According to a recent study released by ABI Research, Blu-ray
format needs another 12 to 18 months before kicks into gear.
Blu-ray, the HD optical format created and promoted by the
Japanese company Sony, defeated HD DVD rival earlier this year after Warner
Bros announced it will release its movies exclusively on BD discs.
Nevertheless, ABI Research considers that the Blu-ray player
and optical drive markets must undergo further evolution before reaching their
full potential.
"BD player prices remain high, and supplies are
limited," says ABI Research principal analyst Steve Wilson. "This is
good for the market because most current players do not support all the
functions that studios place on the discs. Lacking support for - or
upgradability to - BD Live! or Bonus View (picture in picture), consumers
cannot utilize all the available options”
ABI Research believes that consumer electronics manufacturers need to introduce
full-featured players and then get prices down to the $200 level. Until then,
non-HDTV owners will certainly favor standard definition DVD players.
In March, during a press conference held in New York, Stan Glascow,
president of Sony Electronics, said there are some price cuts heading our way,
but not as high as expected. The Blu-ray, which now costs $399, will go to $299
by the end of the year, but the $200 price tag is just something we might see
in 2009, but most certainly not this year.
Earlier this year Sony announced two new BD-Live (Profile
v2.0) ready Blu-ray players, priced at $400 and $500. The BDP-S350, which will
ship sometime in the summer for $400, will feature 1080p24/60 output via HDMI,
one Ethernet port and decoding of 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD.
The high-end BDP-S550, which will ship this fall, will cost
$500 and will feature in addition to the slightly cheaper S350 1GB of
persistent storage and decoding of DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master
Audio, as well as 7.1 analog outs. Both models have an external port for adding
local storage and will support Bonus View to display picture-in-picture content.
But the players are not the only problem. ABI Research said
that despite Sony’s win Blu-ray packaged media comes at a heavy premium over
standard DVDs, although studios have brought prices down to the low $20-range
for some titles.
In 2008, PlayStation 3 players will make up over 85% of the BD players in the
field, and PS3 sales are picking up steam, ABI Research estimated. This lead
will continue until 2013 when the installed base of CE- and PC-based BD players
finally overtakes the installed base of PS3s.
Meanwhile, CNET
News reports that according to the latest figures released by The NPD
Group, the sales of Blu-ray players in the U.S. decreased
40 percent from January to February and saw a very slight increase (2 percent)
between February and March.
However, in the meantime, Paramount Pictures, once a HD DVD
exclusive studio, is getting ready to release its first titles on the Blu-ray
discs. According to The
Hollywood Reporter, “Bee Movie”, “Face Off” and “Next” will be released on May 20, while “There Will Be
Blood” and “Cloverfield” are scheduled for June.
