New technology from Intel could dramatically change the Blu-ray landscape for the better.
The Blu-ray organization has really upped the pressure in terms of driving the perception that Blu-ray is winning in the market. Sales are increasing sharply, but they were coming from such low numbers in the first place that the total numbers still aren’t that impressive. It is a massive effort, and it does appear to be helping drive a slow increase in Blu-ray sales. However, I remain largely unconvinced that Blu-ray is anything more, at least right now, than something folks occasionally use to showcase their wonderful new TVs. That could change, though. I just got a presentation from Intel’s Digital Home group that suggests that by early next year, I may become a convert.
Personal Blu-ray Use
I currently own seven Blu-ray players: four on desktop PCs, two on laptops, one deck, and one PS3. Currently in my Netflix queue I have nine movies, and two of them are available in Blu-ray. The majority of movies I get from Netflix are still standard DVDs. To date, I haven’t seen a single portable- or manufacturer-sourced automotive Blu-ray system, and as you know, Blu-ray discs only play in Blu-ray players. This means parents with kids, one of the biggest purchasers of DVDs, still have a significant disincentive towards this new format because they can’t use the movies to entertain children while away from home, and the media is both expensive and not any more robust than regular DVDs. So, if they did use them, the kids would destroy the disks just as quickly, and they are still more expensive to replace. And kids don’t really seem to care about Blu-ray, anyway.
Of my laptops with Blu-ray drives, not a single one will easily make it through a Blu-ray movie on battery without making sure everything is in low power mode (including the screen) and, in one case, the laptop won’t even play the movie in low power mode, nor finish it in normal mode. I have to say, watching a Blu-ray movie on a dim screen wasn’t the experience I’d hoped for.
Blu-ray on a laptop screen isn’t that great anyway. But I have found that taking a disk with me to play on a hotel flat-panel TV is kind of fun, though getting a remote to work with a laptop has been a world of hassle, and remembering to pack an HDMI cable to make this work problematic. I generally find that when I have a room with a flat-panel TV, I didn’t bring the right notebook, or a movie, and when I bring a movie and the right notebook, the room has a CRT TV that won’t work. In the end, I generally find TiVo ToGo content or streamed movies from Netflix vastly easier to use.
When it works, Blu-ray is very pretty. But I still find my Toshiba up-scaling DVD player to be just as satisfying, and it makes regular DVDs look much better than my LG Blu-ray player. Even on the LG, I’m finding I use the Netflix streaming service nearly as often as I use it to watch Blu-ray disks, because I still don’t get a lot of those.
However, I may become a full convert next year when some new tech from Intel shows up.
Intel: Third Time’s a Charm
Intel took two previous shots at the digital home. They actually had an early competitor to the iPod, and while it reviewed well, building products became a problem. They then created the Viiv platform and folks wondered if they had lost their collective minds. This time, however, they actually put people in charge of the effort who had a grasp of the market, and the end result could not only be a better Blu-ray player, but a better PC. We’ll leave the PC part for another time, but just imagine if they turned this technology into a PC product.
No One Wanted a PC Experience
The mistake that Intel and others made in the past was thinking folks wanted a PC in the middle of the experience. They don’t. They may want the performance, but no one wants to boot Windows from the couch. What Intel did this time is turn the PC design concept on its ear, and swapped the typical CPU optimization architecture for one that optimized video and focused on a consumer electronics user interface. The end result was a set of technologies that could up-scale better than anything on the market, handle up to three high definition video streams, and do really interesting stuff like video texturing (putting video on objects) to create really compelling menus and media guides.
It’s a natural for things like Yahoo Widgets that you use to find and enjoy unique on-line content, and with the upscaling technology, all of this web stuff would look vastly better. Netflix and Hulu streamed content would upscale as well, and future versions should be able to distribute content around the home, assuming the media industry allows it. This means you’d only need one expensive player, and a series of inexpensive extenders to cover the home and provide content.
Yahoo Widgets
PC Performance, Set Top Box Experience
With this product, you actually get full performance (Pentium M at the start), so the manufacturers have a lot of performance overhead they can play with to create compelling experiences. Think of being able to click on an actor’s face, and get their name real time, or what other movies they were in, without disturbing the flow of the movie for instance. Or, possibly even reorder the movie, dropping the cut scenes that are on many of the discs into where they should be in the movie. There’s room for multiple tuners, gaming, and hard drives, suggesting some really interesting high-end DVR capability could eventually find its way onto these offerings.
So you’d end up with a box that could do anything, from playing Blu-ray movies to YouTube and games, making it all look good on your flat-panel TV, while giving you experiences you just can’t get on a current-generation DVD player, regardless of format.
Wrapping Up
With all of this capability, I’d probably be buying the player more for its other functions than Blu-ray. But if it did that too, I could finally see the value. Granted, I still see Blu-ray as a place holder for streaming, but I could also see it holding that place for several more years. The Blu-ray folks are right that there is no download that yet looks as good as a Blu-ray movie. Their problem remains that there are a lot of things that are good enough, and until a solution that will move content around the home easily shows up, the true next generation video technology is not yet set. Intel, strangely enough, now has a shot at setting it. It’s the best work I have seen them do in years.
To answer the Blu-ray question in short: I’d wait until this new class of players comes out towards the end of the year. If you don’t want to wait, you can still get it in a new TV or set-top box, but I think the best way to get this capability is in a Blu-ray player, because it is more elegant than a set-top box, and you’ll likely want to upgrade it long before a new TV wears out.
Showing 17 comments
RSSthe negative comments are kinda ironic coming from someone who owns 7 bluray players(maybe it's related to your job?). i think it is a big step up from current generation. it's the best out there right now.
one big problem about it is it's price, once that comes down, then things will be better. c'mon, years ago a dvd drive(pc) was so expensive because it was new back then, then priced started dropping, so why bash the bluray?
about dvd upconvert, yes it does improve pq, but i guess you cant really talk about it if you dont own a bluray player(and a good tv) and a player that can do up scaling.
and bluray won the format war, so it will be just a matter of time.
I have a 52" 1080p Toshiba television and my upconverted dvds on my XBox 360 look marvelous. The high-def streaming from Netflix on my XBox 360 look awesome. My dvd player in the car keeps my children somewhat subdued and it is so easy and inexpensive to get DVD media. I think Blu-Ray is a dead technology and I feel sorry for anyone who wastes money on a player or media.
The future is high-def on demand downloads. Save your hard-earned money for this technology.
BR isnt done yet.
but as with DVD, many options will be thrown out the door, or never used. A DS(remember that? Double sided) DVD holds a good amount of data, IT THEY would use it for the movie, and not all the extras.. they could UPGRADE the quality of DVD titles very easily.
Iv done abit of looking and the MOST dominant thing about BR, is copy protection, and BEING able to use a RAW format, insted of compressed. EVEN DVD uses RAW format(MP2 insted of MP4) with MP4 and being able to use 9gigs on a DVD, I really dont see WHY BR is any better.
If it is to be the mainstream source for video, it needs to be the solution even when conditions are not optimal for the video quality that it touts. Until it gets there, there will be a ceiling that it will find when enthusiasts and others who have bought into the marketing are done adopting the format, and DVD will hold it off until the next big thing comes along and trounces them both.
Blu-ray on a laptop screen isn't that great anyway.
It is hard to impress when working with a 15" screen. VHS quality would probably not bother this guy either.
and
kids don't really seem to care about Blu-ray, anyway.
A five year old kid doesn't care about dvd either. Just stick an old worn out VHS in and they will be just as happy.
or
I haven't seen a single portable- or manufacturer-sourced automotive Blu-ray system.
Once again, except for the size, VHS will do just fine in this environment as well.
If you are just looking at size and portability then blu ray has nothing over dvd, because they are the same size. In all of these cases listed by the author the only reason for a switch to dvd from VHS would be the size, convenience and portability. For blu ray to show what it is for you need a decent HD setup. I have been watching blu rays for several months now and it does not take an expert to notice the difference. However, if the hardware you are watching your movies on is not good enough to display the improvement you will never know the difference.
For blu ray to take off some things need to happen.
1. Blu ray makers need to put a big push behind getting their discs into the rental chains. Don't make it more expensive for these places to stock your discs. Given them some sort of incentive, such as offering blu ray and standard disc at the same costs.
2. Get some cheap players out there. Even if they are crap, the people who buy them won't notice. Wave the licensing fee for a while if that is what it takes. If players stay at the $300 level it will never take.
Unless the blu ray experience starts to get less expensive soon the market could just split into the enthusiast and average consumer. This is what happened to laser discs during the VHS days. We all know how well that one went.
First off, I did not upgrade to Blu-ray to "showcase" my new HDTV. I upgraded to Blu-ray because when I bought my HDTV, I expected to watch HD programming on that set and upgraded my sources accordingly. After upgrading to HD, I no longer watch the SD simulcast channels, because I'd rather watch something in HD than SD. HD adds to my viewing enjoyment, and that's why I no longer opt for a DVD purchase/rental if a Blu-ray version is available. Isn't that the whole point of upgrading to HDTV in the first place?
Next, the hard coating techniques used on Blu-rays are more durable and scratch resistant than DVDs. And with Disney packaging bonus DVD copies with their Platinum BDs, you don't have worry about transportability or backups.
Also, DVD portables didn't show up or become affordable overnight. So many of you tech writers are trying to compare a DVD format that's in its 13th year of existence with the BD format that's in its 3rd year. Recall the incompatibility headaches with 1st and 2nd generation DVD players when features like dual-layered media, seamless branching, and DTS audio were first introduced. Difference is that at least the early Blu-ray players can be updated with downloadable firmware updates. My third generation Denon DVD player needed to be shipped back to the company to update the firmware.
And in reading your assertion that you find Toshiba upconverting DVD player just as satisfying as a Blu-ray player, I question whether you even care about the difference between watching HD programming and SD programs. Maybe it doesn't matter on a laptop computer, but it does matter on a HDTV, which is how the vast majority of consumers watch HD programming.
I read the same thing from countless other computer-centric tech writers who claim that Blu-ray is not a huge upgrade from upconverted DVD. But, taking this logic to its conclusion, by making this claim, aren't you also claiming that any native 480i video source is not discernible from a native 720p/1080i/1080p source? I mean, when watching TV do you opt to watch a SD channel when an HD simulcast channel is available, on the assumption that the HD channel is merely a "showcase" and no more "satisfying" than the SD feed?
DVDs portable, they were great for kids movies, and they were vastly cheaper than Laser. Blu-Ray isn't as portable, suck for kids, and are more expensive than DVDs.
Finally with regular DVD I don't need network connections, I don't have to do software updates, and the damn movie starts right up (no long load times).
But the point here is give me a great download engine, great up-scaler AND Blu-Ray and this makes sense. But for me, until then, Blu-Ray simply doesn't by itself.
Every new technology creeps into the marketplace and will pick up steam once pricing come down and adoption picks up. You need to give Blu-ray a chance, there is nothing better out there ;)
Your comment about Netflix has me confused...I use Netflix and 75% of the new movies coming out which I have rented are available on Netflix. You aren't renting old Bonanza re-runs are you?
Personally, I think TV widgets are a distraction and nothing more than a new reoccuring revenue source for the TV manufacturers. In the screenshot you have posted, the weather widget is the only useful thing there, the rest are advertisements more than anything.