Why do consumers put up with this.?

Question

There must be millions of standard DVD players out there that cost consumers millions and millions of dollars and now we are told that we will have to throw them all away and buy new ones because they won't play the new blue ray which is going to be the standred. But the new ones won't play the old DVD disk and the old ones won't play the new ones. The consumer gets it in the end. Does this satisfiy you as a consumer when times are already getting very hard for most of us?? Gas prices, etc.

Answer 1

What about those that invested in Beta formats or VHS format, VCR's are already dead.

But you are incorrect that Blu-ray players will not play the old standard DVDs , they are all backwards compatible and will play regular DVDs. Technology marches on, and the consumer will always pay in the end. Just look at those that just invested in HD-DVDs and they will go the way of the dodo bird too.

Answer 2

You have been misinformed.

Blu-ray is not taking over... it's a high priced alternative to DVD, not a replacement. DVDs will be around for a long, long time to come.

Blu-ray players WILL play DVDs (in fact they upconvert them to pseudo HD ... although so will some much cheaper DVD players)

You do have a right to be upset about how the consumer gets taken advantage of though ... but for different reasons. For example,

- Industry foisted partially complete Blu-ray players (Profile 1.0 and 1.1) on the consumer .. knowing full well that early players might have problems later. One I personally get upset about was Sony introducing a profile 1.0 player just 2 weeks before the deadline after which all new players would have to be profile 1.1 compliant.  

- industry, not consumers, decided that Blu-ray would "win" the HD format war.

- Industry, supported by government, decided that HDMI combined with HDCP would be implemented to protect copyright HD material from being copied. Industry benefits, but consumers pay ... and at the same time get their "fair use rights" trompled on and treated like criminals.

- BD+ and region coding are added to Blu-ray disks to protect studio interests despite the fact they, at best, slow down loading and at worst make some discs unplayable and/or interfere with consumer flexibility. And once again consumers have to pay for this "privilege".

There are many areas where consumers should be upset ... but the one you pointed out is not really one of them. I suggest we all educate ourselves so we tilt at the right windmills.

Answer 3

Changing formats is the nature of the game.  I have 8-tracks, cassettes, LPs, beta tapes, VHS tapes, etc. that were all the best at the time of purchase but were obsolete in a few short years.  The positive thing about blue-ray is that the players do play older format discs.

Answer 4

As a consumer, it frustrates me, but I like the improvements enough to tolerate it. I still have my Vinyl LPs and 45s, audio cassettes, video cassettes, laser disks and maybe even an 8 track or two, but I rarely use any of them.

The CE industry does tell us what we are going to be doing next, and we follow along with very few exceptions. Remember DAT or SuperVHS? The industry has decided that we are going to use Bluray players. One day soon, we will be able to buy a Bluray player for $99 and DVD will quietly go away. Expect hard drives to be storing films too, which will co-exist with, or possibly even overtake Bluray.

I wish some company would just skip forward and design a Star Trek style Holo-deck so our consumer electronics desires would be completely satisfied, but we simply don't have the technology yet.

Answer 5

1) Blu Ray is high definition video and mutlichannel sound. DVD can't do that because the amount of data to be stored is too small. SO, if consumers want high definition video and multichannel sound, DVD is not a reasonable option.

2) DVD is not dead and probably won't be for 5-10 years. Most Americans don't have high definition (HD) TVs or surround sound systems. If you don't have either, Blu-Ray is useless. Until MOST Americans have HD TVs OR until Blu-Ray players become as inexpensive as DVD players, DVDs will still be made and purchased.

Don't throw your DVD player away just yet. It still has a lot of life left in it.

Answer 6

well first off blue ray players not only play regular DVDs most will play just about any format you throw at it. consumers always want more,better,bigger. don't go throwing away your DVDs just yet. due to cost it won't be any less then 2 years before blue ray really takes over. and sense DVD is still a good format it will still be made for quite some time. i have both and buy depending on the type of movie.