Hollywood expects boosts of Blu-ray by Magdalena Rosova

Prices for Blu-ray players dropped below $100 this holiday season. However, customers seem to not be sure about jumping into the next-generation video format. Even people with Blu-ray players are still buying DVDs. The reason why people do not switch to Blu-ray players is that its discs are not compatible with standard DVD players in cars and computers. Hollywood is trying to support the usage of Blu-ray by creating special packages with Blu-ray discs together with regular versions on DVDs. Over the past month Hollywood released films “Up,” “Harry Potter - Half-Blood Prince.” Such a combo pack cost about $20, which is about 50 percent less than w! hat one would pay if one buy it separately. The home video market is very crucial for film studios as it represents an important part of the studios' profit. Movie studios such as Hollywood or Universal are pushing Blu-ray for its clear sound and images even if you do not have the best flat-panel TV. But DVD players are still more convenient because such players and computer drives that read DVDs are everywhere. Moreover, two-thirds of 92 million U.S. households who own a DVD player have more than one. In comparison only about 12 million U.S. homes have Blue-ray players. Now the market is sagging because as people have stocked home collections, they have turned to rentals, but this is not very profitable for film studios. Hollywood hopes that the sell of Blu-ray discs will boost its profit. Produce of the discs does not cost more than normal DVDs but it is priced $10 more than DVDs. Blu-ray has to face many strong competitors. Shoppers say that utility and portabi! lity are now more important than the quality picture and sound! quality .

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by Magdalena Rosova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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