Lack of competition sends BluRay prices upward

[Waynedb]

I know I'm old but I just don't see the attraction of putting movies on a server. Anything on a hard drive needs to be backed up so it actually creates more work and cost than just buying durable media to begin with. Streaming Video is fine as a replacement for rentals or premium cable/satellite, but it does not seem like a good substitute for building a permanent library. In fact, between DRM, the short lifespan of PC hardware and software, plus the requirement to back up to durable media or risk losing your investment, it seems like a real PITA!

I am not exactly young myself but I love the convenience of having all my videos available instantly, in any room and including the same video in multiple locations at different points in. As for needing a back up, if you rip the disk you have the original right there, I run a raid 5 but I plan to go to raid 6 for a little more security. I also can use a seperate hard drive for backup and just store it on a shelf. It may seem like a P.I.T.A. to you but this stuff is fun for me.

 

[rogerous]

Lack of competitions = prices upward
Lack of customers = prices downward

:lol:

Not an issue. Since Toshiba dropped out and the war was effectively ended, it has become MUCH more difficult to get our (integrators) hand's on players. In other words, sales are THROUGH THE ROOF. Now that people have a clear winner, they are pulling the trigger despite price increases. BD manufacturers have NOTHING to worry about.

I agree with you that this may not be an issue "right now" and since there is a high demand for it in the integration business they may keep the prices up for a while. But integration is only a niche market and is limited in term of the volume of sales. To boost there volume they will need to address the mass market and to do so they will need to sell there players at a decent price. VHS won over Beta and and prices for VHS kept dropping and dropping. I think the same will happen with BluRay. For me a decent price right now for a player would be at around $200 to $300.

 

[lorenkoeman]

I know I'm old but I just don't see the attraction of putting movies on a server. Anything on a hard drive needs to be backed up so it actually creates more work and cost than just buying durable media to begin with. Streaming Video is fine as a replacement for rentals or premium cable/satellite, but it does not seem like a good substitute for building a permanent library. In fact, between DRM, the short lifespan of PC hardware and software, plus the requirement to back up to durable media or risk losing your investment, it seems like a real PITA!

I am in the process of building a fileserver for my house which I will rip my DVD's to. There are a few factors that led me to that decision.

1. I am setting up a dedicated fileserver. This helps with a couple of the issues that upstatemike raises. For one it greatly extends the lifespan of the hardware. While I may replace my client computers every 2-3 years, I have a fileserver in my office that has been going for 5 years, with no plans to change it anytime soon. (I have added some HDD space over the years as data grew and prices came down) I also will set up in a RAID5 configuration, which helps to minimize the chances of losing data and having to re-rip Since I have disks for most of the movies, I will not do further backup.

2. The fileserver is also needed/useful for other purposes. It will store all of our pictures, digital audio, recorded TB, and backs up all the other client computers (my home desktop, my laptop, wife's laptop, kids computer, automation server, video server) The pictures and digital audio will be backed up again as there is no other hard copy of this. For the pictures and digital audio, this minimizes the need to transfer all this stuff every 2 years when I want to update my laptop.

3. The real advantage of having the movies ripped is having them available anytime at anyplace in our house, as well as being able to transfer them over to my laptop to watch on a plane, etc. The other big advantage is not having to deal with the physical media, I don't like to have big bulky cabinets, etc to keep them in. So with them on a server, i dont have to go over to a closet find what I want, then physically put it in a player, that now has to either be located near the TV causing clutter, or in a remote location meaning I have to go across the house to insert the movie. Kids also play a big picture in this. They tend to scratch the moves and re-watch them much more often.

4. I don't buy anything with DRM (that I can't crack)

 

[upstatemike]

3. The real advantage of having the movies ripped is having them available anytime at anyplace in our house, as well as being able to transfer them over to my laptop to watch on a plane, etc. The other big advantage is not having to deal with the physical media, I don't like to have big bulky cabinets, etc to keep them in. So with them on a server, i dont have to go over to a closet find what I want, then physically put it in a player...

Still having trouble picturing it. Your solution calls for building and maintaining a file server, learning a variety of software for ripping and DRM cracking, hours and hours of time invested in actual ripping, and additional software and hardware associated with playback and distribution of the video signal (not cheap!)

My solution calls for buying a nice cabinet to store my DVDs in and... oh I guess that's it. (Maybe an afternoon to sort and arrange them neatly.) I'll concede that if somebody wants to watch something in another room they have to walk across the house to get the disc, but come on! Automation is usually great however in some applications you just have to do a reality check and evaluate what you are really gaining for all of your time and effort!

 

[IVB]

Still having trouble picturing it. Your solution calls for building and maintaining a file server, learning a variety of software for ripping and DRM cracking, hours and hours of time invested in actual ripping, and additional software and hardware associated with playback and distribution of the video signal (not cheap!)

No harder to rip than CDs, DVDShrink is point&click. And, actually DVD ripping it makes playback/distribution *much* simpler - you just need a $200 SageTV HD Extender put into any room, and you can get up to 1080i - how much is your upscaling DVD player?

My solution calls for buying a nice cabinet to store my DVDs in and... oh I guess that's it. (Maybe an afternoon to sort and arrange them neatly.) I'll concede that if somebody wants to watch something in another room they have to walk across the house to get the disc, but come on! Automation is usually great however in some applications you just have to do a reality check and evaluate what you are really gaining for all of your time and effort!

That same argument could be said for automated lighting, integrated sprinklers, announcing caller ID. Come on - are you really gaining all that much by not getting your butt up and looking at the nearest phone to see who's calling? What, are you really so lazy that you can't manually turn on lights?

Different strokes for different folks, and the ability to plop that SageTV HDExtender and play a DVD back from any room without worrying about misplacing DVDs is priceless.

As far as BluRay, i'm sure there's either going to be a megachanger soon enough, or a decent software package capable of playback.

 

[Waynedb]

I'll concede that if somebody wants to watch something in another room they have to walk across the house to get the disc, but come on! Automation is usually great however in some applications you just have to do a reality check and evaluate what you are really gaining for all of your time and effort!

You know I could use that same argument on everything that is automated or controlled, "what do I need automated lighting for?", "I can just get up and flip a switch, oh and an automated light switch costs how much?


IVB you beat me to it, your reply was not there when I started to type my response

 

[upstatemike]

No harder to rip than CDs, DVDShrink is point&click. And, actually DVD ripping it makes playback/distribution *much* simpler - you just need a $200 SageTV HD Extender put into any room, and you can get up to 1080i - how much is your upscaling DVD player?

That same argument could be said for automated lighting, integrated sprinklers, announcing caller ID. Come on - are you really gaining all that much by not getting your butt up and looking at the nearest phone to see who's calling? What, are you really so lazy that you can't manually turn on lights?

Different strokes for different folks, and the ability to plop that SageTV HDExtender and play a DVD back from any room without worrying about misplacing DVDs is priceless.

As far as BluRay, i'm sure there's either going to be a megachanger soon enough, or a decent software package capable of playback.

Not really apples to apple since the lighting control is for energy savings rather than laziness. (With 1800 watts of fluorescent tubes in the basement alone, accidently leaving the lights on is a very big deal!) I don't use sprinklers or CID announce so.

Sage will be a great solution someday when you can connect your SAT receiver and cable box into the Sage server at full 1080i but it is just a bit too much time and expense right now if the only real use is distributing ripped DVDs. I know I could use it to replace my existing DVRs but those are already networked together so what would I gain?

To me, a Blu-Ray megachanger source, controlled and distributed by Sage might begin to make sense, but that is also a ways off yet I think.

 

[Waynedb]

Sage will be a great solution someday when you can connect your SAT receiver and cable box into the Sage server at full 1080i but it is just a bit too much time and expense right now if the only real use is distributing ripped DVDs. I know I could use it to replace my existing DVRs but those are already networked together so what would I gain?

I am watching Sage right now in 1080i with my Sat receiver connected to my Sage server, I use a 4DTV sat receiver but you can use a Dish Network receiver with the R5000HD mod also. If the new Hauppauge thing ever shows up you will be able to use other sources that are not supported now.

 

[IVB]

That same argument could be said for automated lighting, integrated sprinklers, announcing caller ID. Come on - are you really gaining all that much by not getting your butt up and looking at the nearest phone to see who's calling? What, are you really so lazy that you can't manually turn on lights?

Not really apples to apple since the lighting control is for energy savings rather than laziness. (With 1800 watts of fluorescent tubes in the basement alone, accidently leaving the lights on is a very big deal!) I don't use sprinklers or CID announce so.

So you would agree then that automating lighting or sprinklers or caller ID or any other automation not directly resulting in energy-savings is as useless as ripping DVDs?

 

[upstatemike]

So you would agree then that automating lighting or sprinklers or caller ID or any other automation not directly resulting in energy-savings is as useless as ripping DVDs?

Of course. It's just that automating stuff is fun while ripping DVDs feels too much like work.

 

[IVB]

So you would agree then that automating lighting or sprinklers or caller ID or any other automation not directly resulting in energy-savings is as useless as ripping DVDs?

Of course. It's just that automating stuff is fun while ripping DVDs feels too much like work.

:lol: :lol:

Ok, I can't argue with that.

 

[mdiehl]

Think I'll wait just a bit for the current generation of Blu-Ray player prices to come down a bit to just before the 2.0 format players are out.

Maybe I'm just old too, but the thought of waiting till the 2.0 players are out (unless substantial changes in hardware...), for the chance to "chat whilst viewing a movie" is just a bit too underwhelming... :blink:

 

[SnyperBob]

I think the arguments got a little off topic, but I kind of agree (partly) with upstatemike about building a server. Yeah, one would be nice, but I don't have an extra $1000 or $2000 laying around to assemble a kick ass server. I still have a house server, but definately doesn't have the capacity for my 300 DVDs

I can't speak for Mike, but I see it as more of a toy, than a necessity. I would put the light control more towards the necessity category.

But that's not to say that I really want to do it, drop a grand and get a bunch of those HD Extenders and live happily ever after!