Is Blue-Ray the new Beta?

[Papa Bear]

It has been a real disappointment that Sony may have won the battle and lost the war! No doubt Blue-Ray produces a great picture, but Sony charges disk makers 1.00 per disk to use the BR logo and process! With cheap up scaling DVD plays are you getting superior picture quality and a cheap price! Most consumers can't see paying big money for limited titles when the current picture is so good! I compose in 720px480 which takes about 4gigs for an hour of high quality video on existing technology! From my side I can't see using time and resources to up scaling to Blue-Ray when the result is so good on a up scaling DVD and a new flat screen! So whats next? Will Sony make it easier for the media to spread or will they be heard headed like Beta Max and have a limited market? Is Blue-Ray going to be replaced by existing technology?

[The Publisher]

It has sure been slow to catch on, that's for sure. I have a PlayStation 3 that I bought so it could double as a Blu-Ray player, but why Apple does not support BR authoring yet is beyond me.

[Papa Bear]

Because of the license fees! They are ridiculous! Sony is about the only studio and I think some Disney putting out Blu-Ray. The up scaling players are great and they play reg resolution disc without the costs. Look at what it takes to even get dual layer Blu-ray discs and the burner. By this time with SD we were on the 6th generation. I have made the decision to stay in the, what I call, "Standard Def" which includes the 720px420 that is low res High Def and with a 79 dollar up scaling DVD player it is hard to see the difference for the money. People see it and can't believe the clarity and color. I will jump aboard when Sony comes to it senses!

[Jon Shaw]

For short stuff you can actually burn a blu ray file onto a standard DVD. If you use Toast with the blu ray pluggin they seam to play on most BR players.
Heaps cheaper and the Toast software isn't expensive $75 or something...
What blu ray really is good for is archive storage of footage for large amounts of data. I reckon it's here to stay for a while and costs will start to decrease.

[The Publisher]

I did see the Toast thing......I am waiting till the next big Apple show in January to see if they release a new desktop with Blu-Ray support, I need a new desktop computer.

I also want to see if they update there 30' cinema display, I have the original 22" one which is not HD.

[Papa Bear]

Nero offers the same thing in their latest version! Still too expensive and no lower price in sight!

[Jon Shaw]

I don't think that Apple are gonna do BR, I hope I'm wrong though.

[hd2o]

I don't think Apple will come along because of the license fee, and they may be right! From my perspective as a filmmaker I'd rather offer HD downloads through iTunes. As web and tv continue to advance we will (eventually) see the end of discs for delivery with the exception of storage and backup.
Temporary inconvenience/ permanent improvement? Side-by-side blu-ray was better than HD-DVD. The correct format won the war, may loose the battle.


Paul

[The Publisher]

I wanted to be able to mail out an HD Blu-Ray copy of productions we do...I suppose for video presentations I can use laptop hooked up to a projector, but the resorts I shoot are in Asia....mailing them a copy so they can use it for HD TV at shows is what I am after.

E-mailing a multi gig file is out of the question.