The Andy Griffiths Show: Blu-Ray R.I.P.
by John Paczkowski
Posted on September 4, 2008 at 5:30 AM PT
Blu-ray will be obsolete in five years. That’s not exactly the endorsement the consumer electronics industry needs as it heads into the holiday shopping season. But it’s the one Andy Griffiths, director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK, has given. In an interview with Pocket-lint, Griffiths said longevity isn’t one of Blu-ray’s strong suits. “I think it [Blu-ray] has five years left,” he predicted. “I certainly wouldn’t give it 10.”
Not the sort of proclamation you’d expect from a Blu-ray backer, but then, Samsung’s always been one to hedge its bets. For a time, the company backed both horses in the next-generation DVD race, launching a dual-format high-definition DVD player that supported both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
So what’s Samsung hedging its bet on this time? OLED displays, according to Griffiths. Which presumably means the company sees HD streaming video and low-cost holographic storage hitting the mainstream sooner than you might think.
Comments
So by this analysis, video devices like Apple TV and Netflix will bring about the demise of Blu Ray?
Posted by George Mag at September 4th, 2008 at 8:09 amYeah, ignoring the fact that Blu-ray adoption is going faster than going from VHS to DVD went. And ignoring the fact that Warner has announced an up-coming price drop on movies in Blu-ray format.
It’s only just beginning and they’re announcing the death of Blu-ray. Sure the newly out-to-pasture Bill Gates said a while back that optical formats will soon be irrelevant. But then when did he ever not over-promise and under-deliver?
And don’t forget Comcast is throttling the transfer rates of its Internet users. How long before the rest of the ISP monopolies are doing the same, all the while bandwidth increases on the Internet backbone are growing faster than bandwidth use?
Comcast’s 25 gigs a month might seem like a lot to transfer, until you realize one dual-layer Blu-ray disc is 50 gigs, and prototypes to 200 gigs are already in the works.
Posted by Eric Welch at September 4th, 2008 at 8:19 amOh man. I just converted my old 8-tracks to Blu-ray too. I shoulda waited.
Posted by Mac Beach at September 4th, 2008 at 6:53 pm