KEY POINTS:
Sony has at last had some good news. When it introduced the PS3, the electronics giant talked up the new console having a Blu-ray player, HDMI outputs and WiFi. There was little emphasis on games.
Most of us didn't have much of an opinion or desire to explore Blu-ray
versus HD but now we've been lured into buying a big screen and learning about the joys of seeing high def TV and movies now that content is becoming available.
That's been my exciting discovery over the holidays. I have bought several Blu-ray movies and viewed at 1080p on my new big-screen TV, they look better than what I remember from the last multiplex movie I saw.
The older movies I watched were as good as DVD but the new ones - including the BBC's Planet Earth doco series are just remarkable and mates were awed by the scene detail and the massive planet Earth as viewed from space.
Even the cynical among my mates are blown away.
Now PS3 is definitely on the money. As we've read over the last week, 70 per cent of the big film studios have aligned now with Blu-ray and the others are reportedly re-considering their stance and what they will do.
Sony, which lost out bigtime in the decades- old VHS/Betamax war puts its money on the bigger-capacity DVD read by a high frequency blue laser.
So what now happens with Xbox which chose the HD camp?
A Reuters report that appeared around the world at the weekend quoted the Xbox hardware marketing manager as saying Microsoft would consider a Blu-ray add-on as "if that's the way they (the consumer) vote, that's something we'll have to consider."
But he has since said the interpretation of his comments were wrong and told the Gizmodo site that Microsoft was "not thinking about it", with "it" being the design of an Xbox 360 Blu-ray drive.
Meanwhile there are reports Sony has managed to further cut by about half the PS3 production costs which could lead to a price drop down the way.
With Warner Brothers coming onboard to produce Blu-ray movies, PS3 now can be marketed as an affordable Blu-ray player that's also for games, connects to the internet via broadband, and has a hard-disk drive for downloading games, videos, and music.
But there is still a question mark over the new discs themselves, the Blu-ray medium technology with maximum storage.
I've been surprised how few stores are selling Blu-ray movies. In Melbourne on holiday, I went to a Harvey Norman that had a huge push for giant TVs and cinema entertainment centres and pushed PS3 as having a Blu-ray player, but the store had no Blu-ray discs on sale and the assistant was most dis-interested when asked -as if it was a strange request. Back in New Zealand I've found the biggest range at Sounds Plus.
Also, lots of the titles I have found at places like JB Hi-fi have been older titles and some were not even re-mastered.
In Britain last year, 470,000 Blu-Ray discs and 200,000 HD DVDs were sold.
That sounds impressive but compare that to the number of DVD discs sold - 250 million.
So don't count DVDs out yet. Both PS3 and Xbox 360 can upscale DVDs to High Definition output (usually making the content look better in the process).
And by the time Blu-ray discs arrive at stores in volume, there's yet another thing likely to have happened.
In countries that enjoy fast broadband, people will grow accustomed to watching movies and TV on their lounge media centre or iPhone, portable device, whatever device -and there will be a growth in online movie downloads making the whole physical disc medium potentially obsolete (as is happening now to CDs).
Xbox owners, that enjoy the Xbox live service, will buy and download high-def content online and put on their hard drive, as will Sony console users.
That would make Blu-ray a successful but niche format as laser discs were in the US in the 80s or 90s save hi-def games and collector edition movies.
Meanwhile I'll still be buying a few Blu-ray to show off and justify my expensive 1080p-capable TV. So what happens to all those HD-DVD users?
