Ohio University sophomore Scott Naypauer would like to own a Blu-ray player, the high-resolution disc medium named for its blue, high-resolution laser technology.
There is a problem, though - the price. Blu-ray players have gone down from their initial $999 price tag in 2006 but standard models still cost more than $200. The HD television sets needed to capture the 1080 resolution of the Blu-ray discs can cost anywhere from $300 to $20,000, depending on the screen size.
It's expensive
said Naypauer, who is studying middle childhood education. I just have a feeling that the prices are going to go down.
Despite its high prices, Blu-ray and Blu-ray discs had a successful holiday season.
Spurred by the release of The Dark Knight, which sold 1.7 million copies in its first week alone, Sony sold 28.6 million Blu-ray discs in the fourth quarter of 2008, exceeding the 2007 total of 9.5 million.
American spent $750 million on Blu-ray discs in 2008, compared to roughly $170 million in 2007. Whereas the Blu-ray discs are a Sony product, Panasonic, LG and Samsung also produce Blu-ray players, among others.
Casey Hayward, an assistant professor at the Scripps College of Communication, said that price is the one factor keeping Blu-ray from the mainstream.
(The) player would have to be a sweet deal to get a good market share Hayward said, like in the $80 range.
Another cause of the surge in sales is because of Blu-ray's monopolistic market share, said Tom Hayes, an assistant professor of film at OU.
Now that (the) HD-DVD format has been liquidated he said, Blu-ray is how people are going to watch HD movies at home.
There is debate, though, if Blu-ray will ever become the new mainstream movie format that replaces DVD. Eric Miller, a 2007 OU graduate who owns two Blu-ray players, said that Blu-ray is too complicated for average consumers.
DVD was a digital VCR
Miller said. You plugged it into your TV and it worked. (With) Blu-ray
you have to buy all the right components (for it to work).
Additionally, competing technologies, namely a growing digital market that allows the downloading of hi-def films to personal computers and televisions, threaten the entire disc medium, including DVD.
Even if a digital revolution occurs, Hayes still predicts a long life for Blu-ray as a storage unit, as the discs allow tens of gigabytes of storage space.
This large capacity ... format really has its claws in the media world
Hayes said.
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Culture
Peter Ricci
