Blu Ray Disc

[FaytalsCamaro]

Nice little discussion I was having with my brother that I decided to bring up on here. Both of us are pretty big gamers and seeing as how the next gen systems will be both supporting Blu Ray a question was brought up.

Does anyone else think that Blu Ray will be the last disc based format we have before we go all digital? I still see Blu Ray staying around for awhile but don't see what can really be done after that. It's already been said having 4k movies on a blu ray is going to be a tough fit and streaming services may have trouble streaming that much data. Honestly though by the time the blu ray era is over I think streaming wont be as much of a problem with technology advancements. If not all digital any idea what the next format may be?

[c_LoW29]

The only thing I could see that would make any difference is being able to stream movies the day they are released in theater in the comfort of your home. Now i know about piratebay and other torrent sources, but I am speaking High Def same day as theater type streaming.

[Jay_LHD3]

I don't think Blu Ray will be the last but I believe it is here to stay for a while, maybe till the end of this decade. Most people I know just converted over to Blu Ray and I don't see them upgrading again anytime soon.

When it comes to streaming the infrastructure is not here yet. Yes most urban areas are ready but that is not the case for the rest of the US.

From wiki:

In measurements made between January and June 2011, the United States ranked 26th globally in terms of the speed of its broadband Internet connections, with an average measured speed of 4.93 Mbit/s. South Korea led the list with an average of 17.62 Mbit/s, followed by Romania at 15.27 Mbit/s, and Bulgaria at 12.89 Mbit/s.[9]

I don't think much has changed since 2011. My brother in Florida was working for a contractor who couldn't keep up with running fiber for Fios. When the economy tanked, so did a lot of the fiber work. Streaming a HD movie with 4.93 Mbit/s will consist of some buffering for sure.

[PoorMansCamaro]

what do you guys think about flash drives? is there any kind of quality limitations on flash drives? as long as it's large enough?

[irocnroll]

Originally Posted by PoorMansCamaro

what do you guys think about flash drives? is there any kind of quality limitations on flash drives? as long as it's large enough?

Too susceptible to damage. Leave it in your pocket and it goes through the wash or get it near a magnet and its bricked. Too costly to distribute that many as well.

[FaytalsCamaro]

aside from doing layered Blu ray i dont think there is anywhere to go. Unless they have some kind of break through with ultra violet or something

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by FaytalsCamaro

aside from doing layered Blu ray i dont think there is anywhere to go. Unless they have some kind of break through with ultra violet or something

The current max capacity of a standard Blu-Ray disc is roughly 50GB. (There are single-layer variants that only hold 25GB, but they're not as prevalent anymore)

The newer BDXL rewriter drives are capable of triple layer (100GB) or quadruple layer (128GB) discs, but these are primarily for commercial applications.

Pioneer claims it has developed a technique for optical drives to cram 500GB of data onto a disc using ultraviolet lasers.

So, when we start seeing TV's capable of displaying native ultra-high definition (2160p or 4320p) resolutions that are not astronomical in price, this kind of technology might start replacing Blu-Rays, but who knows how long that will take.

And on top of that, who knows if consumers will ever care to want to buy a TV with that high of a resolution. But then again, that's what a lot of people said about 1080p, so I'm not making any projections

[Wabbit]

When Blu-Ray and HD were first competing, one of the advantages with Blu-Ray was that they were using half of the disc space at the time, where HD-DVD was using almost all the disc space. Now the 3-D Blu-Ray is out, it's probably getting towards the upper end of storage ability.

IMO - There might be one more upgrade past Blu-Ray before it goes all digital. My issue with all things digital only is the issue of connectivity. AppleTV give you the advantage of having a local copy, so if you lost your internet connectivity (it happens), you can still watch your local copy. Amazon and Roku (Ultraviolet) are mostly streaming only. No internet, no movie, unless you downloaded it ahead of time. This is one of the reasons why I still like my Blu-Ray. Also, if you are going on a trip and want to watch a movie (on a plane), connectivity can be an issue, and costs of using cellular data can be quite high on an extended trip.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by Wabbit

Also, if you are going on a trip and want to watch a movie (on a plane), connectivity can be an issue, and costs of using cellular data can be quite high on an extended trip.

While that may be true right now, in the future I imagine data plans will cost next to nothing, the same way text messages used to cost 10 cents per but are now unlimited.

As the carriers upgrade their systems, the data plans will become cheaper and unlimited.

[ElGK]

There is a format in very early development that uses the individual silicate atoms to record data. This format allows for 100+ Terabytes per disc.

So no, the disc format is not dead.

[2012-1822]

I'm not actually an old fart yet, but when it comes to tech and gadgets I tend to act like one. I personally would always be weary of not being able to hold what I just bought, like a disc. Power goes out, laptop is charged, throw a disc in a watch a movie anyway, things like that appeal to me. I think once the babyboomers begin to exit there won't be many like me left and perhaps then we move away from a physical form of media, probably not before.

[Wabbit]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

While that may be true right now, in the future I imagine data plans will cost next to nothing, the same way text messages used to cost 10 cents per but are now unlimited.

As the carriers upgrade their systems, the data plans will become cheaper and unlimited.

Carriers would have to expand their coverage as well. There are a lot of places where coverage is spotty, or non-existent depending on your carrier. I don't see data getting much cheaper for awhile. They need to pay for their system upgrades, even though they are trying to get the government to pay.

I, too, like to have the physical media of something I bought. I hate to think they I bought something only digital, and the company I bought it from decides to no longer support it or just goes away. At least with a physical copy, I still "own" it.

[45thCamaro]

Wow, I wish I could quote a whole bunch of posts to respond to, but I'll try to see if I can remember them.

I think that as far as disc based media, if blu ray isn't the last, one more after and that's even a stretch. Look at how the masses get their fix. Everything is digital now. Video games coming out same day as digital (for the same price which I think is BS). The amount of money and time it takes to make to produce a copy box it, print it, ship it and stock it, in a fraction of the time, the digital copy is already out. And you will have saved maybe millions on production costs.

Someone posted about text messages being per message and now unlimited, but notice that cell companies are eliminating unlimited data plans. Why? Because of the amount of stress the downloads put on their servers isn't enough to compensate them. So they give you a tiered plan, and in the event you go over, they see dollar signs. This is not even just cell phone companies. The biggest scam in the industry, Time Warner Cable, tested out tiered data on their home internet. So imagine how the netflix junky feels streaming away and not thinking about overage charges. That could change. Look at online gaming, what's the average data sent and received in a standard match of COD? It has to be massive. Play a few games and; womp womp, you've used up your monthly allotment.

Now imagine streaming something so high def, that it makes avatar on bluray look like a crayon drawing from a 2nd grader. In a matter of hours you may have used up your data.

I'm the type of person that also likes to physically hold what I spent my money on. Whether it be games, movies, music, etc. The music business (iTunes) is so extremely fortunate with how it worked out as far as downloading music goes. Think back (god I feel old) to say 20 years ago, when you would go purchase a SINGLE from an artist on
cassette. I remember it being like $1 for the single, and they had similar production costs. Now look at it. You don't even have to physically move your body to download a song for 1 dollar and you have it anywhere you go. It's amazing.

I think until the communication companies can work out what they want to do long term, (maybe t3 line into the home, for a REASONABLE monthly fee) we need to embrace physical media as much as we can.


Side note: I fix computers as a side business, it has always amazed me that a company so big a Symantec could charge you more $ to renew a antivirus subscription via online, than it is to go to the store and purchase the disc. YOU WOULD THINK IT WOULD BE THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

Whew sorry for my rant!

[Dizzy82]

Solid media FTW! But seriously, I'm more comfortable owning a physical copy over digital. Considering only 70% of Americans have access to "high speed" internet, and that so called "high speed" statistic counts 4mbps connections "high speed". Those that live in cities/have money will obviously have access to the latest and greatest, while the tech gap widens from the rural.

America's internet infrastructure is lagging behind other countries like Japan, South Korea, and the UK.