Sony Blu-ray and PS3: Is recession the killer?

Recession is world wide, PS3 is outselling Xbox 360 worldwide even though PS3 is twice the price of Xbox 360. Xbox is the one to be worried about, not the PS3.

The cheap version of the 360 requires the additional purchase of the online attachment sold separately and also the a hard drive. The ps3 comes with this out of box. Also factor in the cost of an xbox live account and the cost is greater than the ps3.
I like to own the physical media in my hand, instead of owning nothing with a download.

Is Product Reviews Owned by Microsoft??

Two articles released 29 minutes apart, both heralding the death of PS3, Killzone 2 and Blu Ray. Nice.

Morne

Sony have a video store already (part of the PSN store), only available in the US at the moment. This allows the digital download of movies and TV shows, so I think Sony are moving with the times already

I have no plans to purchase one right now, the recession will factor in i’m sure but right now here’s what i think is the problem.
DVD was a huge leap from tape based media, aside from picture and sound quality all the problems with tapes chewing up and breaking, degrading, slow rewinding and the storage space required to house them made the upgrade well worth while.
Even with all these plus points DVD couldn’t really replace VHS until mass market priced DVD recorders hit the stores, people still wanted to record their TV progams.
The difference in picture quality between a decent upscaling DVD player and Blu-Ray in quite small to the average non-videophile and to a large section of people who still have SD TVs completely redundant, plus swapping a disc based media for another disc based media doesn’t carry any of the advantages that VHS to DVD did.
Many people i know still have a VHS player stacked under their TV along side DVD, i suspect the thouhgt of transfering their whole library to digital media was too daunting for them.
So to sum it up Blu-Ray as a format is still less fuctional than VHS until BR recorders hit the stores and at a mass market price, although some of the more tech-hungry among us will buy it, and PS3 owners will have it, the rest of us that go to making up the numbers needed for it to be a success will no doubt wait for a cheap recordable machine that can at least fully replace one of the boxes currently under our TVs

P.S a BR player/DVD-R combo at the right price might have some success but i don’t see anything less than a cheap, fully fledged Blu-Ray recorded convincing the mass market that it’s time to upgrade and with the recession looking like it’s gonna get much worse, i think it’s going to be a tall order.

Without getting into the Fan Boy battles over this story, I won both consoles and the PS3 is only used in my house as a DVD player.The Xbox has so much more to offer the gamer and although you have to pay for the Live service, it is the best multiplayer available on any console.
The Games on the Xbox look better than on the PS3, more games are available on the Xbox, and you can download and watch HD movies right now on the Xbox 360.
The PS3 was rushed out without any quality games available at a high price.
All you need to do is look at the games chart to see how the Xbox is dominating the console war.World wide more PS3′s, but the gamer is choosing the Xbox as a platform of choice…….FACT.

Yeah I’m pretty sure I only want information like this from someone that actually OWNS a console! This guy talking about xbox will have a digital movie store by Christmas…Obviously this guy has never even put his hands on a controller, not to mention PS3 has one too. Oh and by Black Friday there will be a blu-ray player for $149.

Introducing a new format takes time…It’s been less than 2 years. I didn’t even own a dvd player until they were on the market for 6 years. And I was an early adopter.

People that write articles like this make me sick.

@Owen Chadwell

You’ve not only gone completely off topic just to prove what a fanboy you are but you are talking rubbish as well, there are 3 Xbox 360 models all cheaper than PS3, you can argue that if you want and need all the thing that come with the PS3 then it’s good value and i wouldn’t contradict that because i’m not a fanboy.
The point of having a low priced model without an HHD is for people who don’t want or need them, if i didn’t have or want an internet connection i’d buy that model, otherwise i’d buy one with an HDD. The same way if i bought a PS3 and didn’t use the internet i would be out of pocket having paid for an HHD and wifi that i’m not gonna use.
I DO use the internet, that’s why i bought the Pro model and i never use wifi, i use my existing wired router so i’ve had the best value for me personally, everybodies circumstances and tastes are different.
If you bought a budget priced car because you didn’t want the air conditioning, 1000 watt stereo and leather seats i wouldn’t factor in that you would have to pay for those later, that’s just dumb but let’s just say for arguements sake sometime in the future you changed your mind, well you could probably get a good deal on a stereo and some nice Recaro seats if the price was right.

@ Boo Shank

“The PS3 was rushed out…”

really?
because this article yesterday from the Guardian UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/xbox-truth

unveils that the xbox360 was rushed to market and just generally terribly built, and when engineers wanted to stop production due to too many faulty products they just kept making them….

so maybe you were confused, because it really was the XboX360 that was rushed to market, and although I cannot download HD movies to my PS3 I can watch real HD movies via BR. I think those who are terribly uninformed about what is inside the machines are those choosing Xbox360′s not ‘the gamer’

tough day for you Boo Shank you barely made any sense, and given that the FACTS are in direct opposition to your position, I’d say you lose

Nice reply.
Just pointing out that a PS3 is a better upscaleing/BR player than a games console.
I don’t think recession is going to hit the Xbox as much as the PS3 when it comes to console sales.Both systems are great and do have pro’s and con’s but if I was going to buy a console as a Christmas gift the Xbox would place high on my value for money list.

LOL @ This Article

PS3 outselling Xbox (considerably) in most areas as of the first week of November, Sony offering videos already through their store and soon coming to places other than US, plus obviously people can watch DVD’s and MPEG/DIVX/XVID through their ps3.

The PS3 and Xbox shouldn’t have anything to do with the regards to a blu-ray article other than the fact most blu-ray players out there are PS3′s.

Look at the blu-ray argument a different way, when DVD’s first came out they cost far more (in currency worth) then than Blu-Ray discs and movies do now, and lets face it, DVD’s spread like wildfire once they got going, Blu-Ray is the natural progression although its probably going to take another 2 or 3 years to properly set in, a glitch in the economy isn’t going to stop it, only a better form of media.

But if people wish to argue about consoles and the effect on the current media then its as simple as this, developers are no longer using the 360 as the lead development platform as of around 5 or 6 months ago.

PS3′s are now becoming most developers lead development console due to that fact that the 360 is quickly nearing the end of its shelf life and its current power is almost being maxed out, developers now have to use ps3 as the lead development platform due to the fact they need to extend beyond the restrictions that the xbox 360 presents the developers with, porting a game from the ps3 to the 360 is easy, but for advancement reasons alone, ps3 has to be used to keep the ball rolling, and developers are now favouring the larger Blu-Ray media, and are trying to take full advantage of the capabilities of which that media offers them.

Blu-ray is next gen, DVD is becoming the CD of the present, and CD is becoming the floppy.

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM

Worldwide sales for PS3 and XB360 are as follows:
16.84 million as of September 30, 2008 (SCE’s Numbers)
22 million as of September 30, 2008 (GameIndustry.biz NOT Microsoft’s)

The PS3 did start to make some headway on sales earlier this year, but Microsoft has been regaining it’s lead since the price drop this last September.

BOTH console are seeing slower numbers, primarily because consumer demand is decreasing, the overwhelming popularity of the Wii, and the crushed economy. All I hear about the PS3 is Bluray, Bluray, Bluray. I’m a gamer, I don’t care about Bluray, I care about games. XB360 has a larger library, period.

Now lets talk profitability. Microsoft took a 1 Billion dollar chargeback to replace the RROD’d XB360s, and they’re expecting to turn over $900m profit for the year. Sony? They’re still trying to turn a buck out of the PS3. Most of their profitability is coming out of the PS2, (whose sales dropped by 15 million units to 23 million in October – Arstechnica) and the PSP (whose sales just rose 3.18 million – Arstechnica) and software sales were pretty much flat (12 million -Arstechnica) meaning that the games are pretty much being purchased for the installed base.

Let me reiterate, PS3 still struggles to profit, even though they haven’t experienced a hardware defect like Microsoft’s RROD issue.

If they can’t price drop it, or start making mad sales next year, you can guarantee you’ll be hearing from share holders about the future of PS3.

Xbox was not rushed out.
It was released on the date they said.
Few problems all sorted out in good time by Microsoft at no cost to the consumer.
Warranty extended to 3 years to cover the problems.
When I say the PS3 was rushed to market what I’m saying is rushed out with no quality software to run on it, including BR disks.The console was almost still born but had to be shipped out before the Xbox took the market.
At the end of the day if your talking gaming,value for money and choice,there really is only one ‘games’ console to go for.
Recession will not hit the Xbox as much as the PS3.

Isnt if funny how we are fighting over 2nd place? Just makes me laugh. Anyway, the real deal is that the 360 is not in direct competition with the PS3. The 360′s competition is the PS2. The PS3 is way ahead of it’s time. Check this chart out —->

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=PS2&reg1=America&cons2=PS3&reg2=America&cons3=X360&reg3=America&start=39453&end=39740

Let me put it this way…The 360 is like that really hot girl in high school that puts out for everyone. Yeah shes a lot of fun now, but when she hits college, shes all used up. The PS3 is like that shy nerdy girl that is really nice but no one notices. Take her glasses off and her pony tail out…and shes hot. But not only is she hot, shes pleasant and will treat you with respect.

Haha, we all need to lighten up.

If you put it like that, I’ve had the Nerdy and the Hot girl already…..

Only 1/3rd of US homes have an HD TV.

Blu-ray needs a huge HD TV to show off 1080p properly and an audio set-up just as expensive & unlikely.

http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/111208release.html

Blu-ray will just be another expensive minority format lasting, like the Samsung guy recently said, only another 5yrs until the next big hope comes along.

The rest is just PS3 fanboys howling their ‘love’ for their beloved CE corp and game console.

Even if that were true that would be another 5 years I’ll be watching movies in 1080p while you’ll be waiting for a compressed download at best. Blu ray is great and an up-scaled picture is by no way a reasonable alternative.

Only 1/3 of homes currently have an HDTV but you can’t buy a non-HDTV anymore and haven’t been able to in a few years. This February everything goes digital further spurring the sale of HDTV’s. Within 5 years every household will have at least one. And if you don’t need an HDTV for movies why buy game consoles that render HD graphics?

I own all three consoles, PS3, Wii and 360. I have to say the 360 gets used the most. WIi is for quick fun but not powerful. Xbox 360 is the Hardcore game system, because there is more games out and used games are usually cheaper and in more variety. I am no fanboy for either system, just enjoy casual gaming like most.

Most of my friends are on Xbox live, also Xbox live is far better than PSN. I do love my PS3, its the original 60GB, awesome as it is. its just a DVD player now. not even a Bluray player. Bluray movies are too expensive vs DVD. And most games that are multiplatform i will get for 360.

With the current price of the PS3 compared to the 360. What does Sony offer to sway the parents to purchase the PS3 for their kids? most will get the cheaper of the two.

Of course the Wii will be first choice for most, but with the 360 bundles now and price, its hard to top that with the average uninformed consumer. The PS3 is the better system for features, but price is what matters in the end for consumers. Also Microsoft is offering a cheap 20GB Hdd upgrade to all the arcade models sold. How can sony top that?

link about the Microsoft HDD upgrade.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2332538,00.asp

“Had I lost that war, the headline would have been, not that HD-DVD won, but that [Blu-ray] was Betamax 2″ – Howard Stringer – October 2008, CEO, Sony Corp.

Sony ties a loser A/V format to their industry leading flagship game console, in order to win the game console race AND the next gen HDM market.

They then lose multiple billions on game console, almost bankrupt the company, wind up with last place market share in gaming market and watch as blu-ray tanks without any competition in the HD video disc marketplace.

Well done Sony. Well done. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I hope that the Studios and CE manufacturers that backed blu-ray choke on it along with Sony. Their greed is as much to blame here as Sony.

@the various fanboys here

Quit yo’ jibba jabba!

You aint intelligent, your pathetic!

If I ever catch you talkin like a crazy fool again, you’re gonna meet my friend PAIN!

FanBoys, get some NUTS!

(this was a public service announcement brought to you by Mr. T)

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM

Regardless of the recession I wouldnt buy blu-ray because i dont think its going to be around for long enough. Id rather buy an up scaling dvd player and wait until downloads become more mainstream for buying movies. Even if blu ray was a complete success, technology moves so fast that it will be soon redundant.

Blu ray will not die, and digital downloads will take another decade to take over. Blu ray already has all of the movie studios behind it. People can’t even freaking figure out DVD, how the HELL are they going to figure out digital downloads? I’m pretty tech savvy and it’s a pain for me to get my computer hooked up to my tv to download movies. I know there are machines that do this for you, but they cost just as much as a blu ray player. Here’s the reasons downloads will not take over…

1. A blu ray player is way cheaper than building a computer for downloads.
2. Digital downloads mainly only offer 2 channel audio (laughable).
3. The picture quality is nowhere near blu ray.
4. Downloading an HD movie takes WAY too long.
5. Some IP’s are putting download caps on your account already.
6. Movie studios actually prefer you to buy a physical copy.

Ready for #7…It’s a big one…

7. I can resell my blu ray movie when ever I want! How you going to re-sell a digital download? People want something for their money, especially in a recession.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think digital downloads will take over, but not for another decade. Blu Ray will be there to bridge the gap. Why do you think Microsoft put so much money into HD-DVD when they offer digital downloads everywhere else? Because about 1% of the population actually download movies. And I know Samsung came out and said blu ray will only be around for 5 years…then why are they making blu ray players and investing so much money into it?

1. A blu ray player is way cheaper than building a computer for downloads.

Not true at all. BD-Live players are built specifically for downloading movies. And the Roku player is $99; it will soon be cheaper than that. And computers do far more than download video.

2. Digital downloads mainly only offer 2 channel audio (laughable).

Not true. Vudu is 5.1. Itunes is 5.1. XBox live is 5.1. Netflix will soon be 5.1 (just waing on Silverlight). There is nothing technically in the way of offering DD5.1 or lossless audio. Studios have been careful not to take too big a bite out of DVD sales too quickly. That will change after January 1st, 2009.

3. The picture quality is nowhere near blu ray.

There is nothing technically in the way of making downloads equal to or better than blu-ray. Case in point – Vudu HDX titles. In fact, downloads remove the technical limitations of physical disc formats.

Point is though, that 99% of the population doesn’t care about the extent of HD quality. They care far more about convenience and title selection. They don’t want to fumble around with discs. That is why audio downloads are replacing CDs. That is why BD is tanking right now.

4. Downloading an HD movie takes WAY too long.

Not true. XBox Live HD titles start in as little as 20 minutes after ordering. Vudu HD titles are quicker than that. Netflix HD titles will start right after download/stream starts.

And it takes days to rent a blu-ray from Netflix. Or a trip to Blockbuster to find a blu-ray to rent from their limited selection. And if the disc has already been rented, you lose.

5. Some IP’s are putting download caps on your account already.

BD fanboys make a big deal about this, but it’s a non-issue. 250 GB/month cap allows for 25 HD rentals per month. No sane person rents/buys more than this.

6. Movie studios actually prefer you to buy a physical copy.

Not true. Studios would rather rent or sell a download, than rent or sell you a disc and have you lend it to all of your friends to watch. Of course with blu-ray, you have no one to lend it to, because no one has a blu-ray player.

And blu-ray discs cost a fortune to replicate, package, ship and distribute. Retailers take a hefty margin for selling discs. Downloads offer a much higher margin to studios.

@MCM

Well looks like I just got served! I was being pretty general in my post. Lets be honest here…the technology for digital movie downloads just isn’t there yet. One thing Roku doesnt mention on their website is that it will take many, many hours to download a movie. Wal Mart started a movie download service last year, and closed it down as quick as possible. No one was using it. Wal Mart is a great way to figure out what will sell and what wont.

You said you can start watching movies in 20 minutes from you xbox. Great, but it’s going to be buffering in 30 minutes. Like I said, downloads WILL evetually take over, but it’s going to be a while til the technology is there.

You say 99% of the population doesn’t care about the extent of HD quality, but then why are the sales for LCD and Plasma through the roof? Everyone I talk to either has a HD tv or wants one.

Looks like you answered 1-6, but what about #7? That’s the biggest one of all.

Let me ask you one question…How is your HD-DVD treating you. Because you sound like all the other bitter format failure buyers.

“Well looks like I just got served! I was being pretty general in my post. Lets be honest here…the technology for digital movie downloads just isn’t there yet.”

Wait until CES 2009…

“One thing Roku doesnt mention on their website is that it will take many, many hours to download a movie. ”

Wrong again. Netflix uses Silverlight to do “adaptive streaming”. Look it up. Hit play and the movie starts playing.

“Wal Mart started a movie download service last year, and closed it down as quick as possible. No one was using it. Wal Mart is a great way to figure out what will sell and what wont.”

20% of Netflix members use their “Watch Instantly” service on a regular basis. After XBox gets Netflix on Wednesday, that number will rise substantially.

“You said you can start watching movies in 20 minutes from you xbox. Great, but it’s going to be buffering in 30 minutes. Like I said, downloads WILL evetually take over, but it’s going to be a while til the technology is there.”

You obviously haven’t tried any of these services (Vudu, iTunes, XBLive, Netflix). If you did, you would know that they work. But you don’t.

“You say 99% of the population doesn’t care about the extent of HD quality, but then why are the sales for LCD and Plasma through the roof? Everyone I talk to either has a HD tv or wants one.”

They like the flat screen. Many think if they plug their cable in to the back of the TV they are getting HD.

“Looks like you answered 1-6, but what about #7? That’s the biggest one of all.”

Who sells DVDs??? I’ve never sold one used disc. If I’m not sure I like a movie that much, I don’t buy it. I rent it.

And let’s look at iTunes users. Do they “need to have a CD” so that they could sell it as used for $1? No. They are quite happy with the download model…

…And there are 200 million happy iTunes users.

“Let me ask you one question…How is your HD-DVD treating you. Because you sound like all the other bitter format failure buyers.”

Just because I prefer downloads? Funny how all blu-ray fanboys assume everyone that does not subscribe to their world view is somehow bitter…It’s like some sort of bizarre cult.

Youre right, it’s been about a year since I downloaded videos. I used Tivo/Amazon service. Freaking horrible. Maybe it has changed since then. I just can’t imaging the overall PQ and AQ being that good if you are streaming.

You can’t compare downloading music to blu ray. A song is 5MB, a movie is 5GB (HD). I can download a whole CD in a minute. I will admit, downloading music is WAY better than going out to get the CD. And once HD video becomes that easy, I will be the first to switch to downloading. But until then, I’ll be happy with blu ray.

So how well does any of those boxes stream HD? Because I am mainly talking HD while I think you are talking SD.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6615190.html

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6611299.html

Netflix will put 300 titles up in HD today/tomorrow.

Here is an explanation of adaptive streaming.

http://weblogs.asp.net/freedomdumlao/archive/2008/11/03/silverlight-adaptive-streaming-how-it-works.aspx

I don’t think that digital downloads will take over any time soon, the point is only certain countries can even download at a decent rate, and most certainly aint capable of streaming HD video.

For example the fair majority of the UK except those practicaly connected to the backbone can stream HD, most people around the country can’t even muster up a 2mbps connection. I think the UK’s average rate which people recieve through to their routers is 4.5mbps. As long as this stays the case digital downloads won’t ever fully take over, and thats only the UK. over 70% of the world doesn’t have the infrastructure to cope with such things as HD Streaming.

Thats probably partly the reason why the ps3 still doesn’t have a video rental system yet in Europe, only in the US. And when I download movies on the Xbox its just laughable, the person who thinks digital downloads via the network are going to beat out Blu-Ray and DVD anytime soon need their heads checking or need to step outside of their nice little world in which they live, and take a step into some places where the grass isn’t always so green.

Now the digital download and Blu-Ray game and movie vending machines that are arriving in the UK next year should be interesting, I immagine they will do really well in the UK.

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM

Well blu-ray sales aren’t taking over anytime soon in the UK either. By July, only 1 million blu-ray discs were sold in the UK in 2008, compared to 110 million DVDs. That’s less than 1%.

Seems that most UK folks don’t really care about hi-def.

@MCM

The figures were worse than that when DVD first came out, and that was against VHS. But DVD eventually came out good after a fair few years.

As far as your Blu-Ray figures go anyway, they are a long LONG way off. I am not really sure where you have picked those figures up from unless you have generated them out of thin air to fight for your pointless cause.

Here is some “actual” statistics:

Written – February 12, 2008

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, speaking in London, European movie sales have hit 2.37 million, with industry watcher, GfK, confirming the figures. That means 1.37 million Blu-ray movies have sold in the last two months alone. Last August, European Blu-ray sales were just over half a million.

“DVD-Video was first introduced into Western Europe in 1997, and the following year some 230,000 DVD players were installed and 2 million discs were sold through. In comparison, Blu-ray Disc made its first tentative launch in Western Europe in 2006, and the following year some 3.2 million PlayStation 3 consoles and 34,000 standalone players were installed, while 2.3 million Blu-ray discs sold through.”

And that was written at the beginning of this year, Blu-Ray has come on significantly since then, and as far as Blu-Ray being Betamax, I think that was actually more along the lines of HD-DVD, Blu-Ray isn’t destined to die like the whole Betamax scenario, unlike HD-DVD did.

Blu-Ray is natural progression and what people say about needing a massive 42″ HDTV at 1080p to ever see the difference in quality between a DVD movie and a high def Blu-Ray movie is garbage, the difference is easily noticed, its certainly not something you have to inspect closely thats for sure. The range of colours is a lot more full, edges are smoother and things flow better, the picture tends to be a lot more crisp, I am not saying that a 42″ full 1080p HDTV with a contrast ratio of over 50,000 : 1 isn’t needed to really reach the full benefits of Blu-Ray but the difference in quality between DVD and Blu-Ray is a fair one no matter what screen its viewed on (within reason).

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM

“As far as your Blu-Ray figures go anyway, they are a long LONG way off. I am not really sure where you have picked those figures up from unless you have generated them out of thin air to fight for your pointless cause.

Read my post – I was talking about the UK, not Europe. But as long as you bring it up…

“and the following year some 3.2 million PlayStation 3 consoles and 34,000 standalone players were installed, while 2.3 million Blu-ray discs sold through.”

Europe – 700 million people – 2.3 million discs sold. Haaaahaahaahhahahaha.

@MCM

Erm yeah….

“DVD-Video was first introduced into Western Europe in 1997, and the following year some 230,000 DVD players were installed and 2 million discs were sold through”

Only 2 million discs, in your words – “Haaaahaahaahhahahaha”.
What you have to realise is that, thats 2.3 million discs even entering and during a global recession quickly heading into a depression, the DVD performed worse than that, and that didn’t even have to put up with any form of recession, infact the DVD had some of the best years of the global economy.

“Read my post – I was talking about the UK, not Europe. But as long as you bring it up…”

I know you was talking about the UK, and like I said “And that was written at the beginning of this year, Blu-Ray has come on significantly since then”.

What I think your problem is MCM is that you must be a slight technophobe. Too afraid of change, either that or someone who has not been around long enough to witness the varying global market trends in technologies.

I think you need to do more topic related real world comparisons and less artificial or off-topic stat production.

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM

Dude, don’t even try to beat MCM. He is one of those guys that is ALWAYS right. I guess what he is saying is that you should believe everything you read online. Guess what I read the other day…A group of vampires invaded a small villiage in Mexico yesterday. They are slowly turning innocent children into vampires and by next week, all the original 48 states will be overrun by vampire children.

See, you read this so it must be true.

Mog, you make some great points. Especially about not having the technology yet for downloads. I live in one of the top 20 biggest cities in the U.S. (I would mention where I live, but I don’t want MCM to murder me in my sleep) and the fastest internet speed I can get is 1.5 MBPS. Are you kidding me?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10043631-1.html

Give it 10 years when an earlier generation get old enough to actually buy stuff for themselves, not their parents. Then we’ll talk about digital downloads.

“What I think your problem is MCM is that you must be a slight technophobe.”

I’m talking about downloads/streaming internet video, a tech which will become dominant over the next 5 years, and last for many, many years thereafter. I’m talking about having access to a hundred thousand HD video titles on demand at your fingertips.

You are talking about fumbling around with stacks of optical discs, which look remarkably like 45 rpm records from the 1960s and have been around since 1982.

Who is the technophobe?

@ifuwereahotdog

Haha, true that!
I fee your pain on the whole speed issue, I live on a farm in the middle of the Derbyshire/Yorkshire countryside in the UK. Used to be able to get 7.5mbps and used to run various online game servers until the local exchange shut down, we then got re-routed to another exchange and now we can barely scrape 2mbps, infact I even have a 3g+ data card which provides me with faster net than my main line, in fact my mobile phone has better net than my main line.

That was a good article that you linked me to by the way.
Haha @ vampire comment, is that Sunnydale v2.0? No longer Buffy Summers but instead Gabriela Rodriguez, lol.

@MCM

“I’m talking about downloads/streaming internet video, a tech which will become dominant over the next 5 years, and last for many, many years thereafter.”

Sir, do you really think digital downloads and streaming is a new technology? Its been available for a considerable amount of years now, the point is that the technology hasn’t & can’t “dominate” until everywhere is upgraded to higher standards like fiberoptic, and that won’t be done CERTAINLY not over the next 5 years simply because it would cost trillions and not many places are going to invest in that due to the cost factor.
Many places would just rather put up with things like Coaxial cabling until they absoloutly have to replace it because its fallen to bits, and thats not going to happen for a LONG time, and even then its not going to be a sudden change, it will be very gradual by which time Blu-Ray will have already won and another media format will allready be in full swing.

Not many places have fully upgraded to fiberoptic, and the only places that have are places that had nothing to upgrade and instead installed from scratch, like Estonia for example.

The point is progress for progress sake should be discouraged, because its not allways a step in the right direction. Look at the UK as being a shining example of the screw up of progress for progress sake, the UK used to be completeley covered by railways and one report was made which basicaly said that the railway was outdated technology, and due to that report 90% of the British railway network was left to rust and never used again, now the government has decided its absoloutly essential that the railway is brought back to its former glory because roads are too congested, carbon footprint is increasing too much, too many lorries on the road and the list goes on, its now going to cost them trillions just to re-comission the railway and thats not even including the cost of re-opening the industries that were connected to the railways to keep things running properley.

I am not saying that digital downloads are a bad thing, but I am saying that only having digital downloads is just ludicrous and is definately a step in the wrong direction. A healthy mixture of both is a wise idea.

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM

The biggest problem blu ray has is that what it offers is not enough to make people want to go out and replace their dvd collection with blu ray, no amount of facts and figures are going to get away from that. A minorityof people will embrace it and the rest will not see the point in spending the money. Even people i know who own a ps3 (Ill admit thats not many) dont really buy blu ray either.
I just cant see it going in the same direction. If it does take off and do well then great, but until it does Im going to stick with my dvds and play it safe. Only problem is im not the only one am I.

@Dave

But thats the point Dave,
“not enough to make people want to go out and replace their dvd collection with blu ray”

Nobody is going to go out and replace all their DVD collection with Blu-Ray, because why would they need to when their Blu-Ray players play DVD’s? But the point is a lot of Standalone and PS3 Blu-Ray player owners will buy the latest and/or greatest releases on Blu-Ray because why spend a few quid less and get the inferior DVD when for a few quid more you can have the far superior quality Blu-Ray version which “usually” contains the DVD in the case aswell.

But Blu-Ray as a media format also allows people to make their DVD pile smaller by adding them all to Blu-Ray discs if they wished.

As far as selection goes though, true not many previous film and show releases before blu-ray were re-done on Blu-Ray except certain action films and epics. But almost every decent movie since Blu-Ray launch has gone to Blu-Ray.

The Blu-Ray section in stores like HMV used to be neck and neck with HD-DVD a year and a half to 2 years ago, all they had between them was a section no wider than a house door, now HD-DVD has a section about 2 DVD cases wide, and Blu-Ray now has a section thats as long as an articulated lorry, not bad for a year and a half to 2 years. The point is Blu-Ray can’t be failing if stores aren’t just selling but are actually having to expand to meet the needs. and that kind of jump in a year and a half to 2 years is bloody impressive, considerably larger and quicker jump than DVD ever did. People had the same feeling about VHS against CD/DVD as you have about DVD and Blu-Ray. But eventualy people moved on to DVD, agree some people still use VHS (my grandparents for example, but they have a DVD player too). But most people eventually just scrapped their VHS Casettes and players, usually on carboots, garage sales and charity shops. Luckily I don’t think DVD’s will have the exact same fate as VHS, but I think the DVD players might. I think in 3 to 5 years time most people will have a healthy mixture of DVD’s and Blu-Ray’s.

Mog
http://Www.MogCast.coM