A report released by ABI Research on Friday showed that more than half of the respondents cited "other priorities" when asked about the purchase of a Blu-ray player.

In addition, less than one-fourth said they would be buying one in 2009. The ABI research included 1,000 respondents.

The value proposition of the Blu-ray technology was cited as the reason for much of the lukewarm response.

"Consumers were happy to embrace standard DVD when that format arrived because the improvement in quality over VHS videotapes was dramatic," said principal analyst Steve Wilson. "Standard DVD didn’t require the purchase of a new TV either. In contrast, while half of the respondents to our survey rated Blu-ray’s quality as ’much better’ than standard DVD, another 40% termed it only ’somewhat better,’ and most are very satisfied with the performance of their current DVD players."

Adding to the problem, Mr. Wilson said he expects tier one players to remain above US$300 for the rest of 2008. Also, for many, buying a Blu-ray player would require customers to buy a new HDTV to fully exploit the Blu-ray video quality.

The one positive noted in the report was the enthusiasm Sony PS3 owners have for the format. "While you might think gamers purchase fewer movie discs that others, we didn’t see any significant evidence of that in our results," said Mr. Wilson.

Sony itself has confirmed that it doesn’t expect to see Blu-ray players in the $200 range until 2009. That $200 number is cited by observers as the trigger point for the wide adoption of the new technology. For now, the manufacturers seem content to let the technology bubble slowly on the back burner while PS3 owners carry the brunt of raising volume and reducing manufacturing costs.