Blu-Ray - Blu-Ray in 2005

Just like the first DVD players to hit the market, the current Blu-Ray players are big, bulky and have limited features. Though they don’t look all that nice, the future will provide some great players, packing more features in a slimmer case. Blu-Ray is expected to make the leap into the mass consumer market in 2006 or 2007. For now, there are a few different Blu-Ray players: most are in Japan, and cost a bundle.

Here’s a picture of one of the Blu-Ray players made by Sony. I said it was big. Overall it is a good starting place. It can only get better from here. Before you run out and order one, you should hear the price. The Sony player retails for $2,150, and that’s before tax, shipping and importing if you live outside Japan.

Here is what the disc, er, cartridge will look like. I don’t like cartridges, and neither do most people. All past cartridges have failed: minidisk, DVD-RAM, etc. Luckily, TDK and other disc makers, with the help of that extra protection coating I mentioned above, will be able to produce disc-only discs, not cartridges. These will most likely need a different Blu-Ray player than the current ones. The discs currently retail for $28. They are planned to fall within 10 percent of the price of DVDs in the future.

If you haven’t read some of my other articles, I talked about the Cell processor and XDR being in the new Playstation 3. Well, Sony is one of the biggest backers of Blu-Ray, and one of the few with an actual player and media. It comes as no surprise, then, that Sony’s Playstation 3 will have a Blu-Ray reader in it. That means that game manufacturers will need to use Blu-Ray discs.

Conclusion

What does it take to create the next generation of media? First, the new product must be leaps and bounds better than the current generation. Blu-Ray does this. DVDs can hold 4.7 GB and 9.4 GB in a dual layer format; Blu-Ray can hold up to 27 GB on a single layer, with multiple layer discs in the works.

Next you need to stomp the competition. Blu-Ray has tremendous backing from a variety of different companies. It has PC manufacturers, media manufacturers, and the dominant movie makers backing it.

Finally, you need to price the technology within a range that will encourage people to buy it. Blu-Ray players are currently priced a little too high for the average Joe. But the prices will come down! I remember when DVD movies cost $40, now they are less than half that price. Blue-Ray technology has everything that is needed for the next generation of media, and will become the next DVD.