News and Reviews....

    Blu-Ray Update 1  June 2008

By Bob Lieto

    As we reported in March Blu-Ray Disc has come out the winner in the High Definition Disc war, but have they really won the battle.  An interesting facet of the on going debate is the power of the movie studios which keep leaning toward VOD (Video on Demand) as their next means to deliver a movie after the theater run. There is also a bit of conflict of interest in that Sony Studios, owners Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures  and more, have long been the proponent of the Blu-Ray Disc medium. And so I ask, will Sony have the power in the future to squeeze the DVD as we know it out of production, offer the Blu-Ray Disc only, and then eliminate the disc media completely after holding its price at an inflated level, leaving only the VOD as its only replacement? At the recent EMA Home Media Expo in Las Vegas, Blockbuster Inc., CEO Jim Keyes gave his view in the Disc VOD trade-off. He stated that he understands the movie studio's position in VOD as not having to supply or keep track of physical inventory and state they can make 70% margin on VOD, but would you like to make 70% on 3% of the demand at this time or 50% on 40% of the demand. He feels strongly that the Blu-Ray is still the way for Blockbuster to extend the product use, and to sell things is more useful then to rent things. When the DVD first started, the mass merchandisers wanted to rent not sell and only after a long period did the sell through of product become the norm. "Blu-ray is a whole different proposition because $20 is still, more or less an impulse purchase whereas $30 crosses a consumer barrier, especially in today's economy."

The DVD as we know it will produce 480 lines of information which can be unconverted easily (doubled) to come close to the 1080 lines of Blu-Ray Disc. Many manufactures are now placing on the market, low priced players that do the up converting and salvage a owners' collection from having to be replaced by Blu-Ray. But, will the consumer want to replace a collection again through another format change? I think not. Even though the newer Plasma and LCD TVs are sporting 1080P capabilities, the seating distance, size of screen and other factors take effect in allowing the viewer to get the advantage of the 1080P program. 

Comment .....   REPRINT: We will know soon if the whole process is going to take off. The economy, gas prices, food prices and other underlying costs in today's world are going to play a part on the spending of the consumer. That extra spending might prolong the take-off of the format. Keep in tune, we will have more on the format sales in the coming months. No excuses, no format war, just how well it is accepted. Check out "www.vudu.com" and call Custom Audio-Video Systems for the PRO Model. More storage, More HD movies.

For information leading up to this article see:

    Blue Ray Takes All    March 2008

    HD vs. Blue-Ray   April 2006

    Beyond the Blue Ray   February 2005

    Blue Laser vs DMD     July 2004

    BattleLines are Formed    February 2004

    Next Generation DVD    December 2002

    DVD - New Standard    May 2002

     DVD - Blue/Out - Red/IN    March 2002

    Birth of the Blues    February 2002

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