So a buddy of mine (casual gamer) was asking advice on which console he should buy. He decided to go with a PS3 purely because it's a great blu-ray player and he can play games occasionally.

But what is the future for blu-ray ? Sales haven't really shot up since the format war ended early in the year. Is digital media really going to be the number one source of HD video ?

Is Microsoft banking on digital media or are they going to release a blu-ray drive for the 360 to attract consumers like my friend.

Until we start seeing terabyte size hard drives on consoles, owning blu-rays is the way to go. However, with Netflix beefing up their digital selections in the near future (soon in HD), less hard drive space is needed unless you want to own the movies.

Just some food for thought.

You also have to judge how easy it is to download the movie, versus getting the movie, etc. It may not be as high definition, but it is much easier, in my opinion.

But if the future wants super high def movies, blu-ray is the way to go. But I think with our lazy society, digital media will prevail.

Sony is also coming out with a video download service so one would assume they saw the potential in it as well.

Digital distribution will be how all future media will work. Sales are way down for Blu Ray after they took HD DVD out of the picture. Even with the amazing quality that Blu Ray offers, people are fine with watching movies with youtube like quality. On portable devices, cell phones, or right at home through services like Xbox live. The only problem with digital distribution will be the massive headaches that come with it in the form of DRM.

-LatinLegacy

IMO many people are happy with dvd quality on their hd sets. You need to get into the 56" range before image resolution is really a problem and I don't think many people get colour depth at all.

There is also the fact that we as consumers are tired of being told every ten years that our libraries are obsolete. I am very picky about what movies I'm willing to buy and when I do I rip them into a format I will always be able to play. I have the original King Kong on 16mm film, every episode of PeeWee's Playhouse on betamax, the original (good) trilogy of StarWars on VHS, and now my Lord of the Rings on DVD is no good? I'll be damned if I'm going to spend more money to buy media I won't be able to play in X years.

It's a suckers game.

Tell him to get a 360 because it is better for gaming and then buy a good upscale DVD player. WIN-WIN IMO (Still be cheaper than PS3 and BR movies)

So a buddy of mine (casual gamer) was asking advice on which console he should buy. He decided to go with a PS3 purely because it's a great blu-ray player and he can play games occasionally.

But what is the future for blu-ray ? Sales haven't really shot up since the format war ended early in the year. Is digital media really going to be the number one source of HD video ?

Is Microsoft banking on digital media or are they going to release a blu-ray drive for the 360 to attract consumers like my friend.

Until we start seeing terabyte size hard drives on consoles, owning blu-rays is the way to go. However, with Netflix beefing up their digital selections in the near future (soon in HD), less hard drive space is needed unless you want to own the movies.

Just some food for thought.
I believe it was 1up that pointed out that if it wasn't for the PS3 Blu-Ray would have been tied to HD-DVD in terms of adoption.

HDDVD would have been ahead actually. They sold a lot more stand alone players than BR did.

HDDVD would have been ahead actually. They sold a lot more stand alone players than BR did.

Maybe but I don't thinks thats quite 100% true the reason for that is a PS3 is a far better Blu Ray player than any Stand alone Blu Ray player especially at the height of the format war. Therefore, thats why there were more PS3s bought opposed to stand alone players.

Download a HD video on XBOX live! It took me about an hour to download the Bioshock demo on XBOX Live now imagine how long it would take me to download an entire HD movie. With DRM and digital downloads I don't see that taking the place of physical media any time soon. I still like to be able to take my DVD out of my player and watch at someone else's house without a problem.

HDDVD would have been ahead actually. They sold a lot more stand alone players than BR did.

Didn't that boost come around the time they did the firesale?

Either way, let's face it: Few of us are ready or willing to abandon DVD in favor of either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD nor are we willing to pay $10 more for movies in a higher definition.

That being said there's only one movie in my collection I plan on rebuying on Blu-Ray when I get a PS3 and that's Goodfellas because I have the DVD version on a double-sided DVD and I hate having to flip it halfway through.

Didn't that boost come around the time they did the firesale?

Either way, let's face it: Few of us are ready or willing to abandon DVD in favor of either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD nor are we willing to pay $10 more for movies in a higher definition.

That being said there's only one movie in my collection I plan on rebuying on Blu-Ray when I get a PS3 and that's Goodfellas because I have the DVD version on a double-sided DVD and I hate having to flip it halfway through.

Yeah that boost came at the firesale.

At this time in the DVDs life (a year or so after its launch) it was selling pretty bad too. Actually, BD is outselling DVD compared to its lifespan.

Digital D/L is the future, but I think that MS only looked at the US market when deciding to go "all digital". The internet speeds in the UK are pretty poor and they are only better in a couple of European countries. I think the future will arrive in the US much faster than it will in the rest of the world.

Yeah that boost came at the firesale.

At this time in the DVDs life (a year or so after its launch) it was selling pretty bad too. Actually, BD is outselling DVD compared to its lifespan.

Digital D/L is the future, but I think that MS only looked at the US market when deciding to go "all digital". The internet speeds in the UK are pretty poor and they are only better in a couple of European countries. I think the future will arrive in the US much faster than it will in the rest of the world.

Considering how Comcast loves to overload their network, throttle users who use too much bandwidth, and cap users who continue to consume large quantities of bandwidth I doubt we'll see digital distribution become viable in our lifetime.

Considering how Comcast loves to overload their network, throttle users who use too much bandwidth, and cap users who continue to consume large quantities of bandwidth I doubt we'll see digital distribution become viable in our lifetime.

No, don't ever say something isnt possible! Look at the internet, and computing as it is. In 11 years, maybe less, you could have PB of data [thats KB|MB|GB|TB|PB] on your PC. That would mean that the internet could easily become more efficient because the whole thing could become P2P. If everyone seeded every other computer with every piece of information available, just think what could be possible. This is one of the possible directions that the internet could take.

Laser technology could provide an unwavering 25 Gb/sec download/upload speed. If there is one thing that the Internet should have taught everyone, its that impossible things do happen. Not only that but they happen within the space of 1/5 a generation. In 1995 there was less that 1TB of data on the whole internet! I'm writing a blog about it soon I think.

Anyway, a little more on topic. I think it will happen pretty quickly. Comcast are limiting you at something like 8GB/day, if you are a really heavy user. Thats not actually that bad. Are you sure that there is even 250GB/month worth of legal content on the internet?

What would push me to full DL would be the option to download the game a week before it actually comes out. Still not be able to activate it or play it 'till the release date. But I would hate that someone in the US with a connection pipe that you could drive a car through would be able to play the game a full 2days before me.

really DL content is aready here. IDK about the rest of the world but Comcast here in the states has something called on-demand. Its like PPV but with the Digital Video Recorders comcast provides for you, you DL onto the recorder. They have movies in HD and usually come the same day as the DVD release.