By : Erik Gruenwedel | Posted: 16 Mar 2006
egruenwedel@questex.com

After meeting in Japan last week with executives from Sony Corp. and next-generation DVD format Blu-ray Disc, Image Entertainment president and CEO Martin Greenwald said the cost of mastering and pressing high-definition optical discs would be “very price prohibitive.”

Speaking March 15 to the B. Riley Investor Conference in Las Vegas, Greenwald said mastering a single hi-def title would be $40,000, compared to $2,000 for a standard DVD. Pressing costs per hi-def disc would be $2, compared to $1 for a DVD.

“We have to wait until that price point comes down to a level that actually works for us,” said Greenwald.

He said historically, new technology hardware and software prices drop dramatically, but “we don't really know what that price is going to be yet.”

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