Speaking as the recent acquirer of two (!) high-definition televisions — a Samsung 56” DLP unit and a Sony 34” LCD panel — I’m newly fascinated by pretty much anything that augurs more and better HD content for my two under-taxed televisions. With that in mind, this Slate piece on why Blu-Ray is set to rule in the current DVD format wars has me thinking that the new storage format can’t come a moment too soon:
If you want a glimpse of Hollywood’s near future, you need only watch a single scene in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia on the split screen at the ground-floor showroom of Sony’s New York headquarters. On the 70-inch TV, you see swarms of Arab camel-riders racing across the blazing desert. On the screen’s left half, the Arabs are so blurred together that they can hardly be distinguished from the swirling sands. When they cross over to the screen’s right half—presto!—they pop into such sharp focus that their facial features are recognizable. It’s the same screen and the same Lawrence of Arabia. The difference is that the source for the left half of the screen is a conventional DVD, and the source for the right half is a Blu-Ray DVD, which, although identical in size and shape to the conventional DVD, holds at least five times as many color pixels, or picture elements.
On a related note, I’m a textbook “early majority” buyer of new consumer technologies, so my having bought the above HD devices makes Pip Coburn’s recent flat panel technology investment comments look better and better.
[Update] As an aside, it is worth noting that the same night I’m posting this Sony & Toshiba, key promoters of the Blu-Ray standard, have bailed on DVD format unification talks. It looks like it will be HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray in the market. Too bad, but things will eventually sort themselves out.
Related posts:
With no single unifying format, I’ll probably wait until the dust settles (and prices drop). I have the HDTV and would love to see the DVDs come to market sooner rather than later…
Agreed on both counts, although there is already chatter from manufacturers about multi-standard players that would handle both BR and HD-DVD.
Perhaps I’ve missed something regarding ‘Blu-Ray’ Technology. From my understanding the Major push atleast on the corporate end of this deal is Digital Rights Management (which is a joke .. I’ll get to that in a sec)
Ok .. the Blu-Ray format apparently can hold and store more data that current generation DvD players; it’s Manafacture costs of the disks are actually higher than HD DvD’s or current DvD formats. (You need a dedicated Blu-ray assembly line; you can’t use exsisting ones)
The specs on the Blu-Ray player are that the player must have a 24/7 internet connection to the internet; Who’s paying for this extra connection? (atop the obvious player and change over costs) I got my 20$ saying the Motion Picture Assoc. of America isn’t; so the consumer gets another ‘subscription bill’.
Now .. getting to what I find seriously disturbing; and a tad worried that no one has even mentioned this issue in any length. Various ‘un-named’ motion picture distributers can Read; Write; Modify; and yes; intentionally sabatoge your hardware/firmware in the player. Is this not getting the least bit carried away; are we seriously so bankrupt that we’ll actually pay for another inet connection so various movie distributers can litterally hack our hardware whenever they see fit?
Yes; I do believe the movie companies do have rights to their materials; but the consumers rights have been thrown right out the window. Adding an additional ‘consern’ you have hardware; connected to the internet 24/7; and it is possible for someone to ‘self-destruct’ the player. Mark my words 2 years from now; 12 year old script kiddie pushes big red button; wipes all blu-ray players in america clean.
So us; the end consumers are stuck with this extra cumbersome bill; for this useless content rights management system. Why?
Useless DRM system; lets touch on that. I bring you back to January 1999. Napster. DRM with video or audio is no different matter.
As apple iPoD and Creative’s many ‘original’ Mp3 players have made clear; stopping this isn’t a matter of locking it down; it’s about creative marketing.
I’ll give you the example of an music file, Some new ‘unbreakable’ encryption scheme and a 100% fool proof way to secure that only people with legitiamate copies can run this, it is still flawed. The end result is the cat is already out of the bag. The end product is Audio. So no matter how well encrypted. or how good DRM you have; one person can legitimatley purchase the audio ‘file’, Play the super encrypted file; Plug the audio out; back into their computer; re-encode it as an mp3. And volia. Perfect system just broke.
This same practice holds true with movies; the ‘DiVX’ revolution with movies where only a small non-noticable quality is lost in compression, the only actual barriers which would prevent a 1:1 copy using a Blu-Ray player to a DVD format is simply the size of the data; which can either be compressed; or a larger non-drm media used.
In short what I’m getting at here is; aside from invasion of privacy; (this is still assuming that the motion picture association is keeping their hands out of the cookie jar; such as recording your play habits, or what kind of p0rn0graphy you decide to watch on your new Blu-Ray player; and when)
this seems like a costly idea to the consumers; with no real benefit as the DRM still isn’t happening. I do believe however in equal rights and management of them; but at what cost to the consumer; both monetary and civilly.
The motion picture association is pro blu-ray? Of course it is; I will cost them little more to have a whole lot more ‘prying’ into it’s viewers habits. Personally I like to sit down and watch a movie/dvd to get away from a computer/the internet and it’s con’s. Not to bring them along for a ride.
However maybe I missed something critical here; I’ve been following this from the start here, and no one has even blinked at this to my amazement. (prolly mezmerized by the blue new lazer beam)
My thoughts;
Not yours;
Feed-back is much appreciated/welcomed
-PSiKoTiC-