PS3 has lost to Wii and Xbox360 (discuss)

[Will]

I think claiming upscalers are polishing a turd, and that most people couldn't tell the difference, are two extremes which are both wrong.


But that pretty much sums up this thread.

 

[old.user4556]

Most regular people never see a difference, its not a passing comment its a fact. Thats why blu-ray hasnt taken off at all, not like the great VHS to DVD change over

BD hasn't taken off for multiple reasons that I can think of off the top of my head:

1) The lengthy format war fuck around.
2) The expense of the discs and the lack of titles.
3) Expensive hardware (BD players were £1000 at first for a good one).
4) The need for a full HD TV
5) Downloadable content

It's got nothing to do with people not seeing a difference.

Once there are a lot more titles available, BD will start to see the jump. HMV's blu-ray section has already gone from one "stall" to a whole block in my local joint. It's only since the format war died a death that we've started to see "dual" releases, by that I mean simultaneous release of BD and DVD of films.

Give that another 12-18 months and BD will be inevitable. Throw in the fact that players are FINALLY now cheap as chips (Sony's brilliant 350 at £155 inc vat, BT Shop - Sony - BDP-S350 Blu-ray DVD Player (BDPS350B.CEK)). It's only the last month or so players are now so cheap; they're a farcry from the £1000 at launch.

All this said, I still think downloadable content will be the future (only with the advent of regular 50+ Mbits services).

 

[Sparx]

whether most people can even see the difference between a high-definition DVD image and a standard definition one.

ABI’s principal analyst, Steve Wilson, says that the answer for many, is no.

Blu-ray: Do Consumers Care? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

There are so many articles on this subject its not even worth arguing about with fanbois who refuse to hear anything different

 

[nath]

Well there's more scientific basis for the polishing a turd statement. Sure, DVD quality isn't turdesque, but there's really very little you can do to improve the definition of an existing image - it's all pretty superficial. To be honest though, the quality of HD content does depend on the production values/how it was filmed etc. The imax segments of the HD release of The Dark Knight were absolutely astonishing.

With standard definition DVD players often including technology that can “upconvert” regular DVDs to near-HD quality

That's such a bullshit statement I'm forced to question the accuracy of the rest of the article.

 

[Sparx]

All this said, I still think downloadable content will be the future (only with the advent of regular 50+ Mbits services).

I agree 100%

 

[old.user4556]

I think claiming upscalers are polishing a turd, and that most people couldn't tell the difference, are two extremes which are both wrong.

It's not Will, all modern LCD TVs have scalers built into them (otherwise the picture would be a small patch in the middle of the screen), some of them have better scalers than cheap-ass upscaling DVD players and do a better job anyway so these "upscalers" are Emperor's New Clothes if people are claiming they make a big difference over a normal DVD player.

Themescene HD3000 Video Scaler Processor

^ something like that will do the job, but look at the price; and I'm sure Tom will tell you that's cheap ass compared to professional kit.

 

[Sparx]

Will be all about OLED screens too

Samsung: "Blu-ray has 5 years left"

 

[old.user4556]

That article is about as credible as OJ Simpsons excuses:

Citing online rental sites like LoveFilm's adoption of Blu-ray titles, the move to offer cheaper players and a now clear path to adoption following the Blu-ray HD DVD battle, Griffith says the format will be a winner, although not for long.

Instead Samsung is putting its faith in its OLED technology.

Are they suggesting that OLED is going to supercede BD? BD being a storage format for HD movies, OLED being a display technology and thus nothing to do with a next gen BD trumping tech?

 

[Sparx]

my mistake i wasnt talking about the part of BD dying. I was more talking about OLED being the new display units

Hence why i said about OLED too

 

[old.user4556]

I see, yes LCDs days are now numbered, but I suppose that's technology for you.

I skipped LCD altogether in favour of front projection.

 

[Sparx]

i was using a projector for ages but ended up back on my HDTV when the novelty wore off

 

[old.user4556]

Depends on what you're using it for, it can get annoying closing the blinds etc to flick the TV on, I do kinda miss that although it's more my missus that moans about that (she can buy her own fucking TV, it's my flat) more than I find it a pain.

 

[Sparx]

its hard playing FPS games on cause you cant see the whole screen at the same time

 

[nath]

I've had my projector for 2 years now and I still feel all giddy when I play games/watch movies on it. Not to mention 106" HD porn.

 

[ST^]

The Dark Knight blu-ray sold around 20-30% of the total sales. So at a minimum, it sold 1/4 of what the DVD version did.

So yeah, blu-ray is definitely dead in the water... lol

 

[Ch3tan]

Sparx, no offense but you and your mates do not equate to the entire market. Everyone I know has a TV over 37", and all my mates have blu ray players and HD-tv's.

 

[Sparx]

I work for a bus company, the people i deal with are generally people who aren't the people who must have the best technology all the time, i also work in IT i like to have all the technology myself, so i hear it from alot more places than just one or two mates.

 

[Lethul]

On a 19" you will barely notice any difference. I dont know anyone who has a TV larger that 36". And testing using my upscaler and HD DVD (used Firefly i have it in HD DVD and reg DVD) and no-one could tell any difference at all

Are you serious here or just trolling?

 

[Sparx]

Have to say tho Firefly and Serenity are brilliant in HD

 

[MYstIC G]

I have my original 360, never had any problems.

 

[Raven]

He is right though, not EVERYONE has a nice big HD TV, even fewer have blue ray players.

Taking one wanky disposable film like the latest batman isn't a good idea, you should find total DVD sales vs total blueray sales.

 

[ST^]

He is right though, not EVERYONE has a nice big HD TV, even fewer have blue ray players.

Taking one wanky disposable film like the latest batman isn't a good idea, you should find total DVD sales vs total blueray sales.

I shouldn't. Obviously with it being a new format, newer releases are far more relevant than anything else.

Most big new releases are doing roughly 10% blu-ray in the UK.

 

[Bodhi]

DVD took a while to start replacing VHS remember.

 

[nath]

Heh, all this reminds me that you showed me the first DVD I ever saw, Bods. The Matrix at I2... it made me very horny.

 

[Yaka]

DVD took a while to start replacing VHS remember.

the first R2 dvds were shit and didnt have DTS oR AC3. and very few were anamorphic.
think armageddon and jerry maguire were the first dvds to turn things around. back then alot of peeps were paying £30-350 for R1 dvds. how play.com and movietyme came to be so popular

 

[nath]

Remember double sided discs? My copy of Face-Off asked me to flip the disc half way through the film. :\

 

[Yaka]

yes flippers were bad, but then before dvds i had laser discs which cost a shit load came across more than one platter flippers wernt a total pain for me but but at least some companies replaced em with double layered ones as in the case of armageddon

 

[Hawkwind]

Judging by my experience of Panasonic goods I'm guessing Panny ship them to Sony then Sony put them together properly. I don't have 1 bit of Panasonic equipment that still works as it should - hence me stopping buying them. I'll stick to Samsung and Sony thanks.

Anyway on topic I don't think PS3 has failed at all. It's got an excellent installed user base and it still has plenty of years life left in it. Let's judge PS3 when PS4 is out shall we?

I don't buy Panasonic either. I used to in Europe when I got 50% off but not whilst living here in ME Region. Both my large TV LCD's are Samsung and so are both my 22" computer CRT's. In fact the only Panasonic items I have are a Microwave and work toughbook I'm no Panasonic fanboi

Technics is decent stuff along Onkyo and Nachamichi (all MEI brands) but the home Panasonic brand stuff is just cheap end of the market. They do make decent extra large LCD's and Plasmas that win a lot of awards but that's about it.

 

[DaGaffer]

Panasonic nailed their colours to Plasma rather than LCD, but the Viera TVs are actually very good (nice colour and good viewing angles, and stylish screens). I still think the best picture I've seen on an HD TV was my old Philips though (before my dumbass brother broke it), that Ambilight feature really makes the picture stand out more.

As for screen size, I think anyone looking at HD content on anything less than a 36" screen and thinking its appreciably different is deluding themselves. Certainly at normal TV watching distances (and my laser-enhanced eyes are fucking awesome, so its not because I'm a blind old-fart).

 

[soze]

The format war stopped a lot of shops stocking blu rays which meant no price wars for the places that did stock them. Now Tesco ect have started stocking Blu Ray you can see the prices going down last year it was £20 for a new film now you can get £15 from some places maybe next year a player will be £150 and films will be £10.