Samsung UK exec says Blu-ray "has five years left"
By Donald Melanson 
posted September 3rd 2008 6:18PM
posted September 3rd 2008 6:18PM
While we can't say if it represents a general sentiment at Samsung or not, the company's UK director of consumer electronics, Andy Griffiths, sure went out on a bit of a limb in a recent interview with Pocket-lint, with him saying that Blu-ray has, to paraphrase David Bowie, only "five years left," and that he "certainly wouldn't give it ten." He did say, however, that he thought 2008 would be Blu-ray's year, adding that "it's going to be huge", and that Samsung is "heavily back-ordered at the moment." As for Samsung's future after Blu-ray's supposed demise, Griffiths seems to think that OLED will be the next big thing, and he's pegging 2010 as a possible date for it to become mainstream and replace LCD. He didn't offer a prediction as to when it will die out though.
[Thanks, Big W]
[Thanks, Big W]
And too late I realized I could have gone with "So many investors sighing."
Digital Media ? Digital Distribution ?
As far as I can remember, not every country has a great/fast internet. Hard Drives are not that cheap as well. Especially those 2.5'' laptop HDs.
Optical Discs will stay for as longer as you guys think. You just want digital media because your internet is fast. but if you put yourself in the position of people living on a country with ISP that offers shitty internet speed, I wonder if you will still like the idea of Digital Media/Distribution.
"Griffiths seems to think that OLED will be the next big thing, and he's pegging 2010 as a possible date for it to become mainstream and replace LCD."
I don't know what kind of crack this guy is smoking. Most people don't even have an LCD TV yet, let alone an HD TV of any form.
Honestly, HD is just a catch phrase (ackronym?) that's thrown around to try and sell the stuff. Mostly sports addicts get HD because of the simple reason that a lot of sports are broadcasted in HD. The majority of broadcasted media isn't broadcasted in HD, or is upscaled. Furthermore, even the technically-clueless know this, which is one of the barriers between switching.
DVD and non-HD are fine for most people. The only way people will switch within the time frame this guy is talking, is if movies are released only on Blu-ray. Such a move would hurt movie studios more than they can afford right now.
Personally the fact that HD is LCD (or heavy expensive powerhungry plasma) does in fact stop me from considering getting a HD TV.
So yeah OLED in the same price bracket would increase sales.
wait, his name is ANDY GRIFFITHS?
Awesome.
Wait, his name is ANDY GRIFFITHS?
Awesome.
Anyone remember DVHS?
Tapes at 1080i!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS
It is irrelevant what people actually buy people like to rent movies unless there is a particular favorite they watch over and over again. people like to rent and many rent with netflix which charges the same price whether you rent blu-ray or dvd so if you can afford or already have the player you can get blu-ray for no extra cost. there is no reason not to.
It's funny. By the time Blu-ray came into play, I had already largely stopped buying DVDs. Optical media for movies just seems like a step back. I think the main job of the movie industry right now is to properly monetize digital downloads.
As for capping, that is what competition is all about. There are alternatives to Comcast in many areas, and more are coming.
Digital downloads will NOT become the main thing any time soon.
They will have to some kind of DRM and DRM is dead as far as I'm concerned.
Plus you don't have a case with a sleeve. There's something about actually having the physical media to play.
This is what having a Movie collection is all about.
It's all very fine having 200 films on a HD but when it breaks you lose the lot.
When a company goes bust, merges, reorganises and your PC tries to download a new licence and can't, you're stuffed.
For any kind of solid state ram to take over currently you would need a 64 Gigabyte stick to cost $0.50. It's not going to happen.
Even by the time 64 Gig is $2.50 (about 5 - 6 years), it A: will still be too expensive and B: I suspect, not big enough as by then we will need 1 Terabyte which will be about $100. It ain't gonna happen.
Discs are here to stay and a good job too. My DVD / Blu-Ray shelf would look pretty bare without them and I may have to put ornaments on there instead... ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!
You could easily double the resolution of Blu-Ray buy using TDK's new 4 layer discs and spinning the disc twice as fast.
Apparently these discs will work on most existing players.
P.S I'm from the UK better known as Great Britain or The Land of Hope and Glory (or at least it was until Tony Blair took over), but I have used USD as I have a feeling most of you guys are American.
Sorry I spelt the word organise correctly! ..... JOKE!! :-)
Sony execs, "Samsung said what?!, lets sue'em!"