DEG launches $25m Blu-ray awareness campaign

The campaign started on November 2nd.. not during this week's games.

So I see the link is www.watchblu.com, but when you click on it you're forwarded to www.blu-raydisc.com. What's up with that? Why have a domain forward to another domain right from the getgo? Something smells fishy here. What are they hiding?

Then you're presented with three buttons, United States, Japan, and Other Languages. Since when did United States and Japan become languages? Don't they realize there's a large Hispanic population in the United States? What about them? Sounds like racism to me. That's right, I said it. The BDA are a bunch of racists.

Couldn't they have just created a button called English? Why use just United States? What about the hundreds of millions of English speaking people in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and in hundreds of other countries around the globe? I guess we just don't matter to the BDA. Well, we've got news for them. The economy in the US just turned to poop, so guess who's left? That's right, the rest of the world. We don't like you for ignoring us and we aren't going to buy your crappy, DRM-infested, privacy-invading products.

Funny how the DEG can spend $25,000,000 on trumpeting the laughable benefits of Blu-ray, but can't bother to pay $50 to their Webmaster to update the News section on their site regarding the new campaign.

They *are* talking about the game on Nov 2. Adam just posted this a bit late. Try using your brain, man.

As I suspected, this is actually a DISinformation campaign. No mention of how these players will not work without being connected to compatible equipment at least on the pages I looked at. (I got tired of clicking as there is VERY little info on each page. Just a bunch of flashy graphics and wasted space. Each bullet point gives about 2 sentences. ) They give the impression you can substitute one of these POS for a DVD player and suddenly get blown away with high def goodness. No disclaimer mentioning an HDMI with HDCP TV and or receiver. No mention of the fact that you cannot appreciate the quality on an average sized set. No mention of the many profiles they have gathering dust on retail shelves that cannot do all the things they are bragging about. This format is doomed....good riddance.!

Good point, Crabby. I was all intent on hooking up these players to incompatible equipment.

Seriously, do you really believe they need to mention 480i tvs anymore? Those tvs aren't sold anymore. I am sorry if your state-of-the-art-in-1978 19" 480i tv is not giving you a good experience. But you're not a typical person. A typical person shopping for BluRay would have already bought a modern monitor, or will buy them at the same time.

Late or not, the article should have said last week.

kthxbye

http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...es/3/pukey.gif
So the scam goes, for me to enjoy this format I must buy extra equipment then I already have not to mention them high priced $30-$50 Blu-crap disc?? no thanks I'll keep my CRT TV w DVD Player. http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...ies/2/puh2.gif This format is doomed, good riddance.! is right LMAO.

Yeah, well how many of these "typical" people you mention need to visit the site then? To me, the site is for those that are not "Bluray aware" Translation 98% of the population that still have only about a 27 or 32 inch crt with a DVD. What they ought to say is when you decide to upgrade to a 42 inch 1080i minimum set that has HDCP and HDMI- you ought to take a look at a BR player to get the most out of your set. Oh- and while you are at it, don't forget to pick up a compatible 5-7.1 receiver too! Oh I almost forgot- to "enjoy"BDLive we ask that you run an internet connection to your set. Othrwise-don't bother as it wont work. Oh-and you will need it anyway as your firmware will need fixin' every few movies. Look it up on the tech support site! LOL

I happen to have a 42" Panasonic 7UY plasma capable of 1080i and I think it would be compatible with BR-but I know enough to wait. As I really should have a 52 inch or greater set to appreciate BR at 10 feet from the screen. Without it, an upscaling DVD will suffice just fine unless you are some sort of techie nut that "needs" to have more pixels floating about as you watch your set from 2 feet away. By then, BR (if it is still around, which I doubt) will be dirt cheap. But by then, it will be in it's sunset years.
As a matter of fact, they are GIVING bluray players away with a new 46 inch TV at Amazon that is on sale as I write this. BR is really in deep doodoo and they know it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=xs_gb_bd_EsHHePGAnew-?ie=UTF8&tag=httpwwwpuncco-20&docId=1000301161

NOTHING is free, Crabby. You know better than that.

True-but I did say a while back that they would be "giving" these BR players away with a new TV! They are knocking 700 off a Panny 46" plasma and throwing in a BD-Live "compatible" DMP-BD35 BR player. You get both for $1800. This is a VERY good price as I see on pricegrabber that the lowest price listed for just the TV is $1900.The BR player lists for 300!
My 7UY cost me 3 grand when I bought it four years ago. Too bad the damn thing works as good as the day I bought it- I want a bigger screen now

Wow, this format must be hurting bad. A 25 million dollar campaign to make people "aware" of the format? How long has this format been out now? At least a couple years now. I saw a Walmart commercial the other day and was surprised that all it had in the commercial was Bluray this or that. Sales must be tanking for Walmart to come out and advertise one thing compared to its massive inventory of items that it sells.

Comments about the site.

"Superior Sound - up to 7.1 channels lossless audio "

Uhh, not without special equipment.

"Unrivaled storage capacity enables best picture & sound "

Last time I checked, there were HDD out there that held 100's of GB. Maybe I heard wrong though...

"Most products to choose from Blu-ray Disc has broader industry support at launch than any disc format ever introduced. It enjoys the enthusiastic support of major companies in electronics, computers, videogames, recording media, music and movies. Six of Hollywood’s leading studios, accounting for the vast majority of 2005’s home video sales, are among the 170+ companies that support Blu-ray Disc. So when you buy a Blu-ray Disc, you’ll be in good company. "

Yea right, I would like to see where they got to that.

"Advanced Durability From movies to music to games to computer software and file storage, Blu-ray Disc provides you with one platform you can use throughout your home. The system offers a full spectrum of choices ranging from pre-recorded titles (BD-ROM), discs that you can record yourself (BD-R) and discs you can re-record over and over again (BD-RE), with proven writing and authoring tools from the leaders in PC-authoring software. So you will be able to use Blu-ray Disc technology in Blu-ray Disc players for your living room, Blu-ray Disc recorders, Blu-ray Disc-based game consoles, and Blu-ray Disc drives for your personal computer! "

Well, so does DVD whoopteedo. And far as durability, Bluray discs are more susceptible to damage more than DVD.

deleted - spam

Wired news today. "An estimated one-third of all Americans now have an HD TV, according to a Leichtman Research study." Sorry Crabby, you're 2% figure was way off.

Remember the scam when to watch color tv you had to dump your black & white set? I tell you, these scam artists are always scamming us! Darn scammers. Darn them all to heck!

You're right, deckard. I had a B&W tv when I was a kid. Not having colour didn't matter to me in the slightest. Good times.

It's "your", not "you're".

How many of those are at least 42 inch and of those-how many are 1080p? I think the sweet spot right now is 42"or less and a 720p resolution.. *start googling*

720 is still higher def than old 480i sets, so, it is still one-third.

Me too! In fact, I first saw Apocalypse Now on a tiny black & white set -- with commercials -- and it still blew me away. The mind can ignore and compensate for a great many things, including color. That said I don't think I'd get on an anti-color-television crusade like some people here.

deckard (guest) "720 is still higher def than old 480i sets, so, it is still one-third."

But useless information when discussing displays that can take advantage of 1080p. We need to know how many folks have such 1080p capability with sufficient screen real estate. I think it is significantly less than 30% But, I grant you it looks like it should be much more than my 2% guess. I would guess again at about 12% this is not a lot, but seems to mirror sales rates of the discs. I tried to google around and get some accurate figures, but didn't have any luck.

BW > Color BAH! Wait until you see "deep color" ! HDMI 1.3 is the shizzle! Dump that HDMI 1.2 set now if you want to be entertained!!!

Next year I'm buying a Pioneer Kuro 50" (PDP-5020FD) with 4 x HDMI 1.3 (with Deep Color Support). I can't wait. Ripped Blu-ray movies will look awesome on it.