Has blu-ray 'betamaxed'?

Astro Pen

Astro Pen

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I saw a rack of expensive blu-ray discs in a local shop and I thought 'I've never really considered blu ray.' Nor do I see any particular reason to.
Is blu ray the new Betamax or am I missing something?
 
We are in the streaming era. Discs of any sort have had their day.
 
Astro Pen said:
I saw a rack of expensive blu-ray discs in a local shop and I thought 'I've never really considered blu ray.' Nor do I see any particular reason to.
Is blu ray the new Betamax or am I missing something?
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DVDs are too good (enough), basically. Blu-rays do look better and, all things being equal, would be the better buy but aren't worth any significant premium for me. Generally, they sure don't seem to have had the market success the blu-ray promoters wanted. I suspect it's along the lines of what you say, though I'm not sure I'd go so far to call them outright betamaxes.
 
Is there a noticeable quality difference? I'd check myself, but my PS4 is hooked to an old television that still has A/V inputs while the newest TV just has a standard DVD player and still might not be high-resolution.
 
More like Bestreamed, than Betamaxed. Blu Ray was hitting it big about the time of the beginning of the demise of movie rentals.
The Blu Ray play is rather slow and kludgy to load and search. I never had enough Blu-ray discs on board to get fussy about relative quality.

And, personally, there are few movies that I wish to see often enough to purchase outright. (at least since the kids, with their tendency to watch movies over and over, growed up and moved away)

The Satellite TV has on demand HD streaming and a fast enough internet connection yields quite high quality HD Streaming from myriad services.
 
Ironically sales of cds and dvs had a slight uptick the past 2 years most likely because of covid. But the overall steep decline in sales has been not dented. The people who buy them are a static, probably dwindling audience, who can only buy so many, having too many already.

I get 99 percent of my video from outdoor tv or streaming services. The only video I bought so far this year, Dark Winds, I would have gotten the dvd but its only available as streaming. Apart from that I haven't purchased any dvds this year.
 
Astro Pen said:
I saw a rack of expensive blu-ray discs in a local shop and I thought 'I've never really considered blu ray.' Nor do I see any particular reason to.
Is blu ray the new Betamax or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Blu-ray gives a wonderful detailed picture on HDTV's, much better than DVD can. Streaming services aren't always great quality either.
 
I did start with the whole Blu-Ray thing, but streaming is the way forward now.

I would still like to get a few Blu-Rays every now and then because it's nice to own the movie or TV Series that you love.
 
I have several hundred Blu-Ray discs*
I love them. The sound and picture quality can be amazing.
There is nothing better than racking up a Star Wars trilogy or an alien invasion marathon and sitting back for the night.
I agree that streaming is the future but I don't like the idea of only renting things, or having to take out multiple subscriptions to be able to watch what I want, when I want.
* There was a shop near me that sold ex-rental Blu-Rays 3 for £12 - you buy some interesting films that way.
 
I still use DVD and Blu Ray and, to be honest, I’ll go DVD every time simply because discs are much cheaper. I have both types of player hooked up to my 4K TV and there’s no appreciable difference (Pioneer DV 737 versus Sony BDP S4200 Blu Ray)

The Blu Ray scores in storage capacity but I really have no interest in extras.

As for streaming, I have no interest in any form of subscription TV (and even less for any form of subscription that includes adverts). With DVD or Blu Ray, it’s a one time payment and as @CupofJoe says, at least I own the disc.

Actually, I should qualify my statement on no appreciable difference by saying that my eyesight is not the best nowadays and not exactly high definition :D
 
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I still buy a few Blu Rays now and then as

A: I am unwilling to subscribe to Multiple streaming services to see a lot of the shows I like. Box set will do the job until hopfully a Utopian streaming service arrives with a 1 cost all access, yeah I know it will never happen.

B: Im a compleatest and having all the Marvel films on Bluray is a quest now.
 
I do want to get the New Star Wars TV series on Blu-Ray as i refuse to sign up to yet another streaming service.

I suspect that Disney won't release it. Less due to it being a dying technology and more because of the exclusivity it lends the channel.
 
When I buy, I generally buy DVD's. Blu-Ray I reserve for nature documentaries, when quality of picture really shows and adds to the experience.
Streaming may be the future, until it isn't anymore or has become too expensive. Or when the WWW comes crashing down for whatever reason.
I prefer to maintain my personal library, be it music, TV-series or films, which will always be available and I can watch on my TV or PC via my Personal Streaming Service For One. Recommended. :)
 
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I was given some blu rays but the DVD player couldn’t play them. However any sort of disc you can play comes in handy if the internet goes down! Wifi problems or electricity shutdown are a catastrophe these days with how much we rely on watching/reading via internet or streaming music.
 
I used to collect music videos in the 90s (copies of the actual pop videos, they were usually a few quid each and you couldn’t buy them in the shops.)
After that, I didn’t bother with any formats, apart from watching on YouTube. (I wonder if anybody regrets investing in Laserdiscs)

Then a couple of years ago I started collecting charity shop DVDs for 50p-£1 each, and that’ll do for me.
No Blu-ray or owt, and no streaming services thanks.
 
:ROFLMAO: The British Library's Sound Archive (Exhibition Road, South Kensington) was asking for old Betamax players a few years ago. It has lots of the tapes but no one manufactures the players any longer (and after a while they break down.)
 
I've noticed a lot of movies I would like to see (particularly obscure Eurohorror rereleases) are only being released on Blu-Ray now, at least if I want to own them. Some of them are also available via various niche streaming subscriptions.
 
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