Blu-ray FAIL
by Dean Evans at Thursday 25th June, 2009 at 11:18 am [2 comments]
Is Blu-ray doomed? As digital distribution becomes more viable, the latest stats suggest that the high definition format is still failing to catch on.
Despite the death of the rival HD DVD format last year, a Harris Interactive poll 2,401 U.S. adults found that one in ten Americans (11%) owned a HD DVD player and only 7% had a Blu-ray deck.
Crucially, Harris Interactive suggests that the data shows that “there is no expected surge of interest [in Blu-ray] pending - only 7% of non-Blu-ray player owners report a likely purchase of a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, down from 9% in May 2008.”
It makes grim reading for the Blu-ray Disc Association, especially considering Harris Interactive’s predictions for the future:
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Only one quarter plan to switch to Blu-ray completely (25%), while one third of Blu-ray or PS3 owners claim that most of their movie purchases are now on Blu-ray format (32%)
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Two in five are waiting for Blu-ray format prices to come down before they buy more (43%) and a quarter buy Blu-ray regardless of price (25%)
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Only 1 in 5 appear to be replacing or duplicating their existing standard format DVD library with Blu-ray format (21%), and over a third say they only buy movies on Blu-ray format that they currently do not own on standard definition (37%).
With the prospect of digitally-delivered movies and TV via the likes of the BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Sky Player and iTunes, Blu-ray faces a battle to be adopted as the successor to DVD.
But it’s easy to get carried away with the idea of movies, TV (and even video games) on demand over broadband. As the recent Digital Britain report pointed out, many homes are unlikely to get more than a 2Mb internet connection.
Fortunately, Blu-ray enjoys widespread industry support and availability. True, disc prices might be a little on the high side, but don’t lose sight of the fact that it’s still a relatively new format.
Want to take the HD plunge? You could do worse than invest in PlayStation 3. It’s a future-proof player and you get a games console thrown in…
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2 Responses to “Blu-ray FAIL”
Comment by anonym — June 27, 2009 @ 2:55 pm
IMO, PS3 is turning out to NOT necessarily be as future proof as once thought. Consider that the new HDMI 1.4 standard announced this year is designed for including internet data and 3D oontent (expected to grow exponentially). Finally, consider this: the new HDMI 1.4 has a *NEW* connector (smaller). A few months ago, Sony was touting that the PS3 was ready for 3D via a firmware upgrade. This is just a sampling of the problems Blu-ray faces…
Comment by shah — July 15, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
PS3 is dropping out in worldwide sales even now, it’s not future proof it may even turn out not to be present proof if it’s poor sales continue at this rate.