March 31, 2009
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So Netflix is increasing the monthly fees of all it's subscribers with Blu-ray access. Depending on the plan, the extra blu-ray fees can be as little as $1 extra a month to as high as $9 extra a month. I'm personally not bothering with Blu-ray at this point, so this doesn't affect me, however I am still disappointed with Netflix's action here. I guess after being one of the few big companies that can boast an increase of profit in 2008; especially in this crappy economy, Netflix now wants to make even more money (it figures right?). Is this going to alienate it's subscribers though? There's already a petition online for subscribers to drop out of Netflix if they don't reconsider this extra fee for Blu-ray rentals. I can understand Netflix's line of thinking, in that Blu-ray does cost a little more than DVD, so the subscription fee should reflect that. Still sucks though doesn't it? It's funny how this news comes up at about the one year mark from when Blu-ray defeated rival HD-DVD in the high definition disc format war.
This news does bring up a few questions from someone like me who hasn't joined the Blu-ray bandwagon yet. If you had/have a huge DVD collection, doesn't going Blu-ray make those worthless and obsolete? That's a lot of money that's pretty much thrown away. The typical answer to this is that you can use your DVD collection on a Blu-ray player, and have it upconverted to "near-high definition quality." Now if the answer to that question is that simple, then it begs me to have this follow up question...
Does watching a DVD become a bit of an eye sore, after watching Blu-ray? Is it like watching VHS, after experiencing DVD? Is the quality that far apart, or are they still relatively in the same ball park? Personally, I do see the visual difference between a Blu-ray title versus DVD, but it's not really a "once you go Blu-ray, you can never go DVD again" kind of experience. Sure, watching a DVD at a 480i resolution to a 1080p Blu-ray quality, shows the true differences between the two formats. However, upconverting makes all the difference in the world to make DVDs look surprisingly decent when compared to Blu-ray. Also with that line of thinking, Blu-ray has to really justify costing about $10-$15 more than DVDs, unless you specifically look for bargains that is. Now if the answer to the question is that watching a DVD simply has become a bit of an eye sore compared to Blu-ray, then it brings me back again to the other question, doesn't Blu-ray make your DVD collection worthless and obsolete?
So is the future really Blu, or will it continue to be the present with DVDs? Ofcourse digital distribution is also waiting to explode as well.
Comments (4)
didn't you write a whole post on the cost of upgrading to a blu-ray set up too?
like getting the right tv, dvd player, all the wiring, etc.
@kalamai - I don't remember off hand if I made a past blog post specifically on the cost of upgrading to a blu-ray set up. I'm sure I mentioned blu-ray in the past, particularly regarding the format wars though. I also know I talked about the time I upgraded my whole entertainment media set up when I got my HDTV; which wasn't related to blu-ray at all (never got it), but maybe that's what you remember.
@patrick005 - ah yes that may be it.
I thought blue-ray was ending up being a massive failure? Except for videophiles, most people are satisfied with upconverting or are watching their stuff on portable devices where high resolutions don't matter. Also a lot of people are turning away from traditional entertainment and are just watching youtube and videos available on the web.
Lastly several friends I've talked to that used to collect DVDs or (..ahem..) archive torrented movies no longer bother. They'll borrow or torrent something down and then delete it immediately. The realization that you don't have much time to watch currently released stuff, much less old DVD's has hit home and a lot of people don't bother.
Of much of my collection now I don't think I needed to really keep anything beyond Office Space and Fight Club. I never seem to bother replaying anything else I have in my collection.
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