AACS Blu’s

After having a few days to digest this year’s NAB show, I’ve come to the conclusion that this may be only Hollywood’s party. To get invited to the party you have to pay to party.

As a small independent DVD author/service provider, I’d like to be at the party, but with the current AACS fees as high as they are, my clients just aren’t going to go blu. When I started my business in 2000, DVD was brand spankin’ new. My clients said “why do I need a DVD when I have a CD.” I showed them what a DVD could do and once they realized the potential of the shiny discs, they were sold. There was a compelling reason to switch from CD or VHS to DVD. Sure, the price was high but there were huge benefits to switch to DVD.

Where is the compelling reason to switch to Blu-ray? Sure you’ll want put your HD content on a Blu-ray disc, but is it so compelling that the small independent content owners will be able to pay the exhorbant fees to make Blu-ray discs?

As it currently stands, to replicate a Blu-ray disc there’s a one-time AACS content fee of $3,000. The per title fee is $1,300 ($800 title fee & a $500 content certification fee) plus a $0.04 per disc fee. Then there’s the replication fee of about $2.00 for a single layer disc. Then of course the author needs to mark-up the price. When you do the math it’s about $7.00 - $8.00 per disc for a minimum run of 1,000 discs. This doesn’t include the fees to capture, compress, graphics or authoring. A simple title could cost $13,000. What small independent content owner is going to shell out this kind of money? BD-R duplication at this point is also not a viable option with blank discs costing $17 to $40 per disc.

The small independent filmmaker doesn’t need or want AACS. Why should AACS be mandatory? If Hollywood wants AACS to be mandatory, fine; just make it free to everyone.

I think Blu-ray has a short life with the coming of faster Internet downloads. Why not make Blu-ray accessible to all; today! Filmmakers are hungry to put their films on an HD format. It needs to be affordable otherwise they’ll continue to put their HD content on DVDs. To be invited to the Blu-ray party, there should be no barriers. The BD format then has a better chance of success. Failure is entirely possible. Remember the Laserdisc, MiniDisc and of course Betamax? The BD players need to be priced lower and faster then DVD players were. The BD titles need to be priced the same as DVDs. Profile 2.0 should be mandatory. Make all Blu-ray players Internet ready. The BD titles certainly will be. Why piss off the consumers with functionality that only works on profile 2.0 players when they'll be playing titles on profile 1.1 players.

I know that Hollywood knows this. Does Hollywood care? Are they willing to risk the formats success and be bullheaded or are they in favor of dropping the barriers to small independent filmmakers and service providers, so they can be at the Blu-ray party?

(DVDA Editor's note: if you'd like to offer your own opinion on BD, take the DVDA's Blu-ray survey)