Posted on 09/16/2008 3:09:27 PM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
Blu-Ray’s conquered the HD format war, but its design and technical limitations mean the current format is as good as it’ll get. Sony says it’ll be the last optical format, after which, we’ll move way from shiny discs altogether.
See, it’s all down to the limitations of lasers and the discs themselves.
Speaking at IFA, Taka Miyama, Sony’s product strategy manager for home video marketing in Europe told us: “Blu-Ray is the final format for the optical disc. We don’t have a shorter laser. In the future, if we have a physical media format, it will change physically. It won’t look like an optical disc.”
That suggests we’ll move to a Flash-based medium, or maybe holographic storage, but Miyama’s not giving anything away.
“I don’t know what sort of technology we will have in the future,” he said, “but while using lasers and optical discs, this is the final format.”
However, Sony’s chief technical advisor for home audio and video, Eric Kingdon, explained that the Blu-Ray format is still a long way from reaching its full potential.
“I’ve seen prototypes for 400GB discs,” he said. “That’s approaching half a terabyte. If you went to 4K (twice the resolution of full HD), Blu-Ray is still big enough for a full movie. If it’s enough, then there’s no need to do any more development.”
So Blu-Ray won’t, or rather can’t, see an upgrade any time soon, and the next generation of home video might still use the Sony format.
What do you think? Can you imagine buying a movie on a flash drive, or will we have switched to high-speed downloads by the time Blu-Ray is out-dated?
Wow! you’re really with the times and technology..
I’m STILL using a large Allied reel to reel, booming out of a large wood cabinet stereo system build by my fatherinlaw - in the 50’s! It’s hooked up to a Heathkit amplifier and speakers that fill both ends of the large cabinet..
It still sounds wonderful......
Sony says it'll be the last optical format, after which, we'll move way from shiny discs altogether...That suggests we'll move to a Flash-based medium, or maybe holographic storage, but Miyama's not giving anything away.Density is climbing in flash RAM, and price is coming down. After 8GB chips get down to under $1 -- or are sufficiently cheap that the power and space savings over DVDs look more attractive -- we'll be looking at the beginning of the decline in optical storage. 8GB USB drives are under $40 and falling. 4GB (which can be argued as a feasible replacement for DVD storage) are under $30, certainly, and probably $20 or less (I haven't checked in a few weeks).
I saw one 6-8 months ago at BestBuy. I want to think it was a Sharp or a Sammie ... small set, maybe 25-27".
They've pretty much disappeared from the marketplace since then ... a lot of pressure from the cable companies I was told.
We kept making the argument that replacing the 1000 pound 1960’s tech computer with a new one wouldn't only save space, be far more reliable, and far more capable, but would also pay for itself in jet fuel in short order.
Of course it was the government, it took about ten years to get any action.
I'm not sure that's right. I just bought a 47" Sharp and it included a QAM tuner. In fact, that was a deal breaker for me; I didn't want a set-top box. Most of the sets that I looked at had QAM tuners.
A point of caution, though: they only received unscrambled signals, so, for instance, I don't receive ESPN's HD feed using the QAM tuner despite that I can get it with the set-top box I have in the other room.
But it's nice watching my neighbors' pay-per-view--which you can do with the QAM.
If you have a QAM tuner, you don't need a cable card. The QAM tuner receives the signals and puts them on your tv set. Plug in your TV and you're all set to watch digital, high-def programming.
Where'd you find so many? I've already got cable box and HD setup for the home theater, but am looking to replace kitchen, bedroom, and patio sets with HD and don't want to have to hassle with (or pay for) additionl cable boxes.
I ordered my set from buy.com (with no trouble, incidentally).
If you are looking for TVs, I suggest that you look at www.dealnews.com daily.
Also, here’s a link to another set—a Sharp—with a QAM tuner included.
Ok, here’s a list (by no means exhaustive) of TVs with QAM tuners.
http://www.nextag.com/Televisions—zzqam+tv+tunerz500014zB6z5-—html
many thanx
‘Cause these kinds of thread are generally fun, and sometimes even a little educational....that’s why, big fella.
Warhawk is pretty cool, I bought it but barely play it though.
The problem I have is I can’t ever seem to be able to pull myself away from playing Battlefield 2142 on my PC to ever play PS3 games.
When My buddies come over though its Motorstorm, Burnout Paradise and GTA 4 craziness.
It’s still odd given your stated desire to not take advantage of the information.
If you want to know expensive, I paid up to $14.00 for 4 1/2 hour Beta tapes back then.
I’m still hoping for solid state DVR that could hold my entire collection of DVD’s and still have room left over.
I’ll give it 10 years......
:’) Samsung announced a 128GB flash chip, probably still a little expensive though. Big flash drives have been used in lieu of hard drives in some computers (Asus I think, and the Mac Air, among probably others).
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