Blu-Ray

I have broken this off from the recent OS thread. Been told by a couple of people who do home theaters for a living that Blu-Ray is basically dead technology. It will soon be replaced by...AppleTV! I have seen this product in action and it is very impressive. You can stream any AV wirelessly from your computer to your TV. This includes movies, music, still images, podcasts or whatever. Looks like a bit of downloading is in our future. I post this to suggest an option to anyone about to take the plunge to Blu-Ray.

Scott

I agree. In addition to Apple TV there are several other providers who plan to stream content to your home. The industry will do to DVD and Blu ray movies what it did to VHS and beta.

Technology certainly has changed.

I recently changed cable providers and added couple of televisions in the back rooms. I had no cable outlet back there. So the signal comes in to the primary router via the existing coax and then is fed to the back rooms via the cat5 Ethernet cables that I have. The cable decoder box will work with either coax or Ethernet.

Seems to me that wireless TV would be an easy thing for them to add, since the router is also providing WiFi throughout the house.

I just wonder about bandwidth. How many HD televisions can be run on WiFi? Suppose I had 4 people in 4 rooms watching 4 different channels in HD, and I was also recording another 4 channels in HD? All over WiFi. Or are they using some other wireless technology that has more bandwidth.

Did I mention that there was a bunch of music, videos and software downloads also running at the same time over the wireless?

I have Apple TV running over an 802.11 G network in my house. Theoretical speeds are 54Mps but it's really a burst rate so a constant bit rate service like streaming video runs much slower. What Apple TV does is to buffer a good bit of the movie first- e.g., you have to wait from 5 to 15 minutes before the system is comfortable starting the movie so it doesn't stutter somewhere in the middle.

The reality is that it isn't the home network that's likely to be the issue but the delivery or backbone network that is highly shared between many many users. I include the video servers where the content is streaming from in here too.

I have to say though, that like most things Apple makes, it works pretty well and saves many trips to the video store. It also allows you to put your photos up on the screen so you can do "slide" shows. You can also stream your music to it which is nice if it's hooked up to your home audio or theater system.

It does not allow you to share your computer screen or "surf the web", which it could easily do. I'm sure these types of devices will evolve to allow all sorts of things going forward.

Phil

Just the tip of the iceberg! Streaming AV content is just in it's infancy...

I'm not looking for BluRay support for simple home viewing as you suggest... I'm looking for BluRay support for authoring and distribution. Streaming content over a home network does little for me.

Currently I'm able to author HD slideshows using third party software and using standard dvd-r media. This works great for simple single-show slideshows that are no more than 15-20mins long. The problem here is in the early stages of BluRay players, most didn't support this format (AVCHD), but more and more are.

I'm hoping the "iApps" will support BluRay authoring soon, and ultimately make this as simple as authoring a standard dvd is now. Thus allowing full content BluRay media to be used.

As just one example of what I'm looking for..... I shoot my son's rugby team throughout the season. I then author a dvd containing multiple slideshows of each game, etc. This is then sold at the end of the year to raise money for the team. With today's current technology I can only do this in SD. With BluRay support and a burner, I can then offer a HD version.

I don't buy that "BluRay is dead" crap. I too have been hearing that from sources. This is a lot like our current news media telling us what our economy is doing, thus making the economy do it.
I think this has a lot to do with how Jobs wants to go to market with BluRay, especially since he's on the BluRay board. I personally think there were some promises and concessions made from Apple to be able to market those useless movies from the major motion picture studios. One of which is to hinder "home" BluRay support to thus hinder BluRay piracy and ripping....a issue that is costing the studios millions with standard SD. Just my 2 cents.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by Scott O

I have ... been told by a couple of people who do home theaters for a living that Blu-Ray is basically dead technology. It will soon be replaced by...AppleTV!

It seems that there are two things going on here. First, I have seen the "Blu-Ray is dying" comment in print - I think it was in PCWorld magazine a month or two back. Since technology changes so rapidly (often for no purpose other than change itself, in my opinion), I see no reason for that to be a fabrication. But the second thing that happened in your conversation is that the home theater people can't just say "Don't buy Blu-Ray" and then walk away. They want to sell you something! Hence the second half of their comment.

In the limited context of camping in a TM, we think of a small player, to let us watch movies on a rainy day. For that application, a Blu Ray player will be fine for many years. In fact, I expect no problem with my conventional DVD player.

For the larger context of home theater, multiple TVs, and so forth, the answer may be different. Is Apple TV the right answer? I have no idea, but it will be interesting to look into it.

Bill

A couple of additional things come to mind. I also do shows slide shows, mostly of family stuff. The authoring program I use (ProShowGold) has supported export in Blu-Ray format for over a year. The problem is the hardware. Blu-Ray burners are either not readily available or expensive. So I have yet to go there, although I would like to.

Bill also mentioned something I wasn't thinking about...use in a TM. But AppleTV or some similar product might actually be easier to use in that context. The box is much smaller than a standard DVD player and with a small external hard drive would allow access to all of your AV files, both audio and visual. And this would be the same equipment you use in the house so nothing additional would be needed. The mind reels with possibilities!

While the streaming content is a cool "feature", this will never be mainstream. I don't think the majority of people are going to build a "non-tangible" movie collection and let it be stored solely on a hard drive in any type of device. That's just asking for disaster. If I'm going to build a HD movie collection, I want something to hold in my hand, and as Bill as pointed out, to be mobile, and used where ever I want.

There currently is a big technology hole that everyone seems to be stepping around, and that is consumer/prosumer level HD authoring/editing. Apple introduced SD authoring/editing to consumers and it was a huge hit. The masses bought small, easy to use SD video cameras and started editing and authoring their own dvds.
Then HD video cameras become available and the same ability is now ignored/avoided. There's something to this, and no doubt it is money from a different direction.

I would have no problem if they wanted to limit HD/BluRay to the "pro apps", but even that isn't happening. Again, there is a big plug in the dam, and I'm hoping it's going to let loose soon. I've been holding off spending any computer related money until this broke, but I can't wait any longer.

On a different, but same issue, the computer industry is desperately in need of newer, larger storage media. Standard dvd media (4 and 8 GB) is extremely dated and needs replacing by a larger capacity media such as BluRay (25 and 50 GB). Common hard drive sizes are now out to 2 TBs, while media is still stuck at a ridiculous 4 GBs. Something has to give soon.

Without trying to drag this out, I still believe Blu Ray will go the way of VHS. That is not go away but drop from the mainstream of content delivery in favor of streaming. Burners and players will continue to be avail for home use in authoring and distributing, but will fall out of the mainstream of commercial content delivery. Content players will be small and hard-disk equipped so the content can be stored and played at a later date and location. The focus of the semiconductor industry customers is currently on streaming delivery.