Boo-Ray

It just sits there, mocking me. It isn't even plugged in anymore, hasn't been for months. I thought about selling it, but nobody is buying these things, not at the price I paid when I first took it home. Its my Blu-Ray player and it is one of the worst purchases I've had the misfortune of making.

The HD format wars are over, they've been over since February 2008 when HD DVD took a dive and conceded to Blu-Ray and we all believed that things would get better and certainly more affordable.

Blu Ray was supposed to replace DVD and everyone expected great things. We figured that once Blu-Ray became mainstream that prices would come down and everyone would be able to get on adapting the new format.

Aside from the first  Harry Potter box set I got for Christmas two years ago, the only other Blu-Ray disc in the house is The Devil Wears Prada which I bought for $14.99, which should be the price of most Blu-Ray titles by now, which isn't the case. You can certainly find $19.99 Blu-Ray 'Deals' which are mostly no-frills reissues of older movies which aren't at all different from their DVD counterparts.

Most of the recent Blu-Ray releases cost around $25.00 above an really don't offer much in terms of compelling content. Blu-Ray discs can handle anywhere from 25GB to 50GB of data which is far larger than what DVD can offer, yet publishers have failed to capitalize on this capacity despite charging a premium for Blu-Ray versions of films. 

We're not saying that they need to fill each Blu-Ray disc to the brim with content, we've seen some tedious examples of trite and uninteresting 'special features' that leave us saying "huh?!" but the price of Blu-Ray releases should at least be commensurate to what they offer.

The actual title film is a given, as are the theatrical trailers and any narration plus 'movie in the making' features which you already get from DVDs. A digital download version of the film should be included by default as well as previews and any possible cross media tie-ins (video games, animated features, music videos and soundtracks).

A high-def version of what is already offered in the DVD is hardly compelling reason to get consumers excited. We know any new format will take time to gain steam for adaptation but if Blu-Ray wants to be competitive, prices need to go down and features as well as quality need to get better, otherwise what is the value proposition of the standard?