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The following blog post is from my friend Stephen Antonucci’s blog ReelSmart. (Check out his site regularly, it’s awesome) I wanted to share this post because I find this news quite ironic. Sony who is the creator of Blu-ray and winner of the the latest DVD war actually sees a need to be providing video streaming to their game systems & new TVs. Could this mean that even Sony sees that Blu-ray is not a viable format? You judge for yourself.
:: Playstation 3 To Get Video Store
Sony has confirmed today that it will be bringing video downloads to the Playstation Network starting in the US market later this summer. PSP and video-capable Walkman owners will also have access to this service spurring competition to Apple and Microsoft.
Details for the new service is expected to be unveiled at the E3 gaming expo that opens on July 15th.
Sony also says it plans to offer video streaming to all of its BRAVIA LCD TVs with the Internet Link
Since the Blu-ray format won back in January, the buzz amongst many wedding video producers is that it is now time to invest and change our delivery to blu-ray discs. I always wondered though is if this is really a service that our clients want. I found this poll this morning that was done by Harris Interactive that confirms my feelings that even though the war has been won, the consumers don’t care.
“While many people expected sales of Blu-ray disc players to spike when Toshiba decided to drop out of the high-definition HD DVD market in February 2008, according to a new Harris Poll, it seems that the recently resolved high definition format war is not motivating consumers to purchase the advanced DVD players any time soon. The Harris Poll of 2,529 U.S. adults surveyed online between April 7 and 15, 2008 by Harris Interactive® found that:
* Ownership of standard DVD players is practically ubiquitous (87%);
* Few report owning Blu-ray disc players (4%), Sony PlayStation 3 (5%), HD DVD players (6%) and the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 (1% have external drive while 9% have an Xbox 360);
* Only nine percent of non-Blu-ray player owners report being likely to purchase a Blu-ray disc player within the next year, even when made fully aware that Blu-ray is considered to be the definitive technology for high definition DVD players going forward;
* Two-thirds of consumers are familiar with the recently resolved high-definition format war (67%) and seven in ten of them have heard that Blu-ray is the unofficial winner (69%);
* Nearly a quarter (23%) of those aware of the format war report that they had been waiting for the rivalry to play itself out before purchasing a high definition player, but by April they had yet to do so;
* Although one-third of consumers report owning a high definition television set (HDTV; 35%), with incidence higher among males (41%) versus females (28%) and rising decidedly with household income (15% for those with less than $35K vs. 53% among those with $75K+), the percentage of HDTV owners likely to purchase a Blu-ray disc player is only 14 percent;
* Current ownership of Blu-ray disc players among HDTV owners stands at 10 percent.
According to Joan Barten Kline, Vice President of the Harris Interactive Media & Entertainment Practice, “Since Blu-ray disc player pricing averages more than $300, which is well above the cost for the latest generation of standard DVD players with up-converters, Blu-ray disc players may be encountering price sensitivity despite the advanced technology.” You can read more on this poll here.
I admit I share the sentiments of those 91% who do not plan on buying a Blu-ray player. In fact, I recently bought a SD DVD player Home theater system with an HD upconverter for $100. I love it. It even has a USB port so I can plug in my video iPod (haven’t tried it yet-but still a cool feature). I have it hooked up via HDMI to DVI into my 50 inch LCD television. Granted it is not true HD quality just converted to HD… but it still looks outstanding.
I have a tremendous collection of DVD movies and I did not want it share dust with my other defunct collection (VHS). Nor do I want to start spending $30 a pop to replace my collection that doesn’t fully exist either. So this is the best solution for us.
But to satisfy my craving for true HD quality in both movies and wedding video production, I feel the best solution is an Apple TV or any other digital media receiver to view HD content. On Apple TV you can also watch/buy/rent movies & television programming from iTunes. The cost of an Apple TV is less or about the same as a Blu-ray player but the ability to connect to the internet makes it a much more versatile piece of technology in my opinion. I think we are going to see a lot more benefits and features from Apple TV or any other digital media receiver to come. The format war may have been won, but it is not a format for me nor do I think my clients will care about it as well. What do you think?
