At present, the breakeven price for the cheapest player is around US$300. This price has to be cut to no more than US$199 by slashing component and other costs. One worry here is component shortages. If component supplies are tight, it will force a price hike for the Blu-ray Disc system.
If players and recorders continue to spread in the market, then network service provision will take the stage.
The standards organization has already essentially completed the test specification for BD-Live. Matsushita Electric Industrial plans to ship a player supporting BD-Live in spring 2008, and other firms are expected to follow suit in summer 2008 and beyond.
BD-Live, however, isn't a shoe-in for the leading role in the fusion of optical discs and networks. One possible contender is HDi, jointly developed by Microsoft and Toshiba. While the two companies lost out in the next-gen DVD standards war, they may still propose technology for the fusion of optical discs and networks.
In the second half of 2007, Microsoft made two moves designed to promote the adoption of HDi even in sectors other than HD DVD. The first was to establish the Advanced Interactivity Consortium, an HDi promotion body, together with Toshiba, US film companies and other interested parties. The second was to launch the WG12 working group within the DVD Forum to investigate network applications for optical discs. Details are scarce on WG12, but a participant in the DVD Forum did say they appear to be considering implementing HDi in DVD players.
Toshiba, which worked with Microsoft in the HD DVD business, is looking for a way to leverage HDi in network services. At the press conference announcing the termination of HD DVD, Toshiba's Nishida said the firm is "...investigating the potential for new business utilizing the technologies jointly developed with partner firms." One possible business would be implementing HDi in the firm's DVD recorders to make possible distribution services.
by Naoki Asakawa, Phil Keys
Websites:
Matsushita Electric: www.panasonic.com
Microsoft: www.microsoft.com
NEC: www.nec.com
Samsung: www.samsung.com
SCE: www.scei.co.jp
Sony: www.sony.com
Toshiba: www.toshiba.com
Blu-ray Disc: an Evolving Standard- Guest paper by Masayuki Kozuka, General Manager in charge of Storage Device Strategy, Matsushita Electric Industrial
Many household appliances have advertised their networking features, and come complete with Ethernet jacks, but very few users have ever actually connected them up with Ethernet cables. The problem is that there is still very little motivation provided by possible applications like viewing Websites or accessing video distribution services.
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