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ABI Research: Blu Ray Has Won The Format War
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.
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