Sony and Panasonic to scuttle Blu-ray?

[jmkoch]

The news from the ongoing CES makes it look fuzzy for BD.

The sponsors of the BD format are not just hedging their bets, but possibly sealing its demise or demotion, by means of:

1) Adding digital video download features to new HDTVs. Even if the IQ is not quite BD, digital downloads may substitute and displace optical media altogether.

2) Keeping BD players and discs over-priced. To get past the "you're kidding" resistance of cash-strapped folks worried about the economy, there have to be more entry-level players below $150 and at least some "teaser" feature discs in prices comparable to standard DVD. In addition, the cost / GB for blank BD media should not be more expensive than that on blank DVDs.

3) Promoting very inexpensive "1080 upscale" standard DVD players with HDMI ports, some of them bundled with inexpensive 5-channel sound systems and supported by advertising that they are "the best player for your new HDTV." The shelf space given to these items seems to be far greater than that given to BD players.

These factors may not be a willful conspiracy, but have the effect of a strategy to scuttle the format.

BD won't disappear, but the odds of it supplanting DVD as the "universal format" now look slim.