Blu-ray 0, SDHC card 1, THX Chief Scientist predicts

[kay]

Joel's gonna say "I told you so"

Blu-ray Disc will never win mass appeal - we'll all be buying out HD movies on Flash cards instead. That, at least, is the verdict of THX Chief Scientist Laurie Fincham.

Source.

I like the idea of walking into a store and buying a digital copy of a movie. No bandwidth issues, but I hope by then the MPAA will have changed their tune with regards to DRM. With millions of Wii's, Xbox's, and PS3's already in homes everywhere, could these devices become the next-gen HD players?

[Andrew]

It does make sense. I know a few video store owners, and DVD was a nightmare for all of them because of people not being bothered to treat the disc carefully. End result was a lot of damaged and useless goods. BD is going to be equally, if not more, susceptible to damage, I'd assume. Mem cards are the answer.

[joel]

Not going to say I told you so, but flash memory just seems more logical than big discs that need expensive players.

For most people, media servers are the way to go.

There will however always be a niche market for us die hards that want that little bit of extra performance.

[Dolby]

What sort of time line do you see?

I think the memory disks, downloads etc will come - eventually. But I see Blu Ray making a huge impact in the next few years before mem disks and other distribution means take place.

Maybe I can say 'I told you so' in 2010

[Andrew]

Well, it all depends on how quickly the Blu-ray consortium makes up its money. Let's face it, they're going to want to milk Blu-ray now for all the money they can get out of the format, and only once that's done will they move onto the next format.

[joel]

HD Downloads are already a reality in the States, and at a seminar yesterday it was stated that the BBC wants to put its entire archive online for streaming.

Missed yesterdays BBC HD movie of the week! No problem log on and stream it.

Yes there will be big push to get BluRay into the mainstream, and yes lots of people will buy into it, particularly in bandwidth hamstrung areas.

But even we in SA will be getting decent connectivity, as there area few undersea cables on the way and these have to be in place to support the IT requirements of 2010.

The first of these cables (I forget the name) Will be running far sooner than 2010, and as it is a private initiative, it will not be hamstrung by govt incompetence.

The biggest issues will be DRM, which I think is a waste of time anyway, and codecs.

[Prince]

HD Downloads are already a reality in the States, and at a seminar yesterday it was stated that the BBC wants to put its entire archive online for streaming.

Missed yesterdays BBC HD movie of the week! No problem log on and stream it.

Yes there will be big push to get BluRay into the mainstream, and yes lots of people will buy into it, particularly in bandwidth hamstrung areas.

But even we in SA will be getting decent connectivity, as there area few undersea cables on the way and these have to be in place to support the IT requirements of 2010.

The first of these cables (I forget the name) Will be running far sooner than 2010, and as it is a private initiative, it will not be hamstrung by govt incompetence.

The biggest issues will be DRM, which I think is a waste of time anyway, and codecs.

-WRT the undersea cables - There are at least two new ones coming. Neotel's offering which is totally government independent called SEACOM and the NEPAD one, not sure what its called. Neotel has already signed up TENET (the University Bandwidth supplier) to supply international bandwidth to all the SA universities at fraction of the cost Telkom is charging them now.

The NEPAD cable is African cable that will supply international bandwidth to all African countries via a Europe link, if I'm not mistaken. Its called Uhurunet - see link below - courtesy of Itweb:
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2008/0804011036.asp?A=TEL&S=Telecoms&T=News&O=ST

-I hope this explains the cable saga....

 

[joel]

There is also EASSY, which finally looks like it will be going ahead.

When I was at Govtech last year I had to sit through a boring presentation on this cable.
All we need now is for ICASA to actually do what they are supposed to do, and for Ivy to realise that she doesn't know what she is doing and to stop meddling.

[Prince]

There is also EASSY, which finally looks like it will be going ahead.

When I was at Govtech last year I had to sit through a boring presentation on this cable.
All we need now is for ICASA to actually do what they are supposed to do, and for Ivy to realise that she doesn't know what she is doing and to stop meddling.

So true. They wanted a piece of the action wrt the SEACOM cable as well, but luckily that issue was resolved.

-We need cheaper bandwidth guys!!!

 

[Dolby]

How long does it take to lay cables?

[Byrd]

Depends on how "Eassy" the cable is.

If it is a loose one then first date

[Dolby]

lol