# What's Happening with Blu-Ray? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185 "2013-08-02T20:51:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185/61 "2013-08-06T18:12:28Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Are you actually being serious? So you think Google would still be in its position if it put everything behind a pay wall? Why wouldn’t every big site do this then instead of being at the mercy of the ad market? > > Hmm, you’re pretty fortunate then. Destructoid posted a few months ago that half their users were using Adblock and it was basically killing them. > > Article here: [http://www.destructoid.com/half-of-destructoid-s-readers-block-our-ads-now-what--247904.phtml](http://www.destructoid.com/half-of-destructoid-s-readers-block-our-ads-now-what--247904.phtml) Tough shit. They need to adapt their business model rather than whining that ad-blockers are hurting their bottom line. This is the same bullshit argument that network TV makes every so often with VCRs and DVRs. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185/62 "2013-08-06T18:59:11Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Aside from increased resolution, what do Blu-Rays tend to offer? More room, which means fewer discs (that is, for “DVD-quality” signals), and no need to get up in the middle of the movie to turn the disc over. Case in point: the most recently released season sets for The Simpsons are on both DVD and Blu-Ray, even though the show hadn’t switched to widescreen or had any particularly “HD-worthy” animation yet; the Blu-Ray version uses fewer discs. (Okay, three instead of four, but you get the point.) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185/63 "2013-08-06T20:14:11Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > More room, which means fewer discs (that is, for “DVD-quality” signals), and no need to get up in the middle of the movie to turn the disc over. > > Case in point: the most recently released season sets for The Simpsons are on both DVD and Blu-Ray, even though the show hadn’t switched to widescreen or had any particularly “HD-worthy” animation yet; the Blu-Ray version uses fewer discs. (Okay, three instead of four, but you get the point.) Actually, they’d switched to computer instead of traditional cels by these seasons, and they do look a lot cleaner (even when broadcast originally) than older seasons. On bluray they’re downright gorgeous, even if still in a near square shape. They stuck a few “bonus” episodes from older seasons on the bluray set, and there’s a real difference between them and the ones from the main season of the set. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185/64 "2013-08-06T20:19:21Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Blu-ray won because Sony used Blu-ray in the PS3, allowing it to get a massive jump on HD-DVD in the number of players in people’s homes. Except PS3 didn’t exactly sell like hotcakes the first several years it was out. By the time Sony’s Playstation department finally got their act together, HD-DVD was already dead. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185/65 "2013-08-06T20:31:41Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > Sorry, meant in display tech. Once I upgraded to my current set (55", 1080p, 240hz), I honestly lost track of market trends in TV specs. At the time I bought, 720p was the winner in percentage of TV sales, but no longer know if that is the case. Always seemed to be a low-end segment exclusively for manufacturers to appeal to bargain-shoppers, folks who had held on to NTSC and CRT far too long, and people who simply didn’t give a damn, but at that time costs were high enough that it was a significant price differential. Since manufacturing costs have dropped further, I was curious as to whether 720p/1080i displays were still being produced or dominating any category. 1080p is cheap now. Can’t recall the last time I even saw a 1080i display in a store, let alone 720p. 720p TV’s are still all over the place. Walk in to Walmart, Target, K-Mart, any big box store, and you’ll find plenty of 720p sets for sale. They’re the cheaper, low end standard. If you’re only looking at the high end feature laden giant 60+ inchers, well, maybe you wouldn’t see them, but you should have no trouble coming across one in the 40" and under category. 1080p maybe cheap now, but still tacks on a good hundred dollars or two beyond the price of a relatively comparable 720p. And the smaller the set, the less difference an average person’s going to be able to see between the two anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185/66 "2013-08-06T21:11:31Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Except PS3 didn’t exactly sell like hotcakes the first several years it was out. By the time Sony’s Playstation department finally got their act together, HD-DVD was already dead. Toshiba announced that one million HD-DVD players were sold between Spring 2006 and January 2008. > **[HD DVD | Sales developments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD#Sales_developments)** > > In December 2006 Toshiba reported that roughly 120,000 Toshiba branded HD DVD players had been sold in the United States, along with 150,000 HD DVD add-on units for the Xbox 360. > On April 17, 2007, one year after the first HD DVD titles were released, the HD DVD group reported that they had sold 100,000 dedicated HD DVD units in the United States. > In the middle of 2007, the first HD DVD recorders were released in Japan. > In November 2007, the Toshiba HD-A2 was the first high-definition player t... Sony sold nearly two million PS3 systems in 2006 alone. [http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3\_sale\_e.html](http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-with-blu-ray/665185.md?page=3)