A Blu-ray Christmas?

That's what media analysts at Futuresource Consulting are predicting, at least in the US. The UK-based media consultancy released on Tuesday a bullish new sales forecast for the high-definition discs, saying they expected Blu-ray to top 10 per cent of all recordable media discs sold in the United States and a more meagre two per cent in Britain and France by year-end. Next year, Western Europe is expected to catch up with the US, helped by cheaper players and a larger installed base of Sony PlayStation 3 game consoles.

The good news for those holding out is that the price of Blu-ray players is expected to creep lower in time for Christmas with several brands introducing sub-£150 devices in the UK and sub-$200 in the US, Futuresource says. (A quick glimpse of Amazon.co.uk shows Pioneer and Sharp have already broken through the £150 floor.) Sales of Blu-ray players are already well ahead of DVD players at this point in its existence a decade ago, Mousetrap reported in June. They're well on their way to selling more than million players (including PS3)  in Europe by year-end.

Disc sales too are on target. Futuresource predicts 45 million Blu-ray will be sold in the US this year. And by 2012, Blu-ray disc sales will catch or be close to catching DVD by 2012, the group says.

Comments

[John Green- Wokingham Berks]

It's about time prices came down substantially. The economic climate will be a major driver this Christmas and unless suppliers get things right in product placement at the appropriate price they will suffer painfully. I forecast a major downturn in sales- its getting more difficult out here in the cold reality of the British economy.I suspect the same applies in the USA. John P. Green

[Ron B]

I dont, and never have, believed the line that Blu-ray is outselling dvd at this point in its history. Blu-ray et al. has been out for a number of years and no-one I know owns one or intends to get one. People are still debating the merits of big screen TV. SChmarketing..

The discs are just too expensive. I've had a Blu-Ray player since PS3 launch day in March 2007, but I've only got four BD films. On principle, I refuse to spend £25-30 on a film.

For the same PS3 one pays £40 for a game, maybe £45. That game will have at least 20 hours of play, often a great deal more. Games are not much cheaper to make than movies nowadays, indeed GTA IV is said to have cost $100m to make. I must have played that game for at least 40 hours already, and I've not even looked at the online game yet.

In contrast, The Golden Compass on Blu-Ray Disc is £30 in HMV. That's for 109 minutes of original entertainment, plus the usual throwaway crop of formulaic mini-documentaries. Where's the value? It's no surprise at all that people stay with DVD.

There's no good reason for Blu-Ray Disc films to cost so much more than DVDs. It's time the early adopter tax was repealed, to give the only remaining HD format a fighting chance to save the boxed media industry. We're a long way yet from downloadable HD content, and reasonably-priced BDs could so easily bridge that gap.

The films available on Blu-Ray are limited and the prices are far to high. I can get a new DVD for £5 or the same on Blu-Ray for £25, i'd save 80% and buy the DVD.
Also, they are not coming out with potential promised by the disk capacity. I dont want to buy Terminator on blu-Ray when i know they should be putting all three of them on a disk for the asking price of one. The same applies for Series. I want one disk per series and not 4 which is the benifit of Blu-Ray. Thats when i start buying them.
I've own a Blu-ray player for a while now (due to having a PS3) but if i had to buy one separatly i wouldnt and i dont own a single Blu-Ray disk because for the price im not replacing things already in my DVD collection and not buying Blu-Ray when i can get the DVD for so much cheaper.

most modern players upscale normal DVDs to almost HD quality too, so why pay x4 more?

[Blu]

Actually, I do not like the "video" look associated with Blu-Ray releases of regular 35mm films. The excesive "electronic enhacements" seem to turn excelent movies into cheap looking Soap Operas, realyy they look like video productions not film. Clearly they are doing some sort of strange image enhancement that goes beyond normal high resolution. Having said that, is something that could be easily fixed.

[Geoff Hurrell]

I wiish al thees guys hoo tork so nowligiblie aboot bloo-rae hadd spint moor tim lernin to spel at skool.