Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

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Blu Ray is failing in the marketplace

Posted by DavidLD on October 28, 2008 at 08:33:14:
I hear that the cheapest players will be down to $150 on black Friday.
BUT with the economy in the toilet few people want to spend an extra $10 on a disk, and for goodness sakes not if the TV they have is not 50 inches or larger.

At the end of the day, I think Blu Ray has about as much future as the Elcassette, marketed in audio for a short period of time as the medium that would provide cassette convenience with open reel sound. Or, for that matter, what happened to digital tape recorders even as analog cassette tapes are still around (and recorders still being made)?

Blu Ray may remain as a niche market for videophiles with the largest screens for a couple years more, but will ultimately be replaced by technology that is not only cheaper to manufacture disks, but does not require such a complicated and expensive to manufacture player.

The next generation high definition technology has to at minimum be a disk that is backwards compatable with the original DVD, and be cheap enough to manufacture such that prices can be similar to the current generation of DVDs. Most people really do not want to spend more than about $15 on a DVD, and particularly not if they see the quality improvement as marginal at best on their moderately sized TVs. The vast majority of people who are happy with the clarity of as standard definition DVD see no need to upgrade players or disks, and Blu Ray cannot survive the long term as only a niche technology for the videophiles.

I'm hearing that as we move into the holiday season, neither Blu Ray disks or players are flying off the shelves.

This does not surprise me at all.