Is Anybody Using BluRay?

I am in video production and I can honestly say, Blu-Ray has already revolutionized storage for media. In the next 2 years it will be difficult to buy straight DVDs, your options will be Blu-Ray or digital media.

The quality of the picture is far superior to DVD. Most movies will appear 1080x1920 pixels as opposed to 480x720...clearly that's more than twice the video quality. The majority of movie theatres have already made the move to digital over film prints because of Blu-Ray. Additionally there is more space for bonus features and extras if you're into that stuff. Another great benefit, is there are no more region codes so Blu-rays you buy in Europe work fine in the US.

But, all of this is pointless unless you have an HD TV. Even a 720x1080 resolution screen will have a far better display than SD TV.

Lastly, HD-DVD lost big time. Though they never really had a chance. See Sony backed the Blu-ray from the start. And in the world of media, Sony is the big dog. Everyone follows the leader. Xbox and Nintendo lost out as Sony wanted to make Blu-Ray exclusive to Playstations. And so Microsoft and Nintendo tried to defend HD-DVD and pushed for the alternative as they didn't want sony to have a monopoly in the gaming world. But, even they couldn't stand in the way of the great Sony. But that was years ago now and HD-DVD is the equivalent of beta-max now.

I am also in video production myself.
I agree Blu-Ray has a lot more space on it. And some of the Blu-Rays have more extras.
But is anyone really buying them is my question. Not would it be a smart buy, but are they buying them.
First off, I don't think anybody really cares about the extras. I don't know how many movies I've gotten for all the extras and then never watched the extras. Usually I'm just looking for the best looking case to be honest.
I still stand on the fact that people aren't buying the Blu-Rays. Maybe they are all streaming films or going with digital copies, maybe they're still watching DVDs. But I don't see them buying Blu-Rays!
The Blu-Rays are piling up in $6 bins already! And these are good Blu-Rays: Rambo, Forgotten, Die Hard, good stuff!
Maybe it's just the economy. We're dying and can't afford movies. I'm not sure what it is, but I don't think we're watching them.

I don't have a television and I'm not spending that much for a BluRay drive for my laptop.

I wouldn't call it a complete flop as the tech gurus would have jumped all over this next generation tech story if it was even only breaking even.

I will only get a BluRay if it comes standard with my next computer.

Keep in mind that Sony's record is 1 win and 1 loss. Betamax was Sony's neglected failure of a child.

3 losses if you consider minidiscs and DAT cassette tapes.

I would also indicated the upgrade from DVD to BluRay is NOTHING compared to the upgrade from VHS to BluRay.

VHS had to be rewound. (Honestly, I believe this is the biggest upgrade.)
There was an upgrade in picture and sound quality, but I'd argue the VHS-DVD as more significant from the perspective of the average viewer.
Oh, and don't forgot VHS picture/audio quality got worse over time! DVD is permanent.
Also VHS had tracking and sometimes the auto tracking came up wrong and you had to do it yourself (or maybe you didn't even have tracking on your player.)
DVD suddenly had special features! (Not all of us cared.)
DVD also had widescreen!

These are 5 and a 1/2 significant upgrades.
BluRay's changes just don't compare.

I'm not vouching for VHS or anything. I've adopted DVD since its introduction in the mid1990's. Came standard on new laptops and not at a premium like this new BluRay drives do now with a new computer or laptop.

Since I'm currently on a mission to find a new computer, I can speak to this a bit. I think blu-ray drives are becoming more standard for PC's...both desktops and laptops. When shopping, I filter by searching for only blu-ray equipped machines and have found quite a few at good prices --$500 or less.

My problem is that most of the included drives are read-only and for my needs, a read/write drive is required. Those are rare, indeed, and priced at a premium. I'll probably have to go with a desktop and install a blu-ray drive or the other option is to get a new laptop and buy an external read/write drive. The former is definitely the cheaper way to go as the external drives are still quite pricey.

BTW, the LATimes had an article about the steady decline of the DVD market and the increasing sales of Blu Ray (which was up by 60 or 70%, as I recall). They pointed out that currently, Blu Ray discs are the studios' biggest money maker.

i got a pair of blublockers, does that count?

Grrr...I'm copycatting you by backing up my collection into .mp4 format to save storage space (I'm pretty sure I got the idea from a post of yours). It's slooooow going...using Handbrake. Is that how you do it?

yup, i formatted mine for ipod, so each one is about 500 mb, took about an hour per dvd

Thanks. I'm using an iPod preset as well, with a few modifications, so file size is a bit more, but not much. I sometimes line up a bunch late at night and wa-la...they're done by morning. I may be caught up in a year or so

i have been using it for some time and i think it is great. everybody has his/her own opinion and i believe in mine. you can set it up and try it by yourself.