“According to annual figures released in January by industry trade group the Digital Entertainment Group (DEC), overall home entertainment revenue grew 0.2% in 2012, surpassing $18 billion,” Dennis Sellers reports for Apple Daily Report. “And while DVD sales are way down, Blu-ray is doing well. Strategy Analytics says the global Blu-ray Disc Player market grew 19% in 2012 as consumers continue to migrate from DVD to Blu-ray. The increasing availability of high definition TVs and video content and the lack of sufficient Internet bandwidth in some regions are driving the growth of Blu-ray players, says the research group.”
“For cinephiles like myself, the best of all worlds is in a ‘combo pack,’ a Blu-ray disc that also has (ideally) DVD, iTunes and UltraViolet versions,” Sellers reports. “I guess it’s possible that Apple could put software “hooks” into Mac OS X Mavericks that will allow you to play Blu-ray discs on your Mac with third-party hardware. Alas, those chances are about a million to one.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 4K Ultra HD (UHD) television plus High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), aka h.265, delivered via cable, satellite, and/or high-speed internet (20+ Mbits/sec) is where the future lies, not conventional Blu-ray Disc on current HDTVs.
‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ [Steve Jobs] told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’ — Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
Blu-ray is a bag of hurt. – Steve Jobs, October 14, 2008
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