Opinion: 10 reasons why Blu-ray will become a success

Why Blu-Ray won't have the same success as DVD 1. Online streaming. Unlike the US, most countries have high speed, with many ISPs competing for customers. As storage and bandwidth increases, this becomes a viable option. Xbox360 with Netflix or Roku is a good start. 2. DVD is "good enough". When DVD came out, there were many improvements over VHS. Everyone had a TV and only needed a DVD player to enjoy those improvements. Blu-ray has a harder time since an HDTV is required and the quality improvement isn't as large a jump. 3. Competing technology. Only speculation, but a disruptive startup could begin a company that causes plastic discs to fail. 4 gig USB keys are $15, 500 gig hdd's are $50...and those aren't even bulk purchase prices. Kiosk's could allow you to "rent" a movie onto a specific USB key or purchase the movie online copy it to a hdd. Use your imagination, but there must be a better way than plastic discs now.

HAHHAHAHAHAHHA! Someone is trying to stir up some crap with this article !!!!!!!!

I'm not buying GlueRay ever. Why bother? If I want HD stuff Internet gives me all that I need in this regard.

"It’s the only format out there " HD format or just format? If you are just saying format, then you are wrong, ie DVD. "Support of all major companies" So does DVD. "It’s High Definition" Yes, but to even see a markable increase in clarity, you have to fork out some major cash for a decent HD set. "Prices will go down" Yes, but DVD is still cheaper. "Blu-ray movies can be copied" It is good that they can be. "Playstation 3 " Contrary to what you may believe, alot of consumers have no interest in playing games much less purchasing a PS3. "Blu-ray = more storage" One point I do agree on. "It’s available, right now " Upcoverting DVD players are more of interest to me because it means I don't have re-buy my movie library. "We are used to discs " Hey we were use to tapes back in the day until CDs came out. Maybe discs will see their end. "Everybody knows it" Not true. I guarantee I know 10 people right now who don't have a clue what Bluray is. They might of heard of it but hearing and knowing are two different things.

Wow I think some people are just mad that they can't afford it so they must put themselves under some delusion in order to make themselves not feel like crap for not having HDTV. "Yes, but to even see a markable increase in clarity, you have to fork out some major cash for a decent HD set. " Uh I can see it on a 20 in lcd computer monitor which cost me 300 bucks. There is a pretty large number of house holds with HD sets right now which can easily enjoy the increased clarity and better color quality. "Contrary to what you may believe, alot of consumers have no interest in playing games much less purchasing a PS3. " Uh tell that to the millions of people who own a PS3 and also keep buying (PS3 is typically number 2 in system sales per month behind the Wii and beating the 360) "Upcoverting DVD players are more of interest to me because it means I don't have re-buy my movie library." Blu Ray players do up-converts and doesn't kill your current collection. "Online streaming. Unlike the US, most countries have high speed, with many ISPs competing for customers. As storage and bandwidth increases, this becomes a viable option. Xbox360 with Netflix or Roku is a good start. " With bandwidth limitations becoming a norm downloading high def content becomes an issue when your only alloted 20-40gig's a month of bandwidth.

Left out the: "This is a paid advertisement"

Oh come on people, these are 100% valid points. It IS the only format out there. If anyone thinks the industry and manufacturers are going to jump on some other HD format anytime in the coming years needs to clean their crack pipe. DVD will go away, and thank the Gods. I am tired of hearin that DVD is good enough etc... It is not for me. I see artifacts and "graininess" in the best encoded DVDs. Anyone who thinks DVD is the "final" format and that there will not be a successful HD optical format that you can buy to own and collect is NAIVE. HD is the future, and even the present. Soon enough you will not be able to buy a TV that doesn't support HD.

Of course the companies will succeed. But the truth is that: 1. To write a Blu-Ray Disc in normal 1x speed u need a RAID Array Disc System. That means system complexity that most users don't want. That means more money for Hard Disks and more problems if someone of them fails. U can always NOT use such an Array having much stalls to Blu-Ray copy method or totally failure leading to Useless Unplayable Burned Discs. 2. Many of people making copies of their valuable data have noticed that many DVD discs after 1 year were unplayable or unplayable scratched or many files could not be read. DVDs are about 6.5 times more compressed than a CD. Even a bit of dust or a scratch could make the disc unplayable. The copied DVDs under a flurocent lamp showd their flows in human eye. U could see the copy blanks of similar points that had dust or scratches. And now we are talking about a disc of 25 Gigabytes. How many data I will lose if some little dust likes some spots of my Disc. I believe that we would have to make backups all time or trusting hard discs ONLY for storage. As much of people keeping backups of their favourite movies or music they should do the same or totally forget it. Buy 3 times the same movie to b sure. LOL !!!!

The number 1 reason Blue Ray will succeed is that Sony now owns many of the titles produced in Hollywood and they will control what format they distribute these titles on. They learned their lesson with Beta versus VHS. If you want a Sony title, you will buy the technology to watch it. Blue Ray will take over, no question this time.

"1. To write a Blu-Ray Disc in normal 1x speed u need a RAID Array Disc System. That means system complexity that most users don't want. That means more money for Hard Disks and more problems if someone of them fails. U can always NOT use such an Array having much stalls to Blu-Ray copy method or totally failure leading to Useless Unplayable Burned Discs." Uh What?????????? WRONG!!!!! If this was true then there wouldn't be 6x drives out there right now cause if you need a raid to support 1x you must need a 50 drive monster to handle 6x. "Many of people making copies of their valuable data have noticed that many DVD discs after 1 year were unplayable or unplayable scratched or many files could not be read. DVDs are about 6.5 times more compressed than a CD. Even a bit of dust or a scratch could make the disc unplayable. The copied DVDs under a flurocent lamp showd their flows in human eye. U could see the copy blanks of similar points that had dust or scratches. And now we are talking about a disc of 25 Gigabytes. How many data I will lose if some little dust likes some spots of my Disc." You must not come around here often and read the content of this site. The forums are also a good place to learn about this new format and keep you up to date on what has been achieved with new technology to keep it from being a fragile piece of plastic. There is a strong coated layer on top of the data that keeps scratches from touching the actual pits in the media. The laser does not read the cd like we read words on paper nothing can obstruct the view because it's more like braile. It just rubs it fingers across the surface and translate what each bump means in it's head. Anyway Blu Ray wins cause they have Disney that's it period. Kids want disney movies and parents have to give in. HD-DVD didn't have Disney so they never had a chance

This an answer to psychoace (guest) What I wrote is true but u don't know what u understand after all. Read Carefully. IF A PIECE OF DUST SITS IN THE DISC SURFUCE WHILE BURNING IT - AND IT WILL - IN THIS PLACE THE DISC IS NOT WRITTEN WELL OR NOT WRITTEN AT ALL CAUSING A BLANK. IF U DON'T BELIEVE PLAY THE DISC AND THEN AFTER A YEAR BUT 1ST LOOK AT THE WRITING SURFACE UNDER A FLUROCENT LAMP. And if u don't want to believe something proven It's not my fault... Some things in forums r opinions and others real info. The second one matches our situation. As much of the speed topic open and tick in nero settings the real speed of the recorder or any other recorder supporting this feature. U can always c the difference of the speed under a flurocent lamp where the circles change intensity all the time. It happens to DVDs too. I bet u can't burn a DVD Disc steadily under 16x. A Blu-Ray starts with that amount of data and I prevail u to tell me what hard disk can STEADILY forward that amount of data...... When u write something make sure u have searched and understand what others first have written to u. Bye to all and thanks. After all it 's a free info to all !!!

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One word comment, please give constructive comments

NtG wrote: To write a Blu-Ray Disc in normal 1x speed u need a RAID Array Disc System. What? Have you try burning a blu-ray? Sounds not! There are plenty of CDFreaks blu-ray drive review that shows 6x burning using PC with non RAID system and they are just fine. What are you talking about?

The only reason Blu-ray beat HD-DVD is Sony paid movie studios and big-box retailers millions of dollars (each) to only support/sell Blu-ray. Now Sony is struggling financially because of slow adoption, and the PlayStation 3 is the worst selling of the top three game consoles (even in Japan) at least partly because of the high cost of including Blu-ray in it. If left to the open/free market with no pay-offs, I don't think Blu-ray will ever outsell standard DVDs. Most people can't tell the difference between an upscaled DVD and Blu-ray, and they aren't going to spend a lot of money with no obvious benefit.

@psychoace I am not talking about your average HDTV. To see a markable increase in quality of picture, you will have to pay for a moderate to high-end HDTV set. And no, I am not talking about people that buy or use the PS3. What I am talking about the thousands of consumers out there, like my mother for instance, that don't have a clue what a PS3 is or what it could be used for. Those are the thousands if not millions of consumers out there that I am talking about. If the upconversion feature is on par with the other DVD units out there, then I might consider getting a Bluray player only if it was comparable in price.

Why bother with blu ray when its completely possible to fit 2 hours of hd video onto a dvd5 let alone dvd9. and it will play on blu ray players. so just buy a blu ray player and watch hd video (1920x1080) from dvds

"And no, I am not talking about people that buy or use the PS3. What I am talking about the thousands of consumers out there, like my mother for instance, that don't have a clue what a PS3 is or what it could be used for. Those are the thousands if not millions of consumers out there that I am talking about." PS3 isn't the only Blu-Ray player in the world and Blu Ray is not being advertised to your grandma because it's to expensive. If they wanted your grandma to have it they would price it at $50 or so which aint going to happen for awhile. "Why bother with blu ray when its completely possible to fit 2 hours of hd video onto a dvd5 let alone dvd9" Just cause it's completely possible doesn't mean it's completely worth it. HD video compressed to 4.7gig's with lossless audio is going to get you crappy quality especially with action movies in fast moviing scenes. If you don't mind compression artifacts then yes it's perfect but most people are upgrading to blu ray cause it has better quality then SD which if there is compression artifacts that totally defeats the purpose. Also not everyone is a pirate or will become one. "Most people can't tell the difference between an upscaled DVD and Blu-ray, and they aren't going to spend a lot of money with no obvious benefit." Most people don't care about the difference. It's the new thing and people have got to have it. If everyone researched everything they did we wouldn't have 8 years of Bush, Religion, Nigerian Email Scams. America loves to waste money on stuff they don't need so don't doubt Sony made a good investment that will get it back into gear in the near future. Yes they are not doing great but there system is now selling very well and it's not the laughing stock of the console ring

Blu-ray will become more popular over time, but that's pretty obvious. 'How' popular it becomes in its life-cycle is still a huge question mark - as catching up with DVD will take years. I see 'Hi-def' as a sign of progress, but actually it's being over-sold or force fed to us by a company that wants us to re-buy all our movies again in a new format (and they don't quite understand yet that it isn't going to happen). You will KNOW that Hi-Def has truly come of age when you see 'Star Wars' released in Hi-def. Lucasarts will release it when the market is ready for Hi-def, and is the market ready yet ? That's a big NO.

psychoace: well put. Vic_M: no one ask to rebuy all your movies. Blu-ray player can upconvert your DVD as well. No need to rebuy.

chicken little says: Why bother with blu ray when its completely possible to fit 2 hours of hd video onto a dvd5 let alone dvd9. and it will play on blu ray players. so just buy a blu ray player and watch hd video (1920x1080) from dvds LOL, if you need to play your HD video on DVD5 or DVD9, as you said you just only need to buy a blu-ray player. So while you have a blu-ray player why not just get blu-ray movies instead? LOL. You will save significant time downconverting the movies. I heard it takes 8-10 hours and quality or error-free playback till questionable.

@Blue - cos then you dont have to fort out $15 bucks for a blank blu ray disc. just pay 50 cents for a dvd5. thats why

@chickenlittle: I hate to tell you (since I don't want to break a secret lol) but I shop ebay for cheap BD-R blanks. I often get Verbatim or TDK BD-R 25GB for 4-5 bucks shipped but usually have to bid (not buy it now) and find that is not selling single pack. If you don't like ebay and live in the US you can get RITEK BD-R for $6 from rima.com. RITEK is not a preferred brand for DVD but I found it OK for BD-R. Until Verbatim or Sony or other name brand price goes down, either RITEK from rima.com or ebay for me. Hobbyist like us cdfreaks-er can't wait, we must be a pioneer for bd ripping/burning/backingup.

chicken little, are you kidding ? The HD video that fits on a DVD 5 or DVD 9 is compressed to crap is there is no comparison between that and the video quality of on Blu ray or HD DVD.

@psychoace You originally said that that there were millions using the PS3. Yes, that may be true but there is alot more out there that aren't going to use it. I rest my point. And from what I have seen, the gamers have been pushing the format forward. Once the PS3 sells start tapering off, I suspect so will the whole Bluray market. @Blue I have watched DVD9 1080P and Bluray 1080P on my monitor which is 1920x1200 WS. The difference is minimal at best. And from what I have seen, the 720P movies out there are a little more than DVD9 size while the 1080P are around 15GB.

@shaolin007 I strongly believe anyone who says the difference between Blu-ray 1080P and DVD9 1080P (I assume it's upconverted?) is minimal means that their HDTV is not big enough to see the real details of blu-ray. Granted, there are DVDs that are encoded very nicely and there are Blu-rays that are made poorly. My point is, only on a good set of big HDTV + nice Sound System and a good blu-ray movies you will see the difference. Many references say 42" HDTV is the minimal size. Other than that (small HDTV and so so sound system), yes you're right, the diffierence is minimal.

We hit the nail again on blu-ray I see :-) Not all people against blu-ray (even temporary because of it being too expensive) have no HDTV. There are many that do and its a fact Blu-ray shows advantages on bigger screens but up to 42" the difference in playing a DVD in n OPPO player and Blu-ray is not all that much its worth investing in players three times as expensive or disks that are 10 to 20$ more expensive. I am used to see pricings referred to as US best prices (Amazon, Best Buy etc...) but base these on real life prices and you get a different view of how expensive it is. 1 important point is prices will drop... I do see Blu-ray increase in sales outside PS3 users if it does but until then, the other 9 points are hardly and advantage... There are other HD formats, there is other content (DVD) released by the same and even more companies... If Blu-ray does not adapt prices quick enough and Toshiba happens to be succesfull in their plans bringing a special DVD player under 100$ that is close to lifting the quality to Blu-ray, what is anyone gonna do? Stop making DVDs when the world of consumers stick to it? I dont think so... That would cost them too much profits...

If you find price to be your issue then your missing the point. DVD players took 6-10 years before they hit the sub $100 dollar range. Not many people had them when it was in the $300 range let alone the $1,000 it used to cost. Right now Blu Ray is not for everyone. It's for people who can afford it and want to look cool with there high def setup. Since I assume most of you don't have screens bigger then 42in and didn't spend $3,000 on a set then I can see why your bad mouthing Blu Ray cause you can't take advantage of it yet. When the player becomes sub $100 and the cd's are $10-$20 then the tune will be different. Also whoever is suggesting DVD9 1080p "Pirated Editions" most people don't know what the hell that is and will not go through the whole meathod in order to get them to work for them. Mass majority want's to keep everything nice and simple so if you can start selling them at wal-mart I doubt that idea will take off. "You originally said that that there ARE millions using the PS3. Yes, that may be true but there is alot more out there that aren't going to use it. I rest my point. And from what I have seen, the gamers have been pushing the format forward. Once the PS3 sells start tapering off, I suspect so will the whole Bluray market." Did a minor fix there for ya in the first sentance. Also there are millions of people not using DVD's or VHS or TV's. Also do you have any proof for that last sentence other then your wishful thinking? There are Blu Ray disc's that have sold a millions units. Considering it's high price right now think what it will be like when it becomes more affordable (Last year burnable disc's were $15 now they are $10, Blu ray Players were $600 now $150). Now don't fear change just embrace it when you eventually can afford it.

Once again psychoace, well done sir! DVD9 1080 "Pirated Edition" buahaha, good laugh I get and youre right about that. "Last year burnable disc's were $15 now they are $10, Blu ray Players were $600 now $150." Here some positive corrections: Last year burnable disc were $29.99 now they are $6, Blu ray STANDALONE Players were $1000 now $300. Add: Blu-ray burner were $1000, now $200-ish.

@psychoace "Did a minor fix there for ya in the first sentance...Also do you have any proof for that last sentence other then your wishful thinking?" It's sentence not sentance. It is 'than' and not 'then'. If this than that. And thanks for pointing my verb usage out. Why do I think they will taper off? Did you bother reading this article? http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/Study--Blu-ray-sales-struggle-but-PS3-sales-help.html "Also whoever is suggesting DVD9 1080p "Pirated Editions" Well, wasn't that one of the main points of the 10 reasons why it will become a success?

Uh coping is stated in the 10 reasons not down converting and putting the movie on a dvd. Straight coping still requires a blu ray disc and a blu ray player (software or hardware) which still means blu ray is pimped. That article doesn't state anything about tapering off. It's saying what I've been saying that because of initial costs people are not going to purchase it. From the article: "An impressive 87 percent of current PS3 owners use their consoles to watch Blu-ray movies. " From shaolin007: Contrary to what you may believe, alot of consumers have no interest in playing games much less purchasing a PS3. From article: "Blu-ray is still very popular among home theater enthusiasts, but the average U.S. consumer still isn't ready for the technology yet. Besides the need to purchase a high-definition television, which is happening at higher numbers as of late, the cost of standalone Blu-ray players remains too high for the average consumer. " Doesn't say anything about tapering off and mostly backs my stance on how it's just not cost effective right now but once price goes down more people will buy it. The product is not geared towards the average consumer yet. Remember HD-DVD predicted a whopping 280,000 units sold it's first year and felt that would be what they needed to win this war. Did you expect them to sell 50 million units the next year? It's going to take time and nothing has yet to come out about the format dying or doing worse. Sales on movies and PS3's (remember 87% of ps3 users use there system for Blu Ray playback) have gone up since that article not down so again what's your proof?

@psychoace At first I didn't know what you were saying by saying "coping". Then I realized you meant "copying". I was like, "coping", what the hell is he "coping" for? I said "eventually" will taper off. That doesn't mean now. And the article says Bluray says are struggling. If it wasn't for the PS3 and Sony subsidizing it ($3 billion + in the hole), it would be worse. I have said it before and I will say it again, Sony "bought" their way into the market.

Of course Sony bought their way into the market, or paid the major players to be on its team.... you don't think they could take another format defeat could you ? Betamax... dead Mini-disc.... dead UMD movies.... dead There may be others, but these are a start !

My opinion: - It’s the only format out there I would not say that even for HD-Video Online streaming can be good competition (but I doubt it really will be - Support of all major companies OK, so be it, but I don't care - It’s High Definition Yes, but you have to buy a new not really cheap display to be it really HD - Prices will go down Yes, but there will be still cheaper options. - Blu-ray movies can be copied This is pointless. First of all in most countries this will not be allowed by law and those who can copy BD will definitely not use it because they are easily able to obtain HD video in another much more cheaper way with the legality comparable with copying BD - Playstation 3 I cannot comment that because I've never bought standalone "something" (like game console or even DVD player). It doesn't have sense for me to have many specialized devices for different things, the only exception is standalone VoIP phone. - Blu-ray = more storage Hard drive = MUCH more storage What's more: When we consider Blu-ray disc just as a medium for carrying HD movie, the storage space is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how much space is there when it is already full of what the distributor puts there. We watch the movie, not say "WOW, that's lots of data!". In addition to that, when we consider Blu-ray medium as a data storage, the reliability of this can be doubtful. - It’s available, right now Well, but not for the expected prices - We are used to discs Older people are not even in that point, they have problems with some things in comparison to tape. Needles to say those problems have origin in the "bonus features" added even to DVD (like menus and other stuff). Those people are used to tapes and it is often very difficult to teach them not just pressing play, but at best press that twice. For younger most skillful people it doesn't matter what shape or usage will the medium be. They are able to handle everything (sort of). - Everybody knows it The same answer as in previous situation. The only thing that Blu-ray will succeed is because people (not one particular human, but people generally) are dumb easily controllable lambs.

Since it seems like you have selective reading I'm going to leave this topic alone. See you in 2 years when you all have blu ray players because they are near the $150 range. Patients is a virtue

As psychoace said, everbody expects blu-ray price the same DVD price can wait for 2-5 years. DVD took 11 years to reach current price range. Even that, DVD dual layers still expensive for many people in the third world. And don't expect they can get blu-ray player/burners in their local stores. We or some of us are lucky that we can get BD blanks for 6 bucks and cheap bd-rom or burners from time to time. Same with other products in the market, if you can't afford it now, wait until price go down. Nobody force you to be an early adaptors. As nobody force you to rebuy all your DVD collections.

Being a "success" is relative. What does the writer consider a success? Make a profit? Fill every home in the world? Sell 10 million units? I am sure the Blu-ray group already considers the product a success. For example, if I sell 100 million units of X and have monetary loss of 30 million, was I a success? I SOLD 100 million units!!! Ahh but I lost money. But wait I only lost 30 million, I was projected to lose 40 million.

Is this discussion still going? BD won. it's better than DVD get over it. Watching Bluray movies on a Computer Monitor is totally crap, it looks washed out. DVD's seem ok ... How do I know this? I've hooked up a PS3 to a 40xHDTV's wall, including a bunch of 24" & 30" monitors through 1080p splitters. Anyone suggesting DVD upscaling compares to native HD is either living in the denial after overspending on obsolete technology, or highly skilled in braille. Bluray is expensive. Deal with it. We're paying $40au for new movies on BD, or $38 for 1960's movies on BD (a huge waste of time). I can't get BDR's for under $20au. I can't get a BDRW burner for under $400au. The price will drop soon, I paid $250 for my first DVDRW burner, and DVD's were $10 each. BDR@$20au are almost there. And I've played my PS3 for about 5 hrs in the last 5 months .... I've watched a DVD/DIVX/BD movie practically every second night since I bought it @$300 more expensive than the US pays for a better model with PS2 compatibility - streamed from my linux PC. BD video bitrates are upto approximately 54Mb/s which approximately equals 7MB/s ... well under the 80MB/s sustained reading speeds of modern 7200rpm HDD's. I remember when people had trouble burning at 8x due to the HDD speeds being too slow for sustained writing. And I've seen the entire Lucasarts' Starwars series floating around on bit-torrent sites as 1080p ... hasn't it already been released?

"Posted by Debro (guest) on Friday 15 August 2008 16:02 Bluray is expensive. Deal with it." It is being dealt with, sensible people aren't buying.

http://forums.guru3d.com/http://club.myce.com/showthread.php?t=266393 Here is a link to a guy who fits 2 hours of hd video onto a dvd 5. try it before you bash it

Blu-ray, not only being the successor to DVD will have the staying power the DVD medium had. Why? Because it's idiot friendly. Blu-ray player, monitor, blu-ray disc, it doesn't get any easier than that. Joe Consumer will always take the easiest way to HD. While it may seem that downloadable content would be more convenient, a new component has been added to the list of requirements, an adequate internet connection. Far from me to say but not everyone has even broadband connection let alone a basic internet connection. Those folks are screwed. Take my grandparents for example. No internet connection but a dvd player. She's has a nice monitor but if she wanted to watch hd on it to which would require an internet connection, well... People advocating better compression to fit onto DVDs are just deluding themselves. Who will do the compressing then, you? That's great, for you. Movie studios will certainly not be doing so. Joe Consumer will certainly not be doing so. Even the best of compressions will not equal with what will be available on a 25/50gb medium. People always want more content and generally movie studios are willing to deliver. Be it longer titles, bonus features, alternate scenes/endings, and whatever else Hollywood plans to offer. Yeah, I just don't see that happening on DVD. Now, something for me. I wasn't old enough to care when it came out, but, did DVDs receive as much flak as I'm seeing with blu-ray when it first came out? I'm guessing it did and probably for all the same reasons people are whining about blu-ray today.

I'll consider BR only if; Player prices plummet It can play my huge collection of DVDs It has no region coding Films on BR match DVD film prices Blank discs are cheap It's cheap and easy to copy I think it's doomed !

Then you must of thought DVD's were doomed cause they had all those same problems when they first started other then blu ray can actually play your huge dvd collection while dvd couldn't play your vhs.

He's right you all fucking suck and BLU RAY BEATS THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF VHS DVD AND HD DVD NOW FOR ALL ALL YA HATERS OUT THERE W/O A PS3 OR BLU RAY PLAYER SUCK MY DICK CUZ YOU JUST CAN'T AFFORD IT DIPSHIT!

This article's assessment of BR's success (I mean failure) couldn't be more wrong. Even when cost of BR movies come down ($30 for a crappy title), BR still won't be successful because... 1). Poor timing - poor economy and cost definitely turns people off and puts sour taste 2). People are satisfied w/lo-fi DVDs (no reason to change) 3). Too many people were burned with format wars. 4). People just aren't feeling it. I've talk w/many average consumers and they have no interest even w/50% price cut in BR. Plus many people I've talked to just see BR as a gimick (companies are asking people to change and buy BR instead of lo-def). I wish this article would provide more unbiased statements.

Most Pc users are happy with D/L from torrent sites whether divx or in HD. I have a 1000gb external Hd with 50mb Broadband & have 1000s of movies. Some are HD some are divx... BUT they are FREE.. This IS the Future

samsung gives blu-ray 5, maybe 10 years. they're focusing on OLED TVs which will display much better resolution than blu-ray. also, 3D TVs will be coming out. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/news.phtml/17399/18423/samsung-blu-ray-5-years-left.phtml