Blu-ray: No-Competition Atrophy Attrition

Market competition may be a supreme hassle for participants on a day-to-day basis, but from a long-term-view perspective it tends to be supremely beneficial, for competitors and consumers alike. Suppliers are motivated to improve their products faster than they otherwise would, and customers benefit from competition-fueled plummeting prices…thereby resulting in a much larger market (measured in unit sales) than would otherwise be the case.

Ideally, as I pointed out in response to a recent reader comment, such competition would take place on a standards-based playing field. However, incompatible dueling standards such as Blu-ray and HD DVD can also cultivate a healthy competitive environment. Which is why, even though I understood why the movie industry sooner-or-later needed to settle on a single format, and I was aware that both camps were bleeding substantial amounts of cash, I was disappointed to see the end of the blue laser optical disc wars play out as soon as it did.

The effects of HD DVD’s demise are unfortunately already appearing. Blu-ray player prices are actually rising (more). And Sony’s long-time patent partner, Philips (who partners with Lite-On for computer optical drives), is predictably beginning to rattle its saber, touting its beneficial early access to Blu-ray technologies. What the Philips/Lite-On release doesn’t explicitly tout, but what I strongly suspect will occur, is that a number of companies that might otherwise broaden the Blu-ray ecosystem won’t be given timely patent access to the technologies needed to implement format support.

Take Toshiba, for example. A large worldwide consumer electronics manufacturer, the company will, I’d wager, likely be "punished" for its longstanding HD DVD advocacy. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, similarly, won’t be warmly welcomed to the Blu-ray ranks, although the company will likely use the threat of Windows O/S non-support as a wedge to garner console support. Chinese player manufacturers who were key to the red laser DVD rapid price drop likely won’t be able to work their same magic this time ’round.

And what of historical HD DVD content advocates such as Paramount and Universal? I ’spect there’s an interesting tug-of-war currently underway in the Blu-ray camp; hardware manufacturers keenly aware that at end of day "it’s the content, stupid" welcome additional movie studios, while competitive studios such as Disney and Sony Pictures are less enthusiastic. Meanwhile, Internet-based movie distribution services gain momentum…

In other Blu-ray news, the BD+ encryption circumvention I mentioned back in late December has now arrived in the form of SlySoft’s AnyDVD HD v6.4.0.0 (more on BD+…AnyDVD HD cracked the base AACS encryption scheme common to both Blu-ray and HD DVD more than a year ago). The company’s running a 20%-off promotion through end of month via coupon code ‘easter’; certain pages (none of which I found via a quick click-around) on the company’s site reportedly promote a 25%-off coupon code.

Also, for any of you who doubted the wisdom behind my longstanding advocacy of Sony’s PlayStation 3 as the ideal Blu-ray player, note that an upcoming firmware release will implement BD-Live support (along with eliminating the current 2 GByte filesize limitation on WMV and DivX playback, and making other enhancements). I can’t resist pointing out that BD-Live mimics functionality that’s been implemented in HD DVD from the format’s very first day….

Followup: Classic comments from SlySoft, via BoingBoing…