Still haven’t picked up that Blu-ray disc player?  You might want to hurry (or not), because according to Robin Harris over at ZDNet, “Blu-ray is in a death spiral“, and will be little more than a “videophile niche in 12 months”. Here’s some of the interesting evidence Harris cites for the eventual demise of Blu-ray discs.

Upconversion DVD players:  With DVD players that up-play standard quality DVDs to near HD quality, the hype surrounding the viewing quality of Blu-ray discs is lost.

Licensing Fees:  There are whopping Blu-ray licensing fees implemented by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) for producers who want their productions available on Blu-ray.  $3K per project, plus additional annual fees.  That might be okay for a multi-million dollar film budget, but it’s not likely to be affordable for others.

Time Lost:  The HD DVD/ Blu-ray war took a couple of years to sort out…so all the while, technology was advancing, leaving Blu-ray a little outdated.

What do you think…is it the beginning of the end for Blu-ray discs, camcorders, and other gadgets? Hitachi doesn’t appear to think so.  They just released a new line of Blu-ray/DVD hybrid camcorders.

Sony camcorders have really caught my eye lately…especially the memory stick compatibility feature.  How convenient to plug in a memory stick and easily transfer home videos to your computer, YouTube, or anywhere else? Sure beats my old compact VHS camcorder, which might even be a collectible by now!

The Sony Handycam above features a 30 GB hard drive (20 hours of video), 40X digital zoom, and 2000X digital zoom.  There’s also a 1 button disc burn feature to allow you to instantly transfer the video on the hard drive to a DVD. The camcorder’s LCD screen is a 2.7 inch touch panel model.  The specifics say that this camcorder will support memory sticks up to 8GB, and you can bypass the camera’s hard drive for recording straight to a stick. The Sony DCR-SR45 camcorder is available at OneCall for $399.