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Killing BluRay, new Oppo BR 83

OK, I have been vocal on these forums with my opinion that BluRay is a short term media, and will not become the dominant media format. My reason:

1) There is not a mind blowing difference in BluRay quality
over the existing domintant format of DVD. That's not to say BluRay is not better, but it's not the difference between VHS and DVD, where you couldn't believe what you were seeing. Does it look and sound better, yes. Does it change your life, no. Especially with the quality of the upconverting DVD players available.

2) Given my first point, I don't think there is a big call to replace any purchased DVD's with BluRay. Any videophile who had a bunch of VHS tapes did that immeadiately with DVD, but why do it again? Basically the same disk, great sound, and small size, with excellent picture. I don't think that investment is going to be made again, and that means the market for BluRay discs is MUCH smaller for classic movies.

3) The advenet of internet based movie downloads is already available in HD. Granted, it's only 720 and no HD soundtracks, but does anyone believe that is not coming, and quickly. I love using my AppleTV to rent movies, never leave the house, and don't have to return. Honestly, I have bought a bunch of movies that way, since I have such a big network storage capacity. I think this will be the dominant AV format going forward, both movies and music. More high res video and music available faster. I believe that the rise in the market for outboard DAC's will become even greater, and they will have he ability to decode the new higher res music, and possible video soundtracks in surround. Output to analog preamps for Audiophile grade sound will become the norm for audiophiles, or hybrid HT/2 channel systems, as is becoming the norm.

I whole-heartedly believe this since recieving my new Oppo BluRay player. It is a great player, and it's the second BluRay I have had in my system so it just has re-inforced my previous hypothosis regarding the future of BluRay. Don't get me wrong, the player is STELLAR in every way. Considering the price, it's almost criminal especially on SACD and DVD-Audio (which I have not had any of the problems that the first firmware owners had). I have not gotten to use it as a CD transport yet, I am waiting on one of Paul G's (TubeAudioDesign) new DACs and the redbook CD sound on it's own was just OK.

That said, after watching several movies in both BluRay and DVD on the same player, the difference is just not that huge. It is better, but not enough to make me run out and buy any of those movies again on BluRay. It's the difference, to me, between the Magnepan 3.6 and 20.1. It's definitely better, but they are both excellent.

OK, those are my thoughts, FWIW.

I came to these conclusion
macdadtexas
macdadtexas OP
1,794 posts
 
I resurrected this thread to say:

HA, I told you so!!!
ptss
1,964 posts
 
Very good. So, what's the best advice today? Newest Oppo or ?
What level DAC... Alpla? Best Formats for hi-res music?
Best interconnect for the near future? Tech advances in the pipeline?
Ag insider logo xs@2x
knownothing
1,577 posts
 
Macdadtexas, what exactly did you tell us?

Read this link for an update on the format wars:

http://hometheater.about.com/b/2013/08/06/blu-ray-disc-sales-up-15-percent-for-the-first-half-of-2013.htm

Basically, it says Bluray player and disk sales are up and disk rentals are down. On-demand and streaming are both up, but still a small part of the total market. So more people than before are buying Blurays and players, less people than before are renting Blurays and DVDs, and while more people than before are downloading or streaming content, more people overall still get their kicks from disks.

On a personal note, since this thread was started in 2009 I bought a new Bluray player, a mainstream Panasonic BDP that I basically use as a disk transport and Internet media server for my AVR and TV. My two grown kids don't even have a cable TV account, but both stream Netflix and Hulu off the Internet and both rent disks from RedBox. My 20 something son actually owns a Bluray player too, while my daughter uses her laptop to watch disks.
macdadtexas OP
1,794 posts
 
Knownothing, I just saw your response. So your kids are the one's who still used discs?

The percentage of discs bought, or rented, compared to download is minuscule.

Blu-ray is not even the only disc, they still, somehow make DVD's. Neither of which are important.

BluRay was the LaserDisc of formats, a non-important pause. Cloud storage has even made home downloads unnecessary, digital downloads are THE only format that matters at all.

Once again, I told you so.

Ag insider logo xs@2x
knownothing
1,577 posts
 
You said streaming is the future. I never really disagreed with this, I tried to support your point above by saying that my kids generally get their entertainment from streaming/downloads/cloud supplemented with disks. My son is a budding audiophile, has no dedicated two channel disk spinner in his system, and only uses disks in his car, mostly his girlfriends old CDs. He does however recognize a difference between the audio quality of a well engineered soundtrack on BluRay compared with what is available to stream.

My original point was that BluRay was/still is a valid bridge to the day when equal quality streaming is routinely available, and that in some cases, owning a physical copy may make sense indefinitely.

You said BluRay is dead, I said it is dying. I pointed out again above that while the currently available statistics tend to support my point, my children's behavior supports your thesis:-)

PS - since the original post, I upgraded my HT system and find it is used about 60% for music, 20% for movies and 20% for TV programming. I still prefer the sound and picture quality I get from BluRay over streamed content. My system in my office is entirely computer based. While the sound quality is good, I find it a clunky interface and have so far rejected the time necessary to set up similar in either of my home systems beyond connecting to my iPhone for non serious background listening, FWIW.

kn
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