Panasonic, Philips, Sony Vow Cheaper Blu-ray

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » February 26th, 2009, 17:00

Panasonic, Philips, Sony Vow Cheaper Blu-ray
Panasonic, Philips and Sony today claim that their plans to create a single licensing firm for Blu-ray discs will make the cost of a license at least 40% cheaper. If those savings are passed on to the consumer, we could see cheaper Blu-ray players in the future. Who knew it was so complicated to get a license in the first place?

In examples of licensing, the partners expect a license to cost $9.50 for a read-only Blu-ray device and $14 for a burner. Discs will cost 11 cents for read-only discs, 12 cents for write-once BD-Rs and 15 cents for rewritable BD-RE discs.

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Publish Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:02:00 CST
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buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » February 26th, 2009, 18:57

And this why was HD-DVD was the best option for consumers, because it wasn't in effect, a Sony developed product.

Mr. Johnson · Post by **Mr. Johnson** » February 26th, 2009, 19:03

I still don't see the point in Blu-ray, my DVD collection was starting to expand to a proper size, and suddenly this fancy, expensive new thing comes out and everybody's all over it. bah.
I don't understand how everyone is willing to pay so much money just for slightly better quality. that's just my opinion though.

Post by **HereComesPete** » February 26th, 2009, 19:04

IIRC Sony has to free it's licensing a bit as sole developer of a next generation of storage standard it could easily be found guilty of keeping prices artificially inflated and damaging open market economics. Mind you, Microsoft supposedly split in two for more competition but it hasn't really changed anything.

HD-DVD was no great loss, I didn't expect it to lose but it did and quite fast. As it is Blu-ray has dropped in price and BD players don't cost that much now. And you don't really need many discs for back-up of stuff, they hold lots.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » February 26th, 2009, 20:17

Mr. Johnson · Post by **Mr. Johnson** » February 26th, 2009, 21:45

Don't get me wrong, as a storage thing it's fantastic, and for games even more so, I just don't care about the fancy films.
Well, once I see it I'll probably change my mind, but for the time being I'll stick with my archaic dvd's.

Post by **FatherJack** » February 26th, 2009, 22:09

Even PS3-owing people with relatively small 720p tellies tell me they notice a difference with the Blurays I've lent them.

For me I wanted to go the whole hog, so got 1080p telly, PS3, XBox VGA cable (no HDMI on mine), V+ HD recorder box, even component cables for the Wii, PS2 and DC, and uprated to HDMI and Component switchy-boxes. It was quite an outlay, but I felt there was no point having a hi res telly with nothing to input to it, and vice-versa. Really shouldn't have got the HDDVD drive for the 360, though - but it was the cheapest hi-def player around at the time and I got 5 rather good discs with it free. If I ever work out what to do with the HDDVD rawfiles, I have an HD-reading BR-writing drive I can maybe convert them with if the 360 drive ever breaks irreplaceably.

I'd always pick the Bluray version of a film if I had the choice, indeed I'd wait a little longer for it, or not buy the regular version if it was something I knew would work well in hi-def, or I knew would be a favourite for years to come. I haven't yet re-bought any existing DVD titles, but it might be time to replace my VHS collection - my VHS Star Wars trilogy flat out won't play anymore - the route to the screen is so tortuous that the Macrovision designed to prevent copying kicks in.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » February 26th, 2009, 22:46

If they're available I get the Blu-ray version of a film from Lovefilm, no extra expense. Well I say "get", I put them on my list and Lovefilm send me other films which are on DVD so I rarely actually watch Blu-ray discs, ho-hum.

The output of Blu-ray vs DVD on the PS3 can vary. Some films are not transferred to Blu-ray very well and some DVDs upscale nicely. In my experience.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » February 26th, 2009, 23:40

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 27th, 2009, 4:09

What amblin said, mostly.

Even when movies have been upfettled to HD and the job's been done right, you can often tell that there's something not quite right in some scenes, especially the darker ones, but overall I like stuff thats undergone a HD transfer, as long as its been done well.

There's some older movies that do pretty well with a decent transfer, red october springs to mind as a good example, fairly recent, but comes out pretty well.

I've also heard of a few *terrible* transfers, a version of full metal jacket, and robocop spring to mind. As with all things, read reviews, then spend money.

Or just download them and get through HDDs as fast as I do