Hi Jessica, Best of luck on your cryptic endeavor! As we're a relatively small University (around 3,000 students at capacity) we are at the mercy of our IT department when it comes to what is available in classrooms and they are currently only partially supporting DVD and are talking about removing that support by 2015 for some as yet unnamed technology, possibly something having to do with streaming but they don't throw much information my way and tend to ignore me when I ask.
Most of our classrooms have a data projector with an empty wall plate and the teachers are required to bring their own laptop or player (which was not the case when I was in charge of AV for the campus--I inherited both the Media Librarian and AV support role from someone else and then IT grabbed control of the AV support a few years back.) Individual departments sometimes spring for players or PCs for the classrooms that are in their particular buildings. Currently we have only about two or three Blu Ray titles in our collection and two of them were combo packs with a DVD version available. We have a Blu Ray player at our Media Carrels for students to view our Blu Rays (and their own or outside disks) and we have another Blu Ray in our large meeting room. As far as I know the rest of the campus is still using DVD (where available) and we actually still have quite a few teachers who use only VHS! Those teachers who use VHS have classrooms that are only for their department and have a say in what technology is installed and they usually have DVD/VHS combo decks. I honestly have nothing at all against Blu Ray and I would be installing decks all over campus if I had a say since they are no longer terribly expensive and they will play DVDs just fine and can provide for the excellent quality of Blu Ray when titles are available on that format. Most independent titles that teachers like are only released on DVDR but I have specifically tried them on one of our Blu Ray decks (just out of curiosity) and have never come across a problem. I think a lot of the opposition to installing Blu Ray players across campuses is due to the constantly changing technologies and the belief that something new will soon appear to make Blu Ray obsolete and the money spent will have been wasted. We're about at the time where any DVD players that are still installed on campus will be wearing down and if I was still in charge of AV support I would recommend replacing them with Blu Ray where possible (save for the combo decks that I would try to replace with same for certain teachers) and we would then have the ability to play both DVD and Blu Ray and we would be spending per deck around the same amount of money we had paid for the original DVD decks back when they were the big up and coming super technology of a new generation. Blu Ray is actually great and I love it and I would recommend it for across campus use if I was holding the purse strings. In a somewhat related sense I'm noticing that a lot of the newer cameras teachers are using for archival video, student projects, and distance learning will only film in the AVCHD (I believe that's what it is) format, which will only play on Blu Ray decks. That tells me that Blu Ray is an important technology that will be around for a good deal of time and, since it can play DVD already, can play our substantial DVD collection with no problems and make way for all the newer titles that may only be available on Blu Ray (big studio titles, obviously, but maybe some independent filmmakers will film in AVCHD.) I have recommended to Library administration that we purchase a third Blu Ray deck for checkout to teachers but I've been told repeatedly that such a thing would be IT's responsibility--which I understand but they won't do it. We also do not have enough Blu Ray titles in our collection to warrant such an action, so I've been told (although I'm the person who hears all the complaints from teachers who can't play videos because IT refuses to install anything that will allow them to play what they want and I just want to be helpful dang it!) Many people also remember the days when I nearly killed myself to get them anything and everything they needed for classroom support so they hope I can do something, which I really can't anymore. So the main problem I have with Blu Ray is that those who are in charge of our "smart rooms" on campus have no faith in it (or in anything save for a non existent technology that may or may not come to fruition within two years' time.) I would prefer to concentrate on an existing technology that is proven and will play our collection NOW so that our teachers can have all the media they need for their classes so, if given the choice, I would love to have Blu Ray players replace our aging DVD players that are still installed in our older smart rooms--and I would try to put them in the rooms that currently have nothing but a wall plate! That would still give us many years of time in which to play our DVD collection and even expand it into Blu Ray if the chance arises. If Blu Ray and disk technology goes by the wayside entirely within a few years then we still have the ability to play our collection for a while, our teachers are happy, and we can move on to the new technology eventually. Right now everyone is just told to wait and make other arrangements which I think is very sad. Not sure if any of that helps, Jessica, but it's at least another perspective. I'm interested to see what everyone else deals with and any problems they might have had with the format. My work experience with Blu Ray is limited as you can see, though I have nothing at all against it personally! Again best of luck on your project! Chris On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 10:06 AM, Jessica Rosner <jessicapros...@gmail.com>wrote: > I know most of you do not like blu-ray but I would like to know how much a > problem it is. I am working on a kind of epic project I have been making > cryptic references to and for complicated reasons much of it is Blu ray > only. In terms of research I would assume most students and most libraries > have reasonable access to playing on Blu ray either using a player or a > laptop. I guess the bigger issue is classroom use, is it really that > difficult to get Blu ray player for a classroom ( to make this even more > complicated the part of this collection most likely to be used in class > will be available on DVD). > > Feedback appreciated but it is not possible to change formats on this > material though it will be available for streaming for those schools who > can do their own. > > > -- > Jessica Rosner > Media Consultant > 224-545-3897 (cell) > 212-627-1785 (land line) > jessicapros...@gmail.com > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of > issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic > control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in > libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as > an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of > communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video > producers and distributors. > >
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
