BluRay

[Zren]

I would post in the advertisement thread, but it's bound to get deleted.

Anyways, I'm just wondering how many people hear what people think about BluRay, specifically for the PC. Will it ever become a common optical drive much like the DVD and CD drives that came before it ? Will the need for these drives ever truly come. Right now, the only software that I can see needing 25-50 Gb in size will either be games, operating systems (oh mother of pearl that's huge), and possibly database on disc and the like. Sure I can't glimpse into the future and know what's to come, but there are so many competing things like Flash Memory, cheap hard drives and the like that will become/are much cheaper.

Backup nowadays is either burning a CD/DVD, or dumping it onto a flash drive. Anything more that what is currently supported for flash memory (like 8Gb-16Gb), that is needed to backup like servers, databases and the like are usually dumped onto tapes or extra drives (like RAID). A hard drive (even a fancy external one), is much cheaper than a BluRay burner, even just a BD-ROM. Prices will go down, but isn't it mass production that will drive down those prices. The main people who will be purchasing the burners are those who want to rip movies, for their expensive and large TVs. Meaning they can already afford the high price (stereotypically).

So, do you think BluRay will ever gain a large PC user base? Are you already an adopter of this technology?
If I could, I'd add a poll asking what you already own a BluRay drive (PC, Burner, Movie Player, PS3...). So instead just put it in your post.

EDIT: Totally forgot. I own a BD-ROM drive on my laptop, it came pre-installed, haven't used it for BluRay once (though I did just buy a decent TV so there's like a 0.1% chance I'd buy it for that movie I love to death . . . or not).

[wtd]

[apomb]

are you saying Blu-ray Disc = a bag full of hurt wtd?

And my two cents on the subject: it took a while for DVDs to come into full-on mainstream also... however, you didnt need to buy a whole new TV just to watch a DVD. So i understand what you mean when you say people who are going to buy blu-ray burners are more likely to already have the TV and set-top box.

[jbking]

"HD DVD returns and kicks Blu-ray to the gutter" has an interesting take on what may happen involving BluRay. My guess is that on-line backups and cloud computing will be the big blockers on preventing BluRay from taking off in mainstream PCs though I think it will be common to see it as an option in higher-end models like if you customize an XPS from Dell that could have a BluRay drive. I have no BluRay player or the desire to get one. I wonder if BluRay coming out so soon after DVDs were common may also play a role in how it doesn't get wide adoption.

[andrew.]

The only Blu-Ray player I have is my PS3. Other than the games (which are burned on BD-ROMs) I don't use it.

[DtY]

Four blurays or 23 DVDs for my music backup...
I can see bluray being used for home backup in the future. I'd be, if Sony wasn't behind it.

[andrew.]

What's so bad about Sony owning Blu-Ray? It's not like they're stopping you from doing backing up your data.

[gianni]

jbking @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:28 am wrote:

My guess is that on-line backups and cloud computing will be the big blockers on preventing BluRay from taking off...

Cloud computing has nothing to do with BluRay.

DtY wrote:

Four blurays or 23 DVDs for my music backup...
I can see bluray being used for home backup in the future. I'd be, if Sony wasn't behind it.

Hard drives are currently very cheap, I would suggest an external drive over backups on optical media. I think an even better solution would be to use something like Amazon S3 for backups.

wtd wrote:

Bag of hurt for Apple.

In short: URRITE. Apple is disinterested (perhaps even opposed) to BD hitting the mainstream PC market, as it's interested and conquering (and doing a fine job thus far) the digital delivery market. I also believe it's the right direction.

[Insectoid]

Quote:

Apple is disinterested (perhaps even opposed) to BD hitting the mainstream PC market, as it's interested and conquering (and doing a fine job thus far) the digital delivery market. I also believe it's the right direction.

I'd love to have a blu-ray player in my macbook to go with the high-def screen built into it.

[gianni]

insectoid @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:05 pm wrote:

Quote:

Apple is disinterested (perhaps even opposed) to BD hitting the mainstream PC market, as it's interested and conquering (and doing a fine job thus far) the digital delivery market. I also believe it's the right direction.

I'd love to have a blu-ray player in my macbook to go with the high-def screen built into it.

Because your high-def movies are on BD, right? If all the same movies are just as readily available in digital format at equal or greater quality, BD quickly becomes irrelevant. Consumers would then have much more choice and freedom. They wouldn't be locked into a specific technology (BD), they wouldn't need any special hardware (BD player), they could convert the media (hell, they could burn it to BD if they want), and they could choose on which device they'd like to view the media (e.g.: personal media player, TV, computer, etc...).

[rdrake]

gianni @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:20 pm wrote:

Consumers would then have much more choice and freedom. They wouldn't be locked into a specific technology (BD), they wouldn't need any special hardware (BD player), they could convert the media (hell, they could burn it to BD if they want), and they could choose on which device they'd like to view the media (e.g.: personal media player, TV, computer, etc...).

Are you talking about the same Sony that everybody else is? Doesn't sound like it.

What is this "fair use" and "not being locked into a specific technology" of which you speak?

[gianni]

rdrake @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:05 pm wrote:

Are you talking about the same Sony that everybody else is? Doesn't sound like it.

I didn't mention Sony.

rdrake @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:05 pm wrote:

What is this "fair use" and "not being locked into a specific technology" of which you speak?

We're already there with music. I think videos will follow suit eventually.

[Insectoid]

Indeed, I could put 15gb movies on my laptop hard drive (or even my external) but then I would have to limit the space I use for other things. I'd love to have movies on flash drives & the like, it just hasn't happened yet.

[saltpro15]

insectoid, are you looking for something like this?. For 99 bucks, 32 GB and a waterproof/drop proof case isn't too bad

EDIT:

this one is cheaper, and more practical

[jbking]

gianni @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:26 pm wrote:

jbking @ Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:28 am wrote:

My guess is that on-line backups and cloud computing will be the big blockers on preventing BluRay from taking off...

Cloud computing has nothing to do with BluRay.

DtY wrote:

Four blurays or 23 DVDs for my music backup...
I can see bluray being used for home backup in the future. I'd be, if Sony wasn't behind it.

Hard drives are currently very cheap, I would suggest an external drive over backups on optical media. I think an even better solution would be to use something like Amazon S3 for backups.

I'm somewhat left head-scratching here as isn't Amazon S3, an example of cloud computing? You mentioning it there kind of makes me think there is some connection between BluRay and on-line storage which is an example of cloud computing, thus creating an association or can you disprove that somehow?

I'm just wanting clarity on how the quoted statements are correct and don't contradict each other.