Blu-ray Awareness Hits 45% in HDTV Owners, Study Says

Does this awareness take into account the various Profiles that exist for BluRay as well as the ability, or lack there of, to upgrade to the latest profile with a formware flash?
I currently own a PS3 so have no issue with upgrading my system to support the latest profile.
However, I find it insulting to one and all that the current crop of stand alone players do not have the capability to performa firmware flash for updating!
Additionally, how Sony can charge so much for their standalone player AND not provide the ability to flash the player is about the most predatory business practice that I have witnessed without legal reprucussion as OBVIOUSLY the ability to firmware flash to support the newest profiles is technically feasiable.
My last point is that do these “45% of HDTV who have the Bluray awareness” aware of what they are actually getting?

Why don’t I ever get surveyed for these things?
I stopped buying DVDs in favor of Blu-ray only in April of 2007.

I’ve replaced about a dozen of my old DVD titles with Blu-ray discs and will buy more when they start putting out new versions of my favorite films.

Where are the Star Wars movies? Why didn’t they do a Blu-ray trilogy release for Indiana Jones to coincide with the latest theatrical entry to the saga? The Abyss? Titanic? Back to the Future trilogy? Lawrence of Arabia? Amadeus? Dances with Wolves? The Sound of Music? Bridge on the River Kwai? So many good films are MIA on Blu-ray.

Some real clunkers like Delta Farce, Are we Done Yet? and Doctor Strange got the green light but I think there are too many hugely popular films that need a release date.

Can’t newer standalone players without ethernet be updated by using a firmware update CD? I thought I read that somewhere.

“Current Blu-ray player owners expect 80 percent of their upcoming purchases will be in BD rather than standard DVD.”

Wow. I guess I am in the minority. I have a BD player in my theater and really love it. The picture is stunning and the uncompressed audio formats are great.  However, as long as I have traditional DVD players in most of the rooms in my house and not BD players and as long as the Movie Studios continue to rip consumers off with BD pricing, the vast majority of my movie purchases will be on DVD.

For most movies, I simply cannot justify spending an extra $10 for the BD over the DVD. In addition, until I truly believe that Blu-Ray is going to be any more than a niche market, I am not going to go out and buy BD players for every room in the house.

This is one area HD DVD had a huge advantage over Blu Ray, the ability to play in my standard DVD player.  I just bought several movies for the kids all on DVD even though they are available in Blu Ray.  The inability to to play them on the other TV’s in the house made the decision easy.

I think continuing to buy DVDs when you have a Blu-ray player is penny wise and pound foolish.

How much are you spending on DVDs? I get Blu-ray discs for about $17-$29. If you’re a movie collector, you’re going to pay that $10 you’re trying to save and then some when you re-buy your library.

Blu-ray a niche only? Never. This format will replace DVD, despite the wishes of disgruntled HD-DVD fans.

gotta disagree with you soundzilla. i think it depends on the movie title and it’s intended use. i have kids, and until blu-ray comes to the mini van, or i can rip them to my ipod like i do with standard dvds, blu-ray just isn’t an option. for some movies i think blu-ray is the way to go, but not every title needs or is improved by the enhanced pic and audio quality.

I’m optimistic about Blu-ray adoption for a few reasons.

VHS was introduced in the 70s and had a technology life span of slightly over 20 years and today has pretty much fallen off a cliff.

Blu-ray’s only a few years old.

Blu-ray players play DVDs which helps migration. As the cost of players continue to decline, they’ll become the standard for computers, cars, etc. in a few more years. $99 is a key price point that has yet to be hit. You can rip Blu-rays to an iPod now if you know where to look, but most people have no clue how to rip DVDs let alone HD media so I don’t think ripping will be a factor holding most people back from adoption.

The future of Blu-ray is far from certain. Standard DVD is currently cheaper and more accessible. Blu-ray requires a significant investment by folks who can’t see the difference or don’t care to. The Studios jumped the gun killing off HDDVD so soon. Don’t think they will support Blu-ray indefinitely if the sales aren’t there. Currently the cheapest BD player is the PS3 @$399.00 BUT YOU CAN GET AN UPSCALING DVD PLAYER FOR $89. Joe Sixpack will buy the $89.00 DVD Upscaling Player and connect it to his $800 Vizio 40” LCD and ride off into sunset. Leaving BLu-ray Players and movies on the shelf collecting dust.