Disc manufacturers & studios begin realising the cost of Blu-ray Posted by Seán Byrne on 29 November 2005 - 01:01 - Source: c|net News At this stage, the Blu-ray format has got enough backing and momentum to potentially make it lead the market once it reaches the shops; however the movie studios and disc manufacturers are just beginning to realise the costs of Blu-ray, when compared with HD DVD, especially in the short term when the technology is still new. HD DVD has the advantage of being able to use existing DVD manufacturing lines with just a few minor modifications, costing less than 1/10th that of the cost of new replacement manufacturing lines required for Blu-ray. However, not only does Blu-ray require new manufacturing lines, but the source materials used for Blu-ray are more expensive such as a film layer that Sony currently only produces. According to an anonymous top manufacturing executive, early testing found that a manufacturing line for Blu-ray produces only around half the amount of usable discs compared with a HD DVD manufacturing line over a given period of time. Then again, while Blu-ray costs will initially be very high just as CD and DVD technology was very expensive when they first launched, the Blu-ray backers predict that the costs will rapidly come down to become competitive with HD DVD pricing. This will be helped by the potentially wide spread use for Blu-ray, particularly when it comes to its higher capacity over HD DVD and use for PlayStation 3 games also. Because Sony's Blu-ray disc technology appears to be the front-runner in the nasty fight to determine how the DVDs of the future are produced, movie studios and disc manufacturers are beginning to come to terms with the financial realities of the new format--as well as some troubling uncertainties. For more than a year now, a bitter public relations war has been waged between supporters of Blu-ray and a rival Toshiba-backed technology known as HD DVD. Both are high-capacity discs that will support the distribution of high-definition versions of movies, with much better picture quality than what's possible with today's technology. Blu-ray appears to have the lead, with most major movie studios saying they'll release films in the format next year. That's led to new concerns about mass production of DVDs in the new format. Since it represents a major break with past DVD and CD techniques, some worry Blu-ray will be expensive to support--at least in the short term--and could jack up prices for consumers. How much? No one can say for certain. But in at least one early test, according to a top manufacturing executive who asked to remain anonymous, a manufacturing line for HD DVD discs produced nearly twice as many usable discs as a similar line pumping out the Blu-ray format, over the same period of time. That translates into higher costs for Blu-ray producers. Moreover, component costs for Blu-ray can be nearly double HD DVD costs, because elements are still hard to find, the executive said. The full, rather lengthy article can be read here. It looks like the movie studios who chose Blu-ray did not fully consider the cost of disc replication when it came to deciding on which format to back, but then again they likely recon that the cost will just be a short term issue, much like when the DVD format had just launched, not to mention the pricing of DVD writers and blank media when these first launched later on. On the other hand, unless one is in an urgent need to get the next generation DVD player the moment either format hits the market, probably the best thing to do is wait a few months to see how each format comes along and then make the decision. Even though DVD players did not require a new TV to experience a significant picture quality improvement over VHS, not to mention only one DVD standard hitting the market, the majority of households did not suddenly rush out to get one, since this gradually happened over several years. In my opinion, the migration from DVD to HD DVD or Blu-ray will not only take several years, but will be slowed even further by requiring a high definition TV as well as deciding which format to go with (assuming both keep on going for many years to come). Feel free to discuss about Blu-ray and HD DVD on our Satellite, HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum. http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/12744
Hd-dvd's will also be more expensive at first. When bluray price has come down, hd-dvd price will be even lower ^_^
