Blu-ray adoption extremely slow

Was Toshiba right to state that Blu-ray is not going to replace the venerable DVD on the way to movie downloads and VOD? Judging by Blu-ray player sales, it now seems like a very possible scenario.

Still being happy with DVD discs, I have supported that there are many good reasons to not adopt the Blu-ray format. And that was before HD-DVD’s sudden end… But apparently, getting HD-DVD out of the way was the easy part and the hard job is to convince consumers that Blu-ray devices and discs are the road forward. According to NPD numbers, player sales fell 40% January to February and rose by only 2% February to March. (continued)

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4 questions to ask yourself before you invest in the Blu-ray format

I have yesterday given here 9 reasons why you should not yet invest in Blu-ray.

As a follow up, and in order to help readers decide whether it is the right time to go ahead and buy, I decided to list here the questions I would be asking myself before making a sensible decision:

1. Do you own a HDTV and home cinema audio equipment? Do not bother without these prerequisites. Even if you only have a HDTV without the audio part, you will miss the uncompressed surround sound bliss which is more or less half of the fun.
2. Does your local video club stock films in the Blu-ray format? If not, you will not want to buy all the movies you wish to watch. Simple economics. It will work out cheaper to go to the cinema…

9 reasons to not upgrade to Blu-ray and stick to DVD

All reports say that the war is effectively over and even sales figures show that finally Blu-ray is trampling HD-DVD. So now that HD-DVD is seemingly out of the way, you are thinking it is the right time to invest in Blu-ray right? Maybe not…

Here is nine reasons to stick to good old DVD:

1. You still have a non-HDTV, in which case watching films on Blu-ray discs is completely pointless. The signal is downgraded to SD (standard definition) and you pay for quality that you even get from analogue TV stations.
2. You have an HDTV but its diagonal is not more than 37 inches. At these sizes it will be difficult to see real quality benefits with HD, and certainly there will only be tiny discernible differences between 720p and 1080p.

Blu-Ray camp celebrates win with 2.0 spec, early adopters in trouble

At CES 2008 there was no official press conference to declare that the HD war is over and Toshiba stated that it will battle on. However, nobody is fooled and the release of Blu-Ray’s spec 2.0 is an indirect confirmation that Sony et al actually now control the game. While spec 1.1 required a double decoder for PIP and 256 MB of storage, spec 2.0 goes a large step further as it requires an Internet connection and 1 GB of local storage for updates and content. Those features more or less complete the previously unfinished Blu-Ray specifications, and imply the following facts:

• Although HD-DVD had from the start a complete spec to match Blu-Ray’s spec 2.0 it did not manage to promote its advantage and future proof nature to the customer.

Warner Bros tipping the balance towards Blu-Ray

It was about time to see a move favoring one of the two HD disc formats. Warner has failed to combine both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD on a single disc and at the same time feels the pressure from set-top boxes and download services. For this reason it decided to exclusively back Blu-Ray. Analysts see the end of the HD format war, as it is a very clear move from one of the big players in home entertainment.

It will be interesting to see market reactions in the upcoming CES. Are players that reproduce both formats still of interest for manufacturers? Are consumers going to ignore HD-DVD releases and players? Are we going to see the downfall of HD-DVD in 2008 or later? Toshiba is determined to battle on. Whatever the outcome is, the current HD disc generation is probably going to be the last before the domination of streaming and download services to home and mobile devices. Warner knows this very well so it is time to squeeze some cash out of Blu-Ray…

Link: Reuters

Netflix and LG to enter crowded movie download market

Netflix is feeling the heat from iTunes, Amazon and competing set-top boxes that want to bring TV and movies to American sets. LG is willing to provide the hardware and it is possible that the device that will offer streaming content will also include much wanted playback of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. Netflix is well established and its catalogue is massive with 6,000 titles. Nevertheless, nothing guarantees success in the particular market segment, as has been proven so far by the cold receipt of AppleTV. I still believe that set-top boxes are fragmenting the market and that we need clean practical ways to deliver films and TV from the internet as I have already written here.

Link: Reuters

Tech developments I would like to see in 2008!

Now that 2008 is only a couple of days away is the right time to write about the developments I would like to see. I am not in favour of votes for the best of each category of 2007. We have all bought and used stuff this last year, we have also already done our choices for Christmas, so what’s the point? After all these things are so much down to personal taste that it is hard to announce a single product or site as the best in its category and clearly above everything else. So many CPU cycles have been devoted to Facebook vs MySpace & iPhone vs Nokia N95 type stories that I think a bit more of that would be overkill. So summarising thoughts from previous posts and by also adding some new ones, here is the things that I would love to see happening in 2008:

• Good, reliable, fast internet access, both wired and wireless. The wired part is getting better briskly. But for wireless still a lot has to be done… 
• Some compatibility between social networks. What is happening now is crazy and exhausting. Separate accounts, separate contacts, separate everything for each one of them. When for example Yahoo and MSN made their messengers compatible -even with limited inter-functionality- it was a great relief for me.

The pressure on Hi-Fi and home cinema audio equipment

Gadgets and electronic games are the rage before every Christmas season. Behind all this onslaught of new products there is the traditional scene of hi-fi equipment as well as the scene of the now mature but still evolving home cinema. A good amplifier and impressive loudspeakers no longer attract attention, the headlines are full of iPods, gaming consoles and mobile devices. So how come that such impressive equipment is getting so little coverage compared to small devices with questionable sound and small screens? Here is a few reasons…

Decades of improvement in analogue electronics reached the point where sound quality is extremely high with small margins for improvement. The successful matching of amp and speakers is still difficult business that requires extensive testing and experience -maybe some luck also- but delivers formidable results and a system that can be simply switched on and enjoyed. Unfortunately, all this comes at a price. You thought your Voodoo PC was expensive? Well, set up at home a decent home Hi-Fi and you will change opinion. Set up a home cinema where the number of speakers is multiplied by three and video equipment is extra and any PC will seem a bargain.