So is Blu-ray really ripping off consumers?

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 14th 2009 at 2:52PM

That's the idea behind a recent column on TheStreet.com, which cites consumers happiness with DVD and the oncoming march of downloads as reasons that "Blu-ray rips off consumers." Now to be fair, actually within the article are less hyperbolic statements like "Blu-ray hasn't failed" but even from here we can see several holes in the author's theory. To begin, he claims that downloadable and streaming high definition video is "360 lines away from providing the same clarity" demonstrating an unfortunate ignorance of 1080p downloads already available from Vudu and streaming from CBS.com. Unfortunately, as we all should be aware there's more to the movie experience than simply resolution, and even with more 1080p movies on the way from Xbox Live, it will be some time before a customer can get the same experience available on Blu-ray from any internet service. Another assumption? That Blu-ray "expects customers to ignore the rapidly advancing technology right on their doorstep." Tell that to companies like Samsung, LG and Panasonic, who already sell Blu-ray players that double as digital distribution set top boxes delivering HD movies from Netflix and Amazon. Check out all three pages of this guy's opinion yourself and let us know if we missed anything.

Filed under: Blu-ray, Media streamers, Other formats, Internet

Tags: 1080p, blu-ray, digital distribution, DigitalDistribution, downloads, rip-off, streaming, thestreet.com, vudu

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Highest Ranked

Cap BD @ Jul 14th 2009 3:03PM

I'd feel more ripped off by surcharges for HD on Cable or satellite than paying extra for Blu-ray.

Neutral

KD @ Jul 15th 2009 7:41PM

I totally agree.

Highly Ranked

aaron @ Jul 14th 2009 3:03PM

As long as the content on netflix/360/vudu looks good (and it does) the consumer will not care one bit that there is something slightly better out there. The key to vudu, ps3/360, appletv's success will be the pricing model. Netflix already has the pricing model mastered but they dont have the new releases in HD yet (or 5.1 audio). I am pretty confident they will get both soon (along with 1080p smooth streaming) and then bluray is going to be in some real trouble because I already use netflix streaming significantly more than bluray/dvd even knowing its stereo audio. It really is almost too powerful having all those movies available to me with the click of a button "for free" (and I know its not really free but when you have your queue listed and can pick whatever you want it feels free).

Highly Ranked

Gus Gonzales III @ Jul 14th 2009 3:14PM

Mr. Notte's assumptions about Blu-Ray and streaming HD video are wrong, at least in my case. Assuming folks want some kind of "ownership" and not just rent movies online, how in the hell do you solve the storage space issue?

As Kindle will not kill books, so streaming video won't kill Blu-Ray. We are creatures of habit and the need to hold and keep what we purchase.

Mr. Notte can keep his sneering attitude to himself ;)

Highest Ranked

Ordeith @ Jul 14th 2009 3:59PM

we may be creatures of habit, but upcomming generations don't have the same habits.

Highest Ranked

gamedude360 @ Jul 14th 2009 3:14PM

well vudu and others have a long ways to go. the pay per movie rental model sucks. and no way would i purchase a movie for download when it cost about the same or less for a bluray, and the fact that video and sound is better on the bluray vs the download. but for downloads vudu has the best quality though, crappy sound though.

now if they could get rid of the p2p model that they use and do a streaming model for the hdx quality videos, and then have that with an all you can eat price of under 15-20 a month then sure they could be worthy. but fornow i'll stick, to dvd, bluray + hulu + netflix and soon the zilian tv box (which will offer free with commercials vod for movies and tv with the option to pay to watch without ads)

Highest Ranked

Jon @ Jul 14th 2009 3:20PM

Haha .. you know how i feel about this

you can call it 1,000,000 P (like on the commercial)and it will not look as good as a disc at its current rate .. Streaming looks like crap on my high end 60" Tv compared to BD disc and/or M2TS 1:1 copy

And doesn't anyone care about sound ?? .. yeah the sound from Netflix is really cutting edge let me tell ya .. Whoa

Now .. where is a beer

Highest Ranked

Jonathan @ Jul 14th 2009 3:23PM

I was listening to the latest Twit and they were talking about this subject and everyone was beating around the bush but no one could say it correctly.. convenience trumps all.

Think about the audio world.. it's directly related.
-MP3's are small, thus having the convenience of carrying thousands of songs and they sound "pretty good". That convenience of their small digital size trumps the fact that they are not amazing quality.
-Physical CD sales are down and online purchasing is up because it's easy. You get only the songs you want and you can get them at a click of a button and within seconds.

The video world needs to realize this.. vudu is great, but it's not widely available since you have to buy a box.. netflix is jumping on that first with being included in lots of TVs and Blu-Ray players. I don't think Blu-ray is ripping people off.. people just don't need the quality Blu-ray delivers and therefore I don't think Blu-ray is going to be around for the longrun. Long live the digital media downloads.. physical media is going away.

People want convenience and "good enough" quality.

Highest Ranked

Eddie2010 @ Jul 14th 2009 7:07PM

Your CD analogy does not apply to movies, if you buy a movie, be it on Blu-Ray, DVD, or digitally, you are buying the same one movie, theres no choices between various versions of the same movies, so theres no advantage there. Plus if your buying a movie your best option is to buy it on Blu-Ray or DVD, since both have the best quality for HD and SD. Buying a digital download version of a movie is usually the same price and you have to have some sort of storage for it, that also does not come free (an HD digital download would be at least 5gig at at 720p with severely gimped audio). Blu-Ray you can play on any Blu-Ray player, digitally downloaded movies you can not, most time you are limited to the type of device you downloaded it to and streaming from various device is another added expence and added setup to do that, so wheres the convenience.

Bottom line when buying movies, buying physical media like Blu-Ray disc is the best option. you will have the best quality and no storage problems and no problems playing it on any Blu-Ray player.

Digital downloads of movies is only good for renting not buying.

Highest Ranked

InnocentEd @ Jul 14th 2009 7:31PM

While I get why you think your analogy would work...it doesn't for several reasons.

1. Digitally downloading video is NOT more convenient than buying a Blu-ray. You need very hi-bandwidth connections which most of America does not have and you need a box and a slight knowledge of the software that runs it. A Blu-ray player involves plugging in 2 cables and buying a disc...then all you have to know is how to press the play button.

2. MP3 as an audio format became popular because of its portability. Thats why MP3 players are so huge. How often do you think a guy is going to be running down the street watching his HD Video? For the most part 95% of all HD video viewing is going on in the living room so the file size being smaller and portable is meaningless.
With a movie you aren't only going to be buying the beginning and the end for a cheaper cost than the whole movie...so the fact that you can pick apart albums again is a meaningless comparison

3. You make a large assumption that because people are willing to sacrifice some audio differences that they will accept lower quality video which takes into account all sorts of things.

You were right that people want convenience...but you were wrong in where the convenience lies.

Neutral

wet3 @ Jul 14th 2009 10:10PM

I think downloaded video is much better than some of you guys think. Movie I get from itunes and watch on my apple tv look great. And I'm talking the sd ones. They look better than DVD and right around broadcast HD.

The problem with downloads is standardization. Good thing about blu ray is any disc from any store will work with any player. If, and it's a big "if", movie downloads ever get standardized and media storage keeps getting bigger and cheaper it'll be exactly like the music industry. You'll still be able to get discs, but you won't buy them as often as you download them.

And as for convenience, I can watch itunes movies on any tv with an apple tv (which is still cheaper than most BD players), put them on my ipod, which I along with my kids do use, and I don't have to hunt for discs, clean off fingerprints, or worry about scratches and the sd movies are only $15 and hd is $20 but the selection so far sucks.

Personally, I think bd movies with digital copy is the best.

Highly Ranked

foobarred @ Jul 14th 2009 11:19PM

To be honest I think your assessment of "good enough" when it comes to consumer electronics and technology is very accurate. However, I don't agree that digital downloads or streaming are quite at that level of "good enough" yet. I've got a 52" LCD, a 92" screen with 1080p projector, and 7.2 surround home theater setup that truly reaps the benefits of Blu-ray. More and more people are moving towards TVs and sound systems that do reveal the differences between download/streaming and BD - and those differences are VERY noticeable. Every online format of media either looked terrible or sounded terrible. There was always a compromise because current bandwidth and compression technologies simply can't support what it takes to deliver a theater level HD experience.
Projectors, big 1080p TVs, and 7.1 surround systems are getting cheaper by the day and more and more people will notice the difference. Not to mention accessibility... My BD movies are available if my Internet access goes down, or my content provider/streamer goes out of business (think HD Giants).
Blu-ray is far from dead. Direct downloads and streaming may kill DVDs but BD is still quite a bit ahead of the curve. Right now the biggest "good enough" hurdle to wider BD adoption is upscaled DVD media. As more and more people get better and bigger TVs that will sort itself out. Upscaled DVDs look tolerable until about 50" at a distance of 8-10'. Any bigger or any closer and you really need actual HD material.

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Gilbert @ Jul 14th 2009 3:27PM

Physical media will always be better than streaming media. Its good to have competition to bring prices down. Amazon tends to be the cheapest to get bluray movies especially with the free shipping. I will be buying vizio's new internet tv this October for the convenience of watching internet programming without the need of a pc. Ill still use a pc with my new hdtv for bluray movies and games. It will also be used for nasa tv and any other content not supported by the tv.

Neutral

wack @ Jul 14th 2009 3:38PM

boom woasted

Highly Ranked

Shenanigans @ Jul 14th 2009 3:56PM

Maybe he missed the big blu-ray sales on Amazon yesterday. There was a ton of stuff 50% off. The Matrix 10th anniversary disc was $13.

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jon @ Jul 14th 2009 4:45PM

Ignorant garbage.

That's like saying Porsche rips off consumers because you can buy a Honda or take a taxi.

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Orochi Avlis @ Jul 15th 2009 6:55AM

You are completely correct jon, the article is very piss poor.

I like how he singles out that people are satisfied with DVD and won't (yet) move to Blu-ray.
New media ALWAYS takes years before it's fully accepted. CDs were invented in the 80s, and when did they become the standard? 1998/1999. DVDs, same deal. Blu-ray is no different. There is a jump in quality. And with new features like BD-Live, and other cool things they can now do with the medium, how can you say it's a rip off?

And Blu-ray has by far been surpassing the rate of sales of DVDs when it was first introduced. If people are so happy with DVDs, why is Blu-ray selling so much?

Blu-rays are "expensive" now because it's still a new medium. DVDs use to be the same price as current Blu-rays. But people don't seem to recall that despite being a true a few years ago.

Neutral

foobarred @ Jul 16th 2009 9:58AM

That's a great analogy. It's spot on.

Highest Ranked

Richard @ Jul 14th 2009 4:45PM

the HD cable is more rip off, most program is not even true hd, many are streach to fit the whole screen, history hd is totaly joke in sound, it support still lame old 2.0 sound. Yet it cost more.

Highest Ranked

James @ Jul 14th 2009 5:22PM

HD Cable is currently the biggest racket in the country. Nickel and diming you customers to death for every little thing, and providing subpar content at the same time.

If you can't guess, I currently am in the state of hating Comcast with a passion.

Neutral

wet3 @ Jul 14th 2009 10:16PM

What do you guys pay for HD?! I have Cox and the only difference between digital and HD is $2 more a month for a different box. And there's no difference between sd and hd dvrs.

Highly Ranked

Eric @ Jul 14th 2009 5:00PM

The dope doesn't know what he's talking about.

Is he even aware of the threatened bandwidth caps? They make streaming a zero-sum option. The better the quality, the more you're going to be paying.

Blu-ray is going to be good for years and years. But he is right they can co-exist. I don't mind watching stuff that was shot on low-quality stuff in the past (8mm or 16mm or less than HD video) via Netflix. But Netflix can't even get the ratio of the video right. It's usually squeezed very badly horizontally. It stinks compared to Blu-ray.

There is zero chance he's right, even if on first glance some of his arguments seem to have some merit.

Neutral

what @ Jul 14th 2009 5:10PM

What? Are you kidding me...?

Highly Ranked

Brent @ Jul 14th 2009 5:17PM

I've never felt ripped off buying anything on blu-ray, and I'm now approaching 40 blu-ray movies. Right now the premium looks steep to some, but prices are coming down and will continue to do so. We just saw the Magnavox player go on sale for $100 at Walmart. Usually when one falls like that, it's not long before the rest start to follow. $20 and under movies are becoming more common at places like Amazon and Walmart, sometimes even on new releases. It's still way too early to determine how popular blu-ray will eventually become. Let a few more people pick up their HDTVs and see a few more players break the $100 barrier, then we'll see what happens.

Highly Ranked

bry2an @ Jul 14th 2009 5:23PM

Your title is very baiting. Yeah your right another story with many holes. Good job calling them out. I think you could make a weekly column on on media attacking Blu-ray with weak arguments.

Highest Ranked

cell989 @ Jul 14th 2009 5:38PM

Why is it that everyone seems to ignore another key feature in BluRays that I have yet to see on DL media--------- multiple language tracks and DTS MS at 7.1. Whats the point of getting 1080p if you cant hear Sh** and you are left with no subtitles and no audio options. What about directors commentary, deleted scenes, BluRay live, trailers, alternate endings??? where does all of these fit??

Im tired of people mentioning 1080p as the only feature to keep in mind when purchasing a movie. its like buying a car with no wheels.

Neutral

Bozster @ Jul 14th 2009 11:58PM

Because even though it might be relevant to you or me.. 99% of people don't give a crap about 7.1 sound and DTS-MA.. 5.1 Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus works fine and they'll never hear the difference between that and DTS-MA 7.1 (not that you even have that many 7.1 movies on the market for Blu-ray to begin with). 7.1 is also really a waste of money today anyways and by the time you actually have enough interest and distinguishable difference enough to care, I'm pretty sure digital downloads will outpace Blu-ray in quality and offer 7.1 audio and 4k HD.

What people don't seem to talk about and firmly entranched in today in order to justify their arguments for Blu-ray is that Streaming and DIgital Downloads are much more open and flexible in the long run for consumer. As technology improves there will be no need to repurchase your discs or players because the infrastructure is already there. So the switch from 1080p to 4k HD would be pretty much painless considering you have a TV that supports it.

Blu-ray doesn't have that capability. You want to get 4k Blu-ray in the future, you have to repurchase everything.

What people don't seem to get, optical media is on it's way out because of it's inability to change and improve. I'ts a standard that offers best quality now but we don't want to wait 15 years to get something better because studios and BDA and others have to justify their investment into Blu-ray.

Digital Downloads/Streaming/Online services infrastructure is different. It allows innovation without real pain for consumer to restart the cycle on their backs every decade or so by repurchasing things and replicators repurchasing machines and so on. Or so it should be.

One good example is upgrade your iTunes library thing with Apple. When you upgrade to DRM free songs you actually get a much higher quality songs for minimal premium. Or even for games Steam system works as it gets read of users updating their games and messing around with patches, it does it for them automatically as long as you are connected. This is the power of digital distribution.

Flexibility and expandability. While the quality might not be at Blu-ray level today, doesn't mean it won't outdo it in the next couple of years and since I personally strongly believe that ownership of content such as owning discs will go away and more and more movies will be actually rented through some kind subscription based services you pay monthly (this is one of the reasons for DVD decline as well and it won't be any different with Blu-ray - it's already out that 80% of Blu-ray owners rent more then they purchase), it's not hard to engage common sense and see where it's going.

And let's not forget instant availability. As we already witness online distribution offers immediate availability of TV shows and other things you might've missed. This is another huge convenience for consumers who like their shows and movies because they don't have to wait months sometimes to get their last season of certain shows on Blu-ray or DVD.

Another thing is quality. I usually rent movies on Vudu or watch them on Netflix where HD is available and I do it on a 106" screen. It is true that I do watch blockbusters and flicks that are great on Blu-ray to get the maximum quality but I have a setup that allows me to experience it. When I watched a few comedies through Vudu this past weekend I honestly couldn't see the difference from HDX and Blu-ray on my projector. Even TV shows I get from Amazon look better and better in HD, so it's not a matter or if, but when it will be on par or exceed Blu-ray.

Neutral

Leathersoup @ Jul 14th 2009 5:45PM

I'm not willing to pay $36 for a movie on Blu-ray, no matter how good it is. I'll be waiting for every move to hit the

Highest Ranked

Nate @ Jul 14th 2009 6:03PM

Find me a single-movie blu-ray on amazon for $36

Highly Ranked

hiryu @ Jul 14th 2009 6:38PM

Streaming services are cool - but only in America atm.
Microsoft haven't told that they 1080p preview at E3 was running of publisher connection (which means it's about 100 Mega bits). Normal consumers have up to 10 Mbits so they experience might be different that the one showed at e3.

Like I said on the beggining - streaming vids are awesome but only for US - I live in poland and I just know that our net infrastrucutre is to weak to handle massive 1080p streams. Most countries will have the same problem.

Also I like to have "touchable" box of my movie - what's the purpose of paying for streamed movie if I can download rip from net for free ? That's why people like me (the digital generation) still buys movies on discs. We want to watch additional content which is removed from DVD/BRrips found on the net ;)

And the thing mentioned before - what about additional content ? Cut scenes, commentary etc ? If I pay for movie I want all the stuff I justed to get. "Old" dvd gives option to watch alternative endind and superb streaming system is unable to do it ?;)

Highest Ranked

Greg @ Jul 14th 2009 6:18PM

Ripping me off ? How ?

By allowing me to buy a HD format with the best currently available video and audio quality?
By allowing me to buy among dozens of CE makers, including players with online capabilieties for the best of both worlds?
By allowing me to chose among the largest library of HD content available, without forcing me to subscribe to a particular service?

I have Netflix, and the online portion may be convenient from time to time, but neither the quality or choice are even close to what BR is offering. Which is why the combination of both mail rental + online is best, but I watch far more BR discs than online.
Once you get used to 1080p in full quality and quality audio...

Highest Ranked

Andy Sullivan @ Jul 14th 2009 8:23PM

I guess "Rip Off" is in the eye of the beholder. I like my Blu-ray experience but only for special movies that give me some bang for my buck. Most do not. All Blu-rays are not created equal so you have to be careful you get the benefits you are expecting. Sometimes you don't. It's also not a "rip off" if you can afford the equipment and the movies. I do not see Blu-ray as the next leap forward in movie reproduction. A nice little baby jump is all. But nice for sure.

Neutral

InnocentEd @ Jul 14th 2009 7:22PM

Most arguments against Blu-ray are fairly short sited. They fail to address obvious holes in the download era for HD Video. The most glaring being that the bandwidth to handle such data transactions not only is expensive but doesn't even exist yet on any kind of usable scale.

Blu-ray is has dropped so dramatically in price (90% since introduction) that the people holding on to their pure hate for anything Sony just seem foolish at this point. I can find any Blu-ray movie I want for $20 or less....which is exactly what I was paying for DVDs before Blu-ray was released. It is even on par with some DVD costs NOW.

etc etc etc, the list goes on. I can tell you right now while its not the majority yet there are a hell of a lot less people who know about digitally streaming video than know about Blu-ray

Neutral

Reynaldo Lay @ Jul 15th 2009 8:17AM

So few people actually see a difference between DVD quality & broadcast 1080i vs. Bluray, particularly on smaller televisions. Its hard for some folks to justify the extra money for the media and equipment when "acceptable" quality is already there.

Neutral

brehmm @ Jul 14th 2009 8:02PM

Everything we have available to us now has it's place, and they all have some level of trade-off involved. Blu-Ray, IMO has the least amount of trade-offs, especially when you compare it to streaming video. At my house, we buy 'blockbusters' and movies we feel would benefit from 1080p/7.1 on Blu-Ray. We buy movies that we can appreciate watching more than once without 1080p on DVD. Everything else we stream. Amazon's 720p HD streaming look phenominal through a Roku box on a 40" Bravia. My 3Mb/s DSL can handle it without a single hiccup, too. Things like new TV shows and movies we wouldn't watch more than once come from Amazon. We use Netflix for the "wow, we're bored ... let's see what's on Netflix", being the lowest quality format, again IMO.

Basically, I just don't see why people have any reason to complain. They have a number of choices right now to satisfy their video entertainment needs. Think back ... well, basically a couple years ago. You had DVD and 480i TV to choose from. Better?

Neutral

Multi-format-mayhem @ Jul 14th 2009 8:21PM

"14 billion videos downloaded last year"
http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/07/07/85-percent-of-the-14-billion-videos-downloaded-last-year-were-il/

.....say that when the commercial sector finally get their heads out of their a$$es and get real & serious about this then physical media is going to be confined to the relatively small anal minority who insist on collecting for the sake of collecting.

(and that's 14 billion with last years infrastructure, and as every year rolls by that just keeps getting better and better for those of us in the urban centres = where most are)

Neutral

bill @ Jul 15th 2009 11:48PM

You are blind as a bat. 14 billion and 85% illegal. You really think that the studios are going to give up making money? You sir are the one with your head up your own a$$. I like how BD has gone from being dead, to being a thing that collectors will keep alive. You are a joke and no one takes you seriously!

Neutral

Multi-format-mayhem @ Jul 16th 2009 7:19AM

Bill

As per the 'joke' here is those who refuse to see the obvious and who work so hard to contrive to miss the point entirely.

From pifflingly tiny real overall sales numbers to this instance of digital distribution already going on on a vast scale
(the 'legality' - interesting term to use for a mere breach of copyright, however insane the USA is over this at the moment it's still not a criminal matter in almost the entire rest of the sane world - is hardly the relevant factor here).

You "sir" are typical of the Blu-ray fanclub here, incapable of respecting a different POV and always guaranteed to be quick to resort to feeble and rather pathetic personal abuse.

(and naturally the site staff invariably do nothing about it - except to effectively side with those hurling abuse & occasionally threaten to ban those who hold that different POV for coming in and saying so.
.......apparently it's a real crime to repeat a POV that's realistic but unwelcome however anyone can come in repeatedly and chant they fanboy supportive BS - ignoring even the periodic dose of reality stories this site posts - to make absurd speculative fanboy comments as much as they like)

3yrs+ in and the excuses are wearing very very thin.
Nevermind you can always vote this down if it the truth is so painful to read.
Shame you just can't make those awkward facts go away tho, huh?

Highly Ranked

LarryL @ Jul 14th 2009 9:21PM

Blu-Ray isn't a rip-off to the consumer at all aside from being a little expansive for brand new popular releases. The prices have come down a bit, but not enough. New releases should be $25 tops. Alot of great older stuff is under $15, so that's good, but $30 is too much for a movie, when you can get the DVD for under $20 and upscale it which looks almost as nice.The only thing that really IS a rip-off with Blu-Ray, is just that the companies burning the discs aren't taking advantage of the extra space on the disc. A 2 disc DVD special Edition should be on one Blu-Ray, and there's no reason they can't. It makes no sense that they are doing that. Not only is it not letting us take advantage of not having to switch discs, but it's also wasting money on the production level. Whole seasons of shows could fit on one Blu-Ray disc, 2 tops. But they will end up putting them on the same amount of discs as DVD versions and have justification for jacking up the price in the proccess. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE DISC SPACE, I want my shows on as few discs as possible. I'm VERY annoyed my UFC Best of 2008 BD is on 2 discs. There's no reason for it. I want to hit Play All and watch everything without switching discs.....which is the MAJOR advantage of Blu-Ray.

Low Ranked

justin M @ Jul 14th 2009 9:32PM

My review of kung fu movies on blu-ray prove blu-ray is worth it when no compression is involved and an old film is brought to life check it out you know im right: www.martialartsonbluray.blogspot.com

Neutral

Eric @ Jul 14th 2009 11:23PM

Despite paying Time Warner $50 each month for Roadrunner, I can still barely stream a YouTube video without it stopping (and then not loading the rest of the video) 1/3 of the way through it.

How am I supposed to stream 30GB worth of data? In the time it would take, I could write and film my own movie.

Neutral

gerrrg @ Jul 15th 2009 1:13AM

Blu Ray isn't ripping off consumers; you do get what you pay for, but as we can see from the digital music department, high quality isn't what the customer is concerned about most.

Cost comes first.
Convenience second.
Quality third.

Neutral

justin M @ Jul 18th 2009 5:44PM

@ Eric i work there and you may have Signal issues, call them they can fix it, trust me, I have TW and i can stream netflix in seconds!

Checkout Reviews of: http://martialartsonbluray.blogspot.com/

Neutral

justin M @ Jul 15th 2009 1:20AM

@ Eric i work there and you may have Signal issues, call them they can fix it, trust me, I have TW and i can stream netflix in seconds!

Checkout Reviews at: http://martialartsonbluray.blogspot.com/

Highly Ranked

Joebnsd @ Jul 15th 2009 2:01AM

I personally love Blu-Ray and all that it offers. The Picture and Sound quality is amazing and as far as I am concerned the only rip-off may be the MSRP of the disc. However with that said I never buy a movie at full retail. May take a couple of weeks or so but I can usually find a deal for around $20 on a new release by shopping at Best Buy or Fry’s and even better prices at Wal-Mart online.

My newest option is to grab a previously viewed copy at my local Block Buster store where they have a 2 for $25 deal. Yea I just said that... love me some BB over Netflix any day. I have a $20 unlimited online and in store account with free game rentals each month that I would not trade FTW =P

I don't think that digital downloads will replace physical media; just broaden the options available to the consumer. I will say however that I have paid $30+ for a Blu-Ray Combo pack from Disney for the kids as it includes a Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Copy. I really wish that all studios would offer this as an option so you can have the BR for at home, The DVD for the entertainment center in my Suburban + The kids room and the digital copy is great for my iPhone or Laptop!

Just my 2 cents

Highly Ranked

c @ Jul 15th 2009 4:39AM

I think this article forgot to mention a few important points and it is somewhat misleading: Bitrate and bandwidth. So what if the resolution of streaming medium is advertised as 1080p?? The current streaming medium all heavily compresses HD signals, using less bitrate than DVDs. You just get 2 million fuzzy and poor looking dots in a 1080p picture. Anyone who has a large screen TV and can directly compare Bluray and compressed cable/satellite or streaming medium can tell you the huge difference between the picture qualities of the same 1080p scenes of the same movies processed with different bitrates. And today's streaming bandwidth is just not high enough to get uncompressed 1080p streamed in real time and downloaded versions just takes hours....

Neutral

Nossy @ Jul 15th 2009 9:36AM

LOL. So I bought my 7.1 system for crappy audio from DL serviecs? Pfft. Netflix streaming library, especially the HD library, is basically full of TV shows that you could probably already record. Can you stream Watchmen today in HD? Hell no.

Blu-ray is growing and one of the few things that is really holding it back is price of the players AND HDCP. Unless you buy your Blu-ray from Suncoast - which are insane $40 - Blurays usually go for $25 or less. That's kind of the same price as a special edition/limited edition of a DVD copy.

Ripoffs are ONDEMAND movies that have a gazzillion censor and bleeps.

Neutral

LongshotX @ Jul 15th 2009 10:39AM

How many BR players are available for under $150?

Ok if your answer is less than 2 then that is your problem.

Neutral

Andy Sullivan @ Jul 15th 2009 12:30PM

It's hard to say how many are available for under $150 because so many are on sale at any given time. When I see the Panasonic BD-60 for $199, which is very very highly regarded by several professional reviewers, I can't see buying anything else. There are generally no actual reviews on these under $150 players and as we all know, you don't always get what you pay for, sometimes you get less.

Neutral

DrXym @ Jul 15th 2009 1:34PM

Players were $200 last year, $500+ the year before. Fact is that BD players are getting much, much cheaper. I've only seen a few $100 deals this year but you can bet your boots there will be plenty more, especially leading up to Christmas. Next year nobody will be batting an eyelid that there are sub $100 players.

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