ForAcademicPurposes
Gold Member
Compact Disc still sounds glorious.
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MrCunningham
Member
PS1 = 31 years old (released at the peak of CD's popularity)
PS2 = 25 years old (helped usher in the DVD era to the mainstream)
PS3 = almost 20 years old (was a catalyst for Blu-ray)
PS4 = 14 years old (continues using Blu-ray)
PS5 = almost 5 years old (uses Ultra Blu-ray 4k)
PS6 = what are next?
Are we basically at the end of metallic disc based media?
PS2 = 25 years old (helped usher in the DVD era to the mainstream)
PS3 = almost 20 years old (was a catalyst for Blu-ray)
PS4 = 14 years old (continues using Blu-ray)
PS5 = almost 5 years old (uses Ultra Blu-ray 4k)
PS6 = what are next?
Are we basically at the end of metallic disc based media?
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DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Shown at CES in January that year. First players were in June by Panasonic.
PS3 made for an affordable one since it was widely considered the best player out there when it launched, and also the lesser known gaming brand machine tacked on.
It's still a better BR player than the PS4 on up to some.
OmegaSupreme
advanced basic bitch
Blu-rays still hold up. DVDs are really hard to watch these days.
SentientStone
Member
Loved Blu-rays and the PS3 fat. Those were the days.
I actually sold most of my Blu-rays to prepare for the next format. Was going to skip 4K Blu-rays and wait for 8K, but it feels like that it may be the end of the road for physical optical media, so recently I am going hard on 4K Blu-rays.
I actually sold most of my Blu-rays to prepare for the next format. Was going to skip 4K Blu-rays and wait for 8K, but it feels like that it may be the end of the road for physical optical media, so recently I am going hard on 4K Blu-rays.
Grildon Tundy
Member
Ha, good point. GTA IV is our modern Vice City.
Despite streamers trying to kill the format, I think discs are keeping up with the max capacity a film could ever require. There is a ceiling to how much resolution and sound a film requires and high capacity blue-rays should be able to meet it. So baring some new level of film resolution I think we've hit it. Well, until we get AI assisted "insert any actor here" type stuff where you are creating a unique (to you) film on demand or somesuch. But even Avatar 3, probably the longest, most demanding audio visual spectacle yet, should fit on 2 discs at most which isn't too onerous (IMHO) for a 3+ hour film. Maybe Return of the King extended edition is longer but still on 2 discs.
I think we will see premium offerings (presentation, extras, packaging) of blu-ray formats for years to come. But only for really popular or cult flicks. The days of the $5 bargain bin disc seem to be limited as they just don't put out enough discs in sufficient quantity for retailers to need to dump inventory in such a fashion. Same with the used sales after rentals cooled down.
So there isn't a market for a newer disc worth pursuing but there is still a market for select stuff worth catering to.
nush
Gold Member
Xbox One X takes this slot.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
Yeah, I was gonna say I don't remember seeing any blu rays on store shelves that early in the year.Shown at CES in January that year. First players were in June by Panasonic.
PS3 made for an affordable one since it was widely considered the best player out there when it launched, and also the lesser known gaming brand machine tacked on.
It's still a better BR player than the PS4 on up to some.
In fact, the first played might have been released in June, but I'd bet discs didn't start coming out until the fall, because I swear Ricky Bobby and Click were the first movies on it, despite those also being released theatrically in 2006 as well.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
The Panasonic player was also $1300 at the time which made the PS3 a bargain for a player but pricier as a game console. Especially when the PS3 had a lot of additional features as well as a player.
It wasn't until a year later that other BR only player models were in the $500-600 range. And they were inferior in spec.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
Yup, I believe Sony sold it at a loss hoping to do what the PS2 did for DVD.
Only trouble is, while I don't know any hard numbers I don't think blu ray ever did what DVD did, even before streaming video stores were dying (my local Hollywood Video closed in 2008, then it was just Blockbuster until it too closed in 2011, that was well before Netflix streaming really exploded) and it never reached that "sold in grocery" stores level (like I remember one local store was still doing as late as 2013) of swapping out the ubiquity of VHS as easily as DVD did.
It was always more a boutique item for nerds, which is what physical media for movies 100% is now lol.
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DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Agreed. It was also about winning a format war, which it helped.
I still use my super slim PS3 for DVD or BR show seasons (like SG1 and Sopranos) once in a while since it's insanely silent, can't even hear it running, and it's very responsive and as impeccable IQ for the discs as it gets.
Physical media (DVD/BR/4K) is making a decent comeback though in the way vinyl has done. Especially when people are now cutting the chord with streaming services and their BS.
The image, sound, and physical handling characteristics of dvd over vhs is LEGION. That was as much a no brainer decision as it was possible to make. But dvd to BR on;y has marginal benefits, not somehting parents care about with discs for their kids, and BR still hasn't hit the ultra cheap in car portable systems and such. The "dual play" aspect of HD-DVD was why I supported that format, you got both in every disc all the time. Companies like Disney still routinely put BR and DVDs together in the snapcase but most others seem to have only one or the other.
We had it in UMD.
smaller, the physical case protected the disc, would have integrated much better with todays compact electronics. Just need to get that storage density up and I think it will make a compback.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
We had it in UMD.
smaller, the physical case protected the disc, would have integrated much better with todays compact electronics. Just need to get that storage density up and I think it will make a compback.
What if we just stored all our media on flash media.
I don't know if its cheap enough to sell though, so you are just archiving digital downloads.
I want the commitment to selling a version of a film that can't be recalled, "adjusted", or censored later. Shit dropped on streaming only is low bit rate compression artifact laden crap, no way they will ever have something as good as a 4K disc without it costing an arm and a leg, as well as still being subject to later tweaking or replacement. A company can create a market for excellent discs, but I doubt the same would happen for just a download. The folks who prefer superior audio and video are, I suspect, highly overlap with folks that like to see their collection on the shelf, not on a hard drive. They like the ritual of pulling out and committing to a movie that night.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
Would you by reels and Prints?
And yes we all want the original theatrical version. I have found some guys on Twitter that "release" Open Matte films and I find those amazing as you can see crew and booms all over the place.
Physical reels? I would LOVE to, but that's a level of commitment my wife doesn't have
But it sit down in my home theater, spool up Star Wars ANH, and have to watch for the cigarette burns to know when to switch reels, that's the life!
Used to do this stuff in college working for the campus movie theater. Those couple of years getting to see all the indie, cult, and blockbuster films was a dream for me. Didn't hurt that the girl running the program was an absolute SMOKESHOW.
But practically, I've accepted digital for film. But I like the disc as it fills my shelves and I can categorize them how I want. Seeing the cover art, maybe a nice steelbook, all the extras, for my favorite films there is no substitute. VHS was too bulky for mass collection and the players were huge back then, plus the need to adjust tracking and the 480p quality was only acceptable on a 19" tv. It was nice for recording though, easy to fill your library off HBO and Showtime, or work around commercials as best you could on network TV. I still fondly remember the first time I successfully recorded Heavy Metal off Showtime at 2 am or whatever, that films was sooooo hard to get because I only had a narrow window over the summer at my moms to do it.
Anyway, digital streaming is frustrating because it never lived up to the promise of "everything there, all the time". And quite frankly, setting up a film server with enough capacity and organization is beyond what I'm willing to do so long as I can buy BRs.