Recession-busting $150 Blu-ray players coming this year
By Tim Stevens 
posted Feb 3rd 2009 11:46AM
posted Feb 3rd 2009 11:46AM
posted Feb 3rd 2009 11:46AM
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That doesn't change the fact that Blu-Ray movies cost 2-3x more than a normal DVD.
DVD and Blu-Ray MSRPs are separated by $5 in every new (non-catalog) release. Hardly 3x the price. Stop with the FUD
I just looked at best buy and current DVD releases are $15-$20, Blu Ray are $30-$30. No thank you. DTV is comming out with 1080p ppv shortly, so I'll give my money to them. I already have the equipment and I can rent the same movie 4-5 times for the same cost of buying it. BR is a waste of money and time.
The licensing framework makes the technology rediculously expensive for consumers and film companies alike. Only large studios can afford to distribute on Blu-Ray format. Small indie's..forget it. One of the many reasons Sony is in the crapper at the moment.
Well, maybe not 3x the price, but let's have a look... something recent and mainstreamy... Wanted
Just quickly checking Amazon.de, Wanted comes
from €14,99 to €20,98 on DVD
and
from €26,88 to €28,95 on Blu-ray
— so give or take a few cents, one can state that Blu-ray can be about twice the price of the DVD. At least here it is. If it is a five dollar difference at your Walmart or wherever, consider yourself lucky. Those five dollars are the maximum I would pay for most of the flicks they put out on Blu-ray.
It's all about rentals though. When I last visited a video store there was a big shelf of shiny porn Blu-rays (and some mainstream like "Wanted"). They all had a "PS3 compatible" label slapped on. If I had a PS3, I would probably rent Blu-rays a lot (although I think I would better stay away from high def porn... *shudder*), as there is no way that I would pay those retail prices for something as DRMd to heck, but it doesn't matter for rentals. Now I don't have a PS3. Yet maybe, if players come at about €80, I would get one of those. I don't see why I would pay more for something that barely serves as a drive, as there clearly is no need for fancy analog processing on the players's side.
Amazon. Blu-ray Buy More, Save More Sale.
Titles already at least 30% off.
Buy 3 get 30% off
Buy 6 get 40% off
Buy 10 get 50% off
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_83570691_2?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000335421&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-1&pf_rd_r=11RRHY17M7F17QMEG6HW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=469081551&pf_rd_i=130
Check the Amazon "Buy More, Save More" Blu-ray sale I linked below.
Stupid delayed posts...
You can rent Blu-Ray! There are places that own all the movies, and you just pay a little bit of money to "borrow" the movie.
If I had purchased every DVD I have ever seen... I'd be more than broke. There are plenty of movies I just wanna see... I don't need it on my shelf for eternity. I'm not trying to build my own personal video store.
I remember buying DVDs for $20 in 1998. Now it's a decade later... Blu-Ray has clearly more resolution, sound, etc... shouldn't they be more expensive today... especially factoring in inflation?
Test
Dax,
I'm pretty sure the licensing fees are on the hardware--not the actual discs. There are a number of indie films available on Blu-ray that only struggle with the cost of the media, not any licensing fees...
I am waiting for Sony to get desperate enough to make the PS3 a more lucrative option. Or I might just pick up a used one for cheap.
Let us know when you find a used PS3 for "Cheap"
Honestly, neither digital distribution nor Blu-Ray are going to take off anytime soon. And it's all because of cost. Early adapters don't mind spending thousands of dollars on new-fangled items. The average family, on the other hand, won't spend the money (or the IT time) needed to put together the kind of networked home needed to make digital distribution a reality in most households. Meanwhile, the cost of Blu-Ray discs compared to standard DVDs (or downloaded Bittorrent copies of either standard or high-definition versions of films) makes Blu-Ray cost-prohibitive. Especially after buying the new Xbox games for the kiddies.
I agree. DVD player sales really boomed in the late 90s. I picked up a $75 Apex unit for my parents and it still working flawlessly 10 years later. Prices are going to have to be in that sub $100 range for sales to pick up in the Joe Sixpack demographic. It also doesn't help that the advantages offered by DVD over VHS were more substantial and obvious to the average consumer (better resolution and image quality, surround sound, doesn't degrade with playback, no rewinding, smaller form factor, etc. etc. etc.).
There is still the rental business. Netflix has a wide selection of
blu-ray titles and I'm sure blockbuster is starting to carry them
too. For now, buying or renting blu-ray is the best way to get
high-quality video/sound without hitting the monthly bandwidth cap on
a comcast connection.
Yes, but even a crappy DVD player doesn't take 10 minutes to load a movie.
Check out the Blu-ray sale at Amazon -- 70 titles, almost all already at least 30%.
Buy 3, get 30% MORE off
Buy 6, get 40% MORE off
Buy 10, get 50% MORE off
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_83570691_2?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000335421&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-1&pf_rd_r=11RRHY17M7F17QMEG6HW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=469081551&pf_rd_i=130
$150 for a blu-ray player versus a $70 for a dvd/cd/r+/rw/rwa/r- player and recorder.
Blu-ray currently is for passive customer, while the ol'good dvd is for passive and active users (you can record your own movies).
Still too expensive. I wouldn't even bother unless it was under $100.
And once HD streaming becomes reality, ownership of $30 movies is going to plummet.
Until then, I, like most people, will get along just fine with SD movies streaming and from Netflix.
Nope. Not gonna buy it. Two reasons:
1) Streaming is the future.
2) Not gonna buy any(!) device that will feature region codes. Moved to many times between continents, got screwed too many times by music/film industry. Not going to happen again.
Streaming is the future? Not if your ISP has anything to say about it. Try streaming Blu Ray quality video and audio under new monthly internet caps being introduced by ISPs.
Physical media has other benefits:
1- additional sound channels (multiple languages, closed captions, director/actor commentary)
2- subtitles
3- higher quality than any steaming current supports (realistically)
4- "ownership" - people that want Disney movies, or what have you, want to feel they own it. It's why music subscriptions haven't faired that well. Netflix works for new releases, but it often leads to purchases.
I disagree with this being the reason music subscriptions failed. The reason for that is that people listen to songs over and over and over and over and...but with movies, most people, other than maybe their favorite 4-5 movies, will watch most movies one time, maybe twice a few years later. I don't mind having a subscription for movies because in general, I don't constantly want access to the same content multiple times even in one day. Music, I want to own, because I will conceivably use it for the rest of my life.
I would potentially pay $25-30 for a blu-ray if it was a hybrid disc that played on DVD players. I am the only one of my friends that has a Blu-ray player (PS3) and I don't see that changing anytime soon. So far I only have purchased Iron Man and just Netflix the rest.
Sorry but HD-DVD is gone =(
Chris and Tony:
Dodgeball: Blu - $24.49, DVD - $10.49
Death Proof: Blu - $20.99, DVD - $9.99
Super Troopers: Blu - $24.99, DVD - $9.99
Saw a whole rack of $2.99 off-rental DVDs just a few weeks old. Blu-Ray titles just don't have very good sales. Until they do, I'm not going to go out looking for a Blu-ray player whatever the price.
Buy 10 of those titles and those prices get cut in half.
You're comparing single disc DVD prices to the Blu-Ray, when you should be comparing the 2 disc DVD prices (which tend to cost $10 more).
But no-one should have to buy 5-10 at a time to get a price break. "Spend $300 on BR titles and get $5 off, YIPEE"
Gotta remember that almost all Amazon Blu-ray prices are 30% to over 50% off retail already.
Yes, this scaled sale isn't as good as their BOGO's last year (when there wasn't a minimum purchase req), but it's still a helluva lot less than anywhere else you can buy Blu.
Buy 3, *additional* 30% off -- buy 6, *additional* 40% off -- buy 10, *additional* 50% off
this must be the final nail in HD-DVD's coffin.
Nope, I still use HD-DVD.
I also get movies at 1080i over-the-air. MythTV saves them and organizes them. It works out very nicely. There are even HD movies on my parents cable that aren't on any HD-DVD or BR disk yet. It is basically what digital downloading will be like. I sit down and go through the TV guide for what I want recorded in the next two weeks, and in two weeks I have all of those TV shows.
And even though my home theater is better than the real movie theater, it is still the place to watch 'good' new movies when they come out.
It would be, but we already buried HD-DVD because it was smelling so bad.
Not only the more expensive media, also the fact that you need to spend hundreds more for a High Definition display device to watch it on.
Engadget readers probably own High Def screens in disproportionately higher numbers than the general public, but I would guess most people still don't have screens capable of BlueRay resolution.
That is correct. I don't have an HDTV to watch Blu-Ray movies on, and I don't intend to purchase one for a good 4+ years. There are more important things to spend money on right now.
sorry, but it's a waste of money at any price. yes, the picture is pretty, but a physical format? seriously? ugh.
Blu Ray = UMD = Mini Disk. Sony needs to stop trying to get people on a new media format and focus on their core products.
don't forget, Sony came up with Beta too, until VHS killed that
I agree
Make 79.95 and I'll buy it.
150 dollar blu ray player means alot of consumers hooking up blu ray players to SDTVS since they cant afford to buy an HDTV. I have a ps3 and I only have 3 blu ray movies one is spiderman 3 which is still in the box covered with plastic and the other two are BBC gems galapagos and planet earth which i got for 30 bucks. Blu ray wont catch on until 2012. But blu disk association needs to worry about warner and paramount who plan on releasing SD and HD movies on drm protected SD cards, which will probably be a true successor to dvd compared to blu ray and digital distribution.
I will be rushing out to my local Circuit City when these players are available.
Subtle.
Well DVD is pretty entrenched.
If I buy a DVD, I can play it at home, I can play it in my car, I can play it on my laptop, I can play it on my desktop. I can take it over to a friend's house and pretty much be guaranteed to play it on something there.
If I buy a Blu-ray disk, I can play it on my player at home, and that's pretty much it.
How long before another format war?
There are $200 blu-player on the market already.
not really related but was wondering if i bought ps3 in america, besides the power change will i be able to play it on pal in india? do modern tv`s come with both ntsc and pal options? will the games work if i buy them in india?
As long as BRDs are $35 a pop, DVD has nothing to worry about sadly. Players are one thing, but people who get a player will end up renting BRDs rather than buying them.