Why I think BluRay may be the future for CD-based music and HD video content...

There was an interesting article on BluRay in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. After thinking about the article for a while it seems to me that BluRay could very well become the next DVD and hirez music standard.

This is speculation at this point, but here is the logic in my observation:

1. BluRay has a huge consortium of major consumer electronics firms including Sony, Matsushita, HP, Dell, etc. whereas only Toshiba and NEC have formally committed to HD-DVD and, of course, the Toshiba led DVD Forum.

2. BluRay has 50GB capacity versus 30GB of HD-DVD giving it more storage capacity and I think that bodes well for data uses in the computer space.

3. Sony and Matsushita senior executives have made strong comments about not going the HD-DVD route. Given the market power of everyone involved, the DVD Forum could pretty much be rolled.

4. Repeating the "Beta" mistake is eliminated by the alliance with Matsushita which was not in place before.

5. BluRay recording devices are available, albeit expensive, in Japan. More BluRay devices will filter out in 2004. HD-DVD is only supposed to be available in 2005.

6. Several senior movie studio executives are expressing interest in BluRay.

All these factors combine to present in my humble opinion a real chance for adoption.

I think the benefit for the consumer is very high. High def video is definitely a cool advance and now we can have hirez music across 6+ channels plus video plus features with lots of room left over.

What is your take on this?

Do you think that the advent of high-definition video creates another "window of opportunity" for getting high resolution audio established?

 

Blu-Ray was all over the CES this year. I don't recall seeing anything about HD-DVD.

 

Lee, very nice post. I think you may be right about BluRay for DVd video.


however, in terms of audio, sure it would be nice to have all that space for audio, like 5.1, stereo and mono mixes.....BUT the record companies arent going to do that. Its giving away too much on one disk. They would be losing money that way. And if they arent going to USE the space, what good is it to HAVe the space? Know what I mean?

 

delete this although it has been replied to

 

Thats an interesting comment from bradley.

 

The reason why I won't buy this format, at least I won't buy it right away, is that I just recently bought the Pioneer 563A for SACD and DVD-A and to get a much better quality DVD player and that's what I got. What you are happy with is what to stick with.

 

Post 4:

Post 6:

OK, you had me worried, "at least... right away"!
Cause I was thinking, what new audio/video format has EVER been released that required NO new equipment?

 

Actually, I did research the format and the only condition I will accept if BluRay becomes the standard is if I'd buy a recorder/player when they come out.

 

I feel your pain!
I did upgrade from VHS to S-VHS, happily!
Missed, Beta, LD's, the Digital Cassette, DiscoVision, & what, the Super Cassettes!
Butt, it was GREAT going from prerecorded 8 tracks, too recordable cassettes.
Hope HD-DVD/BluRay, will be as remarkable a leap forward.

 

I not only think a LOT of people are with you on that, I think the power's that be are also 'aware' that the early success of the 'next' format will HAVE to be recordable to make any dent at all to the DVD juggernaut.

 

I realize that every new format that comes out will require new equipment. I would very happily get rid of my VCR though.

 

I hope this doesn't mean that DVD-A and SACD will no longer be promoted.

 

I feel SACD will still be a 'safe' bit.
Would think DVD-A would be in 'more' trouble.
The HiDef disc will be primarily for video.
However, all us audiophiles are just drooling over the potential of this future format.
The sound should 'kill' low bit rate DD.

 

Don't even think a minute that Hollywood will kill it's biggest cash cow in history, the movie DVD, by moving towards another format. The growth is still exponential at this point, and it's unlikely Hollywood will introduce a competing format that early.

I would also conjecture that compression techniques will get much better over time and all but eliminate the need for such high-storage media. Perhaps BluRay will be used by audiophiles/videophiles, but let's face it that's entirely a niche market.

Regarding CD based music on BluRay DVD's, I have yet to see CD based music on DVD's! I doubt the industry has any interest in packing entire box sets or multiple albums of artists on a single disc, that's just not a profitable model for them.

Even when DVD-Audio first came out everybody was tauting its capacity to hold 2-3 hours of uncompressed multi-channel music. And what do we get from Warner? DVD-A's with 36 min. of music, priced for $24.99!

There might be a bunch of high-capacity storage media out there, that doesn't mean the industry will be embracing them. In the meantime, the answer for most people that are interested in storing huge amounts of music on a medium is simple: MP3!
-wolf

 

When would you quess "Hollywood" would jump on board the pre-recorded HiDef Disc bandwagon?

 

Unfortunately, hi-resolution audio seems to be an afterthought when it comes to the new HD-DVD formats. Moving from Dolby Digital 5.1 to uncompressed 5.1 PCM audio seems just as logical to me as the progression from 480p to 720p (or, better yet, 1080p). But in all the articles I've read on the new formats, I've seen nary a mention of the audio specs.

 

I think that Sony has definitely included DSD for BluRay so I see Super Audio just being included in the new format and having more space. Some engineers have suggested that the sampling rate be increased to 5.8mhz for DSD-with BluRay we will have enough capacity.

I rather like one box for hidef sound and video.

 

If the consumer electronics industry finally wakes up, both Hollywood and the record biz will jump on this because it will be possible to create a secure format that is completely divorced from computers. This would be extremely advantageous to each of the industries involved.

 

I don't know about the divorced from computers part. Samsung had either an actual blu-ray drive or a mockup of a blu-ray internal computer drive mounted in a desktop computer at the CES this year. These should be pretty standard with computers in the next 2 years or so.

 

It is the opposite, the format is backed by major computer manufacturers as they are predicting a huge market just like DVD recording is today. And according to the first post of this thread BluRay recording devices are already available in Japan.

It's just a matter of time before BluRay recording comes to the PC. In this day and age I can't imagine a consumer *wanting* a format that is divorced from computers. That's what we had 8-tracks, LP's and cassette tapes for...
-wolf

 

Blu Ray

Divorced from computers??
You couldnt be more off base.


In fact, if anything, Blu Ray DVD is the newest computer data storage answer. I see those recordable drives getting introduced for computer use BEFORE anythibg esle. You can bet on that.

 

Actually, I won't be buying this format at all as I am satisfied with DVD and the current hi-rez formats plus my mother I know would not let me buy it yet.

 

You could probably skip a generation and by then we'd have discs that could store a terabyte. I'm no videophile, but I think I could be happy with DVD for a long time. As somebody who is interested in consumer technology, though, I think blu-ray is really neat.

 

I agree with you tone ded freb

 

I agree Mikey. The computer storage solution may help drive adoption and they already have HP, Dell, and Sony developing data storage products.

I guess my hope as an audiophile is that the majors learn from their hirez mistakes and make a more coordinated effort to establish one new standard for data-movies-music (hirez please).

Of course, I have never been impressed with senior managers at the majors in terms of product launch. The last good one was Lieberfarb's DVD launch...