"I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10", Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK told web site Pocket-lint in an interview, adding that that "2008 is the format's year".

Expoman, We might all be dead by wednesday (havent you heard!), let alone 5 to 10 years ;)

Bizarrely, that's what I hinted at, yet people on here flamed me saying 'no no no, it's the way forward, it will be installed in the BV7 and it will replace SD-DVD' etc etc.

That's why B&O aren't rushing in to Blu-ray internal drives as BV7's are designed to last. 355f is right, he can't see how it's going to work. No ability to update.

I'd like to see B&O integrate some kind of Beomedia 1 inside the BV7 - it surely could be built small enough. They could give the Beomedia a wireless connection/ethernet and use this for downloading movies, audio and so on. Another option would have been to use this Beocenter 5 as the master unit, controlling audio and video, with playback via your TV.

Blu-ray on disc is already dead, that's why there is such little support for the format. When did you last see a proper BD-campaign, on behalf of the industry? The format is being overtaken by preferred delivery systems that actually offer better content protection, though not the same top-end resolution of sound and image. (Though there's nothing stopping producers from distributing BD over the net, of course.)

I'll repeat this here. The entire purpose of HDMI and BD/HD-DVD was to introduce formats that were impossible or hard to copy, in order to reinstate control over content to producers of same. But now that broadband has exploded and watching content over the net is spreading exponentially, producers see they have better ways of securing content from illegal copying - while also saving a lot of money on distribution and through bypassing middlemen. (The identity of the buyer is tagged to each downloaded file, therefore making it possible to track back to the originator of the illegal copy - that's not possible with a disc.)

BD on disc is a transition format, in the same way that LaserDisc was in comparison to VHS before DVD.

There will be a price system - with SD/DVD at the bottom, and with increased resolutions of sound and image all the way to today's ideal of 1080p/HD-audio for extremely large flatscreens and projection setups with 100inch plus screens.

The future is harddisk storage of content in integrated multi-media units in the home, with connection to the net that will be the prime provider of content.
 

OK so as I write this diatribe, I would request a good deal of latitude from those in the "know" as opposed to me - who is definitely not in the "know".

If I understand correctly, downloaded films are currently lower quality than BR counterparts? They take hours to download (provided your on a decent broadband connection) a full 5.1 film and if your into Apple TV (or whatever) you end up watching the film within an allowed pre-period of time, then it disappears into the electronic ether after 48hrs or whatever.

If you want to watch it again, you pay again and so on. You never own.

This leads to an interesting position given the "financial downturn" (aka recession) most of us are experiencing.

Basically, watching TV or films will become solely a pay-per-view pastime. You'll pay for the downloading, the storage, the viewing and the re-viewing etc....

The media company's will be delighted with profits and no-doubt stop all SD DVD production to corner the market. End of cheap originals, end of piracy, beginning of more censorship on a country by country basis.

We will all then be forced to download everything we want to watch or hear (first we'll have to all move to London - including all the Scouser's who have previously resisted the exodus as London is the only place in the UK with decent broadband).

Bandwidths will be jammed full and media suppliers will downgrade the quality further to cope with demand. Governments will hardly assist in supplying more broadband as they say it is a matter for consumer and supplier. Prices will go up again to pay for the millions of kilometres of optic that will need to be laid down.

Frankly, it will be cheaper to drink, drive and smoke.

Well what do I think we should do? Well I would recommend we all go out and buy a BV7-40 with DVD plus all the DVD's and CD's we can lay our hands on. It will be the cheapest TV on the market, give the best picture and last for 20 years. Finally, you will get a good nights sleep as you wont be awakening every 5 minutes to see if the film your ordered last night has continued to download and be ready for the next evening.

Good night. God Bless

 

10%

OK so as I write this diatribe, I would request a good deal of latitude from those in the "know" as opposed to me - who is definitely not in the "know".

If I understand correctly, downloaded films are currently lower quality than BR counterparts? They take hours to download (provided your on a decent broadband connection) a full 5.1 film and if your into Apple TV (or whatever) you end up watching the film within an allowed pre-period of time, then it disappears into the electronic ether after 48hrs or whatever.

If you want to watch it again, you pay again and so on. You never own.

This leads to an interesting position given the "financial downturn" (aka recession) most of us are experiencing.

Basically, watching TV or films will become solely a pay-per-view pastime. You'll pay for the downloading, the storage, the viewing and the re-viewing etc....

The media company's will be delighted with profits and no-doubt stop all SD DVD production to corner the market. End of cheap originals, end of piracy, beginning of more censorship on a country by country basis.

We will all then be forced to download everything we want to watch or hear (first we'll have to all move to London - including all the Scouser's who have previously resisted the exodus as London is the only place in the UK with decent broadband).

Bandwidths will be jammed full and media suppliers will downgrade the quality further to cope with demand. Governments will hardly assist in supplying more broadband as they say it is a matter for consumer and supplier. Prices will go up again to pay for the millions of kilometres of optic that will need to be laid down.

Frankly, it will be cheaper to drink, drive and smoke.

Well what do I think we should do? Well I would recommend we all go out and buy a BV7-40 with DVD plus all the DVD's and CD's we can lay our hands on. It will be the cheapest TV on the market, give the best picture and last for 20 years. Finally, you will get a good nights sleep as you wont be awakening every 5 minutes to see if the film your ordered last night has continued to download and be ready for the next evening.

Good night. God Bless

 

10%

Check out www.musicgiants.com or www.videogiants.com

You can own the content in HD without any trouble at all, and Apple is just one of many providers.
Bandwidth is a potential problem, but it is also being expanded exponentially. You will also find that pay-per-download solutions will incorporate the download speeds you want.

I have broadband at home. I can watch an HD-movie with 5.1 DD after about a minute of download pre-start, without any glitches. It downloads in the background.
But what's going to happen is that you tick off coming movies you want to see, and find these on your harddisk, unlocked for viewing, at the exact same moment that it is generally released ...

The upside with net-distribution (as you can see with iTunes, which is now the world's largest music store) are so great that it's not even a match-up.

Its interesting that this remark came from Samsung- who cant make  a decent blue ray player to save their life!- maybe they just hope the format will go away as Sony and others make quality products and steal their market share!

Actually, for a major city and the internet speeds available I can understand how downloads look appealing- But the average speed of connection in the UK is extremely slow I have tried it and it takes about 6 hours ( at my broadbad speed) to download. Having done so I had glitches in the film.

There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that the general  public are becomming more technology averse and not buying into hitec solutions- Im not sure they will buy into this kind of complexity.

I could equally argue that SD dvd upsclaing will get better and the vast majority will be ( and are) happy with its performance.

We have seen the convergence of the audio and video businesses and now we need the same with PC- video with complete solutions from manufacturers- the investment required to do this and suspect sales on everything they already do- im not to sure! I think for mainstream use its light years away.

Out here in the sticks, my mobile broadband is quicker than my home line!! Which is as quick as my line allows!

Peter :

Out here in the sticks, my mobile broadband is quicker than my home line!! Which is as quick as my line allows!

Yes, already people are making decisions as to where they want to live relative to the broadband speed available. I have a ridiculously fast line where I live now, but made do with a much slower one when I lived off in close proximity to Mother Nature.

Quite impossible actually. Think about it, if BR is the chosen format for PS3 games there's no way that it is going to die in 5 yrs. Besides in Singapore, I think the sales are really taking off because I am seeing like so many BR DVDs at HMV now. True that part of BR's purpose is to prevent piracy but just think about the storage space provided by it. I think disks like Bluray are going to be like what books are to internet, people are still going to buy them because they are good to have.