Two Years of Blu-ray Disc Milestone Reached
Posted in Milestones on June 21st, 2008 by Dave
Yesterday marked the second anniversary of the release of the initial slate of Blu-ray titles from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The initial slate included 50 First Dates, Hitch and XXX. This first wave of discs were all single layer BD25 discs with MPEG2 video encoding and PCM lossless audio.
A lot has happened since 2006, including the remastering and replacement of one of the launch titles The Fifth Element - with the new version being much more representative of current releases, featuring AVC video on a BD50 disc with Dolby True HD Lossless audio.
As well as the shift towards BD50 discs, the more modern AVC and VC-1 codecs and the more efficient Dolby True HD or DTS-HD Master Audio codecs, we have seen the introduction of both Bonus View Picture-in-Picture and BD Live, right around the time that Warner announced their intention to discontinue HD DVD - an announcement that effectively killed the competing format. Since then we have seen Paramount and even Universal join in with Blu-ray release announcements, effectively making Blu-ray the standard for High Definition Disc movie releases.
As much as things have improved, I still think that there is a need for attention in a couple of areas - namely the lack of availability of capable hardware and also the lagging by some studios to bring their releases in line with what we expect from Blu-ray.
While studios like Sony, Fox and Disney have lossless audio on pretty much every release, Warner continues to drag the chain with titles being announced and released with 640kbps lossy audio. One has to wonder why this is. Even Universal is promising lossless audio on their Blu-ray releases and Paramount has moved almost entirely to lossless as well after rejoining the format.
On the players side, we still see the PS3 as the most capable player, offering both Bonus View and BD Live support. One has to wonder where the likes of the Sony BDP-S350 and BDP-S550 or Panasonic DMP-BD50 players are. And while we have seen the Funai player appear at Walmart and Best Buy, we have to wonder also what is keeping the Chinese manufactured players that are expected to be even more cost effective.
One has to hope that the hold up is in quality control. We saw the release of both Blu-ray and HD DVD players two years ago - neither performed to expectations, with buggy firmware and a not so great user experience over all. With no format competition to drive release dates, at least the manufacturers have the opportunity to get things right before release. Still, it is a frustrating wait.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the events of the last couple of years for Blu-ray - what moments stood out as important, trends you like or don’t like, or anything else … though please stick to Blu-ray - some of that history is best left behind!
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June 21st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
While I jumped into DVD as soon as it came out in Spring ‘97, I didn’t join the Blu-ray ranks until I bought a player as part of an HDTV bundle in Nov. ‘07. I bought a few titles, but it wasn’t until Warner’s announcement that they were quitting that other format that I dived in with BD. I have since bought nearly 100 discs & I don’t buy DVD anymore - if a title isn’t released now on Blu-ray I don’t buy it. For the most part I’m thrilled by video/audio quality of the titles I’ve purchased & I can’t wait to replace my entire DVD library with Blu-rays. Go Blu!
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
lets hope the ce’s are not playing the old milk them game,that is over time and new players all bd players will be in line and do what we want them to do.
this would be a bad move on their part.if the ps3 can load very fast theirs no reason sol players can do the same thing.and then their price,hopefully the price drop will keep dropping.i understand that new ideas down the road will produce new players with new features,like lcd hdtv’s with 60hz then going to 120 hz,the rip off there is you can only get 1080p/24fps with 120hz technology.with new technology coming to the market at lighting speed these day it would be wise for ce’s to skip the milking of consumers and get bd up to par now.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
The path of ‘continuous improvement’ is there with most products in order to keep people buying new stuff. Though usually we don’t know what the next new feature is and only find out when the next gen comes out…
Here we have the unusual case where we know what the players will do but have no time line and even a scarcity of stock of the current models. I don’t think that it is intentional - I think the 2.0 players were supposed to be out by now.
It is also interesting (marketing wise) that they will have two intentional and clearly defined tiers of players - those with network and those without - that creates price points and ‘premium’ product.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
not many people around other forums see it that way.
i see it like you do.i think we have seen the end of 1.0 players,but to have 1.1players and 2.0 players is fine with me.even with hd dvd i never used 2.0 feature
June 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I never even connected my HD DVD player to the network to do firmware updates - though perhaps I should while I still can!
June 27th, 2008 at 6:24 am
maybe i got my fill of special features with dvd.
but i can see where it will appeal to youger people.