Have Blu Ray Portable Dvd Players Come Too Late?

By Author: Rose Li
Total Articles: 109
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In the battle for home entertainment high definition Blu-Ray has become the clear victor.

Blu-Ray players have already invaded the neighborhood electronics stores. eBay lists close to 3,000 Blu-Ray players, while amazon.com has a little over 2200 players for sale.

However when it's time to go portable in the portable DVD player and car DVD player it appears Blu Ray has a long way to go before it can claim anything close to the majority of the market.

Consumer response has at best been cool...the geeks of course, have completely ignored the product.

There are reasons why the reaction to portable Blu-Ray players has been muted. These include:

* Image quality not visible on small screens: The Blu-Ray format is meant to enhance movie-watching experience by providing High Definition Video with resolutions from 1280x720 pixels or 1920x1080 pixels. The best way to enjoy these high resolutions would be on large screens-the larger the better. Portable DVDs with their 7'' to 10'' screens will not show any great improvement in video quality.
* Price: Prices of portable Blu-Ray players are likely ...
... to be above 500 US dollars. Just for reference you can get a regular portable DVD player for a little over 100 USD and a normal Blu-Ray player for a little more than 200 USD.
* Disk Cost: Blu-Ray discs are a lot more expensive than their standard definition counterparts, even for the special features they offer.
* Power consumption: Lithium-ion batteries are already straining to deliver three-hours of non-stop entertainment to the existing range of portable DVD players. The Blu-Ray players are going to strain this even further, as the higher video definition requires greater power.

It will be some time before you see portable DVD players supporting the Blu-Ray format on consumer shopping lists. Right now it is an untested product, as it is not yet commercially available. But more important the portable format defeats the very purpose of the disc, which is high-definition video quality.

Consumers looking to buy portable DVD players are essentially looking for a "second" entertainment source away from their homes. This could be used by the traveling executive or by kids on a family vacation. Cost is a concern as is the ability of the player to multi-task. This is what a wish-list of a portable DVD consumer could include:

* Digital TV compatibility: With the FCC-mandated June 12 deadline for ceasing analog transmission in the US, around the corner a portable DVD player capable of receiving digital signals will be a huge decision tilter.

* Card Ports: Can you plug in your camera memory card into the portable player direct? Card ports capable of handling multiple formats will a great help to play those holiday videos and look at the pictures on a bigger screen.

* Gaming Console Connectivity: Can the player be hooked up to a gaming console. Helps on those long road trips with a couple of kids in the back seat.

For now, consumers are looking for a host of different features, accessories to enhance their portable DVD players.
Pick the right player or the right accessory and you are more likely to net more consumers. Blue-ray is not yet a hot USP.
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