Blu-ray Hardware Not Picking Up Steam

When HD DVD went the way of the dodo, many (including myself) thought that Blu-ray would be sure to pick up steam. After all, it’s high-definition! The 1080p picture quality it offers far surpasses what a 480p that a DVD can deliver. But, it looks that hardware sales are picking up at a snails pace, with a painful 2% increase between February to March.

I am not sure about sales of the actual movies, but I’m sure they are not exactly flying off the shelves either. The prices are far too ridiculous at this point in time. I currently own nine, and even those I read reviews on prior to a purchase. At those prices ($30+), you can’t just go out and randomly choose movies, or you’ll get burned.

The same goes for hardware, which hasn’t gone down much since HD DVD’s death. The Playstation 3 still proves to be the best value for Blu-ray out there, but that’s still ~$500 that some people don’t want to spend, especially if they have no interest in the gaming capabilities of the machine. In general, I believe it to be a bad thing when the cheapest video player costs more than most reasonable HDTVs. Until that changes, Blu-ray will continue to sit in the lull it’s in.

Cost is likely a top factor in the slow adoption of Blu-ray Disc, as even the cheapest player is hundreds more than an upscaling DVD machine. In other reasons, consumers may not immediately see the benefits of upgrading to Blu-ray Disc, which mainly provides increased quality of picture and sound. Features such as chapter skip, multiple language tracks and lack of rewinding tape are already present on DVD.

Source: DailyTech