‘Hesitant’ Debut of 4K Blu-ray Hurting Singulus Optical-Disc Equipment Orders
“Stagnating production volumes” for optical discs “suggest a weak market” for new Ultra HD Blu-ray disc production, Singulus said Thursday in a first-half 2016 report. The “hesitant introduction” of Ultra HD Blu-ray “in the current business year does not provide…
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the stimulus for additional investments,” said Singulus, one of the world’s largest suppliers of disc-replication equipment. Though the first Ultra HD Blu-rays were released in April, and “nearly all Hollywood studios have started the distribution of movies” on the new format, “there is still a lack of adequate players at attractive market prices for the mass market,” it said. Singulus is in talks with “all major disc producers, but still does not see the customers’ willingness to invest into the new machine technology” called Bluline III, it said. Bluline III is equipment that can produce three-layer, 100-GB Ultra Blu-rays, but Singulus has been vague on disc production costs and yields compared with the 66-GB discs that most studios have been using for Ultra HD Blu-ray movies (see 1510140041).