As with the introduction of CD burners, then DVD burners, the price of burning to the latest optical format is never cheap. As the technology evolves and early adopters climb aboard, the production runs increase, lowering the price-per-item, eventually making it affordable enough for the average consumer.
Burners
Now that Blu-ray is confirmed as the next generation of optical storage, the price should be dropping considerably as more pro-sumers and even some consumers start producing in high definition. Unfortunately the decrease in price has been slow, the average Blu-ray burner will still set you back between AU $300-$450.
Discs
There has been some improvements in the affordability of Blu-ray media. What cost AU $40-50 only 6 months ago, is now down to AU $15-$20. Expect this to drop below the $10 per disc mark in the next few months.
Software
Software Developers have been pretty quick to add support for Blu-ray, with most professional grade video editing packages already supporting the format. Even some consumer-based software is now beginning to follow suit.
Hardware
One of the biggest blockers for Blu-ray adoption is the intense demands on hardware. Editing a video in 1920×1080, is really something only the latest hardware is capable of doing well. As home users go through upgrade cycles, more people will have machines capable of meeting or exceeding HD video editing requirements.
So given all these factors, I believe the price of entry into Blu-ray production is still to high for even the enthusiastic early adopters. Essentially it’s a waiting game, this cycle of adoption vs affordability will inevitably follow that of CD and DVD, the question is when..
That is of course unless consumers snub the HD optical format in favor of Hard Drive storage for the videos. Hard drive prices are crashing, easily large enough to handle the multiple gigabytes of storage required for not one HD movies, but potential 10 or hundreds.
So my question is this, will consumers skip Blu-ray and head straight for Hard Disk storage ?
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