Samsung: "Blu-ray has 5 years left"

Comments

• Sounds very much to me that Andy has got a really bad case of foot and mouth disease. I doubt his masters will be pleased with his naive observations on the demise of Blu-Ray in five years. Posted by JohnP, Ireland
• Mr. Griffiths, you are clearly getting paid too much and being allowed to speak beyond your understanding of market dynamics (or lack thereof).
  
  "It's going to be huge" and "it'll be replaced in 5 years" presents an obvious contradiction that you do not seem to recognize.
  
  See you in five years.
  
  Posted by orakga, US
• Does he think that OLED is going to replace BD as a storage medium?I fail to see how that is even possible considering one is a TV and another is a disc format and video player. Idiot shouldn't be allowed to speak anymore, doesn't know what h is talking about Posted by Makidian, Ohio, USA
• ....why would Blu-ray be incompatible with OLED? how is a new type of screen gonna change anything? might look better, brighter.. but....how does that effect anything?
  
  jackass Posted by blithering, UK
• My take on his statements is that Samsung is focusing on OLED displays rather than BD storage..
  
  Everyone seems to think internet-based delivery is the way things are moving. Assuming great strides are made in bandwidth(and pricing) globally, I believe that will probably be true. However there will still be a market for optical discs for backup purposes and BD seems like it will continue to deliver, assuming it that the multi-layer discs become a (affordable) reality. Hopefully we'll see better results than DVDR dual layer discs ended up with.. Posted by Aric, US
• you guys are missing the bigger picture
  
  banana storage, mark my words, they are gonna use bananas to hold terabytes of data Posted by banana, Banana Republic
• It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Posted by kelvin83, usa
• This guy is clearly out of his mind. Any more contradictions and I'll be mailing this guy a pair of flip flops Posted by Jason, US
• OLED is going to take over from LCD as a display technology, and that will spell then end of BlueRay data storage? wtf? Posted by Barmy, Apathy Island
• He's just assuming that backing Blue-Ray is a bad idea as, in his opinion, it will only last 5yrs.
  So instead he is going to back OLED, which he thinks is a better investment due to his belief it will have a longer life span.
  
  He doesnt say it will be the end of Blue-Ray, he just states that 2008 will be the best year for it. I'm just assuming he's looking at it from an investment view point rather than a consumer. Posted by Reece, UK
• If you think about the way flash storage and internet connection bandwidth is going, in 5 years we could have 1TB flash drives and 100MB/sec downloads (infrastructure dependant obv.). If this happens, why the hell would you need optical disks?
  Even if the bandwidth isn't there, flash drives can still hold a substantial amount of data, more than enough for HD movies. Also I can't see the common man buying a new TV just because it's HD, so why bother moving away from DVD? Posted by Iain, UK
• Reading through the comments, not sure where the confusion has come from about OLED replacing Blu-ray.
  
  The inteview with Andy was a wide reaching one covering a number of topics, OLED and Blu-ray as well as many others.
  
  What I've tried to convey in the interview is that Samsung, a company that covers many areas, thinks OLED will replace LCD, Blu-ray has nothing to do with that element of the article.
  Posted by stuartmiles, United Kingdom
• "not sure where the confusion has come from about OLED replacing Blu-ray."
  
  Somewhere around where the article reads:
  
  "Citing online rental sites like LoveFilm's adoption of Blu-ray titles, the move to offer cheaper players and a now clear path to adoption following the Blu-ray HD DVD battle, Griffith says the format will be a winner, although not for long.
  
  Instead Samsung is putting its faith in its OLED technology."
  
  ... that would be my guess.
  
  
  Posted by Greg, UK
• I would assume that he probably meant that in 5 years, the blu-ray disc won't be as important as it is being advertised and displayed right now with it's $20- $40(old to new respectively) price range for most movies, within 5 years it'll probably be dropped down to the normal dvd standard of about $5- $20(old to new respectively) which would be very nice seeing how the market is at the moment. As far as bringing in Television Technology being comparable to the blu-ray, it was a bit far-fetched but at the same time including information about televisions being a type of computer-hub, he was again probably implying that he votes very strongly on the way downloading and flash drives compared to optical discs.
  
  But this is all that I can possibly see in this article for even being published. Posted by Jason, US
• Regardless of whether OLED and Blu-Ray are linked in any way, Mr. Griffiths must be mad if he thinks the mainstream public will buy Blu-Ray players for upwards of $300 (now its more) along with the media itself and then consider them obsolete in 5 years.
  
  If the mainstream consumer adopts Blu-Ray in a "huge" way, then I would be willing to bet that the format will last about as long as DVD. There is nothing exceedingly compelling which replaces it. Digital downloads, while convenient, do not offer a format with even the same quality as blu-ray. That and the fact that broadband in the US is a very long way indeed from supporting the bandwidth that would be required to support a mainstream adoption of that model.
  
  Posted by Frank, USA
• You guys are idiots! Obviously OLED will not replace Bluray, as they are not the same thing. He simply means that another format (digital downloads or even an ultra HD superior disc format) will come out and will steal Bluray's thunder. At the rapid rate that technology is advancing this is a given, and these technologies are already in development. 1080P will easily be superseded in 5 years time, although I personally believe it'll take more than 5 years for this new format to take over, it doesn't mean that it won't be available for the purists, such as myself. Those that are now having a hard time justifying the difference or need to upgrade from DVD to Bluray right now, will obviously be in the same boat when this time comes. Posted by Nuxper, Canada
• You guys are bloody idiots if you think the author or Griffiths (of Samsung) are insinuating that OLED will replace BD. They are TWO different segments/two different technologies with totally different purposes - Griffiths is saying they will put more resources and effort into OLED than into BD because it will have (at least according to him) a better return on investment - he sees BD as a short-term investment and OLED as long-term investment for his company - that's all.
  
  Get your head out of your arse.
  
  Techiedude Posted by Scott, USA
• when will people realise that for downloaded movies to replace disc based there has not only got to be a vast increase in bandwidth worldwide not just usa, no capping of downloaded data and getting all of the non techy public to accept this way of doing things. Many many people want a system that is easy to use, pop a disc in and press play, many older people are still not computer savy and will not be in 5 years time, some people still like to hold the disc in their hand, why do you think we still buy books and not read everything on computer. Just my opinion but as an engineer and teacher of technology what do i know? Posted by adrian, uk
• Well, some of the displays presented at IFA had a resolution way beyond today's HD. That means that you'll need another storage format. Maybe that could be a link between the development of the new OLED displays and the end of the BD... Posted by Malco, Belgium
• What a lousy article. Even if this guy had a logical explanation for this claim he didn't even try to clarify. When you are talking about storage medium being replaced, you need to say what it is replaced with or at least explain why you don't think it's relevant. Just about anyone posting their response here could write a more relevant and educated article. What an idiot. Posted by Trevor, Canada
• I hate Sony. I will never buy a Playstation. I will never buy Blu-Ray anything. I predict Blu-Ray will go the way of Sony's other triumphs, like Beta tapes and MiniDiscs. There is good reason the PS3 is in third place in the console wars. They seem to have no idea what the public wants, what makes the most sense, and what is affordable. Posted by John Doe, US
• Blu-ray as a storage media is already being left well behind by hard disc drives
  (easily the cheapest gb/$)
  and soon even flash storage
  (32gb is falling in price and 64gb & bigger is coming - and all will fall heavily just like existing 8gb drives and 16gb drives have).
  
  In 5 years the connection speeds in many if not most places will easily enable downloading & streaming of high def files
  (especially when the unnecessary wastes of space like umteen languages & uncompressed audio are removed - or made optional).
  
  In my town we're 6mths off of 'up to 24mb' connections becoming the norm (if the ratio stays the same as my 'up to 8mb' connection I'll see 22mb down and 1.2mb up).
  
  Wake up folks. Disc is dead.
  
  Over-priced Blu-ray discs are even deader - and as far as the mass-market is concerned never really came to life anyways
  (its current PS3 niche does not count as 'mass-market' by any sane stretch of the imagination) ). Posted by DaveBG, UK
• Duh, you people are idiots. What he means is that in five years there will be discs that are made out of OLEDs and you'll be able to watch a movie in high def right on the disc. In fact, OLEDs will coat everything: walls, ceilings, your iPhone. OLEDs will allow us to talk to aliens and spaceships. The voices in my heads are excited. It'll be so cool! Posted by Bob Dole, USA
• The best thing about using Bananas for storage is security, once you have finished with it as a storage medium, then eat it ! this provides "organic" data encryption / destruction and even the CSI coudn't recover the data once it is "organically" encrypted. Believe me it works! I eat a banana a day so I should know. Posted by Bananas Bananas, Outer Mongolia (inner)
• Three things.
  1) After reading the comments it's clear that OLED and Blu-Ray are not linked. Will OLED replace LCD? It's not about technolgy, it's about cost. If OLED becomes cheaper, it will win. If not, it won't.
  2) Somebody suggested that higher resolution TVs will require a better storage medium. I disagree. What drives the storage medium requirement is the capture resolution of the HD in Hollywood and ESPN. That's 1080i. Even if you have a higher resolution screen, you're only getting a 1080 input. So watch the capture resolution for advances in the medium.
  3) This has to be one of the more poorly written articles I've come across. As a reader, the title of "Blu-ray has 5 years left" prepares me to read an article about why and what comes next. But that's what the article is about, is it? Then the author tries to transition from the poor title selection to the main idea of the article - the coming OLED display technology. Therefore, the reader is confused about whether OLED will replace Blu-ray. The author should strive to follow Publishing 101 guidelines: tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Posted by Clark, USA
• HD DVD will make a comeback, mark my words. Posted by Boz, USA
• The article might be edited too much, blurring elements into each other, but the content certainly makes sense to me.
  The headline is misleading, likely deliberately distorted to get a catchy tag line, but that's neither Samsung's nor Mr. Griffiths fault.
  
  It is clear that Andy Griffiths didn't mean Blu-Ray will be extinct in exactly 5 years. He said he "wouldn't give it 10", so the 5 year figure can only be seen as a starting point for Blu-Ray's decline.
  
  Looking at emerging technologies like Quad HD, 3D movies, IMAX films at 4Kx2K resolution, faster broadband, Wimax, 3D flash storage chips, etc. I can easily imagine that Blu-Ray won't be king of the hill anymore in 5-10 years time.
  We might all be buying movies via 256GB USB3 sticks or large capacity MP3 players/mobile phones instead of Blu-Ray discs. Or we might just download them over night or even stream them wirelessly.
  It is a reasonable assumption that Blu-Ray's life span will be much shorter than DVDs.
  
  Mr. Griffiths never said Blu-Ray discs won't be around in 10+ years. They merely won't be as important anymore as they seemed in 2008. In 5-10 years most people will have moved on to other ways of purchasing/renting movies.
  That is how I understood his comments.
  
  
  And OLEDs won't completely replace LCDs for a long time either. However they will offer applications no LCD can provide: super-thin, flexible, see-through displays, energy efficient displays, layered/holographic 3D displays, new illumination and lighting designs, etc. Think about it: any smooth surface, flat or curved, can become a display AND light source, even see-through ones like car wind screens or windows.
  
  This is why OLEDs are going to be huge and exciting for decades to come. Whereas Blu-Ray discs seemingly already come with a built-in expiry date.
  And which is why Samsung would be wise to invest in OLED and not Blu-Ray.
  This is my understanding of what Mr. Griffiths was saying. Posted by Andreas, UK
• Where is the interview? I see a condensed summary above but no Interview. Is there some kind of space limitation on pocket-lint that makes it necessary to have Stuart paraphrase the interview. There are more comments then copy.
  Posted by Sam, USA
• Sam, we were given around 20 minutes with Andy on the Samsung stand at IFA in Berlin and while Andy and I talked about more than is written above in the interview, a lot of it wasn't interesting or relevant to you, our readers. Hope that answers your question? Posted by stuartmiles, United Kingdom
• Has Andy been fired yet? Won't be long now..... Posted by JohnP, Ireland
• Blu-Ray was doomed from day one. Over sold, over priced, and under-delivered. Consumers should have demanded more support for HD DVD, or given another choice altogether. Now they will suffer instead of benifit. Happy now Blu-Ray lovers? Posted by Gorky, USA
• Well I don't know about you, but not many in my family have a clue how to download movies. Not everyone has their computers hooked up to their TVs. OnDemand services haven't put a dent in DVD sales. This whole fad of Digital Downloads isn't for the general public! More tech oriented family's will adapt to it but those who don't know how to use a computer (McCain, heh) will not.
  
  Regular Americans like to own things that are tangible. Flash drives maybe an option. But already they have worked out a way to substantially increase the disc size of a blue ray disc with layering techniques. And Sony's firmware updates to the PS3 will adapt it to newer tech. So I don't see Blue Ray going away in 5 years. I see it evolving and will adapt to higher resolutions has they become available. Posted by Pytheus, USA
• Wow. Gorky wrote four whole lines, when he could have summed it all up in one word: Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. LMAO. Posted by Parkie, Nosepoke Ohio
• Bored..bored..bored. What were we talking about anyway..something about bananas? Posted by daft, uk
• Is "you people are all idiots" now a new form of greeting people? Boy, how the net has changed things....... Posted by Obviously an idiot, UK
• What a stupid article designed to create confusion. Can't they get people who actually know something about these technologies to write these types of articles? My guess is this author is the old fogie type who doesn't own a computer and still reads the newspaper... Posted by Dutch, USA
• Hmmm dohhhh nothing about replacement storage at all .... seems to be an OLED sales pitch more than anything .. OLED can't store jack on it.
  uses less power than scarlet perhaps like SSDs where suppose to be.
  when the sizies and refresh rates are the same or better then we have compare apples with apples.
  
  With BD heading down the track with more layers and up to 500GB(20 layer disc) from the some big guns pushing 10/16/20 layers and more ... what ever storge comes will have to be pretty impressive and cost efffective to come close.
  
  Considering now I can get BD for 12$au and BD-RE for 15$au from www.msy.com.au 25GB it only a matter of time till they are price of DVD-RW/DVD-R.
  
  Content drives the market and once BD has hold I doubt people will want to change after investing equipment that comes out only of BD/DVD.
  
  The new format would have to be backward compatible to CD/DVD/BD(RE/RW) as well as it's own format special in most modern cities where people pay by the square metre for every once of space. They have little room different recording and playing devices and look for All-in-one to save space.
  Many like myself are not will to depart from their current CD/DVD/BD collection just to get the same old movie on new media for media sake.
  
  Unless this new media catered for something new the others did not what is the point. Perhaps Quad-HD or Holigrapic movies with 22.1 audio might convince me.
  
  Tell us why we should bother if entertainment will not be any cheap than what we are currently buying or using. Hmmm????
  
  More facts and less hype.
  
  Plus OLED will have to be bigger and better LCD by a long shot and price competative .. relaxing on lounge some 3m from the unit if it don;t look much better and if you have to pay 3 times the price to save 500$au on power over 10yrs .. if the technogoly is cheap to produce and cost effective and less envormential impact in the production process then I be for it ... most power companeis these days are turning more and more to renewable source for energy such as solar/farming/air/wave and hydroelectic.
  I am aware of other ways that are more difficult to meter and thus economically not viable for commerical purposes but that for another day.
  Posted by MMC65, Australia
• Yeah, Blu-ray is dead already right?
  That's why sales are up 350% over this time last year.
  I guess the word entry to post doesn't keep total slappers from posting.
  Digital delivery hasn't even taken over from SD yet, nevermind HD. Posted by Steve, Canada
• Where in the article does it state that OLED is going to 'replace' Blu-Ray? It does not anywhere! The article I read suggests Samsung is going to invest in OLED technology rather than Blu-Ray, which Griffiths is predicting may be replaced with yet another storage format within the next five years.
  
  COMPREHENSION people. Look it up, maybe use it? Posted by Circlestrafe, USA
• i think you guys are a bunch idiots... Posted by smartarse, uk
• you guys are just misunderstanding
  the article misinformed you guys
  the article failed to mention that the new OLED TV is actually a Ultra High Definition TV.
  it's more clear with larger scale than standard HD.
  like Andy said, blu-ray will die in few years and be replaced with new ultra high definition format.
  you guys should have searched OLED before insulting a president of samsung.
  im sure he knows alot more about future technology than u guys Posted by eh?, canada
• I think this article was a bit poorly written considering the jumps which are made throughout. There currently is no technology on the table which can replace Blu-ray for overall quality, other then Digital Downloads, which are a ways off from being a feasible replacement to Blu-ray. Five years? Not in the USA, that's for sure, and it almost seems to be moving backwards as ISPs are increasingly putting caps on monthly downloads.
  
  On the other hand, the maximum profitability of Blu-ray is likely to be reached in the next 5-7 years, at which point a new 'cash cow' will come along and replace it - and OLED is very likely to be that new cash cow in the mind of Samsung.
  
  Yet, it is VERY hard to tell without hearing the actual interview (boring or not), or reading the full text, or hearing a follow up as to exactly what he means by that statement, to understand what exactly the "it has five years left" statement really means. HD has been around for almost ten years, and DVD has been around a bit longer, but just now we are reaching technological levels that allow for 1080p delivery at reasonable prices. I don't think there is necessarily a technology in the wings just waiting to replace it in five years for sure, and considering how many people think that many will be hard pressed to switch from DVD, a jump above and beyond Blu-ray makes even less sense.
  
  I would love to hear/read more about what was specifically said in regards to Blu-ray as it pertains to Samsung and their future outlook of the format itself, or if it is just an internal company view as it relates to profitability.
  
  Thanks Posted by AV Integrated, USA
• "I hate Sony. I will never buy a Playstation. I will never buy Blu-Ray anything. I predict Blu-Ray will go the way of Sony's other triumphs, like Beta tapes and MiniDiscs. There is good reason the PS3 is in third place in the console wars. They seem to have no idea what the public wants, what makes the most sense, and what is affordable. "
  John Doe, US
  
  AHHHH the xbox 360 fanboys are even attacking here now! take cover everyone!
  Posted by --RHY--, UK
• Check out the Sony Electronics Blog. A recent post talks about why Sony thinks Blu-ray is here to stay, despite contrary reports.
  
  ~Jen
  
  Jennifer Peterson
  Sony Electronics Blog Moderator
  Sony Electronics
  
  www.Sony.com/ElectronicsBlog
  Posted by Jennifer From Sony , USA
• Blu-Ray will eventually get replaced by something else...you ever watch the Lion King? It's the circle of life dammit...something dies and something takes its place...and chances are it will be another Sony format or medium that gets shoved down our throats. What he's stating is fact...whether or not it's five years is beyond my guess. Before you Blu-supporters get your panties in a knot, just remember that no matter what happens to the format, your movies and Blu-Ray players that you overpaid for will not quit working...then again some of the players are pretty shitty. Don't microwave your discs, either. Posted by Blah, Japan
• As I searched the web for information about Andy Griffiths' background,
  he used to be a marketing executive for Sony. However, he was axed by Howard Stringer in 2005.
  
  It figures he's still bitter about that.
  
  Other than LCD TVs and cellular phones, Samsung's other consumer electronics products are still in the same class as Chinese products. Posted by neilen bob, Earth
• Beta,Vhs,dvd, Hd Dvd, Now Blu-Ray Dvd. Oled, This Means Only One Thing???????????????????????????????????????????????? Money For Old Rope. Posted by Ron, uk
• Well, I think what he is saying is that in 5 or so years there will be something newer and better. I look back at the last 5 years and see how technology has progressed adn I really understand where he is coming from. Posted by jofi dragon, uk
• I am certainly not spending money on buying Blu Rays, choosing instead to rent them. Having read this, I sense I am probably making the right choice - especially when i look at my shelf full of VHS video cassettes and forlornly realise that I no longer even have a VCR!
  
  Good list of sites offering unlimited Blu Ray rental, and who offers the most here: http://www.choosedvdrental.co.uk/dvd-rental-guide/articles/which-dvd-rental-sites-offer-blu-ray-rental.html Posted by Jeff, UK
• 2008 is Blu-ray's year? And he's saying this in September, with just three months to go...
  
  Are you sure he doesn't mean 2009, following a Christmas where more players and HD TVs make it into the home?
  
  Perhaps it would have been better to split the two points in this article into two stories. It's possible to do that when there's only a tenuous link, you know. Posted by Gadget fan, UK
• Like Samsung and this employee, it's a half hearted attempt.
  
  Samsung products are never innovative, these guys just copy other company's ideas. There's always a feature or quality missing. People say that LG and Samsung make panels for other brands, this maybe true. But that doesn't mean that the higher quality panels they make for other brands are what they use in their sets.
  
  As well as the fact that the other electronics within the set, the tuner, sound, picture processor won't be made by Samsung and would be made by the brand and this is what makes the other brand better.
  
  OLED will be the future, but Sony were the first, there are no prizes or accolades for being second or biggest. Sony are true innovators, infact Bang & Olufsen have also had some OLED research completed recently.
  
  Blu Ray is here to stay! PS3 is going to be around for some time. BluRay integrated TV sets are around the corner and Blu Ray drives for PCs are cheap as chips now. If Blu Ray was going then DVD would have gone by now?
  
  The only thing to replace Optical Media (Blu Ray, DVD, CD) is going to be Solid State storage (memory sticks). Solid state is smaller, less vulnerable to damage and the ability to write onto segments of it open a whole avenue of interaction with content and the updateability of it. Imagine you buy a movie on a memory stick, watch it and every year the film maker releases different endings or scenes. Games companies can update advertising within games, music too.... Posted by NilC, UK
• Anyone with half a brain knows that with the increasing speeds of residential Internet connections, the need for tangible discs such as Blu-Ray, diminishes.
  
  Tangible media such a Blu-Ray confines the user to using a fixed level of compression for films where as downloads will cater for any level of compression as broadband speeds improve.
  
  Film downloads will be as common place as music downloads are today.
  
  Blu-Ray is pointless for the consumer at large and merely a money making exercise for the hardware manufacturers concerned.
  
  Downloads = faster, cheaper and better quality.
  
  Blu-Ray = consumer rip off, fixed compression levels and encourages piracy and organised crime. Posted by MacroEQ, London, UK.
• anyone who thinks that downloads of feature films are faster, cheaper and better quality is a MAJOR idiot !!! Posted by Howard, UK
• I agree that downloads are a very viable way of delivering content to the consumer, but think about all those people who have money but no technical know how and can't use the simplest electronic equipment. The only way to get their cash is to sell them something tangible that they can stick in a player and watch.
  
  Companies need this money as well as "electronic" money, otherwise there will be no funds for research and advances in technology.
  
  There will be a symbiosis of conventional hardware (discs and sticks) with downloadable content.
  
  Yes piracy is a problem but if companies make good products and easily accessible at a fair price, piracy will slow down. Look at music downloads, you only buy what you like, long gone are the days you buy one album and 1 song is good the other 11 crap! Plus companies are now on the cusp of a digital rights management revolution with broadband companies on board etc.- so pirates beware!
  
  One major point - downloads will never be 1080p full feature length movie quality or be able to random access like a disc, because that 50GB monster would take ages to download at current speeds. From speaking to friends high up in the broadband business - the speeds will get quicker but not in the next 2-5 years, and not until BT replace their copper wire systems, even Virgin broadband doesn't have the capacity as it still relies on BT Exchanges at some point in the line.
  
  You have to ask yourself, do you really need all that speed and bandwith? Whatever happened to reading a book, doing some exercise, calling an old friend or family, or doing something nice for people you care? We are becoming a people of de-volution, our brains will stop evolving and computers will be strapped on to us to do the thinking for us! Posted by NilC, UK
• So far you have all got it wrong, Andy Griffiths second love is an Organic Farmer and has over planted with Carrots, everyone knows Bugs Bunny can see far better than any humans eating all those Carrots on the set, so Andy has something up his sleeve made from Organic Carrots containing antioxidants, and minerals + β-carotene a supper source for both seeing and storing this High Definition format. Posted by Graham, UK
• Perhaps in 10 years he'll have figured out how to get the Samsung Blu-ray "players" to play movies. Considering a Samsung? Do a search for BD-P1200 problems. Posted by nazz, usa
• what a bunch of dicks! Blue Ray Sucks!! what is it with you morons, Why do you like being ripped off!!
  The man is right! Blue ray is dead!!! We will soon have flash drives that will be far more cost effective that the stupid Blue ray discs! Also the rapid improvement of internet band width along with the development of active TV's will make Blue Ray Obsolete. You should open your eyes and look beyond your fat belly buttons.
  
  TechGeek Posted by TeckGeek, UK
• I suspect Blu-rays will be the last 'media' based format for a long time. Not because downloads are going to take over, but because we're getting to a point where having higher resolutions and more sound channels is becoming redundant. You can barely tell the difference (if at all) between 720p and 1080p on an avg sized TV (32" or less). Even if 80" TVs that display at 2160p become the norm (doubtful) there's no reason to believe that BD won't be able to keep up. Sure they'll have to upgrade the technology, adding layers and faster data transfers, but these things are already happening. Hitachi has already come up with 500gb BD discs that are backwards compatible with current machines. They predict 1 terabyte discs by 2013.
  
  Downloaded movies, on the other hand, are still a whiles a way. Music works because it takes a minute max to download a 4 mb song. We're not at the point where one can download a 50gb true HD movie in a day, let alone 1 min. It's going to take a LONG time before such a thing becomes possible (not 5 years). I've had broadband for 10 years now, and it hasn't changed that noticeably in that time (other than the addition of caps). And it's not just about bandwidth, but creating servers that can feed that kind of information on an international scale.
  
  Besides, physical media beats downloaded media in one important aspect: portability. Until downloaded true HD movies become easily accessible from anywhere, I don't see physical media going anywhere anytime soon. Here again, music proves my point. Itunes works because you can put your entire musical library on an 120gb iPod (making it more portable than cds). Without these sufficiently large mp3 players, however, barely anybody would download music. Right now, I can only put two true HD movies on current iPod models -- hardly enough. I could barely put 20 movies on a hypothetical 1 terabyte iPod -- still not enough. You'd need a 5 terabyte iPod to be able to hold 100 movies (that would probably be enough) and that's provided movies stay at 1080p. 2160p movies would require 4x the space at least (20 terabyte iPods??). Posted by Andre, Canada
• hi my name is jess willard n i love NY city Posted by jess willard , england
• Only morons (and there are many) would pay triple the price for a rip off on blue ray for a movie they already own on DVD which was and still is at least 2/3 cheaper! I guess it's true that there's a sucker born every minute.
  
  Nat Posted by Nathan Banks, USA
• Ignore the ridiculous posts... Blu Ray does not have a long lifespan. This article does not contradict itself. It simply states that as a medium Blu Ray is a flash in the pan. Why is this? It's clearly because in our new digital age we are getting away from physical mediums and more reliant upon instant access. Examples of new ways to receive HD will be through the internet with insanely high bandwidth. What does this have to do with OLED? The article explains why Samsung is investing more into OLED as opposed to Blu Ray. Just because there was a 350% increase does not mean it's insanely popular either. Of course there will be an increase in percentage when total units sold was low to begin with plus the large slash in prices from it's outset. Posted by Evan , United States of America