Is Disney Done with DVD? (The Never Ending Blu-Ray Debate)

[kbehm29]

Blu-ray is better than dvd in virtually every aspect. If you dont yet have an HD tv then yeah, its not worth it, but anyone with an HD set would be foolish to not want to take advantage of it to get that added resolution.

As for the topic, DVD wont be going away overnight. Im guessing it'll be around 10 more years at minimum till dvds start getting less common.

I'm so thankful for the last two posters! I totally agree - I was watching The Mummy on BD a few nights ago, and my husband commented on how crystal clear the sharp picture was on our HDTV. Until you've experienced it with several different genres of movies, you really don't know what you're missing. I wouldn't say 10 years - I'd say DVD has about 5 years left. The price of Blu-ray has come down remarkably over the past year and will continue to do so. Keep moving forward.

[Atlantis]

I dont see regular dvds going anywhere anytime soon. The sales are still there so they wont get rid of it and force people to upgrade. Its like the ps2 that is still kicking and getting plenty of games even though the ps3 has been out for awhile.

Plus a lot of people do not want to pay the extra cash to get BD movies that they can get regular ones for like 15 dollars instead of 20/25.

[Goliath]

It's just a deal so you could already watch the movie now, and watch it in HD and with all the bonus features when you moved to Blu-Ray. It's not a scam or anything, merely a helpful tool for people who want to convert to Blu-Ray.

BlueRay itself is the scam, in my opinion.

2) Mini-vans and SUVs have back-seat DVD players. A Blu-Ray for the house, a DVD for the car.

That's the saddest thing I've ever heard.

As Blu-Ray prices continue to go down, and Blu-Ray players - already under $200 - continue to get cheaper, it will slowly start replacing DVD as the de-facto format. That's still a good 3-5 years off, probably.

I wouldn't bet on it...

[Goliath]

lol, scam? your hilarious.

Blu-ray is better than dvd in virtually every aspect. If you dont yet have an HD tv then yeah, its not worth it, but anyone with an HD set would be foolish to not want to take advantage of it to get that added resolution.

Well, if you want to pay double the amount of money you'd pay on a regular BlueRay-player and BlueRay discs, to see the exact same film (which you probably already owned on DVD), that's your choice. But I find falling for those marketing techniques far more 'hilarious' than my point of view.

Barely 6 or 7 years after DVD really replaced VHS entirely, the industry is already coming up with a new way to make money of products they already sold? The difference is neglectable (is that a word?), but people are acting like you can't really make out what's on the screen until you've seen BlueRay. Face it: there's a limit to how bright and clean a screen can look, and DVD already reached the limit.

The problem is people are never satisfied anymore, and that's why companies can talk them into buying stuff they don't need at all.

[Neal]

I don't see how Blu-ray can be considered a scam. It is simply a new format no one is forced to buy yet. It's not like they ended DVD the day Blu-ray premiered. Blu-ray truly is better than DVD specs-wise. However, I still enjoy some of my VHS tapes and think they look just fine. It's all a matter of how satisfiable you are. Some people think VHS looks terrible now and take mounds of VHS tapes to Goodwill stores to be sold for $1.99. Others feel the difference between DVD and Blu-ray isn't discernible enough to merit the upgrade.

If you do see the difference, there's nothing wrong with upgrading. Upgrades are just a natural part of technological progression. We went from messenger boys to morse to telegrams to post and now email has taken over. Land line phones are being overtaken by cell phones even for home and business use. It's not a scam to make products that will one day overtake an old product. It's a natural part of life and technology.

I don't believe DVDs have 10 years left. I believe the number is less. DVD s premiered in 1997 in the U.S. The last U.S. VHS release was in 2005. So it only took eight years for the new format to overtake the old. The first Blu-Ray titles came out in 2006. So two years down already. History seems to always repeat itself so I give DVD another six or seven years at best.

It'd be a scam if they dropped support of DVD in 2006 and made us buy Blu-ray from then on. Introducing the next step of technology is not a crime. We can avoid it if we want to.

[drfsupercenter]

Yep, Blu-Ray is a scam.

Heck, HDTVs are a scam too. You ever notice how a, say, 50" HDTV will make standard non-HD TV and DVDs etc. look like crap unless you use a fancy up-converting DVD player or subscribe to HDTV?
But yet, if you use a projector, you can use standard definition everything and get just about as clear of a picture.

So yes, it has a larger resolution, but at what expense? The TVs are made to cripple people not using HD so that the industries can make more money. Sony TVs + Sony Blu-Ray = saddest thing I've seen. Though most HDTVs today suck at upconverting (and as I said, I'm sure it's intentional.)

Really, I like my portable DVD player. Having a Blu-Ray player for your house is fine but the one drawback to OWNING Blu-Ray movies is that you're stuck to that one TV. My ideal system is to buy the DVDs and just rent the Blu-Rays from Blockbuster whenever I want to watch one. (I get free rentals because I have the online rental thing and I can swap them in-store for Blu-Ray). Unless they make a portable 8" Blu-Ray player

--EDIT--

@Neal, well, they are starting to cripple DVDs now. With The Dark Knight, it has a horrible looking DVD transfer because they want people to buy the more expensive and not even worth it Blu-Ray. (Because the Blu-Ray has its share of issues like not offering the pure OTV, and having ONLY the IMAX/OTV hybrid. That's cool as a special feature but wtf?)
And I'm sure other movies and companies will start doing it soon, why wouldn't they? They want people to buy the Blu-Rays.

If it were just a higher resolution, that would be one thing. But with the whole format war (by the way, HDTV is IDENTICAL quality to Blu-Ray... they are both 1080p resolution. Sony just paid companies off to win the format war), and now making inferior DVDs, it's just stupid. I'd much rather make my own 480p DVDs from the masters... they would look far better.
(Anyone seen the new Terminator 2 DVD? That thing is pure amazing. The Blu-Ray doesn't even look that much better...)

[Neal]

Well, for the record, I'm perfectly satisfied with my 13 inch TV I got in '99. I don't even have a 'real' DVD player - I use my PS2. I probably won't convert to Blu-ray until I have to, for both monetary reasons and not really caring. I don't see anything wrong with the quality of the majority of my live-action VHSs. The Disney animated features really show wear, however, so I upgraded those to DVD.

But I do see some difference between DVD and Blu-ray. Not enough to push me into a purchase just yet. Maybe if I had all the money in the world.

I thought Dark Knight looked great. However, I've only seen it on a friend's HDTV. But it was the full screen DVD.

What irks me is when they leave bonus features off the DVD but load the Blu-ray. Ratatouille, anyone?

[271286]

Yep, Blu-Ray is a scam.

Heck, HDTVs are a scam too. You ever notice how a, say, 50" HDTV will make standard non-HD TV and DVDs etc. look like crap unless you use a fancy up-converting DVD player or subscribe to HDTV?
But yet, if you use a projector, you can use standard definition everything and get just about as clear of a picture.

So yes, it has a larger resolution, but at what expense? The TVs are made to cripple people not using HD so that the industries can make more money. Sony TVs + Sony Blu-Ray = saddest thing I've seen. Though most HDTVs today suck at upconverting (and as I said, I'm sure it's intentional.)

OH MY GOD! I can NOT believe (!) what I'm reading here...

Yes standard definition looks awful on a high resolution display (what do you expect)... But the future is high definition... Standard definition is dead already... In a few years lots of TV-channels will send in HD... iTunes has started selling HD mp4's in their online store, Blu-rays will be much cheaper - in other words the media contents will fit to the HD displays...

You cannot compare it like that - the viewing experience of HD is MUCH MUCH better than SD... We are able to enjoy movies on huge displays in crystal clear quality... That would not be an option with old an CRT SD TV...

The future is HD and thank god for that! There are so many advantages! First of all the viewing experience is outstanding - both picture and sound is at a completely other level than we were used to with dvd and 5.1 SS... Second of all the new generation of TVs are much better for the environment (which - let's face it is a more important subject then ever!) LCD and OLED screens uses far less power than old clunky CRT TVs... (Plus the look so darn good).

All in all a small investment in HD equipment gives you so much back...


But I guess it all depends on weather you are a quality or a quantity kinda person...


By the way! The SD vs. HD tv is a huge deal, the biggest thing in tv since the switch from b/w to color tvs... The Blu-Ray to DVD switch is nothing near that... Its far less complex than the switch from VHS to DVD in 1997 since BD players are backwards-compatible with DVDs... In other words you don' need to go buy all your movies again if you are satisfied with the quality of your DVDs...

[271286]

The only thing I hate about Blu-Rays is the cases... Hehe being a cover FREAK it bothers me so much that they have that blue thing at the top... The format war is over -get rid of them! had they just chopped of the blue top they would be nice looking slim covers... Now they look so cheap and plastic-ish... I hope it's just a fase... Like when DVDs first came out they came in those godawful snap cases Ugh!

Love everything else about it... The picture/sound quality the fact that it's already encoded in mpeg-4... The menus... Its great how the move just starts, and then you can have the menu pop up while you are watching the movie...

I have yet to test the BD live thing... sadly it was not included in the EU versions of Sleeping Beauty...

[Fflewduur]

Yep, Blu-Ray is a scam.

Heck, HDTVs are a scam too. You ever notice how a, say, 50" HDTV will make standard non-HD TV and DVDs etc. look like crap unless you use a fancy up-converting DVD player or subscribe to HDTV?
But yet, if you use a projector, you can use standard definition everything and get just about as clear of a picture.

So yes, it has a larger resolution, but at what expense? The TVs are made to cripple people not using HD so that the industries can make more money. Sony TVs + Sony Blu-Ray = saddest thing I've seen. Though most HDTVs today suck at upconverting (and as I said, I'm sure it's intentional.)

Really, I like my portable DVD player. Having a Blu-Ray player for your house is fine but the one drawback to OWNING Blu-Ray movies is that you're stuck to that one TV. My ideal system is to buy the DVDs and just rent the Blu-Rays from Blockbuster whenever I want to watch one. (I get free rentals because I have the online rental thing and I can swap them in-store for Blu-Ray). Unless they make a portable 8" Blu-Ray player

--EDIT--

@Neal, well, they are starting to cripple DVDs now. With The Dark Knight, it has a horrible looking DVD transfer because they want people to buy the more expensive and not even worth it Blu-Ray. (Because the Blu-Ray has its share of issues like not offering the pure OTV, and having ONLY the IMAX/OTV hybrid. That's cool as a special feature but wtf?)
And I'm sure other movies and companies will start doing it soon, why wouldn't they? They want people to buy the Blu-Rays.

If it were just a higher resolution, that would be one thing. But with the whole format war (by the way, HDTV is IDENTICAL quality to Blu-Ray... they are both 1080p resolution. Sony just paid companies off to win the format war), and now making inferior DVDs, it's just stupid. I'd much rather make my own 480p DVDs from the masters... they would look far better.
(Anyone seen the new Terminator 2 DVD? That thing is pure amazing. The Blu-Ray doesn't even look that much better...)

You are so full of crap it's not even funny.

[AlwaysOAR]

I don't believe DVD will go away for a number of years, and I don't think Disney is done with DVD. I have no plans on purchasing a blu-ray player anytime soon. Yes, I've seen the difference between standard DVD and Blu-ray. But unlike the difference between VHS and DVD, the difference between DVD and blu isn't as great, IMO.
Also, when I eventually get around to purchasing a blu-ray player, it will play my standard DVDs, at the same time improving their picture quality to almost blu-ray quality. I know the studios are hoping people will replace their DVD titles with blu, like they did with DVD replacing their VHS titles. But there is no way I'll ever go through all that again when my standard DVDs are just fine as they are, and will look even better played on a blu-ray player.

[Goliath]

You are so full of crap it's not even funny.

That's really uncalled for. If you disagree, you can make your point but there's no need in personally attacking him/her.

[DarthPrime]

Blu-ray will end up being the future, but its not ready... yet. Until everyone has a HDTV there really is no point to kill off DVDs. Even after everyone gets a HDTV, DVD should still be around for older TVs, etc... When Blu-ray takes over I still see DVDs staying around. Until they have $20 Blu-ray players, and $5 Blu-ray discs DVD is going to stick around.

Blu-ray is a jump from DVD, but even a upconverted DVD with a good transfer can still look really good on a HDTV.

Right now I honestly know very few people that even have HDTVs. The ones that have them don't even have HD cable or satellite. They use them for gaming and some Blu-rays. I even know a few people planning to get new HDTVs soon, but don't plan to upgrade to Blu-ray. The main reason I hear is "how much more Blu-rays cost compared to DVDs", or "DVD looks good enough.".

HD is the future, but not at its current price.

[Mollyzkoubou]

I'd still rather have a multisynching display that displays 720x480 just as well as your normal TV, then scans up to display 1280x720 nicely, then up further to 1920x1080. Who knows, these things might be designed to do "Nearest Neighbor" conversion on 480i signals.

[drfsupercenter]

OH MY GOD! I can NOT believe (!) what I'm reading here...

Yes standard definition looks awful on a high resolution display (what do you expect)... But the future is high definition... Standard definition is dead already... In a few years lots of TV-channels will send in HD... iTunes has started selling HD mp4's in their online store, Blu-rays will be much cheaper - in other words the media contents will fit to the HD displays...

OK, wow. I think you guys are just blinded by the name "high definition"

They've had movie theaters for years, so people have ALWAYS been able to enjoy crystal-clear movies on huge screens. It was just that when TVs came out they were really small and not the same experience.

HDTVs are good in their own regard, but in no way are they the ultimate viewing experience. If you want something that looks BETTER and MORE like a theater, get a projector and try it. I've USED projectors and standard DVD players (not even "HD") and they look just as good if not far better than any Blu-Ray/HDTV I've seen.

People today just get carried away by "Oh look, it's high definition!", and it really annoys me.

That's really uncalled for. If you disagree, you can make your point but there's no need in personally attacking him/her.

Thank you, Golaith. Seriously, if anyone has a GOOD argument against me that's fine... but don't just say I'm full of crap and not back it up whatsoever.
And no "The future is HD" is not a valid argument. As I said, the name HD doesn't mean anything... if they had called DVDs HD when they first came out, HDTV would likely be called something else today anyway.

[Mollyzkoubou]

Yeah, drf, I call it being "blinded by the leet"

[Deco King]

In this current credit crunch financial climate - and way, way into the forseeable future ( !! ) for Blu Ray to really succeed Disney and all the other retailers need to bring the unit prices of BluRay players/discs WAY down!

[ZOOMBOOM0688]

I know that the economy is in bad shape but why is everyone complaining about prices of Blu-rays and HDTV?!?! They are DIRT CHEAP compared to other crap people spend their money on AND it is ACTUALLY impossible for people to notice the difference if resolution gets any better SO BLU-RAY is GOING TO BE AROUND FOR A LONG TIME! I think it is better to collect Blu-rays than DVDs because HDTV and BLU will NOT change for a while.

Has anyone been on AMAZON.com LATELY??

ALSO, 90% of the people I know have an HDTV heck some even have two..

(OFF TOPIC: FUNNY but I have a 46" 1080P TV in MY ROOM and in our living room we just have a 32" tube TV! Everyone always comments on that IDK its just funny!)

ANYWAY, BLU IS NOT A SCAM...I understand companies always want to throw NEW tech at you, and I know some ppl don't care about PICTURE QUALITY, BUT I feel the arguments "BLU-HATTERS" usually have don't make sense or they aren't well informed...

Blu-ray is in every way better than DVD and THAT IS NOT AN OPINION, it's a fact...

[2099net]

I find it amazing anyone can all Blu-ray a "scam" when generally the same people upgrade their DVDs without too much complaint.

Like it or not, Blu-ray can and most often does have a huge improvement in audio/visuals. Admittedly, there's some discs which don't, but garbage in, garbage out and all that.

Incidently Disney has an almost unsullied reputation when it comes to their High Definition masters (we'll just ignore the exception to the rule - Gangs of New York shall we?) So you can't really accuse Disney of no going for lossless, sometimes 7.1 audio or huge visual improvement. Its far removed from a "scam".

I personally don't have a full 1080p HD TV only a 720/768 one, and I guess lots of other people don't, so again sometimes its harder to see dramatic picture improvement - but I'm happy with this, because I know when I do eventually get a full 1080p TV, my player and discs will already be optimal for viewing. So again I don't consider Blu-ray a "scam". If anything, for me, it's more future proof and has a longer future ahead of it than DVD - especially as there's constant rumblings about 3D Blu-rays for the new 3D flatscreen TVs. It's already a technology which is adapting.

As for the other reason for upgrading DVDs, again Blu-ray comes up trumps over DVD. Not only does it have more room for supplements, but it can do supplements which are technically advanced over DVD. Remember, we're still in the experimental phase of Blu-ray supplemental creation... at this point in DVD's life, Universal was happy to just port their LD supplements to DVD, sometimes even in formats which didn't suit the format (look at the flow and authoring of the supplements on the Street Fighter live action DVD for example.

So yes, some Blu-rays put on extras which should be on the DVD, but increasingly, more and more are putting on extras which can only be done on Blu-ray. This number will only increase as better authoring tools and creative imagination and experience grows.

Finally, unlike VHS, its always YOUR CHOICE if you want to upgrade a DVD to a Blu-ray or not. Nobody is scamming anything. When the new Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition came out, many people bought it on DVD, even though they already had the 2-Disc SE. Studios will always re-release titles. So when they do, you may as well get them on the best format possible if you want to double-dip.

Surely the bigger "scam" is Disney selling a now-substandard product (the Sleeping Beauty Platinum DVD) to millions of people when they have a better quality product available? Especially when the Blu-ray comes with a DVD!!!

[David S.]

Surely the bigger "scam" is Disney selling a now-substandard product (the Sleeping Beauty Platinum DVD) to millions of people when they have a better quality product available? Especially when the Blu-ray comes with a DVD!!!

But that DVD that comes with the Blue Ray does NOT have all of the bonus features. Making it USELESS in my eyes, as a fan who wants a MEATY release with bonus features!

Actually, I can relate to everything you said in your well-written post other than this last part that I quoted.

I am NOT anti Blue ray, but the original post in this thread was asking if studios might adapt a model in the near future where the ONLY way to get a standard DVD was to buy the version that comes bundled with a blue ray.

The theoretical idea of this happening is what prompted so much negativity towards blue ray in this thread. I don't think they will adapt such a practice, but if they would do so at a time when DVD is still outselling blu-ray, it would essentially be forcing people to "upgrade" to blue-ray if they want to see any bonus features.

I don't see how it could be considered a "scam" to sell Sleeping Beauty on 2 disc DVD so those of us who are sticking with standard DVD can get the bonus features. I call it giving the consumer a CHOICE.

Bundling disc one of the standard DVD with the blu-ray 2 disc is great for those blue ray owners who want an extra copy or for those DVD collectors who KNOW FOR A FACT they will be upgrading to Blue Ray.

For those of us who have no plans whatsoever to get blue ray it is not a valid option because this would not give us access to the disc 2 full of bonus features.

Therefore, if this were the ONLY way to get the movie on standard DVD, (as speculated by the OP) it would SUCK - as it would assume the only people who care about bonus features are the techno fans. While the subset of film buffs and techno buffs surely has some overlap, there are film buffs who are NOT techno buffs and vice versa.

I for one, do NOT think Blue ray is a "scam". However, a marketing tactic that would force consumers to buy Blue Rays in order to get a version on DVD without the Disc 2 bonus features at a time when DVD still outsells Blue Rays buy a large margin WOULD be a scam, IMO!

I don't think that will happen anytime soon, but it is what the OP was asking about and I think that is why this thread may seem negative towards blue rays. We have nothing against blue rays, we just want a fair choice and if DVD is going to die off, IMO it should be because the public rejects it, NOT because of being prematurely phased out while still getting the lions share of sales.