Well, it’s happening.  Even in this crazy economy.  We here at Video Labs are starting to get requests to make Blu-ray DVD copies.

At first it was one or two copies, and now we are fielding requests for up to 100.

Granted, the medium is still taking some time to catch on among many of our clients, but the advantages of the format – HD video quality among the foremost — are alluring.

The majority of the requests seem to be for exhjibition at trade shows, conferences and screenings.

And we can handle your Blu-ray duplication orders and utilize our superb on-disc color thermal transfer face label printing. (see blog on disc face printing: http://tinyurl.com/59psy8)

Now, this is not disc Blu-ray “replication.” And, we are not talking about high-end Blu-ray authoring, and we cannot make copies of AACS copy-protected Blu-ray masters. (see http://tinyurl.com/dqhm9)

BUT, again, let’s say your are outputting an editing project to a Blu-ray disc master or to an HD tape, and want to make a number of Blu-ray copies for a limited audience.  We CAN do that for you, from either your Blu-ray disc master or your HD tape, and with quick turnaround.

Just give me a call at 301-217-0000 x104 or dryan@videolabs.net

This might be a good time to consider just where is the industry at regarding Blu-ray these days?

I recently attended a seminar in DC where two of the people involved with the recently released book, “Blu-ray Demystified,”  http://tinyurl.com/9qaxjw spoke.  They were Samantha Cheng and Chuck Crawford of Television Production Services, Inc. http://www.tpsvideo.com/

It was a VERY informative meeting.   Bottom line: Don’t go into full-scale Blu-ray authoring and replication unpreprared . . . or think that it can be done quickly.  It is a VERY expensive process that requires a lot of pre-planning and strict attention to detail throughout.  Not to discourage you from the great potential this technology offers, but as a producer, make sure you have a road map.  I’m not shamelessly hawking their book, but if you are thinking of producing a Blu-ray project for the first time, GET THEIR BOOK!

Now, despite the down economy, there are signs that the consumer is starting to appreciate the advantages of Blu-ray, getting beyond the initial apathy that faced the format. (i.e. People have been thinking, ”Hey, my standard DVD looks fine enough, thank you.)”

Video Labs’ manager of multimedia, Stacey Flynn, a huge music fan, is becoming a Blu-ray convert.  She recently passed along this link regarding Neil Young’s soon-to-be released Blu-ray archive project.  http://tinyurl.com/6g4aud

Very cool. But yikes, a price tag $350?  Well, other titles are of course much more affordable.  The average Blu-ray movie is between $25 – $30.

Stacey feels though a lot of the price resistance is based on lack of knowledge of the advances and capabilities of the Blu-ray technology. 

Another reaction might be like that of Margaret Wallenfang of Great Lakes Media Technology’s art department when she received a gift of the Blu-ray release of “Sleeping Beauty” http://tinyurl.com/6tarxo

And what about the future potential of corporate use of Blu-ray?  Here’s a link to an interesting blog on that by another industry colleague of mine at GLMT, Tim Schoonenberg:   http://tinyurl.com/7h5rqe

What do you think?  Your comments are most welcome below.

While on the subject of Blu-ray and HD, you might also be interested in reading my blog about Video Labs’ HD captioning services:  http://tinyurl.com/6bpxje