Sony LCD HDTVs with Built-in Blu-ray
Sony President Ryoji Chubachi
The format war long over, Sony now wants to expand the presence of Blu-ray. The Sony boss says it’s time to start stuffing Blu-ray players into more products, including HDTVs. The story-between-the-lines is we’re probably about to see Blu-ray players at the bottom-end of the price spectrum.
Remember grandma’s old TV/VCR combo? She told you it was the darndest thing to be able to just hit record on the TV while baking cookies. Now Sony wants to bring that same easy-of-use to digital-age grandmother’s everywhere.
Blu-ray players have already found their way into laptops, home computer systems and of course the PS3. Where else can Sony stuff a Blu-ray player? That’s the question Sony President Ryoji Chubachi asked spectators at a conference in Taipei.
Chubachi said Sony will begin production of a wide range of new product lines at a variety of price ranges. The company’s intention is to develop the global market share of Blu-ray by the end of 2008.
According to Chubachi, part of the company’s plan to extend the reach of its disc format will involve building a Blu-ray player/burner directly into HDTVs. That’s an interesting twist on the traditional TV/DVD combo.
Playback devices built directly into TVs doesn’t usually instill much confidence in the quality of either device. Most TVs with built-in DVD players or VCRs have been the bottom-end of their respective markets. But an HDTV with a Blu-ray burner sounds interesting.
Now that Sony is getting ready to bring Blu-ray into a wider range of consumer markets – it probably means that even cheaper Blu-ray players than we’re seeing today are just around the corner.
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bancroft;399053
I think the economy is going to get much worse. Please pray I am wrong. Gas will be $4 per gallon and disposable income is shrinking. Blue Ray will be mightily challenged by forces outside its control. And a $30 movie will not seem attractive to most. Renting will be the option, IMHO, that will make the format survive in the next twelve months. Look at the box office numbers to date for movies. They are down considerably from last year.
The IMF said yesterday that the US was headed for a mild to moderate recession with a slow recovery taking place next year, but it might be a drawn out come back, we'll have to wait and see as these are forecasts only and really anything can happen . The real estate market should stabilize sometime next year and movement is expected to remain slow, here in Miami we have an excess of condo units, but single family homes are still being sold, though slowly as there is a market for them, high-end homes always do well as those persons are pretty much recession proof.
Alamar;398461
I agree with you. I'm at the point where I'd prefer to see less expensive content as opposed to less expensive players.
Nope, content is going to stay expensive, too. Ironically, it was the cheap Chinese players (at the expense of the big Japanese and European congolomerates) that made SD DVD so successful.
http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=26734 [maxconsole.net]
Blu-ray disc prices to stay at a premium as Sony struggle to meet demand
According to analysts at Screen Digest, manufacturers cannot make enough Blu-ray discs to meet global demand this year. Now that HD-DVD has thrown in the towel, analysts believe that global demand for Blu-ray discs will rise three times in 2008 to a minimum of 43 million units. Sony, the biggest manufacturer of Blu-ray discs, "is investing in extended production line capacity to produce 38 million discs per month by October. This would meet just 60 to 70 per cent of global forecast demand." It is expected that with demand outstripping supply, we will see Blu-ray disc prices stay at a premium.
Blu-Ray was capacity constrained last year. That was one of the things Paramount mentioned when they went HD DVD exclusive.
What's done is done. The rules are simple--pay to play.
At this point that's the only thing that just "kills me". I'd jump in with both feet if I could purchase content at lower price points. When NetFlix is your best then something is flat-out-wrong.
Although it would never happen I wish that if I could prove that I had the DVD versions of XYZ that I could pay an upgrade fee to get BD versions of the content that I already own. This way content providers get $ that I may otherwise "never" willingly give them and I get an upgraded experience.