[Publib] Blu-Ray DVDs [Scanned]

[Walt Crawford]

This one's tricky (one reason I've been following it for 2+ years).

It's not a Betamax situation: That was HD DVD.

It's definitely not an LD situation (videodisk). There are already more than
eleven million Blu-ray players in use; the sum total for LD's 22 years of
life (I'm not making that up) was about two million in the U.S.
Additionally, recordable LD was never commercially available in the U.S.,
while Blu-ray burners have been available for more than a year now and are
popping up in a variety of PCs (and, in the smaller 8cm form factor, in HD
videocams).

I've heard it said that 3% of U.S. public libraries were already circulating
some high-def discs by last Christmas. That wouldn't surprise me--and, for
an affluent community or one with lots of videophiles, it would strike me as
appropriate. As a university town, Ames is a reasonable candidate, and
(according to Worldcat Registry) Ames gives its library pretty good support.


So, while I'm not suggesting every library should go out and buy them, I
also wouldn't discourage any library where the community has shown interest
and the funds are available. (And, after all, we're not talking huge sums:
the discs run $25 to $29.) I can't think of any reason to wish Ames other
than good luck!

I'd already responded off-list re the buffing issue: No, you absolutely,
positively do not want to run Blu-ray discs through an abrasive cleaning
device. They have special hard coats on the data side--and need them,
because the information layer is so close to the surface. Buff away that
hard coat, and you've pretty much doomed the disc.

Oh: Wonder about that eleven million players claim? That's the funny thing
about reporting during the "war," when Toshiba kept saying HD DVD players
were outselling Blu-ray players: They were very careful to define "player"
as "set-top box," leaving out a device that was frequently rated as the best
Blu-ray player and was also the cheapest Blu-ray player for a long time: the
PlayStation 3. Turns out the PS3 outsold all HD DVD players combined by at
least 10 to 1...the race was never really that close.

walt crawford, speaking on my own behalf but also after "tracking this
stuff" for the last three years in Cites & Insights

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 11:41 AM, K.G. Schneider <kgs at bluehighways.com>
wrote:

> What Mary asked was in reference to "considering a proposal to purchase
> a small collection of Blu-Ray DVDs."
>
> I'm not entirely sure Blu-Ray will take off within, say, the next year
> or two, but I'm not sure it won't.
>
> In any event, she's not suggesting converting her entire collection to
> Blu-Ray overnight. I read "small" as "small," as in, testing the waters,
> as in, let's try this, gin up some PR, respond to some user queries,
> explore it ourselves, etc.
>
> It could be a very interesting PR thing -- "library to offer small
> collection of Blu-Ray discs" -- and I can see labeling these things very
> obviously (light blue clear containers, prominent Blu-Ray logo, alert
> these won't play in standard DVD players?).
>
> Regarding my mixed feelings, I have been comparing Blu-Ray to the VHS to
> DVD conversion, which was slow. But I hadn't factored in the Netflix
> effect, which didn't apply during the last conversion. If players get
> cheap, then the barrier to renting discs will drop, especially if
> they're easy to rent/buy.
>
> All very interesting to watch.
>
> K.G. Schneider
>
>
> On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:40:08 -0500, "Brian Lind"
> <blind at rochester.lib.mn.us> said:
> > I wouldn't be so quick to jump into the Blu-Ray pool, if I were you.
> > Even though Blu-Ray finally "won" the format war, so few people have
> > Blu-Ray players now that you would be paying a premium for discs in a
> > format that few patrons would be able to use.  Most people don't even
> > know what a Blu-Ray DVD is (and patrons who check out a Blu-Ray DVD by
> > mistake will be very disappointed when it doesn't play in their standard
> > DVD player - or for that matter in the recently abandoned Toshiba HD-DVD
> > player).  Keep in mind that Blu-Ray players WILL play standard DVDs, so
> > it's not as if people who only have Blu-Ray players are losing access to
> > movies from standard DVDs.
> >
> > New technology woes also make adopting Blu-Ray now a bit iffy.  The
> > current Blu-Ray players still need to download additional software
> > fixes, and the speed with which Sony (and rival Toshiba) put HDDVDs out
> > on the market has meant that there are still many problems with new
> > discs.  Until these issues get resolved (perhaps in the next year or
> > two), it's probably anyone's guess how well they will hold up and/or
> > respond to fixes.
> >
> > I would wait a year or two at least.
> >
> >
> > Brian J. Lind
> > Reference Librarian
> > Rochester Public Library
> > 101 Second St. SE
> > Rochester, MN 55904
> >
> > >>> "Mary Logsdon" <mlogsdon at amespubliclibrary.org> 3/11/2008 10:35 AM
> > >>>
> >
> > Good Morning, We are considering a proposal to purchase a small
> > collection of Blu-Ray DVDs but have concerns related to security and
> > damage issues. If your library has already taken this step to include
> > this new format and you'd like to share what you've learned that would
> > be great. The last time we checked with 3M they said they had not tested
> > our current security tags with Blu-Ray discs. We've also learned that
> > damaged discs can not be run through the buffer machine we use to repair
> > damaged DVDs. We'd appreciate any input from the group. Thanks so much!
> > Mary LogsdonAmes Public Library515 Douglas Ave.Ames, IA 50010(515)
> > 239-5656
> >
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