For once lets ignore the hype, the my formats bigger than yours and any other marketing hype and look at the real facts...the cost to produce the discs themselves.
Manufacturing BD discs will require an investment to convert the manufacturing line of US$1.7 million per line.
Most manufactures have at least 2 lines.
Manufacturing HD discs will require an investment to convert the manufacturing line of US$150,000 per line - less than a tenth of the cost of a BD line.
Consider the world will need 600 lines to meet the demand we now have for DVD.
The reason is the HD is based on the DVD 9 format we have now and not a brand new format such as Blu-ray.....
Do the economics make sense for Blu-ray???? Only if Sony underwrites them to the tune of 4 billion or so!!!
Source
Previously posted at blog.Solidsoft.com