HDTV Almanac - 24 Million Blu-ray Players

[alfredpoor]

The market-tracking firm Futuresource is bullish on Blu-ray. The company forecasts that 24 million players will be sold in 2010, just in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. And this does not include the Sony PlayStation 3 (which includes a Blu-ray player). The company predicts that 11 million of these units — nearly half of the [...]

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[ccclvib]

There are still a lot of people out there who are perfectly satisfied with their standard definition DVDs when viewed on an HDTV, however, which may put an upper limit on just how far Blu-ray can expand in the market.

True... But if a viewer sees what up-converting can do for standard DVD (I realize it takes the right disc), and that viewer has the equipment to handle the upgraded (to Blu-ray) picture, the upgrade may be more compelling than for those whose equipment won't handle the difference.

And yes, as long as most downloaded material is not HD, this is one viewer who won't.

[alfredpoor]

I'm not sure that I follow you, ccclvib. Upconverting does not turn a DVD source into an HD image. It does add more pixels, but it does not add information. The extra pixels are simply extrapolated from the standard definition image. And it doesn't matter whether it's done in the DVD player, or in the HDTV, or in some other box. It is still scaling a lower resolution image up to a higher resolution one. It is not at all the same as watching a high-def Blu-ray image.

If I read your message right, I think you just made my point about viewers being satisfied with DVD standard resolution on HDTVs. And there's no reason why that same standard resolution image can't be delivered just as well by streaming over the Internet as it can be streamed from a DVD player.

Alfred

[Roger Halstead]

Discounting my dislike for anything Sony, What with streaming video, and new vendors of downloading *legal* video either in a play once, twice, or "it's yours" for a price AND the video rental failures of recent ... I really think commercial Blu-Ray's future is more than a bit cloudy. Also the 8 Meg dual layer disks for the do-it-yourself recording being far less expensive indicate "to me' at least, the days of Blu-Ray are numbered.

I think there will be a place for Blu-Ray for some time to come, but I predict that "If the streaming and downloading" prove economically viable for the studios and vendors that commercial disks will become a niche market.

[ccclvib]

If I read your message right, I think you just made my point about viewers being satisfied with DVD standard resolution on HDTVs.

Not what I meant. I guess I got a little off track because, as far as I'm concerned, the density of the DVD picture when it has been up-converted, just seems - at least to me - to be a better-viewable picture. I didn't mean to infer - maybe for me alone - that I prefer the standard DVD picture to Blu-ray. I don't, and I can see the difference. I want the closest to real I can get, and Blu-ray gives me the best chance so far.


Maybe there will be something - sometime - and it's probably a given, that will do better, but I'll take Blu-ray now.