The future is Blu…ugh!!

Well the major news over the past couple of weeks has been the demise of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray emerging triumphant in the format wars.I’ve already let my opinions known here.It all started with WB going Blu-ray exclusive just before CES prompting the downfall of HD-DVD.Things are not clear yet,the same week Toshiba pulled out of HD-DVD,it has bought out Sony’s PS3 cell manufacturing plant for a whopping $850 million.Why didn’t Microsoft or Intel do anything to support HD-DVD?They could have well included a HD-DVD drive in the 360 and brought out another SKU but they didn’t.Intel as far as i know did nothing for HD-DVD.
Apple,now a force to reckon with didn’t do anything for Blu-ray either.They didn’t include any BD drives in any of their Macs.They did launch the movie rental service for the appleTV by which i’m guessing we are not gonna see the BD drives make it anytime soon.

The major doubts in everyones’ mind is Sony’s next gameplan for Blu-ray.Are they gonna jack up prices with a lack of competitors?Bear in mind that this is the first format war they’ve won in a really long time(I know the CD was co-developed with Phillips but Sony are the main backers of Blu-Ray).Will they risk the rootkit fiasco again?Will they continue developing the profiles?There are a lot of such doubts in consumer minds,Sony has to come out clean on these and address them.
The biggest factor i’m worried about is Region Coding.India has been grouped along with rest of Asia so discs from US/UK will not play if region locked.If i want to buy Bluray discs in India it has to be made for that region.Gamers know that PS3 is the only future compatible BD player but what about the average buyer,he’s not gonna invest >15k for a BD player which can also play games(duh..PS3)Given a year or so for disc prices to fall to the existing DVD levels by which time i’m guessing someone would crack the BD+ implementation.Piracy has been the biggest issue with movies studios in India,will they ever be able to beat it with Bluray?If they do succeed,how many are going to go out and buy a disc?They’d be better of renting it for a monthly/yearly fee(There’s a business opportunity)I could go on…

The HD services from Vudu and appleTV are not quite upto the mark yet.Gizmodo recently did a comparison and found that there’s still a long way to go for HD-on Demand in terms of quality.With ISPs restricting the bandwidth,on-Demand HD has still a long way to go(atleast for India)