Blu-ray is Sony's way of keeping us buying disks forever ?

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Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
27,241
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So years ago, I got a Blu-ray player, and today I could not watch a new disk. Had to upgrade firmware first, and could only do it over the internet. So this is how the industry assures themselves to keep selling new disks ? Just fix it so you have to upgrade firmware or it won't play ? You have to have an internet connection forever ? And who says they don't fix it someday, that firmware won't fix it ?
 
SlitheryDee

SlitheryDee

Lifer
Feb 2, 2005
17,252
19
81
Wouldn't that detract from the selling of new disks? I thought it was more about pirating than anything. They'd rather you go through this than be able to easily download or copy the...oh wait.
 
Last edited:
waggy

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
10
81
yeah it fucking annoys me. i used to purchase a lot of blu-rays. nearly 1 a month.

i haven't got one in nearly a year. it pisses me off that my player upstairs won't play them. it has no way to update.
 
SlickSnake

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
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GagHalfrunt said:
People still buy BluRays?
Click to expand...

Yes. If they are cheap enough I do. I would rather play a decent movie from a Blu-ray without the extra degradation to the picture and sound like you get from streaming it. But if you have a small TV and a cheap surround system, then I guess it would'nt be such a big deal to just stream everything then. Or even just get a cheaper DVD version and play that.
 
SlickSnake

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
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Markfw900 said:
So years ago, I got a Blu-ray player, and today I could not watch a new disk. Had to upgrade firmware first, and could only do it over the internet. So this is how the industry assures themselves to keep selling new disks ? Just fix it so you have to upgrade firmware or it won't play ? You have to have an internet connection forever ? And who says they don't fix it someday, that firmware won't fix it ?
Click to expand...

Some companies Blu-ray firmware and software fixes are way more resilient than others are. I have a Samsung that is a 3rd generation Blu player that is basically a doorstop now, since they essentially stopped supporting it, and it stopped working on a lot of new titles.

Meanwhile, my 2 Panasonic 3D Blu players that are 3 years old, will play anything I throw at them, and have never failed me as long as the Blu-ray was not warped in the mail and damaged in the layers, like many mailed Blu-rays have a tendency to be when they are bent and twisted in the mail.
 
mmntech

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
The updates are due to Blu-ray's retarded copy protection. They change the keys for new discs.
 
Imp

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
I stopped buying Blurays when I realized that I don't watch them more than once after I buy them and I got rid of my PS3.

I'm mostly renting stuff on iTunes, watching it once or twice, and moving on. It'd be great if iTunes had similar purchase prices to retailer stores (e.g. Amazon). I haven't seen a movie on sale for less than $20 in HD form. And we're talking old movies, so I can usually find the Bluray for <$15 on Amazon. Having the media readily available on a hard drive or for streaming is so much nicer than having to grab the disc -- yes, I'm that lazy.
 
D

darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,444
5,852
146
Blu-Ray is still the best option for movies you really like. Just rip them and then stream them to whatever device you want. Since it seems like frickin everything can stream now its not like it should cost you too much more, HDDs and BD-Rom drives are cheap enough. Biggest issue is deciding what interface and what format to rip them to, which it can be a hassle to set things up (I still haven't, need to either get a player that can decode DTS and Dolby HD formats or else figure out what audio tracks for Handbrake to keep), but once you do its generally much more convenient.

I basically only buy movies on sale and only Blu-Ray since if I'm buying I want it in best quality and the Blu-Ray versions are generally the most true to the original (not just quality wise, a lot of the Blu-Ray versions are the original versions).

Unfortunately it looks like many of the studios are wanting to do online for 4K+.

waggy said:
yeah it fucking annoys me. i used to purchase a lot of blu-rays. nearly 1 a month.

i haven't got one in nearly a year. it pisses me off that my player upstairs won't play them. it has no way to update.
Click to expand...

Can your player stream video over your network?
 
norseamd

norseamd

Lifer
Dec 13, 2013
13,990
180
106
so what is the outlook of displayport?

how much farther can hdmi be improved? if hdmi can not handle 4k will the content companies come up with something else rather than use a free standard like displayport
 
V

velillen

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2006
2,120
1
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norseamd said:
how much farther can hdmi be improved? if hdmi can not handle 4k will the content companies come up with something else rather than use a free standard like displayport
Click to expand...

hdmi already supports 4k resolution (version 1.4 4k @ 30fps). The new hdmi 2.0 (not out yet?) supports 4k @ 60fps.

HDMI will be around for awhile. Honestly a lot of consumers have wised up and realized there is hardly any 1080p content outside of blurays. Even streaming is highly compressed. People are even more amazed when they find out their "HD" cable is often times only 720p.

Until theres mass content that is actually pushing the limits of hdmi there is no need for a new interface IMO. Theres things i dont like, such as the connections themselves, but HDMI is to popular now to switch.
 
D

darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,444
5,852
146
norseamd said:
so what is the outlook of displayport?

how much farther can hdmi be improved? if hdmi can not handle 4k will the content companies come up with something else rather than use a free standard like displayport
Click to expand...

I believe they've already ratified a new version of HDMI that supports 4K, but it'll likely have to be updated again fairly soon (3D 4K, 8K, higher framerates at higher resolutions, etc). Not sure there's many if any devices that support it right now, which means we're gonna have that mess to deal with. Of course it'll likely mean other hardware is needed anyway (multi-layer Blu-Rays I guess?) so people will have to upgrade for that anyway.

Pretty sure HT based devices are still focused on HDMI while Displayport has made inroads in the PC space.
 
ImpulsE69

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Companies have their heads up their asses. Blu-Ray is a BS format. Obsolescence was planned into it. The idea is to sell you the same things over and over. There is nothing about Blu-Ray that makes it worth playing into the overall goal. Piracy is a scapegoat "fear" stance they use to push it.

It is nice to see that they go dirt cheap fast. The industry missed the boat and they've failed miserably. The consumer isn't their problem, their old mindset is.

But I'm not bitter....
 
Ichinisan

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
Updating is actually supposed to be for fixing compatibility problems and issues with support for specific features.
 
spacejamz

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
10,960
1,657
126
I wonder what the percentage of people who stream movies from Netflix, Hula, Amazon or wherever download the HD version or if they even know or even care about the difference from standard definition.

Once 4K tv's become the standard, will people be okay with streaming 1080p content? 4K movies will be about 100GB each (will there be new compression types to handle this size? the ISP's are gonna love that...
 
Ichinisan

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
There's still a place for Blu-Ray. For example, I purchaed "Little Shop of Horrors" (the 1986 musical). The version on iTunes is absolutely awful and doesn't have the alternate ending and other featurettes.
 
J

JackBurton

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
15,993
14
81
People that care about quality and have a system that can take advantage of that quality, buy Blu-rays. People that have some Walmart special system are normally content with streaming solutions. Streaming content has it's place, but not when it comes to audio/video quality. Sorry.

I think the people that enjoy streaming content are the same ones that buy Beats headphones. :)
 
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