Chris Gohlke
11-29-2005, 11:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/Cost+questions+dog+Blu-ray+DVDs+lead/2100-1025_3-5969815.html?tag=st.prev' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/Cost+questions+dog+Blu-ray+DVDs+lead/2100-1025_3-5969815.html?tag=st.prev</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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. "</i><br /><br />According to the article, Blu-ray has double the materials costs and half the yields of HD DVD. Assuming that the cost of the DVD media is a negligible portion of the costs of buying a movie, I don't see this as having a huge impact on the price a consumer would pay. However, from the DVD producers perspective, this could be a huge deal and shift some support to HD DVD.