Blu-Ray: Why it only works for the big studios

We hear a lot of hype about Blu-ray these times, both from media companies and from financial analysts. However for the independent movie publisher and for the consumer that is not interested in big Hollywood productions Blu-ray is an epic fail for various reasons:

- Incompatibility issues: not all players seems to be compatible with all discs. This is especially true for recorded discs (that an independent is far more likely to use than pressed discs for reasons I will detail bellow). If you sell your media over the net you don't want to have discs returned because they won't play on someone player: avoid Blu-ray!

- Poor support platform: Pressed Blu-Ray disc are required to include the AACS copy protection scheme, however AACS compatible players don't exists for many platforms: No support on Macs, No support on Linux, hardware dependent support on Windows (it requires a compatible Video card), No support on Xbox etc... If you want something that everybody can play you are probably better providing an MP4 file than a Blu-ray!

- Production costs: Producing and mastering a Blu-Ray title cost an arm and a leg! You can either burn discs yourself at a cost of around $12 per media or have them duplicated at a cost of around $35 per media. Not only is this way too expensive, but this lead to compatibility issues as not all players are 100% compatible with burned disc, meaning a lot of returns. If you want to have your discs pressed (like Hollywood movies) the cost per disc falls to $3 per disc BUT you have to include AACS copy protection, which will cost you $3,000 + $1520 per project + 4 cents per disc. We are already around $5000 here. Add to that a License of $500 if you don't wish to use the Blu-ray Logo or $3000 if you wish to as well as the rental of the mastering software at $300 / month and you'll see that even for a small 1000 discs run you are well over $10.000 in initial investment.

This makes Blu-ray an epic fail for small publishers and consumers alike: it is impossible for independents to release their products on Blu-ray and it is impossible for consumers to buy anything but big Hollywood production. In light of this I would suggest to anyone that want to distribute paid-for HD content to look rather at digital distribution (like VUZE) or at DIVX rather than Blu-Ray.