Previous
Windows 7 media center review
Logitech Harmony Adapter for Playstation 3 review
HD 101: What is ATSC, PSIP, QAM, and 8-VSB?
How to install a CableCARD tuner in your DIY Media Center
DISH Network launches remote DVR control
Engadget HD Podcast 157 - 09.29.2009
Paradigm SUB 25 subwoofer review
Engadget goes behind the Dolby logo
Breaking news Feed
- Boxee inks deal with first hardware partner: a 'Boxee Box' is coming
- Best Buy partnering with CinemaNow to stream first-run DVDs to 'all web-connected devices sold'
- Netflix coming next month to PlayStation 3
- Toshiba details CELL REGZA LCD TV, coming December to Japan (update: video!)
- Intel announces Atom CE4100 for insanely powerful cable boxes and Blu-ray players
- Media Center CableCARDs freed from OEM requirement
- Samsung's LED TV Couple packs a 7-inch tablet remote for streaming TV and so much more
- Toshiba BDX2000 Blu-ray player coming November for $250, gives HD-DVD the final cold shoulder
- PS3 Slim bitstreams Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA audio, at last
- Xbox 360 officially the only console to stream Netflix -- sorry, PS3 and Wii
Featured stories Feed
- Spears & Munsil High Definition Benchmark Blu-ray mini-review
- Ask Engadget HD: Is it (still) a good time to buy a TiVo?
- Pace and Rovi work together to make a standard set-top a true multi-room DVR
- Ready or not, the latest 3D technology is coming home
- How to automatically skip commercials in Windows 7 Media Center
- Ask Engadget HD: How do you evaluate HDTVs in-store?
- Sharp AQUOS LC-52LE700UN impressions
- Ask Engadget HD: Best home theater setup for gaming?
- TDK's heavily stacked 320GB disc shows its nearly-clear face at CEATEC
- Panasonic's 1080p twin-lens P2 camcorder seen behind three-dee glass at CEATEC
- Walmart's $30 deal vaults Pixi from 'meh' to 'sure, I'll take three'
- Police Wii Bowling team issued stern rebuke
- Qualcomm chips promises 1GHz speeds in 'mainstream smartphones,' simultaneous HSPA+ / LTE support
- TomTom to bring free lane guidance, text-to-speech, iPod control to iPhone GPS app
- Boxee inks deal with first hardware partner: a 'Boxee Box' is coming
- Walmart's $30 deal vaults Pixi from 'meh' to 'sure, I'll take three'
- Qualcomm chips promises 1GHz speeds in 'mainstream smartphones,' simultaneous HSPA+ / LTE support
- TomTom to bring free lane guidance, text-to-speech, iPod control to iPhone GPS app
- Facebook app developer rejects App Store, irony ensues
- Palm Pixi reviewed on Engadget
Resources
Sections
- Announcements
- Ask Engadget HD
- DIY
- Features
- Industry
- Misc
- Podcasts
- Polls
- Regulatory
- Reviews
- Blu-ray
- Cables
- Camcorders
- Displays
- DVRs
- HD DVD
- Media PCs
- Media streamers
- Other formats
- Other hardware
- Players
- Ports
- Receivers
- Recorders
- Remotes
- Set-top boxes
- Speakers
- Switches
- Tuners
Hardware
Manufacturers
WIN Network
- Autos
- Technology
- Lifestyle
- Gaming
- Finance
- Entertainment on AOL
- Lifestyle on AOL
- Sports on AOL
- Travel on AOL
- Also on AOL
Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rob @ Aug 23rd 2008 5:23PM
There you go. Blu-ray players prices are going up instead of down. That's what I call progress.
Pretty soon movie prices will get higher too initiating the end of Blu-ray as an HD disc media format.
squiggleslash @ Aug 23rd 2008 8:01PM
Initiating the end? It's already begun. Despite a net increase in players, Blu-ray disk sales are actually falling. People are buying players, playing a few BD disks, and deciding to go back to DVD.
Most stupid decision ever was Warner deciding to plump for Blu-ray. HD DVD at least had some very neat features even if Toshiba/LG/et al were too slow implementing them. People would have found it worth upgrading to even if the HD side didn't seem that compelling.
Thanks Warner, Fox, et al for killing HD by selecting the one format that stands no chance of making it.
Dave @ Aug 24th 2008 4:53AM
Wrong. The BD sales are going up according to expectations. Soon studios will stop the support for DVD because of the high piracy and will release only on BD. Hardware manufacturers will follow.
Blu-ray is and will remain the only future proof optical physical format.
Dave @ Aug 24th 2008 4:54AM
Wrong. The BD sales are going up according to expectations. Soon studios will stop the support for DVD because of the high piracy and will release only on BD. Hardware manufacturers will follow.
Blu-ray is and will remain the only future proof optical physical format.
squiggleslash @ Aug 25th 2008 9:56AM
Dave: The last three months have shown Blu-ray sales as a percentage of DVD sales drop, both in units and in dollars. "Expectations" has them growing against DVD sales, to a point that somehow they'll manage to make up 50% of sales either next year (Sony) or 2012 (various insane "analysts") There's no good reason for this to be happening beyond consumer indifference. The same big releases are being released in both formats. The Blu-ray transfers are better than they've ever been. The prices of discs are no higher than they were three months ago. More people have Blu-ray playing equipment than ever before. It's been six months since Toshiba dropped out of the HD race, and the only HD format in town (well, except HD-VMD and CBHD *snort*) is actually contracting.
It's not hard to see why either. HD isn't as compelling as either Toshiba or Sony or their respective enthusiasts thought it would be. "HD DVD" at least made an effort to be better than DVD in respects other than image/audio quality, but Blu-ray really isn't. Consumers who buy Blu-ray equipment are turning back to DVD, because it plays on everything, because it's lower cost, and because it looks pretty damned good ("Good enough") on everything but the largest, highest resolution, TVs.
I really think right now the format's going to limp along like Laserdisc for as long as it takes for a real consumer-friendly format to come along. With DVD 2.0 (which the DVD Forum could screw up, of course) plus various proprietary download systems on the horizon, the consumer friendly replacement to DVD could be just around the corner.
Blu-ray isn't it. Blu-ray simply cannot succeed. DVD succeeded because all you had to do to take advantage of most of its advantages over VHS was to buy a DVD player. Blu-ray's only strengths over DVD are image and audio, meaning a minimum investment of around $1,000 in TVs on top of the purchase of a player. With the economy in the tank, it's not going to work.