Analyst: Blu-ray Player to Supplant Set-Top Box

[Woochifer]

Given how many tech pundits have been predicting (or rather hoping for) the demise of Blu-ray since before the format even launched, I can't help but notice the irony is this analyst's projection that Blu-ray players will be the conduit by which digital distribution expands.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blu...-top-box-17865

In an increasingly connected home entertainment universe, the Blu-ray player is emerging as successor to the set-top box and conduit between packaged media and digital distribution.

New research from The Diffusion Group indicates the market for Web-based set-top devices such as the Roku media player, Vudu, Popcorn Hour and Boxee Box, among others, with be non-existent by 2014.

The Dallas-based research company said the 30 million set-top boxes sold by 2014 would represent just 3% of all Web-enabled CE devices purchased over the next five years.

Instead, CE manufacturers and Hollywood studios, beginning next month at the cavernous Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will push consumers toward adopting connected Blu-ray players and video game consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in an effort to hedge slipping disc sales while future-proofing the roughly 50% household penetration of recently acquired, non-connected, flat-screen televisions.

The article basically looks at the Blu-ray player as a good transitional tool because the move towards streaming media on the video side will be slower than it was with music. I agree. Those who point to music downloading as a sign of streaming media quickly taking over on the video side are seriously misguided and reading way too many biased tech blogs. For one thing, they ignore the fact that 65% of the music revenues still come from CDs, and over 80% of the video side revenue still comes from DVDs and BDs. For all the hype that online video gets, it still accounts for less than 1% of total viewing time, even with half of households regularly viewing online video.

The role of a BD player as a sort of trojan horse for download/streaming media will probably be more of a gradual process. For one thing, most homes do not have a network connection in the living room, and the vast majority of BD players equipped for networking are not connected. But, it does consolidate several functions into a single device, and effectively prices the standalone set top boxes out of the market.

[kexodusc]

If the increasing size of the racks at Blockbuster are any indication...BluRay's doing just fine.

I've yet to hear of anyone actually buying one of those web-based STBs. Anyone here have one?

[Invader3k]

The Samsung BD player we bought my parents for Christmas has the ability to stream Youtube, Pandora, etc. So it seems to be coming very quickly.