To Blu or not to Blu, That Is the Question

Even though Blu-ray has officially won the high definition disc war, at least one research firm, ABIresearch, has found that the villagers aren't taking to the new format in the droves that Sony expected.

Well, DUH! Blu-ray discs are selling for $30. That's $24.50 more than DVDs in Wal-Mart's $5.50 bin (check my math). Not to mention the Blu-ray players themselves cost more than $300, and in order to reap the real benefits of HD you've got to fork up another grand for the 1080p LCD TV that your Blu-rays will play on. (Because seriously, what's the point of watching high def movies on an old tube TV?) Then you get it all home, and you realize you need a mountain of expensive cables to hook everything up.

Sign me up! I have $2,000 just to spend on new toys. House payment be damned!



So, here's the deal, Steve Wilson, principal research analyst from ABI says consumers were happy to embrace DVD because there was an obvious improvement over VHS. While nearly 90% of consumers surveyed acknowledged that Blu-ray had a better picture than DVD, only 50% surveyed felt it was "much better." And only about 23% said they were likely to purchase a Blu-ray player, but not until sometime in 2009. (That's more than 4 months away. And this is speculation, but it'll probably happen after the digital switch in February.)

Harris Interactive's numbers are even less encouraging. They say only 9% of the people they interviewed said they were "likely" to purchase a Blu-ray player in the next year. Yeah Sony!!

I suppose this begs the question... Are we really that surprised?

The simple fact is it's just too expensive. Unless you are a serious gadget geek that stands in line overnight waiting for the latest and greatest (iPhone, cough, cough) there is no way the average person is going to really care. Frankly, even those that knew about the HD/Blu-ray format war didn't care who won, just as long as people shut-up about it. (Gee, that sounds kind of like our political scene at the moment, but alas, that is to be saved for a different time, place and blog.)

Fact is, until the Blu-ray player prices can compete with average DVD players, (or Wal-Mart stops selling standard DVD players) and the cost of HD TVs and HDMI cables go down Sony is just going to have to rely on the PS3 to save Blu-ray.

And that's a completely different can of worms.

If you want to see what the market for Blu-ray players looks like, check out our review of Blu-ray players.

And you might be interested in these other blogs:

More Xbox 360 Price Cuts on the Way?

Topic Thunder: How Tropic Thunder Might Be Taking the Black Jokes too Far

Netflix without the Envelopes: Blu-Ray Player Streams Internet Direct to TV

Death on the Doorstep for DVDs?

Indiana Jones and the Complete Lack of Theater Etiquette