I’ve written about the rapid adoption of Blu-ray before, but as prices continue to drop for all aspects of Blu-ray devices from recording to playback, it’s really on the rise now. In fact a study shows that first quarter 2009 Blu-ray player sales has already surpassed Q1 2008 by a whopping 72% with over 400,000 units sold, even in a down economy.

The rapid infusion of Blu-ray players is primarily attributed to the influx of HDTV capable TVs, video cameras, recording equipment, Sony’s Playstation 3, duplicators, BD-R media, etc. as well as the rapid decrease in pricing for all of these items. The price of Blu-ray players has dropped an astounding 34% in that same time period. With the decreases in prices for Hi-Def related products needed to produce or view these large format video, it’s the perfect environment for this format to thrive and expand.

In my opinion, the downturn in the global economy played a large part for the rapid decline in pricing. As most everyone knows, most electronics are made in China, Taiwan, or Korea. Even Japanese products are made in these locations with strict adherence to the Japanese company’s standards and parts. In order to keep prices low, those production facilities need to offset costs through volume. So when supply exceeds demand, the manufacturers can only do two things, reduce production or lower prices. Decreasing production would raise costs on material further increasing the price, so their only option is to lower pricing.

When customer confidence is at a record low, then consumers are far more frugal when it comes to their purchases. But even at our lowest point, there is still significant commerce taking place and those that can navigate the market and price their products appropriately can not only survive but thrive in these times. Hence, Blu-ray becomes cheaper and more consumers feel the upgrade to Hi-Def is worth the added expense (now that it’s overall cheaper) which catapults Blu-ray sales. Then as the economy improves, the price reductions will slow to a normal attrition but the pricing will already have reached that magical point where consumer’s feel the product is a bargain and worth purchasing.

IT Month is the most important exhibition for consumers in Taiwan. The Vendors will introduce new product releases at the show and lower their prices to encourage consumers to buy immediately. This is important now especially since the whole world is under an economic sag. Taipei is first stop of the tour and moves on to Taichung, Kaohsiung ,Tainan. In total, the traveling vendor exhibition attracted around two million visitors throughout the duration of the show in 2007.

The president, Mr. Ma ,in the middle attend the 2008 opening ceremony.

Samsung promoted their LCD TV 5 & 6 Series and BD player at the exhibition but took different approaches in their sales strategy. For example, the original price of the Samsung「BD-P1500」BD Player is NTD22,900 (approx. USD $690). However, the consumer can get a price of NTD14,900 (approx. USD $450) if they buy a LCD TV along with the BD player. Samsung is offering the consumer to get a free「BD-P1500」or get a discounted price of NTD6,990 (approx. USD $200) depending on which LCD TV they Buy.

BD Player of Samsung「BD-P1500」

Also during the show, Pioneer introduced a new Blu-ray Disc. It is transparent with a 400GB capacity (16 layers of 25GB each). Sure it can hold an amazing amount of data, but at what’s sure to be an astronomical price, we’ll have to see if it is worth it or not.

400GB transparent Blu-ray Disc

Although, it doesn’t matter whether the news is about new products or promotion of existing products, we can tell that the Blu-ray market is improving and will have an influence on the end user in the near future.

It’s commonly known that Blu-ray burner drives and media are considerably more expensive compared to it’s standard CD/DVD counterparts. Recently, some insights have been shown on Taiwan TV talk shows on how Taiwan will help worldwide consumers reduce this cost barrier issue for Blu-ray.

Taiwan manufacturers of Blu-Ray media have put in long-term investment and patent funds for BD-RE approx. 8 years ago. With more than 20 years experience in 3C, Taiwan’s market entrance will definitely lower the BD-RE media pricing. A major reason for the lowered costs from Taiwanese manufacturer is because they already own the world patented “Auto-Balance”, Laser Head and Loader and have each obtained laboratory grade certification for 4x BD-R SL and 2x BD-RE SL formats. The only preventative factors until now, is that they had not invested in the equipment necessary for the massive production of BD media.

The primary obstacle in the pricing of Blu-ray media is the “Royalty” fees that media manufacturers have to pay for the right to produce it. That occupies 1/10 of the Blu-Ray price. Shanghai United Optical Disc has completed the establishment of its first production line for CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc), China’s self-developed high-definition optical disc format. Royalty fees to produce licensed CBHD players will be about US$8.10, much lower than BD licensing rates, the industry sources in Taiwan indicated. CBHD has not won support from leading movie studios in Hollywood and this is expected to render the format at a significant disadvantage in competition with BD, the sources pointed out.

Although there is a keen interest in HD content at the moment, big volume shipments are still a long way off. Makers agree that there is not much potential of mass production until they see support from solution providers, especially from chipmakers and design houses in Taiwan. So when the major Taiwanese media manufacturers cut in, we’ll see significant reductions in Blu-ray media pricing which will carry over to all aspects of the Blu-ray format.

With the adoption of the HD capability of Blu-ray, new industries will pop up as off shoots from this new technology. An example of this is a new make-up line meant to reduce the exposure of imperfections on the human face that the HD cameras will pick up with greater resolution.

Cosmetics Company, Cargo, recently debut a new Blu_ray make-up line specifically for hiding physical imperfections on high-def video shoots. No, not quite smooth enough yet!?

Even as the Blu-ray Association touts the rapid expansion and adoption of the Blu-ray format, there are concerns that the players are still priced too high for the broader market. So there are companies looking to take advantage of the low cost player market such as Memorex which intends to release its new MVBD-2510 player for $269 when it ships in November of this year. Just in time for the Christmas rush, this unit seems well positioned to further increase the Blu-ray market share compared to the common DVD.

Are you one of the growing masses to adopt a Blu-ray player and enjoy Blu-ray movie in all its high-definition glory? Here are some facts detailing how Blu-ray technology and the growing demand in the home video market are intertwined.

1) Capacity –
The Blu-ray Disc (BD) format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. It offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs.
A single-layer disc can hold 25GB.
A dual-layer disc can hold 50GB.
A multi-layer discs can allow the storage capacity to be increased to 100GB-200GB (25GB per layer).
This added capacity allows the content producer nearly endless options to create the best quality motion picture in new ways. Plus they can add more “must-see” end credit footage. A 50GB BD disc can hold 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video.

2) Resolution –
It’s not unusual for a typical household to own a 70” widescreen TV with the abiltity to display the HD format for family home viewing. In order to actually be able to watch TV in HD, your television must have a minimum resolution of 576 lines x 720 pixels @ 50Hz progressive (576p). HD can also be 720p (720 horizontal lines progressive), 1080i (1080 horizontal lines interlaced) or 1080p (1080 horizontal lines progressive).
The 1080p format is the latest and greatest, appearing in high-end television models designed for Blu-ray video players.

3) Language –
BD-RE has different layers to support multi-language selection in movies for global viewers and multi-language broadcasts. Standard DVDs for the US market may offer up to three forms of English subtitles: 1) SDH subtitles, 2) English subtitles, helpful for viewers who are hard-of-hearing and whose first language may not be English, and 3) closed caption data (transcription rather than a translation, and usually contains descriptions of important non-dialog audio as well as “sighs” or “door creaks”) that is decoded by the end-user’s closed caption decoder.
Blu-ray disc uses SDH subtitles as the sole method because technical specifications do not require HD to support closed captions. Some blu-ray discs, however, are said to carry a closed caption stream that only displays through standard definition connections.

4) Dolby 7.1 –
Dolby Digital, or AC-3, is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound, with five channels for normal-range speakers (20 Hz – 20,000 Hz) and one channel (20 Hz–120 Hz) for the subwoofer driving low-frequency effects. This is a format where the AC-3 bit stream is interleaved with the video and control bit streams. The AC-3 standard allows a maximum coded bit rate of 640 kbit/s. ATSC (digital TV standard) and DVD-Video discs are limited to 448 kbit/s. Blu-ray Discs, the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox game console can output an AC-3 signal at a full 640 kbit/s.
If you own a huge TV screen, you may also require a high sound definition. Dolby 7.1 takes over the DVD supported Dolby 5.1 for a cleaner and crisper sound.

5) MMC support –
Mandatory Managed Copy (MMC) will be part of the Blu-ray format. This feature will enable consumers to make legal digital copies of their Blu-ray movies that can be transferred for viewing on a home media center, streaming throughout your house, or even transferring to a portable player.

6) G-Java software –
G-java is part of G-creator which is a 2D and 3D Game and software creator which makes it possible to encrypt in today’s BD movies to include interactive fun and games other than watching the movie itself. For example, the BD movie ‘CARS’ comes with the game – CARFINDER and ‘Ratatouille’ comes with the game – GUSTEAU’S GOURMET.

Screen Shot of the CARS interactive game

Given all the benefits of Blu-ray over DVD, it’s only a matter of time before the entire industry switched to Blu-ray as the standard bearer. Are you ready?

With all the hype surrounding Blu-ray and the larger capacity and better picture quality for HD video, the question may arise, what is the difference between Blu-ray disc technology and DVD disc technology. Well the below chart should shed some light on the primary differences.

The health of the Blu-ray market seems to be an enigma to most people these days as there’s a lot of discussion, anticipation, and inquiries about the topic. However, are there adequate sales to back it up. I think the biggest misconception right now is that the Blu-ray market is slow and not progressing as anticipated compared to DVD’s inception. Recent research refutes that misconception and in reality, Blu-ray appears to be ahead of DVD in terms of adoption when compared at similar times in their release.

In fact, research from Futuresource is said to show that Blu-ray Disc hardware is outselling early DVD hardware and will continue to do so into the next decade.

Jim Bottoms, MD corporate development, Futuresource, says: “Focusing on like-for-like coverage of Western Europe and comparing the first few years of uptake, the early indications are that BD player sales are running way ahead of DVD after the same time period”.

“2008 represents year three for BD and here at Futuresource Consulting, we anticipate more than 10 million players, including PS3, in use by the end of this year. Looking back to DVD’s early years, we see that closer to 1.5 million DVD players were installed by the end of year three.”

In a survey conducted by Sony Computer Entertainment America, results for the first half of May 2008 indicate that 52% of almost 3,000 PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners plan to purchase six or more BD titles in the next 12 months. Approximately 50% prefer to exclusively purchase or rent movies in BD format, even if they have to wait longer for the title release, and over 40% report increased movie viewing since the purchase of a PS3.

Statistics from the Redhill Group compiled on behalf of Home Media Magazine indicate that, as of May 18, 2008, Blu-ray software sales in the US exceeded the 11 million mark. In the first quarter of 2007, Blu-ray sales for day-and-date titles represented 1.7% of total sales for the top 10 selling titles, in comparison to the DVD version of the same title. In the first quarter of 2008, that percentage rose to 14.3%.

The Entertainment Merchants Association predicts in their 2008 Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry that Blu-ray sales will surpass standard DVD in 2012 and be about $9.5 billion. The report found that sales of nearly 9 million high-definition discs in 2007 generated more than $260 million in consumer spending. The EMA believes in 2012, Blu-ray Disc sales will be around $9.5 billion.

Based on these statistics, it’s clear that not only is Blu-ray a relevant and growing format, but looks destined to gain even more of a significant foothold in the digital optical media market. There’s no question that the PS3 has had a major impact in the growth of the format, but the important factor is not based on the method of use but rather through the sheer adoption of the format, regardless of the player.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which was established in the permafrost in the mountains of Svalbard, Norway, is designed to store duplicates of seeds from more than 1,400 gene banks spread over the entire planet. This vital measure is to safeguard the world’s agriculture against any negative consequences of war, pollution, climate change, natural disasters, or simply a lack of resources.

The temperature inside the Seed Vault is kept around minus 18 Celsius. The roof and parts of the frontage of the visible entrance section are filled with triangles of refractive elements like dichroic mirror glass, prisms and acid resistant steel of various sizes. These shapes and elements are intended to cast the light & surrounding environment back in all directions. These lights represent a volume complementary to the dark which has been hollowed out of the permafrost within and will signal the seed vault’s position at all times.

Photo: Mari Tefre/Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Much as the seed vault is intended to secure our food supply, it’s important to have a method of preserving our history and documentation for future generations to study and learn from. Whether it’s a global effort or a family interested in protecting the video of their child’s first birthday, Blu-ray discs can keep your data stored and protected for years. SONY Blu-ray’s stable and reliable writing mode allows all sorts of written data to be able to withstand any kind of environmental temperatures with the ability to last as long as 30 years.

Blu-ray was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. It offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. Through advancing technology it can be pushed up to 10 layers and capacity as high as 200GB. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

If you choose to store your family photos, business data, audio and video presentations, etc. think about using the BD-RE DL storage media. This is a far more “Green” method of storing these items since you can compile so much more data onto a single disc. It’s good for you and good for the environment!

Photo: Sony BD disc

Having exhibited at NAB 2008 in Las Vegas, NV, the main message that I took away from the show is “can you copy Blu-ray”? It seems as though every other question was about Blu-ray duplication. Once we answered, “yes, we have Blu-ray duplicators”, it was then followed by, “what’s the cost”? Even though the price is a bit higher than a DVD duplicator, they were still enthralled with the anticipation of transferring from DVD to Blu-ray.

Even though the Blu-ray duplication market is significantly smaller than the DVD duplication market, but the DVD market paled in comparison to CD at one point as well. So it’s only logical to think that the Blu-ray market will blossom as the costs become more manageable and there are more people creating Blu-ray content.

In the meantime, while the consumers are waiting for the Blu-ray duplication equipment to reach a price that meets their needs, the visitors that came by our booth were captivated by the new SharkCopier LS and Xerox Duplicators which each feature a unique and distinctive advantage over existing standalone duplication towers.

The SharkCopier LS with LightScribe capability is the first manual tower standalone LightScribe publishing system allowing users to copy and label discs through the same device in the same drive. The savings and convenience were a big hit as they marveled at the improved labeling quality. Seeing a manual tower pop out 15 fully printed discs in a single run simultaneously really struck a cord with our visitors.

The Xerox Duplicator series also really caught their attention as they learned how they could load their image files directly from a PC onto the duplicator’s internal hard drive. Not only does this process save time, especially if you have multiple files to duplicate, but they were also impressed with how easy the program was to operate and manage. Plus with the expected release of Blu-ray capable Xerox Duplicators, it was a logical fit to use the “Drag and Drop” operation to load the masters onto the duplicator rather than wait the 45 minutes it could take to produce a single BD master disc. The soon to be released Xerox Blu-ray duplicator will take just a fraction of the time to load the master image file onto the duplicator’s HDD so that the duplication process will be much quicker and convenient.

So it’s encouraging that Blu-ray has created such a demand and that the market is building for this product and we are excited to make all forms of optical disc duplication available for this growing market.

There’s been a lot of discussion that the winner of the Hi-def optical disc format wars (namely Blu-ray vs. HD DVD) was irrelevant because video stream downloads online or through cable/satellite will make either version obsolete in the near future. Personally, I think the optical disc and more specifically the Hi-def format will have a long and prosperous life.

By now it’s clear that Blu-ray Disc (BD) has won the Hi-def battle and is poised to be the format of choice. With this clarity in the field, it should help the sales of BD players, titles, and peripheries which will encourage manufacturers to develop more content and hardware for this format. At the same time, there are two major reasons why the BD format will continue to thrive even amid heavy speculation (mostly from Microsoft & Apple) that BD days are numbered; 1) Ease of use, 2) Price.

Most people who read blogs and surf the internet may assume that because everyone they know is fairly computer savvy, that everyone must be. But that is far from the truth. Even though I haven’t conducted an official survey, I’m willing to bet a majority of the people around the world find it far easier to simply pop a disc into a player and press play than downloading a file from the internet and playing it through a capable video program on their computer. Not to mention the time it takes to download a HD file is ridiculously long, especially if you’re ready to watch a program immediately. Plus the BD format now ranges from 25GB ~ 100GB capacity. At that size, how many movies can one download before they fill up their hard drives, especially as it competes with HDD space with incumbent software, picture files, music files, etc? In order to conserve space, one would have to back-up those BD movies onto BD-R discs. Again, showing the necessity for the BD format, writers and players. In the end it’s just easier to purchase a movie on disc than make life complicated by trying to download a movie.

The second issue is price. BD players and discs have been reduced to very reasonable pricing, (as low as $400 for a player and about $20 for a BD movie) which will only continue to decrease as competition increases and the format matures. Considering the higher degree of difficulty and experience required to download titles, the price of existing BD products is reasonable enough to encourage customers to simply purchase them. In fact I truly believe the initial slow adoption of the format had far more to do with the consumer’s nervousness over choosing the wrong format rather than price alone. Now that BD is the clear winner, I think the sales will more accurately depict the market size for this product. Plus with the cost of ownership decreasing and the superior quality and increased capability in the format, the run on Blu-ray titles should be similar to the market for DVD when it was first introduced.

There are many other reasons that can be used in the debate as to why BD will not have a shortened lifespan, but ease of use and price some up the two major points in any argument. So if you’re holding out on getting a BD player because you think video stream is the solution, I hope you have plenty of time and patience. I will be enjoying the incredible picture and sound of my physical media in the time it takes you just to log-on to your computer and I’ll most likely be finished before your movies even finishes downloading. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live in the moment than wait for eternity.