The winning Blu-ray people said prices of the players and movies would drop as soon as they beat competitor HD-DVD for the hearts and minds of home video enthusiasts.

But a funny thing happened after the dust settled and Blu-ray was named the winner earlier this year.

Nothing.

Since Toshiba - the main sponsor behind the losing HD-DVD format - pulled out of the race last January, the prices for Blu-ray players and movies have remained the same.

The lowest-priced standalone player still is $400, as is the PlayStation 3, the video game system that also plays Blu-ray movies. (In fact, some reported that prices went up after Blu-ray was declared the winner).

And the price of movies still hovers around $25 to $39 per disc, twice the cost of a regular DVD movie.

According to the NPD Group, the sales of Blu-ray players plummeted 40 percent from January to February, then rose just 2 percent the month after that.

At this rate, Blu-ray is going to lose the high-definition format war without even having a competitor.

Now you know why I believe most corporate thinking is synonymous with "special kind of stupid."

It's apparent to everyone but the boneheaded executives from Hollywood to Tokyo that if you want the format to thrive and ultimately replace the DVD player in the home, you have to make the Blu-ray players and movies affordable.

Two things have to happen before October and the upcoming holiday season if Blu-ray is going to become the de facto home video format: Players must drop to below $199 or even $149, and the movies have to be no more than $20. Oh, and movies like the "Star Wars" trilogy and "Indiana Jones" films have to come out on the format this year.

Right now, Blu-ray's two biggest threats are upconverting DVD players for under $100 (they make regular DVDs look near HD quality by upconverting the video signal) and downloadable movie services like iTunes and Netflix that stream movies into homes. Meanwhile, cable and satellite providers also offer HD movies.

But none of those options look nearly as crisp and detailed as Blu-ray movies and never will. Plus, you can't own the movie outright like you can on a disc.

Hollywood has complained that the sales of regular DVDs has finally gone flat since their introduction ten years ago and are worried home video revenue will begin to drop without a viable replacement for DVD.

But Blu-ray is that replacement, and Hollywood and the electronics manufacturers must understand that all it takes to relive the glory days of DVD is to lower the prices.

vince@sltrib.

com