DVD Market Going Strong

DVD players and recorders will have a combined number of 176.6 million units sold worldwide in 2010, up from 140.8 million units in 2005, reports research firm In-Stat.

For 2006, Europe will be the strongest region for DVD players and recorders with a combined total of 38.4 million units sold, followed by North America with 37.4 million units, the market research firm anticipates.

The DVD player segment remained strong. DVD player sales grew from 114.2 million units in 2004 to 126.7 million units in 2005, In-Stat said. The strongest gains were made in portable DVD players (14 million shipped in 2005 as opposed to 11.3 million shipped in 2005), home theater-in-a-box + DVD player (13.8 million shipped in 2005 as opposed to 12.4 million shipped in 2004) and automotive (8.2 million shipped in 2005 as opposed to 7.1 million shipped in 2004), the research firm stated.

The DVD player market benefits from versatility in form factors. DVD players can be seen in portable renditions, or integrated with VCRs, or in the back panel seats of SUVs, In-Stat indicated. While DVD recorders have come down in price, there is still delineation in the pricing of DVD players and DVD recorders – each represents a different value proposition, according to the research firm.

Most of the development in the DVD player/recorder market was with the recorders. DVD recorder manufacturers were putting digital connections like HDMI outputs, USB, and 1394 onto the machines, as a true convergence device, In-Stat found. The functionality of DVD recorders includes aggregation of digital still pictures, playback of digital camcorders and conversion of VHS tapes onto DVD discs, the research firm suggested. DVD recorders are increasingly supporting multiple formats like DVD +/- R, and DVD +/- RW, according to In-Stat.

The future of the DVD player market though is all about high-definition DVD players based on “blue laser” technology; however, the future may be farther off than expected, In-Stat said. These players will enter the market at premium prices, and as there has been no compromise between the HD-DVD camp and the companies that sponsor Blu-ray technology, a format battle seems inevitable, the research company believes.

In-Stat’s initial estimates for the bill of materials for blue laser disc players is over US$400, with the servo chipset, optical pick-up, H.264 decoder and royalties making up the majority of the cost. Most of the costs are forecasted to decline considerably over the forecast period, except for royalties, the research firm expects.

According to an In-Stat US consumer survey, consumers who had hard drive discs (HDD) on their DVD recorders were much more likely to record content than consumers with only a recorder drive. Among US consumers that owned DVD recorders, 47% of all users were recording only one to five hours of programming a week, the research firm estimates. Of all of the features associated with DVD recorders, the capability to playback pre-recorded DVD discs ranked as the most important, said the research firm.

In addition, DVD recorders are evolving into devices that become a part of a media center/server system, In-Stat said in the report. Added connectivity means that consumers can aggregate digital pictures, download MP3 files or transfer old VHS tapes onto DVD discs, according to the research firm.

Story source: digitimes.com.