Blu-ray Disc may have beaten HD DVD in the high-definition optical disc wars, but it now faces a new test against internet downloads, market researchers Gartner and iSupply said.
The two high-definition disc formats had battled for the past few years until Toshiba last week handed victory to Blu-ray Disc by announcing an end to its support of HD DVD. The company's decision came after a major Hollywood film studio and several retailers, including Wal-Mart, said they would back Blu-ray Disc exclusively.
But the victory for Blu-ray Disc may be short-lived if consumers choose to download high definition content from the internet, market researchers say.
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Toshiba finally signals end of HD DVD
"After years of a standards war, the major question for Sony and the Blu-ray camp is whether a physical format for high-definition still has any relevance to consumers in this era of internet-delivered movies and video on demand," said David Carnevale, vice president of multimedia content and services at iSuppli, in a report.
Online movie download services from iTunes, Amazon and others have gained traction in recent years and increased their movie, TV and other video content offerings. The internet gives consumers a choice of building a library of HD movies bought over the Internet instead of buying a Blu-ray Disc player and building a new library of movies-on-disc, said Carnevale.
"Physical media distribution could become a thing of the past," he said.
Blu-ray Disc could be further harmed unless prices come down quickly and more manufacturers start making players, according to Gartner. The market researcher said that most manufacturers will probably hold off on announcing new Blu-ray Disc equipment until the first quarter of 2009. In addition, consumers may also put off buying Blu-ray Disc players because DVD players that up-convert existing DVDs is already seen by some as a good alternative to making a big investment in high-definition discs.
"Most manufacturers are still trying to persuade consumers that high-definition optical discs are worth investing in, as many consumers and industry pundits see video-on-demand services and Internet downloads as viable alternatives," said Paul O'Donovan and Hiroyuki Shimizu in a report.
Comments
Jo said: Since us UK residents dont have Amazon downloads and have long since suffered from unfair pricing from Itunes accepting their recent decision to make costs the same across the board I think its jumping the gun a bit Itunes still restricts their music and since I prefer to use music Ive had the decency to pay for on whatever brand MP3 I like I think that theres still a massive UK market for a site you can buy MP3 format music on without subscribing to a monthly fee
Jim Holder said: Back to planet UK please The aldis lamp and semaphore joke that passes for Broadband in this country just isnt going to be able to handle practical use of any feature film download for a very long time You Tube snippets are sometimes OK but High Definition Lord of The Rings
Steve Lorton said: I am sorry but from the quality I have seen of internet downloads I just cant see this being the case You still cant beat sitting down in your front room with the computer turnd off and watching a film that you have selected from a collection I cant see my girlfriend being to impressed if I tell her she has to wait 8 hours for a film to download before we can sit and watch it on our 2mb line we have The quality even of DVD is so much better than even the best quality file download and if you are running it though a DTS Amplifier i cant see the poor 20 stereo mix that is included in downloads being any good I think we will see blu-ray films and players dropping in price now the battle is over
Steve Lorton said: I am sorry but from the quality I have seen of internet downloads I just cant see this being the case You still cant beat sitting down in your front room with the computer turnd off and watching a film that you have selected from a collection I cant see my girlfriend being to impressed if I tell her she has to wait 8 hours for a film to download before we can sit and watch it on our 2mb line we have The quality even of DVD is so much better than even the best quality file download and if you are running it though a DTS Amplifier i cant see the poor 20 stereo mix that is included in downloads being any good I think we will see blu-ray films and players dropping in price now the battle is over