DVD Recorder Prices Expected to Plunge

[tag]

Devices will be as much as 50 percent cheaper later this year, researcher says.

Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service

The average selling price of DVD recorders is expected to fall by as much as 50 percent later this year as Taiwanese shipments of DVD recorders increase sharply, a government-backed market research firm in Taipei says.

Taiwanese hardware makers excel at producing large volumes of IT hardware products at low cost. The ability to produce large volumes of IT products at low cost has made Taiwanese hardware makers the production leaders of many hardware components and devices, such as laptop computers. And Taiwanese companies will take a larger share of the market for DVD recorders as prices fall, Market Intelligence Center (MIC) says in a statement.

MIC is part of Taiwan's Institute of Information Industry, a government-backed think tank set up to support the development of the country's IT industry.

On the Increase

Taiwanese companies, including BenQ and LiteOn Technology, shipped around 1 million DVD recorders--including DVD+RW drives, DVD-RW drives, and DVD-RAM drives--worth $220 million during the first half of 2004, MIC says.

That's up twenty-fold from shipments of close to 50,000 units worth $14 million during the same period last year, MIC says.

By comparison, Taiwanese companies shipped 700,000 DVD recorders worth $140 million during the second half of last year, MIC says.

Looking ahead, Taiwanese companies could ship up to 2 million DVD recorders during the second half of this year, bringing the total number of DVD recorders shipped this year to 3 million units, MIC says.

Shipments of DVD recorders from Taiwanese companies have been boosted by growing sales in the North American and European markets and reflects an improved ability of Taiwanese companies to source key components, MIC says.

Supply and Demand

MIC says a drop in the price of key components, including DVD loaders and MPEG-2 decoder chips, will cause the average selling price of DVD recorders to fall by nearly 50 percent during the second half of this year. Combined with consumer interest in global sporting events, such as the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, this price drop will spur demand higher for DVD recorders, it says.

Based on MIC's numbers for the shipments and value of Taiwanese-made DVD recorders, the average selling price for Taiwanese-made recorders was approximately $220 during the first half of the year. That represents a reduction of 22 percent compared with an average selling price of around $280 one year ago but an increase of 10 percent when compared with the average selling price of $200 during the second half of 2003.

Japanese companies are currently the world's largest producer of DVD recorders, accounting for around 50 percent of shipments during 2003, MIC says. European companies accounted for 10 percent of shipments while South Korean and Chinese companies each accounted for between 6 percent to 8 percent of shipments last year.

MIC did not specify what percentage of shipments came from Taiwanese companies, but says Taiwanese companies could account for 25 percent of shipments in 2004, making them the second-largest supplier of DVD recorders.

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116765,00.asp

[lordsmurf]

I thought they already dropped.
You can pick up a bunch of them already for $200-250

[Greg12]

They'll drop right out if Induce passes.

[chas0039]

The article seems to be on the money. I just checked Liteon prices and their burnes (811) start at $65 delivered. Just a few months ago I remember closer to $100. It is almost time to buy one for running Kprobe.

Never mind. I see that they must be talking about stand alone recorders. I don't know how much impact Liteon will have on the price. Their offerings thus far have been a fiasco. I hope they get their act together.

[tag]

I thought they already dropped.
You can pick up a bunch of them already for $200-250

That may be cheap enough for the likes of the people on this board and a number of the more techno-savvy people but not for Joe/Josephine Average. I'll bet there are literally hoards of consumers who are waiting for prices to drop below the $100 mark before buying a standalone recorder.

I recently learned that when a new Meijer opened in my area, they were offering el cheapo DVD players for $19.95. They almost had a full-blown riot on their hands.

I fail to understand that mentality considering anyone can walk into a Circuit City, Best Buy, Walmart, et al, and pick up a cheap player any day of the week for around 29 bucks (not even on sale). I guess it's, "Hey, I'm savin' 10 bucks here! So what if I get my head bashed in?" With that mindset, it's tough to convince someone to spend $200-250 for a unit that has just one more feature (i.e. the ability to record).....even though it's a damned important feature.

[handyguy]

Yeah, but it said 1M worth $220M, so each can be sold for $220, thats not even near a $150 Mustek recorder. What are they smoking?

However, HD dvd recorders are out. That's the way to buy now.

[ViRaL1]

HD DVD recorders are too expensive. Any plans for HD-VCD? I wonder how many minutes (seconds?) of HD you can squeeze on a 700MB CD.

[lordsmurf]

HD DVD recorders are too expensive. Any plans for HD-VCD? I wonder how many minutes (seconds?) of HD you can squeeze on a 700MB CD.

KHDVCD?

[Nilfennasion]

Given the amount of hassle I had with trying to make a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive RPC-1 compliant, only to have it thumb its nose at me, I think I will stick with the more expensive brands. I was amazed by how easy it was to make an LG DVD±RW drive RPC-1 compliant.

[Robbins1940]

HD DVD recorders are too expensive. Any plans for HD-VCD? I wonder how many minutes (seconds?) of HD you can squeeze on a 700MB CD.

Agreed. Why pay £700 for a dvd-recorder with a hard drive that costs about £60 when the non hard drive recorders are only around £250 to £300?

David

[Oscar wallace]

What about a standalone none hard drive DVD recorder that you could connect to an external hard drive?....Sounds like a good idea to me.

[hudsonf]

What about a standalone none hard drive DVD recorder that you could connect to an external hard drive?....Sounds like a good idea to me.

That would be a good idea. I have a bay with a slide out tray so I can swap hard drives. It would be a lot easier to transfer my captures to the computer.

[DTSL06]

I currently have a HD-PVR (Scientific Atlantic Explorer 8000HD) that doesnt have a DVD burner built in so a cheap standalone DVD recorder as an add on would be great.

[handyguy]

Far as I know there is no HDDVD. DVDs are not HD. Best we can get is that BluRay that just came out, $2400 or somethin...

[Sam Ontario]

What about a standalone none hard drive DVD recorder that you could connect to an external hard drive?....Sounds like a good idea to me.

Yes! With Firewire!

[Sam Ontario]

Yeah, but it said 1M worth $220M, so each can be sold for $220, thats not even near a $150 Mustek recorder. What are they smoking?

However, HD dvd recorders are out. That's the way to buy now.

Those million DVD recorders produced in Taiwan might not yet included those produced in China which will mainly be DVD+RW recorders that will likely be half production price, perhaps.

[rgs_uk]

I imagine ASDA in the UK (owned by Walmart) will be looking to follow up on their Pacific 1002W (the UK's best-selling DVD player and now at £30) with a recorder version as soon as prices fall. Can't wait

[waltchan]

DVD Recorder Prices Expected to Plunge...

NOOOOOO...I totally disapprove that the prices are falling. Why do they have to fall in just two short years? No fair. It's good for the people and manufacturers, but bad for our planet and our environment. Once a standalone DVD recorder reaches in the price range of $50 to $100, over 70 percent of the people who own a cheapo $50 or under DVD player will toss out their DVD player into the trash or dumpster, working or not, and make our environment less friendly to be in. Each DVD player, regardless of what make, contains a deadly lead chemical that can kill animals. What's worse is that each DVD player is made out of metal outside, and it will take at least 200 years of bury in order to disappear in the hot dry landfill. So, if we have 150 million owners owning a DVD player here in United States, I can predict that there will be about 100 million DVD players toss into the landfill within five years. That's tons and tons of metal DVD players into the landfill, making our landfill space more scarce. Same thing as for analog televisions with no HDTV capability. I am totally not pleased with the way how people treat the environment. An electronic machine is like a living object that feels like working or not. When the machine don't work, the machine is sick and needs to be recovered. Why not throw out an alive dog or cat into the the garbage? Not many people take advantage of recycling a DVD player or television. I wish I was back in the 70s or 80s, the era where electronics were not thrown out too often and were high quality. What kind of society is today for electronics.




Walt(er) Chan

[overloaded_ide]

Mention was made about that new crap bill.
OK, with this many units being made and imported at such low cost, that's the answer right there to start getting our rights back!
If they can't ship us recorders because we might use them to record a copyrighted item, then also stop shipping us ANY players!!

How well would MPAA and IRAA like it when sales decline because there is no equipment to play the crap they produce! Yea, what good is a DVD if no-one has a DVD player??

It's time for other countries and manufactours to stand up to OUR goverment and just stop taking the crap about making us specail items to make MPAA IrAA and any other radical groups happy.

This also applies to macrovison, region coding etc....

As far as buying MADE IN USA dvd players, like that would ever happen??
Even without forien imports USA made would not fill the market simply becuase most people like me would not pay the $100-$200 it would cost to produce them with our over paid labour and tough goverment crap that runs manufactors to other countries in the first place.

With recorder prices dropping so low and expected to drop even lower, then who cares about just a player anyway? Same as CD-roms for computers, does anyone ever even buy those now? I mean last I looked (along time ago) a 48x was about $15, but why bother when a 8X DVD recorder is only $65 and does everything! Or at least a 52X CD burner for $25 if you had no reason to want DVD at all.

So basically what I am saying here is the profits for the companies producing the equipment is in the recorders, not the players. And if they would band together against the IRAA and MPAA and all just say we produce all recorders and no players they would have IRAA and MPAA by the big fat blue balls! All it would take is to totally stop producing player only equipment! Then we all have to buy recorders for playback rather we wanted to record or not.

As for pricing falling, that's great because we all need to start stocking up now with spares just in case! Buy 3! if that bill is passed and the prices sky rocket or we can't get them at all, use one at a time till it breaks then when all are broke you have plenty of parts for repairs

[overloaded_ide]

Good grief an invormental nut has woken
No offense meant really, I do see your point though I totally disagree.

First where to you figure 200 years for a metal? Absolutley not true.
As for tossing working stuff in the dump, yea some people might, but look around you in the real world here. Most people don't do that, only the ritsy titzy type do and they aren't the majority. Do some real world shopping and see how many used stores you find, watch the streets on the big city spring trash day, the big event one where you can toss anything. People are lined up taking other peoples trash around the ritsy titsy areas! Look around at all the yard sales, the used trash filling the landfill you talked about?

Ya, landfills are a problem I agree, but not these type items. Just look at how many 10 yr TVs VCRs Stereos etc... have NOT been put in land fills.
Buy a new one and put the old one in the garage or bedroom or give to the kids. I just went from 1 TV 1 VCR to 3 TVs 3VCRs 2 DVD players within the last 2-3yrs. Average people buying the lower cost items don't toss em out while working, we just add to them with newer stuff or sell them.
Landfill problems are trash, plastic bottles, food cans, old glass, clothing like nylon, etc.. Batteries too! Working or salvagable items are a very minor part of it though they do participate.

I am a rare case, nothing ever goes to a landfill! Though I do live in the country and have space to put things till I need them later, most people don't have that option though.