Could Bond Put a Sour Taste in the Mouths of Blu-ray Owners?

Is James Bond giving Blu-ray a bad name? Reports are flooding the 'net that James Bond Blu-ray DVDs from a new collection are failing to play in many Blu-ray players, leading to customer frustration and anger. This isn't good news for a format that's only just begun to resonate with the average buyer.

According to various online forums, like Amazon and AVS Forum, the new DVDs, which include titles like Die Another Day, Live and Let Die, and From Russia With Love, reportedly begin to play but then cut out part way through; get stuck in the menu; or just lead to a black screen. This has been reported from owners of a variety of Blu-ray players from a number of manufacturers; although it appears from comments that the discs play just fine on a PlayStation 3 gaming console (which has a built-in Blu-ray player). I can't attest to the issues from personal experience since I haven't tried the DVDs myself. But given the high number of angry customers posting online, it appears that an issue does indeed disc with at least a few of the titles in a few players. However, many cite that a firmware upgrade will rectify the problem.

The Bond franchise is hugely popular, so there have likely been major sales of these titles. Will these issues turn people off of Blu-ray? While a firmware upgrade might eventually solve the playback issue, it doesn't solve the initial frustration of curling up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn only to watch a black screen. Luckily, I gather from sifting through the comments that some consumers are forgiving.

"My positive experience with so many other discs gives me optimistic confidence that the problem with these 6 discs will soon be a fading bad memory," says one commenter on Amazon.com. However, he's obviously an early-adopter and technophile, claiming to already own upwards of 100 Blu-ray discs.

Other buyers are unfortunately not so forgiving.

"The end result is a big fat black eye for Blu-ray," chimes in another buyer. "The Blu-ray Disc Association, the hardware manufacturers, and the content producers need to get their act together."

One techy reader on AVS Forum claims that these issues are the very reason he won't recommend Blu-ray to "ordinary people". "The worst part is just because these player's firmware can be upgraded, the studios think it's okay to break compatibility at will," he says. "It's not like they can't test these discs on the available players. There has to eventually come a point where they expect the mass market to be able to buy Blu-ray and they will have to freeze the feature set to what works on all players in the marketplace."

On a positive note, all those who did manage to get the discs playing cite impressive video quality and great sound.

Bottom line: it's clearly beneficial both visually and audibly to make use of the Blu-ray format, despite any one-off issues that might occur during these relatively early stages. Remember: HDMI didn't come out of the gate perfect either, but it has quickly become the de facto standard in home A/V connectivity.

HD DVD: The Fat Lady has Sung

As reported here and then officially here on our sister Website, the fat lady has finally sung, so to speak, and we've reached an end to the high-definition DVD format war. Simply put, Toshiba will stop production of all HD DVD products next month.

What does this mean for those consumers who have already purchased an HD DVD player or recorder? Perhaps the tiny, $130 player for the Xbox 360 gaming console? Or even a notebook PC with an integrated HD DVD drive? You'll still be able to continue playing discs you already own and any ypu purchase between now and the day they're removed from store shelves. And Toshiba says it will continue to honour product support and service, which is reassuring for those who want to get some life out of their investment.

Although you might think purchasers are slamming doors in anger at buying what will soon be an obselete technology, that doesn't appear to be the case. Most people who purchased HD DVD were fully aware that the technology might not "win". And in fact, I know some who are just waiting for discs to start "blowing out" at retail so they can stock up on a collection at an affordable price. Of course this collection will likely be collecting dust 20 years from now, but hey, you can take a piece of history with you.

Of course, as I've mentioned time and time again, just because a clear "winner" has been named, it doesn't mean that consumers will be running out in flocks to grab a Blu-ray player. Sure, there are smart-minded, tech-savvy individuals that have been waiting for the war to be over before dropping a half a grand on a player and some movies. But there are still plenty of others that stare blankly at the Blu-ray section in a store scratching their head trying to figure out what this Blu stuff is all about. One retailer once told me that customers were buying HD DVDs and trying to play them back in a Blu-ray player thinking they were "all the same" (and vice versa); while another noted that many customers thought they could just plop a Blu-ray or HD DVD disc into a "regular" DVD player and it would instantly display better quality images. So don't be fooled: we still have a long way to go.

Research company DisplaySearch echoes this sentiment.

"...Even if all HD DVD products were removed from retail shelves today, the average consumer still will not be buying Blu-ray hardware and software in mass quantities for some time," says the company.

With that said, Toshiba will easily pick itself up and move on. As for those in the Blu-ray camp, congratulations on the victory. It's likely that we'll see plenty more Blu-ray and Blu-ray-compatible products coming down the pike in 2008.