CHV Lives On

Blu-ray is Sony's new format which it hopes will become to successor to the DVD (which it has a damn good chance of doing thanks to the PS3), and not fall to the wayside like some of their other formats. The discs are about the same size, but due to a different laser wavelength, it can store much more data.
In terms of movies, it'll give you an experience much like DVD gave you, except that it can display such content in high definition. For those with a "regular" TV, a BD won't really give you anything more than you'll get on DVD, but for those with high definition, it'll mean a considerable jump in picture resolution.

I wonder if we will ever see 200GB BD discs used.
I know square would love that.

okay so blue-ray IS part of that whole "two different kinds of DVD" thing I heard about.
The thing I am curious about is whether or not my current dvd player will be able to PLAY blue-ray discs.
...
I STILL feel bad for anyone who bought a betamax.
Ren

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The thing I am curious about is whether or not my current dvd player will be able to PLAY blue-ray discs.

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No.
It's a new format (with a new laser wavelength), so just like your CD player can't play DVDs, your DVD player won't play Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) discs.
In just about every case, the opposite will be true though. A Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) player should have no problem reading CDs or DVDs.

This is actually interesting. Ren is a prototypical average non-tech-savvy consumer, as opposed to us freaks. Her knowledge, actions, and opinions are much more in line with the mass market that will be making up the overwhelming bulk of console purchases.
How she reacts to things like, for example, the next-gen format war and how it affects her, should give some good insight into how normal people react.

Okay well, speaking for the norms: We're pissed off.
Speaking for the poor: We're pissed off AND feeling sorry for ourselves.
Speaking for myself: I'm pissed off, feeling sorry for myself, and not saving with geico.

But don't worry.. being technically challenged, I should forget all about this by tomorrow.
Ren

No. :[ Ren's X-factor of being on drugs all the time removes her from the massmarket pool. not allowed

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This is actually interesting. Ren is a prototypical average non-tech-savvy consumer, as opposed to us freaks. Her knowledge, actions, and opinions are much more in line with the mass market that will be making up the overwhelming bulk of console purchases.
How she reacts to things like, for example, the next-gen format war and how it affects her, should give some good insight into how normal people react.

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Good point, although the details (which the average consumer will likely not know) make things a little more complex (and therefore the following may apply more to Ren than most others here).
Sony's insistence on making Blu-Ray part of the PS3 has less to do with bringing the format to the masses in 2006, and more to prevent a competing format from taking hold before their next Playstation system launch. The PS2 was a large factor in the widespread acceptance of the DVD format, and while the PS3 won't do the same for Blu-Ray overnight, its effects will be very apparent in a few years. Sony isn't banking on the format being the HD optical disc format standard in 2006, but they're laying the groundwork for it to be that a few years down the line.
Those who are not in the "early adopter" or technie crowds probably won't consider either next gen system until the prices drop to under $200. For them, Sony has a HUGE advantage over Microsoft here, since they're still supporting their current generation system ($130, could even be $99 by Christmas) for at least another year or two (after that, while the hardware may still be made, expect most games to be shovelware and roster updates...I mean...new seasons of sports games). Microsoft, for whatever reason, has just about given up on XBOX1, and has told developers to do the same. For those consumers who are looking for something new and don't feel like spending $400 on a 360 or $500 on a PS3, they may see the PS2 as a very tempting buy (which will lead them more towards the PS3 than the 360 when prices drop low enough).
Don't underestimate the kid factor though. Many parents who would normally balk at such a high price will begrudgingly give into their kids' demands, especially around Christmas.

I found this little bit from Phil Harrison to be very interesting:
(www.eurogamer.net/article..._id=64667)

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Eurogamer: Your strategy and Microsoft's strategy are very divergent, in that Microsoft is offering consumers a choice - whether to have HD-DVD or not, whether to have a hard drive or not - while you're putting everything into a very expensive box and saying that they take all or nothing. Why that direction? Why not have a system where people who don't want to pay that premium for Blu-Ray don't have to?
Phil Harrison: Leaving aside the movie debate about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, purely from a game design point of view and a game production point of view, we have to have Blu-Ray. DVD is just not big enough; DVD9 is nowhere near big enough for the kind of games, the richness that we're going to be putting in the games, the variety, the detail, you name it.
So, we had to adopt Blu-Ray primarily as a game format. The second benefit of it is that it becomes a video format as well. Putting it all in one box, as you say, is also down to the fact that a hard disc drive is necessary to create a totally integrated network platform. We want every consumer to be able to download and install content on their hard disc drive. If you want to put all your music on your hard disc drive, you'll probably go for the 60GB version. If you're a complete music fan and video fan, and you want to have huge amounts of digital content, then you can upgrade to whatever size of drive you like. You can put any in that you like - it is a computer, after all.
Eurogamer: So that hard drive is a standard PC drive?
Phil Harrison: ATA, bog standard, yeah.
Eurogamer: You're not going to be selling Sony drive upgrades?
Phil Harrison: We've got no plan to. We may offer something, but we have no plan to at the moment.

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If this actually ends up being true, and you are able to pop in ANY ATA hard drive into the PS3, for the techies, this strikes a BIG blow to Microsoft's overpriced 360 HDD. For the same price as Microsoft's 20 gig HD, you can grab a 250 gig'er? Sign me up.
On the downside, I'm still looking to put this in the "too good to be true" file at the moment, if for no other reason than the fact that Sony has done quite well with their accessories, or more specifically, memory cards. Just as ludicrous as Microsoft's $100 20 gig 360 HD is Sony's $25 card carrying 8 megs of flash memory. If the PS3 can use both any third party hard drive as well as memory formats that have little or nothing to do with Sony (ie, CompactFlash instead of Sony's Memory Sticks), that'll represent a large amount of revenue that they'll no longer be able to take advantage of. Call me crazy, but I can't see Sony just wanting to skip out on that money just to give us the consumer more options.
On a semi-related note, I do also wonder how storing video content on the PS3 will work. Can you simply connect the machine to any computer and download a variety of content (MP4, DivX, DVD) to the HD, much like you can with XBMC (or the PSP for MP4)? Or will it be restricted like it is on the 360, allowing you to only stream certain file types from a Media Center-enabled PC? Or perhaps the "huge amounts of digital content" will simply be DRM'd media downloaded from Sony's version of the XBL Marketplace?
Inquiring minds want to know.

Personally, I'm interested in their rumblings of Linux homebrew.
But promises, promises.