Universal announces impending HD DVD price drop

In what may turn out to be a small, final boost for the HD DVD camp prior to the impending arrival of Samsung's BD-P1000 Blu-ray player that's definitely NOT been delayed, Universal Studios Home Entertainment has announced that it will eventually knock five bucks off of each HD DVD disc that it sells. That's right, if you were holding out on buying that Toshiba HD-A1 until movies dropped below $30, now may be your time to strike, as titles that were formerly $34.95 will soon retail for $29.95 (though you'll probably be able to find them cheaper), with hybrid HD DVDs from the studio going for $35. Unfortunately (for HD DVD proponents, at least), the price drops won't go into effect until August 8th, at which point this format war will have already spilled over into the marketplace.

[Via Digital Media Thoughts]

[WeeJames @ Jun 15th 2006 11:33AM]

I hate how the HD-DVD's and BluRay discs come in such horrible packaging. I get that they want to distinguish them from DVDs but relegating the film artwork to 1/3 the size is not the way to go.

[OnA Pest @ Jun 15th 2006 12:06PM]

HDDVD and BlueRay are both gonna flop.. This whole "war" is a joke.. With media center computers, faster broadband connections, video cards capable of a HD output, and huge amounts of storage for relativly cheap, this is all a waste.. Seriously, who wants to have 2 video players, one that plays half of your movies, and another player to play the other half, for a combined total of $1500 worth of players.. Its all really stupid..

[Guruboy @ Jun 15th 2006 12:12PM]

We've all heard news and rumors about drives that play both formats. Hopefully when the technology is more universal, all new drives will play both, or at least new computers will be able to be bought with both. Simply choosing one or the other is a good idea for a little while, but later you're going to see the annoyences.

WeeJames these are brand new cases, they'll probably have new ones later.

If anyone bases their choice of HDDVD/BR on the prices and technology out right now, you're going to get no where. Keep up with the news and let either/both technologies sink in.

[mike @ Jun 15th 2006 12:18PM]

For most people, the superior image quality that both the HDDVD and BR will boast is not going to be a sufficient excuse to upgrade from regular old DVDs. If either format is to ever become widely accepted, it must rival the DVD in price, because the benefits are not worth the cost by any means. At least not yet.

[Justin @ Jun 15th 2006 12:54PM]

"BTW $34.95 - $29.95 is a JOKE. Do they call that a price drop in HDDVD fantasy island?"

No, but the $5 difference is $5 less than what they expect their competetiors to charge. In the end, I don't think it'll matter since the extra $5 isn't going to matter much for early adopters.

[Pip @ Jun 15th 2006 1:09PM]

The only format that will is the one that prices their movies at $15.

Till then, I wont bother.

[tristanfey @ Jun 15th 2006 1:33PM]

To be honest, it is most likely going to come down to which format is more readily available for movies. If you go into a store to buy your first HD player and ask a sales rep for help they are more likely to point you to whichever player has a larger video library available to them. The following is from the Feb/Mar issue of Sound and Vision magazine:

"...Blu-ray has six of the seven major movie studios behind it: Disney, Fox, MGM, Sony, Warner Bros., and Paramount. Meanwhile, HD DVD has lost some of its luster. Longtime ally Warner Bros. — the studio that worked hardest to make the DVD a success — now supports both formats, leaving Universal the only
studio completely in the HD DVD camp."

This would seem to indicate there is going to be a much wider selection of titles in Blu-Ray format as opposed to HD-DVD. The same way that space on the media over quality of the the media was the deciding factor in the VHS/Beta wars, I think availablity of titles may be the biggest deciding factor in consumers choosing their HD player preference.In either case, both formats may end up losing out if the HD war drags on too long. It may simply be bypassed by the HVD (http://www.hvd-alliance.org) format. Following quote from Sound and Vision Feb 2006:

"HVD With Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD slated to hit stores in the coming months, it's amusing to think that both formats could be bested by yet another disc format: Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD). The massive potential storage capacity of HVD — one terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) on a single disc — easily trumps the other two formats. That's enough to hold 80 hours of HDTV! The technology, which was invented by Japanese company Optware, uses two lasers: a green one that reads holographically encoded data on the disc's recording layer, and a red one that reads tracking information on a second layer. There aren't any products yet, but Optware has formed an "HVD alliance" with other Japanese companies to promote and standardize the technology, and backers include Toshiba. Optware predicts it will have low-cost HVD drives available as early as 2007."

Think about the TV shows now available on DVD. A standard hour show with a 24 episode season could fit 4 1/2 seasons on one HVD. An entire series of most 30 minute shows. Look at the "complete" James Bond or the newly released "Planet of the Apes" collection. These could also fit to one disc. 2007 is not that far away for a working player.

[hmurchison @ Jun 15th 2006 2:43PM]

HVD isn't here and it's going to cost more than most of your cars are worth. I don't know why people keep bringing up HVD as it's never going to hold movies. Put a fork in it.

[tristanfey @ Jun 15th 2006 3:12PM]

From the FAQ section of the HVD site:

" Q What impact will HVD have on the conventional optical disk such as DVD?
A With the wide acceptance of HDTV, HVD will form a new segment in optical disk market for consumers. HVD will eventually replace DVD."

There is no way it will replace DVD (or the HD formats), if it does not at some point come in at a comparable pricepoint. Considering one of their goals is to become the replacement format I would think they know pricing will be a factor. Also, consider the disc is actually a DVD with a with added layers (http://www.hvd-alliance.org/abouthvd/technology.html), so they are literally just building on top of current DVD technology:

"Then, does HVD need special, sophisticated servo technology? The answer is "No." The servo technology and the address pits are, in fact, not different from those used in the current CD and DVD players and disks. The laser which is used to read address pits is 650nm red laser, also common with DVD players in the market.

Another layer called “Dichroic Mirror Layer” is placed between the holographic recording layer and the substrate to block the green or blue laser, which are used to read/write holographic information, to reach address pits, thus eliminates noise.

To make a long story short, HVD is a disc the holographic recording layer of which is formed on top of a conventional optical disk."

This is why people keep bringing it up.

[mofomojo @ Jun 15th 2006 3:29PM]

It isn't my intention to really troll your website or anything, but have you ever considered that this HD stuff is all hype and that none of it really matters?

I mean, with VHS and Beta-Max, VHS beat it to the market by years... Plus, this was the first time that home playback of movies was available - ever. And VHS lasted about 20 years, we're only maybe 5 years into the popularity of DVDs, and what? We have more stuff?

Please, people, it's just too much hype, only a fraction of upper middle class people will actually buy this crap and only because they feel it makes them more elite than the next guy.

Well, that's the truth about tech, take it or leave it.

[Stephen @ Jun 15th 2006 4:53PM]

I am weary of adopting any Sony Created Format. They haven't had a very good TRAC record. ;)

[losttoys @ Jun 15th 2006 6:40PM]

"HDDVD and BlueRay are both gonna flop.. This whole "war" is a joke.. With media center computers, faster broadband connections, video cards capable of a HD output, and huge amounts of storage for relativly cheap, this is all a waste.. Seriously, who wants to have 2 video players, one that plays half of your movies, and another player to play the other half, for a combined total of $1500 worth of players.. Its all really stupid.."

Yes, for a tech person, it does seem expensive and rather "not needed" in terms of viable alternatives. However, HD-DVD and Blu-ray ultimately want to appeal to the avergae consumer, and they will not know how to make a HTPC and so forth. They want a box which they can put a disc in, and magical fairies will somehow know how to make a picture appear on their television, and their speakers to map audio.

Most consumers will wait until the prices on the hardware goes down in price (just like DVD) and both camps are betting on this. They will make as much as they can on early adapters, then start to trickle down better and less expensive units as production costs and operating costs decrease over the next couple of years.

[tekdemon @ Jun 16th 2006 3:19AM]

Interestingly enough, Costco's website already shows 2 Blu-Ray titles available for preorder at $19.95 with a $29.95 MSRP...
Of course they also already have HD-DVDs available for $19.49 and $23.99.

So really they're the same price right now on the street, which might mean that the price cut of $5 might end up making HD DVDs streetable for as little as $15.

There's really no demand for the movies now though since nobody owns a frickin' player, so I'd imagine that it's actually pretty hard to sell anything.

[Bryan @ Jun 16th 2006 10:05AM]

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, I'd like to rip either 1:1 and compress losslessy and store on the Mac. Putting in discs is so passe. But I'll have to wait and HD DVD I'll have to wait even longer until Apple joins that foundation. For some reason people want to put in discs to play content. Star Trek TNG season 4 is on 7 discs! 7! I guess you could stream but I want to own it in the best format I can use but disc-less.

[gio @ Jun 16th 2006 11:37AM]

So Wait??? If I want to buy or rent the movie "Traffic" on HDDVD, that movie wont be avail on BlueRay?? If thats the case, then this Technology will flop, Just like Sony's old MD Player invention.

[tristanfey @ Jun 20th 2006 1:35PM]

RE: gio

Yes. The exception being Warner Brothers who is currently sitting on the fence and supporting both formats. Until one emreges as the standard your going to need a player for each format to play all your movies. That or limit your purchases to one format.

[Gene @ Jun 11th 2007 5:54PM]

The studios are once again trying to screw the consumer with these high priced DVD's. Didn't they learn their lesson with CD's? If they keep raising prices on movies, people are not going to buy them, they're going to copy them. That's just the way it is. Make all your DVD's $14.99 and people will buy them. Make them $9.99 and SO MANY people will buy them that you will make up your price reduction in volume. I think the consumer is finally getting fed up with all these different formats (ie Sony Stick, XD, SD, CF, etc...)

-Woodie