News

posted on 01 August 2008 09:18

A Sony VP is punting improved prospects for Blu-ray dominance over DVD and an LG exec sees good Blu-ray times ahead.

As reported in DigiTimes  Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Asia Pacific Vice President - that's a SPHEAP VP if you're at all interested acronymically - Tim Meade reckons Blu-ray player sales are taking off. As a percentage of all video player sales they were 7 - 10 percent in 2007, are looking to reach 15 percent this year, and have a 6X year-on-year volume increase in Europe in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year, and a 4X increase over the same periods in the USA.

He estimates that the proportion of Blu-ray movie disk sales to DVD sales will be 40:60 in 2010 and will be in Blu-ray's favor in 2011.

There are three threats to this. One is the China Blue Syndrome whereby the Chinese home grown CBHD standard becomes a global one and spoils Blu-ray's forecast dominance. A second is the DVD hold-out phenomenon as in 'Blu-ray is too expensive and DVD good enough quality'. The third is net download which renders Blu-ray movie disks irrelevant.

Pertinent to this is a coming LG BD300 Network Blu-ray disk player in the USA. Netflix, which rents out movie DVDs through the post and also has an online movie download service, will be able to stream movies to the box. Subscribers will be able to use it to play improved quality DVDs, Blu-ray movies, as well as receive and play streamed content from the Netflix online movie vault of around 12,000 TV show episodes and movies.

The LG player will rely on a wired broadband connection and Queue-based user interface to stream content from Netflix to the TV. Netflix members will use the Netflix Web site to add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will automatically be displayed on members' TVs and be available to watch at once through the LG player.

Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. With the BD300's remote control, Netflix members will be able to browse and make selections on the TV screen and also have the ability to read synopses and rate movies. In addition, they will have the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream.

The box will also have the BD Live feature to receive other streamed Blu-ray-compatible content. It will be priced, it is thought, at substantially less than $500 and be available later this year.

Microsoft Xbox 360 games console users will also be able to receive and play streamed Netflix content.

Even with this Netflix streamed movie competition for Blu-ray disks, LG Electronics USA President Teddy Hwang expects Blu-ray player sales to triple by the end of 2011.

^{[Martin Edwards, news writer.]}