Video and Film professionals who wish to shoot and publish their projects in Hi-Def have, to this point, been frustrated with the prohibitive costs associated with manufacturing a Blu-ray Disc.

Say an average filmmaker or video professional wants to make 1000 copies of their film and put it on Blu-ray(BD) Disc.   Unlike DVD, they will have to pay a mandatory up front AACS licensing fee.  Going rate is about $1500 to $2000 plus an ongoing royalty.

After paying this mandatory licensing fee, it will cost approximately $3.5 per unit to manufacture a Blu-ray package that is ready for distribution and sale.

For a typical standard definition DVD, there is no mandatory licensing fee for encryption and the cost would be approximately $1.49 per unit to manufacture.

Comparing these costs, a filmmaker  will have to pay an extra 266% over the cost of a standard DVD to publish on Blu-ray Disc.  Almost every client I have spoken to about these costs has declined to go Blu-ray.

As economies of scale take effect, the costs to manufacture Blu-ray Discs will likely come down and eventually be similar to DVD costs.  However, the real barrier to smaller companies adopting hi-def is the mandatory AACS licensing fee imposed by AACS Licensing Administrator, LLC.  This additional $1500-$2000 (plus per piece royalty), will likely be too expensive for most, and is just one more barrier to widespread adoption of Blu-ray Disc technology.

My hopes are that AACS Licensing Administrator, LLC. drops the mandatory licensing fee for smaller Blu-ray Disc orders.  If they do not, I suspect that an entire market of filmmakers and video professionals will be choosing DVD over Blu-ray Disc for the distribution of their projects.

For more information on Blu-ray Disc Duplication and Replication you can contact us directly:

Brian G Fisher

DVD Copycat

745 Fillmore, #101

San Francisco, CA 94117

www.dvdcopycat.com

415-929-1581