Any predictions of Blu-Ray price cuts?

[ebenton]

Now that the "war" has been won by Blu-Ray, has anyone heard of any predictions of Blu-Ray price drops? I have been checking CD Freaks news but have seen nothing. Perhaps someone knows of some news of this nature elsewhere? I know it might be a little early yet for such news.

Perhaps the avariciousness of Sony and other Blu-Ray pushers will inhibit them from dropping prices for months, maybe even until Christmas 2008.

Would anyone out there care to make their own prediction?

Just checking...

[classfour]

Why would Sony cut the price?

They won.

[poisondeathray]

LOL

Since when did a lack of competition lead to price cuts?

[ebenton]

Well, the only reason I'm asking is because many of the comments I have read since Toshiba surrendered involve saying that Blu-Ray players must now come down in price in order to gain much acceptance. Since neither HD DVD or Blu-Ray were exactly burning up the check-out lanes at brick-and-mortar stores or online, I was sort of looking for some at least vague hints about upcoming Blu-Ray price cuts.

Even with little competition, prices usually come down at Christmas time, if only to get rid of inventory at year-end, if nothing else. Maybe that's how long it will take.

Like I said before, maybe it's too early.

[SCDVD]

Why would Sony cut the price?

They won.

They "think" they won. But the battle they won is small compared to the big one they face. When they beat out HD-DVD, that was just the first step. Their real competition is standard DVD discs. Upconverted DVDs look quite good on an HD TV. A lot of people are realizing this too. A significant percentage of people will choose to buy a standard DVD rather than a BlueRay disc unless the price difference is small. Or, they may occasionally buy a BlueRay title but stick to standard DVD discs for most titles they purchase. People don't have to buy HD discs. If standard DVD is 80 percent as good, that is good enough for many people. There is a key piece of marketing data that is very easy for anyone to see - Just keep an eye on the display racks in stores that sell DVD and BlueRay discs. The percentage of display space for each will tell you more about the market penetration of BlueRay than anything else.

[classfour]

I'm not going to jump the gun and buy blue-ray anytime soon: When you have customers of early versions that cannot play back the newer discs - and paid a princely sum (especially back then) for their player....

I guess I just don't want Sony getting my money without a huge amount of time on the market.

Look at how long it took DVD to take off, and look at what most of us have invested in DVD; there's not much incentive to change to blue-ray for me.

I don't have to watch movies in high def., DVD is adequate. Heck, in it's day, VHS was adequate. I believed in DVD enough to spend $300 for my first burner, $3 each for then cheap media, $700 for my first DVD Recorder and hours learning how to take my then extensive VHS collection and put it to disc.

The only way Sony is going to drive me away from DVD is to kill the format. And I believe there are too many people who entered the DVD mainstream late (i.e. the past few years) and still are buying and buying them for the marketplace to give up the revenue.

Heck, except for some old timers here, most people thing DVD players have always been under $50 - when most of us paid $300 or more for our first quality DVD player.

I feel for the people who bought Toshiba's; and am glad to have not been one. They now have a collection that will likely be forever frozen, and have to look at spending all that money again (to Sony) for many of the same titles (if they only want to use one player) as well as buy new hardware.

[cracula]

Don't feel too bad for us toshiba owners. We have a great upscaling player that also plays HDdvd(which are very cheap now). I heard there is a chance that the new format from china may also be possible to play on a hd dvd player. At the worst we have an upscaling dvd player(just like you).

[jagabo]

The only way Sony is going to drive me away from DVD is to kill the format.

They won't kill standard definition DVD. They will simply delay the release of SD DVDs until several months after the Blu-Ray release. They will have no problem convincing other studios to do the same. People who will only buy the SD DVD will still buy them when they are released. In the mean time Sony will soak the Blu-ray movie buyers and the delayed SD DVD release will provide incentive for other people to buy Blu-ray players.

[j1d10t]

They will simply delay the release of SD DVDs until several months after the Blu-Ray release.

Didn't studios do this with DVD way back when? I seem to remember some movies came out on DVD before they came out on VHS...

I have read some artices that are saying (guessing) that the price for a Blu-Ray player is not likely to drop down (to the level that HD DVD players were selling at before HD DVD died) until mid 2009, maybe even Christmas 2009. Ouch

[cal_tony]

I don't see the price of Bluray players or disks dropping at all.


This morning on the NBC news it was mentioned that Sony would be introducing
a New player this summer that would be able with accessories to connect online
interactively. The price $400. And this fall they would introduce an internet ready device
for $500.
To me, sounds like what a PS3 will do now for a lesser price.

I never thought the HD revolution was ever a war. It was hyped that way. And it was silly. It was always said that
once we had a winner, everything would sort itself out.

Well, now that we have a winner, I think interest will begin to wane rather than increase
and prices will just stagnate.

It was always pitched that buyers were just sitting on the sidelines waiting for a winner
so they could go out the day the war was over and buy from the winner.

Seems like 90% of the buyers still like their DVDs and they will continue to like them long into the future.

Finally, HD-DVD had the right idea with combo disks. It was an incentive to upgrade.

Tony

[Video Head]

Do you need a High Defenition TV in order to gain the technical benefits of purchasing a Blu-Ray player and disc(s)?

What percentage of consumers world wide own an HD TV?
What percentage of consumers world wide own an SD TV?

VHS to DVD was easy for the average consumer...their existing TV could already take advantage of the technology improvement. Vinyl and audio cassette to CD had already put consumers in a confidence mode - plug your new CD player into your existing stereo system and enjoy the quality and convenience gains...

5.1/6.1/7.1/THX/DTS have required investments in sound equipment for the average consumer. It has also been confusing with so many formats (or so called formats). The battle between the HD disc formats has moved consumers away from adoption. Many have recently invested in surround sound and are not prepared to spend more on an expensive Blu-Ray player and aquiring their movie collection (again) at this time.

SD DVD will probably enjoy an extended lifetime unless there is a major shift in adoption...and quick. Sony and crew are going to have to kick hard in order to prove they deserve the seat...

[SLK001]

Blu-ray discs have always had yield issues in their manufacturing (while HD-DVD did not). Because of this, Sony has been subsidizing the hell out of Blu-ray. They also offered quite a bit of "Buy One, Get One Free" (BOGO) offers in order to make inroads in the market (HD-DVD did not do this as aggressively as Sony). Sony also subsidized their players, also for marketing purposes.

So, don't expect the prices to fall. Instead, gird your loins for substantial increases in the prices of discs and players, since subsidies are no longer needed.

[jman98]

Industry insiders agree wtih SLK001. Given the massive costs that Sony spent to win this war, and they won it by outspending Toshiba everywhere, there is no reason to think price cuts will happen. Now that there is no alternative, many expect BluRay disc prices to rise, although there is some hope that late in the year slightly cheaper players will appear, none of which will match the relatively cheap cost of HD DVD players (I'm talking $250 US or less).

Sony spent a fortune to win this war. They subsidized the discs. They subsidized the players (all players are rumored to have heavy subsidies or the prices would be even worse and the PS3 is reported to be sold at a loss at $599 US per until because of the cost of the BluRay drive), they subsidized the disc production lines (BluRay production costs are enormous), they supposedly bought out Warner Brothers in convincing them to drop HD DVD (although the payout may be in hard to track "incentives" rather than an outright cash payment) and probably other things as well. One analyst said he thinks that Sony may have permanently damaged their own ability to compete on future gaming systems in financing this win over HD DVD. Sony won this war, but whether it ends up being a good business decision or not remains to be seen.

[mstone321]

I paid over $400 for a Sony POS DVD player back in the early days of DVD. That $400 then is probably $500 or more now. Lots of other people were buying DVD players in those days too. I see no reason that people won't spend that much on a Blu-Ray player today if the .

I bought the PS3 for a 1080p plasma. Up converterted DVDs are stunning. Native Blu-Ray titles are so good it's scary. Have a look at some of the BBC HiDef nature titles and you will become a believer.

Give Blu-Ray some time to mature. It won't displace standard def DVDs, but I think it will do much better than LaserDisc (I went there too) ever did. I can only hope the "Young Indiana Jones" series makes it to Blu. Right now it's only available on DVD 4:3.

[EAO]

Fine. Sony can keep their $500.00 players and bluray if they play games like delayed release.

Bittorrent (or alternatives) onto DVD or CD look just fine.