The reason why I am not investing in Blu-ray is simple. Like DVDs, Blu-ray is another temptation in getting the buyer to invest in and re-purchase films that they already owned in a previous format. It worked for CD when buyers replaced their existing vinyl records and cassette tapes. I am not too sure about Blu-ray, because it seems more like a "niche market for videophiles" like the way laserdisc was to VHS back in the 1980's.
It is not only the product, but the people's emotional compulsion in buying, collecting, pack ratting, and snorting that SONY is exploiting in the consumers, because people want newer, better, brighter, and shinier things. However, on that psychological marketing front, Sony and the movie studios failed miserably because the majority of consumers are asking back "So, what is in it for
me?" and voting with their wallets
firmly shut because Blu-ray looks like a coat of spiffy new paint sprayed onto a pre-existing car rather than "Whoa...let's run over there and check out that brand new model!" that you awe and drool over at auto shows.
The thing is that with Blu-ray, it is not only the player that a new adopter will be investing in but also the already built-in temptation to go back and "quadruple dip" on titles such as:
20 James Bond films on VHS ----> barebones DVD ----> special edition DVD ----> ultimate edition DVD ----> Blu-ray discs
No, I am not going to fall prey to that temptation again when studios have already made me "re-dip" on countless titles like the Star Trek feature films on DVD, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, the James Bond 007 collection, Robotech (remastered), Casablanca, the Rambo films, the Rocky films, Transformers (both the 1986 and 2007 versions), etc.
Blu-ray is another "re-dip," and I myself personally have a certain bar for quality that says it is good enough and I do not need anymore, such as upgrading
Goldfinger from the standard definition to the cleaned up and remastered Ultimate Edition. Sure, Blu-ray's picture quality is
even superior than that, but an initial $700 investment in purchasing a new Blu-ray player, hook ups, 4 film titles, and sales tax isn't worth "the built-in human temptation" to upgrade your Star Trek, LOTR, James Bond, Disney PIXAR, and anime in your personal collection.
I am going to skip this generation of Blu-ray which to me is no more of a cosmetic upgrade than "what DVD should be" rather than "The Next Big Thing!" (It ain't...). Well, if Blu-ray is supposed to be what DVD should be then replace all existing DVD players in the market with Blu-ray players and bring down those Blu-ray disc prices down to DVD levels
without the sales promotions. But, Sony won't do that, because they want to sell Blu-ray as a higher premium product at a price point that is
above that of DVDs to the average consumer, like caviar to hamburgers.
Better luck next time the movie studios and Sony. Give us something that is the equivalent to the leap from VHS to DVD in the next 5-10 years such as holographic projectors that you can watch in the middle of your living room -- literally an EMH like holographic 3-D projection in the middle of the living room rather than something that has to be projected from a screen with physical media or projected onto a wall like a film projector, then I will
consider it.
They are not kidding when the industry is saying that Blu-ray will be supplanted by something else in the next 5 years. If it is
that good, then I am willing to invest in the big bucks for The Next Big Thing in the coming years and sit out on Blu-ray. Blu-ray is to DVD is what Super VHS would have been to VHS, which isn't much when all is said and done.
I want to see a multimedia product that will displace DVD in the coming future like the way 1999's
The Matrix displaced 1998's
Star Trek: Insurrection. VHS to DVD was like viewing and comparing the special effects of
The Terminator (1984) with that of the special effects of
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991); DVD to Blu-ray, on the otherhand, is like viewing and comparing the special effects of
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) with that of the special effects of
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003); to go from DVD/Blu-ray (Relatively speaking, not much of a visual difference.) to The Next Big Thing, it really needs to go from
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) to
Avatar (2009).
No way I am going to fall into the temptation of upgrading my Star Treks, James Bonds, PIXAR films, etc. for thousands of dollars more on Blu-ray when pundits will be laughing about it in the years to come like the way people discuss 8-track over that of cassette tape.
Movie studios, LG, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, etc. give us the next best thing that will literally knock our socks off, rather than peddling this Blu-ray marketing gimmick as "What DVD
could do better (not by much...) and
should be (Says who? Sony? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
)" to retail consumers who
never asked for this product in the consumer marketplace in the first place.
I've played blu-ray rips in mkv format at 720p, and while they may not be blu-ray quality, they're on another level from upscaled SD DVD, and far better than for my viewing needs.
