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Gadgets Blu-ray Movies to Come at the End of April
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - February 9, 2006 5:58 AM

32 comment(s) - last by Nekrik.. on Feb 10 at 2:33 AM

The Fifth Element will be one of the first full featued Blu-ray movies. No complaints here.

Sony says it has priced out the first batch of Blu-ray movies and says a price premium will be around for a while

Movie giant Sony Pictures, today announced that it has determined the initial pricing for Blu-ray discs. Being the pioneer of many existing and older formats long gone, Sony has set the prices for BR movies to start from $17.95 per movie on a wholesale level. This pretty much means that end users will end up paying well over $20 per movie. Sony is also considering pricing out Blu-ray movies along with a UMD disc packed with the same version. Prices for these packs will start at $28.95.

Sony says that it is working out a sales model where customers who buy Blu-ray movies will have the option to purchase the same movie on a different format for a significant discount. As most people will still have DVD players, this seems like a good option. Users with Blu-ray players will likely spend most of their time using the Blu-ray discs even if the option of a DVD is available. If however, you plan to take the movie mobile with you, that is a different story.

With availability starting near the end of April of this year, Sony expects the price premium for Blu-ray discs to be maintained for quite some time.

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BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By videoclone on 2/9/2006 6:10:07 AM , Rating: 2

Movie's movie's movie's .. bla bla Just give me 50Gb's of storage to put 700Mb Dvix/Xvid Movies on
4.5Gb DVD's are a joke and can only hold 6x 700Mb Divx's a DVD
:) 50Gb's should help elieviate that problem for a little while.

RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By videoclone on 2/9/2006 6:13:27 AM , Rating: 2

Change movies too TV-shows .... ^_^ and ditch the "e" in factor.

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By bob661 on 2/9/2006 9:37:05 AM , Rating: 2

I would only use blu-ray for backing up my hard drive. Movies in HD would be cool though.

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By Jackyl on 2/9/2006 11:34:56 AM , Rating: 2

The industry should've waited for HVD(Holographic Versatile Disc). HVD will hold 500GB when introduced this year.
http://www.hvd-alliance.org

Blu-ray/HD-DVD have limited capacity when it comes to high-definition movies. You will only be able to put a two-hour HD movie on it. This means you will still be swapping discs back and forth. Forget about having a full season of TV shows in HD on one disc. It won't happen. Another bad thing is MPEG4 lossy compression . It is even more lossy than MPEG2! Any of you own collections of TV shows on multiple DVD's? Like Friends, Star Trek, etc? Swapping discs is a pain. The Star Trek Next Generation collections come on 7 DVD's for EACH season! The problem is that even on 7 DVD's, each DVD uses low bitrates that the quality looks grainy.

I want capacity to hold a full season of TV shows in HD resolution, on one disc . I'm tired of swapping discs. I also hope that they use a high resolution master for these discs. If they just upconvert a 720x480 DVD disc, than that's no good.

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By albundee on 2/9/2006 12:17:13 PM , Rating: 2

"....However, the reader currently costs approximately US$15,000, and a single disc currently costs approximately US$120. The market for this format is currently not the common consumer, but is instead for those with very large storage needs....."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile...

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By piranhaa on 2/9/2006 1:08:18 PM , Rating: 2

Correction. Blue-Ray discs allow 25gigs stored PER LAYER. Add another layer, you get ~50gb. FROM WIKIPEDIA:

"Capacities of 100 GB and 200 GB, using four and eight layers respectively, are currently being researched; TDK has already announced a prototype four-layer 100 GB disc."

If 100gb isn't enough to store a season of high definition content, then you must be calculating something wrong. Average 1 hour show (~44mins w/o commercials) is about 700mb for a high resoltion format with 5.1 sound. Even with a 25gb capacity, you'll be able to put 35 of these shows on a blue ray disc (add more layers, and you'll get more capacity).
HD-DVD ON THE OTHER HAND, has a capacity of 15gb per layer which is considerably less than Blueray.

On side note, just because those Holographic discs will be released this year, are you going to spend $1000/disc (nevermind the cost of the burner)?

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By piranhaa on 2/9/2006 1:10:00 PM , Rating: 2

... added an extra zero by mistake on the price of the disc..

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By wileec on 2/9/2006 3:39:17 PM , Rating: 2

They will never get past two layers at a reasonable price. It took them too long to bring out DVD+R DL. There are too many complications and we don't even know how stable the DVD+R DL discs are and how long they will last. I want a recordable format that is stable and will last for more than a few years.

I am all for quality too. I don't want a more lossy format than MPEG2 or DV. Let's face it, MPEG4 is more lossy than all others. It's all about fitting more video in lesser space. I'd rather have quality. Original DV format actually preserves each individual frame. MPEG2/4 can't even dream to match DV.

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RE: BR-DVD!! ....Care Factore Zero!

By Googer on 2/9/2006 9:35:57 PM , Rating: 2

[q]Optware and its HVD Alliance Partners have successfully led the way to establishing worldwide industry standards for the interchange of Holographic Information Storage Systems. In December 2004 Geneva based Ecma International approved the establishment of Technical Committee TC44. The Scope of TC44 is to maintain an overall view and strategy for standardization in the field of holographic information storage systems, and to identify and develop Standards, Technical Reports and Guidelines in this field. To monitor and pursue standardization at a global level with regard to ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the international standardization community in general, including but not limited to the AV/IT and computer interfaces community. To develop guidelines for the archival life, testing, maintenance and handling of media recorded by holographic means, and to specify end-of-life monitoring techniques, mechanisms and devices. Over 25 people from numerous companies and Universities around the world have attended the meetings of TC44, including Software Architects Inc., InPhase, Pioneer, Panasonic, Ovalrock, Stanford University, [b]Sony[/b], Fujifilm, CMC Magnetics, Texas Instruments, Optware, Toagosei, Hitachi, Toshiba, Plasmon, Pulstec, Philips and IBM. Ecma International has developed 90% of all modern international standards for interchangeable optical and magnetic storage media. According to Ecma Secretary General Mr. Jan van den Beld, "The large capacity together with the high data transfer speed of holographically recorded media will create a quantum leap in media storage technology. Ecma International prides itself on beginning work on ground-breaking standardisation projects at a time which is well aligned with the anticipated availability of products to the commercial market. In this way, those companies who will become the early adopters of those products can work together in the open standards environment of Ecma to reach a broad consensus of support on the minimum set of technical parameters needed to insure true interchangeability of the recorded information. Ecma is very pleased to undertake the standardization of Holographic Versatile Discs, Holographic Versatile Cards and related subjects." TC44 is currently working only on Projects proposed by Optware and its HVD Alliance Partners which are based upon Collinear™ Technologies.[/q]

According to the HVD Alliance website Sony is interested in this technology.

http://www.hvd-alliance.org/abouthvd/technology.ht...

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Sony ah no thanks

By inthell on 2/9/2006 1:59:06 PM , Rating: 2

i never liked sony all that much ... so Blue/PS3 nah not anytime soon

RE: Sony ah no thanks

By wileec on 2/9/2006 3:43:40 PM , Rating: 2

I'm not supporting Sony either. No thanks. They try to push proprietary formats and charge too much. More than $20 a disc? No thanks. They are going to have to get these discs down to less than $10 a movie. Just because it's "HD", doesn't mean that the pressed discs cost more to manufacturer.

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RE: Sony ah no thanks

By tmp8000 on 2/9/2006 4:33:53 PM , Rating: 2

Except in this case from what I have read it actually does cost more to make Blu-ray movies. Now if HD-DVD has a price premium we'll know they are inflating the prices because of the apparent ease of transfering manufacturing over to HD-DVD.

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RE: Sony ah no thanks

By KnightBreed on 2/9/2006 4:57:52 PM , Rating: 2

That's asinine. Movies on DVD cost more than $10 and they are only in standard def. You are paying more for Blu-ray for better quality. Makes perfect sense to me.

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RE: Sony ah no thanks

By Googer on 2/9/2006 9:37:44 PM , Rating: 2

It will be expensive for a while just like DVD's and Laser Disc's were when they came out the cost for one was over $20 per movie. But give it time and you will see 3.99 Blueray movies at Wal-Mart

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RE: Sony ah no thanks

By Nekrik on 2/10/2006 2:29:47 AM , Rating: 2

I agree, when it first launches there's not a chance in hell I'll support Sony, I'll go HD and pray Sony slowly slips away (I know, wishful thinking, but I can hope). If it eventually comes into the current standard such as DVD and is what better companies adopt then it might be inevitable, but not before that happens.

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Do I Care?

By nwrigley on 2/9/2006 8:55:12 AM , Rating: 2

The more and more I hear about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD the less I care. Heck, I don't own an HDTV yet for the very reason that there isn't enough easily available programming for it. They've been dragging their feet for so long and bickering that it's taken way too long for them to get players and movies out, let alone sort out the standards mess and get to the point where the whole thing is affordable.

DVD was such an all around success that it's baffling that they're managing to screw up the release of the next generation so badly. Everyone made lots of money off of DVDs with a single standard and without complicated copyright protections built in. Why mess with it?

RE: Do I Care?

By tuteja1986 on 2/9/2006 9:46:19 AM , Rating: 2

I don't really care about the movie bit , i just want a PC HD-DVD or Blu-ray RW for arround $300 so i can burn my data on to disk with over 15GB disk space.

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RE: Do I Care?

By nastyemu25 on 2/9/2006 10:22:06 AM , Rating: 2

you should.

true, there are only around 8-12 channels with HD content. but i've had my 51 inch toshiba with HD for about 2 months now and I haven't watched any of the other 200 standard channels since. 1080i content is just beautiful. the switch to HD BR/DVD can't come soon enough for me

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RE: Do I Care?

By jkresh on 2/9/2006 10:36:08 AM , Rating: 2

Remember though that a dvd looks alot better then standard tv so the Jump from DVD to HdDVD or blueray is significantly less then it was from analog tv to HD (720X480 to 1280X720 or 1900X10080 interlaced, is less then 320X240 interlaced to 720X480 progressive/interlaced). Now, that being said, DVD to 1080P on the right size (60+ inches depending on distance) set is closer to the jump from analog to 720P.

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RE: Do I Care?

By Jackyl on 2/9/2006 11:54:55 AM , Rating: 1

320x240 is less than standard TV resolution. This is debatable but a standard TV has 525 lines total. Some are used for the blanking interval. Which leaves 480 lines for the image. VHS has more resolution than 320x240. A little more. I've captured VHS tapes in both 320x240 and 720x480. They significantly look better in 720x480. 320x240 make them look more blurry in digital than the original tape.

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RE: Do I Care?

By jkresh on 2/9/2006 10:40:45 AM , Rating: 2

While the copy protection and the dual formats are probablamatic (and i personaly will not buy any disc that does not allow for managed copy, or wont play on a non hdcp set, as one of my two hd's doesnt have hdcp), there are still beneifts to blueray/hddvd. Even if you only have an analog tv, wouldnt it be nice to get an entire season of a TV show on 1 disk? Whether you record it yourself or buy it? Also for pc backup it will be nice, at about 8gigs a dual layer dvd is fairly useless in backin up mulipel hundred gigabyte drives, while a 50gig blueray has some value, and with 200gig disks possible then simple legitmate backup of modern hard drives to optical media would be possible.

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Playstation 3?

By albundee on 2/9/2006 11:04:38 AM , Rating: 2

what does this mean for the Playstation 3?

RE: Playstation 3?

By RandomFool on 2/9/2006 12:29:11 PM , Rating: 2

nothing?

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RE: Playstation 3?

By Clauzii on 2/9/2006 12:52:46 PM , Rating: 2

A release before Fall?

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HD-DVD or Blu-Ray

By jpintpa on 2/9/2006 10:52:04 AM , Rating: 2

I dont care, I want HD movies NOW! I have a 110" screen in my screening room and 60" 1080p SXRD in my family room. I will buy two sources. I want HD movies in all the glory, I am tired of video artifacts and I am certainly tired of 5.1 compressed audio. I can't wait to compare Leelo new HD 5th Element version with the regular DVD and the Superbit version.

RE: HD-DVD or Blu-Ray

By segagenesis on 2/9/2006 5:20:28 PM , Rating: 2

Speak about spoiled rotten... cry more n00b.

If you are tired of video artifacts and 5.1 compressed audio, you are certainly in for a disappointment with the newer formats. High def video is indeed better than standard DVD (especially when watching it on a digital panel) but its not the end all were hoping for. DVD with more resolution, period.

There are artifacts in high def broadcasts and mpeg-4 high def trailers from apple are a bit better, but its still *compressed video*. Seeing how you can afford all that equipment for your house why dont you just buy prints of movies and watch them on a reel projector and stop complaining?

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beh

By Missing Ghost on 2/9/2006 1:33:44 PM , Rating: 2

Or join me and boycott both formats.

RE: beh

By Cygni on 2/9/2006 1:49:42 PM , Rating: 2

The market will join you. Not as a boycott, but just because there isnt a demand for this product outside of the movie industry and electronics manufacturers, who are "demanding" a repeat of the DVD introduction profits.

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Long Live DVD

By BladeVenom on 2/9/2006 1:52:04 PM , Rating: 2

With their onerous copy protection schemes, and ability to disable your players and blue-ray discs, I think I will stick with DVDs. Sony can go rootkit themselves.