Recent Comments:
Ten predictions for the HD realm in 2009 {Engadget HD}
Jan 2nd 2009 11:25AM Ooops.
That sentence should of course have read -
"When did you last see all the western Govs start to throw HUNDREDs of billions of $ at a sudden problem?"
Not tens of billions of $.
Ten predictions for the HD realm in 2009 {Engadget HD}
Jan 2nd 2009 8:23AM Ben
Unless you're blind and deaf you have to be trying very hard not to hear the economic forecasts of what is about to happen - forecasts being made all over the westernised world, I might add.
Did it just pass you by all the talk of how the coming slump/recession hasn't even got going yet?
(as if what we have seen so far is 'mild'!?)
Did you miss the fact that the crash of 1929 took until 1933 until the public saw the worst effects?
I can understand the barely educated game console fanboy college kids 'not knowing their a$$ from their elbow' on this stuff but I thought you were a little older & wiser than that.
If you think watching Govs all around the globe pushing billions at aspects of this problem isn't cause for some good old honest alarm & "pessimism" then I don't know what is.
When did you last see all the western Govs start to throw tends of billions of $ at a sudden problem?
The fanboys can play games hiding behind HD DVD if they like but that's just avoiding the point.
Ten predictions for the HD realm in 2009 {Engadget HD}
Jan 1st 2009 3:13PM I didn't get that one either, why would I give up my HTPC or people (assuming they had an interest in one) prefer not to get one and go for any of the Blu-ray stand-alones on the market (or soon to appear)?
My HTPC is one of the most versatile media devices in the house - way more capable than any mere Blu-ray stand-alone - and it's fully upgradeable in terms of hardware & softwares.
No Blu-ray stand-alone even comes vaguely close to that.
Weird.
Ten predictions for the HD realm in 2009 {Engadget HD}
Jan 1st 2009 3:07PM Jonsson
Stop trying to hide behind HD DVD.
Your problem is that you just can't bear it that your beloved format lost too.
The state of the economy guarantees it.
Where are these lies you want to claim I've told, huh?
The economy is tanking.
Set-top box sales are huge - way bigger than the small HD TV sales numbers and are indeed overcoming the lying PR campaign the high def fanboys in retail were depending upon.
Blu-ray is staying minority niche.
All true.
But it really sticks in your craw, eh?
LMAO
Ten predictions for the HD realm in 2009 {Engadget HD}
Jan 1st 2009 2:42PM How about these?
1) The global economy tanks with alarming severity from Q1 - Q3 of 2009
and stays flat on it's back for the rest of 2009 although by Q4 it looks like - if we are lucky -
we have seen the worst.
At the end of 2009 it is clear that this will be followed up by a horrible 2010, a year of almost no real growth and almost as bad.
2) Contrary to the hopes of the delusional college game console fanboys and flat-out plain fraudsters in the CE retailing industry, the vast bulk of US TV owners switching over to digital TV reception will do so with 'cheap-to-the-point-of-almost-being-free' set-top-boxes and are not conned into buying small HD TV sets in large numbers.
Small HD TV sets they neither really want, need nor can honestly 'see' much HD on anyways.
3) With unemployment up all over the developed world and consumer spending heavily down Blu-ray adoption continues to grow - but at such a slow rate everyone can see it missed the bus long long ago and sits as a small minority niche part of the market.
It can never become 'the next DVD' as it has failed utterly to gain even a marginally majority stake in the mass-market.
Probably (like the Samsung guy said) with about another 4 or 5 yrs left in it.
Happy new year!
On average consumers pay $10 more for Blu-ray Discs than DVD {Engadget HD}
Dec 31st 2008 7:56PM Ooops.
Of course that should have been
"a mature market compared to an early adopters market....starting to get desperate".
No surprises that they start trying to shift Blu-ray discs at a knock-down price increasingly.
On average consumers pay $10 more for Blu-ray Discs than DVD {Engadget HD}
Dec 31st 2008 7:51PM A mature market compared to an early adopters market.
Is anyone supposed to be surprised by this?
It's just another reason why Blu-ray is staying small minority niche.
(along with 'the' big one - as reported recently here on EngadetHD - of really poor HD TV market penetration - running between 24% - 34% in the USA alone)
What Blu-ray needs to do in 2009 in order to gain ground {Engadget HD}
Dec 31st 2008 2:23PM **"Ben @ Dec 30th 2008 12:35PM
If Hollywood believed customers would buy DVDs forever then Blu-ray would've never been invented"
Oh come on now Ben, get real.
The CE corps invented Blu-ray (and HD DVD for that matter) because they know that the idea of a perfect 'free market' is a fantasy.
Sometimes the market gets led.
The problem the Blu-ray support has is that Blu-rtay comes at an unfortunate time, delayed by their own dumb war with the DVD Forum they face not only 'good enough' (for the mass-market) upscaled DVD but a world economy about to dive deep into the sh!tter.
**"E Payne @ Dec 31st 2008 8:11AM
BR was made so people would stop downloading copies from the net!! As of right not you cant copy BR!! Thats why it one the war!! HD DVD were easy to copy!!"
Wrong.
It's true that those backing Blu-ray lied to the movie business about how Blu-ray was so much more secure than HD DVD an that that may well have been a factor in the 'war'.
Here is the truth.
Right now, today, every single Blu-ray movie released to date is available on the net as a downloadable stright copy & encoded rip.
The idea that Blu-ray was more secure was a laughable load.
What Blu-ray needs to do in 2009 in order to gain ground {Engadget HD}
Dec 30th 2008 8:12PM EngadgetHD had the numbers for US HD TV ownership here recently.
One report said 34% and Nielson said 24% IIRC.
It's nothing like the 40% number you guys are stretching to
What Blu-ray needs to do in 2009 in order to gain ground {Engadget HD}
Dec 30th 2008 8:06PM "mntwister @ Dec 30th 2008 4:42PM
Doug that is very incorrect in my opinion, you do not need a ten thousand dollar stereo system to hear the difference between 320kbps dolby digital on dvd and true lossless on blu-ray. "
Who said anything about $10,000?
$5,000 is much more like it.
LMAO
I'd wager a majority of the PS3 fanboy gang haven't even got the receiver & speaker package to do 320kbps Dolby Digital justice.....and certainly not 1500kbps DTS or Dolby Digital Plus.
If you speakers are of insufficient quality so that they can't even produce and differentiate properly between a decent range of various frequencies then no matter how much you want to believe & fool yourself you are not going to be getting the benefit of lossless audio.
No matter how badly you want to delude yourself to the contrary.
Sadly that is the truth about so much of this 'debate'.
There are way too many people without the necessary high-end equipment (receiver & speakers) pretending they can hear all the difference in the world on a lossless audio track -
usually when their laughably low-end ragedy-a$$ed garbage cheap $400 Sony lights up a little sign and suddenly sounds 'a little bit louder'.
Very funny stuff though.
Saps made to be milked by the marketing dept & ad men.
They'll be spouting BS about how you believe things can be 'future proof' next.
LMAO
