Learning from history
Dec. 9th, 2008 06:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dsrtaoI haven't bought a Blue-Ray player yet. Yes, they are now under $200. Yes, I have a TV that can display the picture nicely.
But I remember the introduction of the CD. People spent oodles and oodles, not just on the player, but on the media -- often on the very same recordings they already had. And a few years later, the $40 CDs were $25, and a few years after that, nobody would pay more than $20 for any CD unless it came in a special flashing box.
And I remember the introduction of the DVD. Same story... plus the fact that nothing really goes out of print for modern digital media, so the gotta-have-it rare discs became giveaways just a little while later.
Now Blue-Ray discs are here, and they cost $40 or $50 apiece. No thanks. The improvement in video quality isn't that dramatic; my MythTV does an excellent job scaling 720x480 to 1920x1080. There's no improvement in audio quality. And I am convinced that, should it take off, decent players will be $100 (and WalMart will have a not-so-decent player for $35) and discs will be $12-20. Just wait a little bit.
But I remember the introduction of the CD. People spent oodles and oodles, not just on the player, but on the media -- often on the very same recordings they already had. And a few years later, the $40 CDs were $25, and a few years after that, nobody would pay more than $20 for any CD unless it came in a special flashing box.
And I remember the introduction of the DVD. Same story... plus the fact that nothing really goes out of print for modern digital media, so the gotta-have-it rare discs became giveaways just a little while later.
Now Blue-Ray discs are here, and they cost $40 or $50 apiece. No thanks. The improvement in video quality isn't that dramatic; my MythTV does an excellent job scaling 720x480 to 1920x1080. There's no improvement in audio quality. And I am convinced that, should it take off, decent players will be $100 (and WalMart will have a not-so-decent player for $35) and discs will be $12-20. Just wait a little bit.
