Dual-Sided Blu-ray/DVD Discs: What The Hell Took So Long?
HD DVD made dual-sided HD DVD/DVD combo discs in 2006. They even announced a dual-sided HD DVD/Blu-ray disc in January 2007. So why the fuck did it take three more years to make a Blu-ray/DVD combo?
Stuff like this is indicative of the problems with the Blu-ray format. Not only did they launch the format with players not fully supporting basic stuff like Ethernet ports for over-the-internet updates, it took them almost two years to get suppliers onto the Blu-ray 2.0 format, which more or less made them catch up with HD DVD’s feature set. Blu-ray didn’t just put the cart before the horse, they rolled the cart down a hill, waited a year, and asked the horse politely if it could go find the cart.
I don’t want this post to be just a chance to re-hash all the old issues with Blu-ray, but really. Three years. It took three years for you guys to get your act together and realise most of the people—the mainstream, not Gizmodo readers—now don’t really see the need to buy new players, new discs and new TVs just to watch movies in high def. Hell, one in five people can’t tell the difference between SD and HD.
Don’t get me wrong; this is a wonderful idea. With combo discs you can eliminate the need for standalone DVD releases, thereby saving shelf space AND putting Blu-ray discs in the hands of people that wouldn’t necessarily have purchased Blu-ray. Once these unwitting customers collect enough Blu-ray combo discs, they just might buy a cheap BD player and convert. Really, it’s a great sales tactic and something that will ease the transition for the less technologically inclined.
But answer me this, Blu-ray consortium: why did it take you three extra years to pull this off?
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
so wanted hd-dvd to win but marketing proved otherwise ‘ooh bluray holds more storage and hd-dvd’ and that’s what got the ball rolling. nevermind hd-dvd was technically superiour from the get-go; they didnt have an interesting name nor did the discs hold as much storage.
It’s like consumers thinking 10mpx cameras are better than 8mpx dispite some lesser mpx cameras actually performing better.
I’ve got a blu-ray player in the lounge and a DVD player in the bedroom, sweet deal for me.
So does this mean blu-ray discs will be even more expensive?
I had a few DVD/HD-DVD disks before I bought a HD-DVD player (the xbox add-on). Since HD went under I haven’t bought a single disk of either DVD or BluRay. This may be just the thing to get me into BluRay.
The main factor that will get people into BluRay and/or HD movies in general will be the increase of screen size and prices coming down on the larger screens. The difference will eventually get noticable.
Got to admit though I feel like I have moved beyond physical media. The new Xbox Zune service will help for sure. The only reason to get disks now are for collectors who accumulate the box sets. I used to be one of those but the movie corporations cured me of that by constantly bringing out new versions of movies. I refuse to repeatedly pay for the same content over and over again.