Pair of Blu-ray news releases

First up Paramount must have finished up their contract issues with Toshiba (from their HD DVD exclusivity move) because they finally announced that they will go [back] to Blu-ray on May 20th!!

Hollywood Reporter

Arriving in stores that day are Blu-ray Disc versions of "Face/Off," "Next" and "Bee Movie," a DreamWorks Animation title that was initially supposed to be released in March on HD DVD, the same day as the standard DVD. But when Toshiba threw in the towel on HD DVD in February, those plans were scrapped and "Bee Movie" came out only on DVD.

And next up we have a research firm stating the obvious: ABI research has done a study that says Blu-ray adoption will be slow until things get cheaper and the majority of people are fine with upscaling their DVD collection, and those that do go Blu-ray will be buying Playstation 3’s if they buy a Blu-ray player at all… duh!

Business Wire

It will be 12 to 18 months before this market kicks into gear. Consumer electronics manufacturers need to introduce full-featured players and then get prices down to the $200 level. Until then, non-HDTV owners will certainly favor standard definition DVD players. A depressed economy in the United States could also lead HDTV and prospective HDTV owners to opt for upconverting standard players as they delay buying higher-ticket CE items. In addition, Blu-ray packaged media comes at a heavy premium over standard DVDs, although studios have brought prices down to the low $20-range for some titles.