watch Instantly are HD by default.

And then there’s the ultimate realization -  for now, I am satisfied with DVDs and standard definition content. Even when given the choice to rent HD vs. standard def content on our Apple TV, I pretty much always go with the standard and save the few bucks. And this is the heart of the matter: Ultimately, I don’t feel the jump in quality to HD is worth the money required to invest. While I appreciate awesome visuals and picture quality, I haven’t yet seen a movie where awful acting, writing, and characters were made up for by stunning picture quality. And conversely, the incredible movies I love shine through even on VHS tapes.

That last paragraph seems a bit Luddite. Perhaps I’ll change my tune when I buy a 50 inch television. But judging from the article – and in particular, the comments below it – I’m not the only one putting off that purchase or scads of Blu-Ray discs for the foreseeable future.

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  • I'm with ya, with each passing day I think more and more that Blu-ray is already dead, it just doesn't realize it yet. Yeah, the quality is nice, but not nice enough to justify an entire library upgrade from DVD -- especially when it's inevitable that eventually all of this will be transfered over the Internet anyway.
  • Yeah - I think my list of movies I'd rebuy on Blu-Ray is very short. And as for whole TV seasons - that's a huge investment I'm reluctant to add up.
  • jcieplinski
    Your ultimate realization is what the market on the whole has realized as well. I love HD content, but most of the time my standard def DVDs aren't bad enough to warrant buying the movie all over again. Especially not in a physical form.

    Even though the digital downloads are a lower-quality HD than Blu-ray offers, they are more than enough to look good on my 32-inch LCD.

    People are tired of the YADF situation. The music and movie industries really killed the goose on that one. I can't even count how many different versions of the Star Wars movies I've purchased over the years. So for me, it's downloads or nothing from here on out.

    I just sold my entire CD collection a few months ago, and I'm so happy I did. No more boxes of plastic to haul around whenever I move. No more trouble trying to keep dics alphabetized. It's very liberating.
  • Heh... I *almost* rebought the Star Wars trilogy that included the original version from the seventies without all the CGI stuff, but drew the line around there. And it's a pretty safe bet Lucas is working on some ultimate 6 Blu-Ray set with a CGI Yoda in Empire or some other travesty.

    Meanwhile I see some glimmers of how awesome the future could be. Eight seasons of Red Dwarf just showed up on Netflix Watch Instantly. That's a series I'd always wanted to check out. But even getting eight DVDs in the mail seems like a hassle. Now they're all available on demand. Also saw Monty Python, The IT Crowd, Star Trek TOS... all series I don't want to buy on DVD or Blu-Ray - but I'd totally pay a subscription fee (and am doing so) to access them.
  • damn ..I though i am the only one who cat see the AWESOME QUALITY if blu-ray but seems that there are other who think like me,,though its rare..hehe well imho that the flop of blu ray is cause of its hi fi price.why would one spend almost double price..when he can get the thing in its half..ultimately they have to cut the price sooner or later..
  • Cutting prices would do wonders.
  • Imho, the only thing truly worth watching on blu-ray is the BBC's fantastic "Planet Earth" series. Anything less than 1080p for that program is inadequate. But you can easily rent that sucker -- no need to buy it. Beyond that, I don't see any reason to buy a dedicated player, though I will admit that it's a nice benefit of the PS3 and worthwhile in the context of a gaming system.
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