Blu-ray Players to Hit $150 In 2009

[Chucky Cheese]

Report: Blu-ray Players to Hit $150 In 2009

 

[jokeworm]

Sunday's ad for Office Depot. ...

Element EDBCO11 Blu ray Disc Player by Office Depot

Element EDBCO11 $149.00

We're pretty much already there.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Yeah, next Christmas will be a blu bonanza. People will be buying their 2nd and third players for the bedroom.

 

[JoeSp]

It will only be a blu bonanza if the movie companies drop the price on BD movies. They are still way too high. New releases need to be closer to $20 then $30.

 

[MikeD-C05]

It will only be a blu bonanza if the movie companies drop the price on BD movies. They are still way too high. New releases need to be closer to $20 then $30.

I second that. I haven't bought any more blu ray dvds since the original 5 or 6 I got when I first bought my blu ray player. The prices are too high for my taste. If Blu-Ray wants mass acceptance as the new standard in home entertainment they need to drop the prices down by $10.00. I simply will not pay $29.99 - $39.99 for a blu ray movie simply because it is in hd. My comfort zone or sweet spot in price is in the $15.00 - $20.00 range. Until they drop I will continue to rent or watch standard dvds upconverted by my blu ray player.

 

[paja]

I second that. I haven't bought any more blu ray dvds since the original 5 or 6 I got when I first bought my blu ray player. The prices are too high for my taste. If Blu-Ray wants mass acceptance as the new standard in home entertainment they need to drop the prices down by $10.00. I simply will not pay $29.99 - $39.99 for a blu ray movie simply because it is in hd. My comfort zone or sweet spot in price is in the $15.00 - $20.00 range. Until they drop I will continue to rent or watch standard dvds upconverted by my blu ray player.

You got it right. 29+ is not going to sell many blu-ray discs. There is no reason they can't get the prices down(old movies should be 12-15) and if they do, blu-ray will explode.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Hello? The thread is about players. Players at that price WILL sell well. I enjoy the crap out of blu-ray and I havent bought any movies in a while, thats what Netflix is for.

$29 movies (I dunno who the hell pays that much anyways, use Amazon and ebay) wont stop $150 players from selling well.

What kills me is, you have all of these people with Wii's, PS3's, and Xbox360's paying a ridiculous amount of money for games, and you think a $20+ movie matters.

 

[HD MM]

Hello? The thread is about players. Players at that price WILL sell well. I enjoy the crap out of blu-ray and I havent bought any movies in a while, thats what Netflix is for.

$29 movies (I dunno who the hell pays that much anyways, use Amazon and ebay) wont stop $150 players from selling well.

What kills me is, you have all of these people with Wii's, PS3's, and Xbox360's paying a ridiculous amount of money for games, and you think a $20+ movie matters.

Exactly. I don't buy movies anymore, regardless of whether they are $20 or less. For $16 a month, I have pretty much an unlimited selection of movies, both DVD and BD at my fingertips through Blockbuster Online.

With that said, I will absolutely be all for a less expensive BD player for a 2nd, 3rd room of the house.

 

[gadgtfreek]

When BR first came out, I bought a ton of movies, but then started wondering why I was. Im back to the way I had always been, jut buying the big releases that I wanted (Quantum of Solace, Transformers, Iron Man for example)

 

[HD MM]

When BR first came out, I bought a ton of movies, but then started wondering why I was. Im back to the way I had always been, jut buying the big releases that I wanted (Quantum of Solace, Transformers, Iron Man for example)

I'm the same way. :up

 

[jrbdmb]

Yeah, next Christmas will be a blu bonanza. People will be buying their 2nd and third players for the bedroom.

Well, early adapters will be buying their 2nd or 3rd player. Most "average" consumers haven't bought their first one yet. And I would guess that most on this forum are not "average" consumers when it comes to Blu-ray.

 

[navychop]

OPPO will mark my third.

 

[JoeSp]

DVD's back in the late 90's were in the $30 range and people did not start buying up that media until it dipped in the under $20 dollar range. Where DVD's really got the booster going was when Walmart stated selling them for $9.99-$15.99. This changed the whole dynamic and sales took off. This is exactly what the BD Forum needs to do if they want BD movie sales to soar. Renting does not make them that much money -- they need to sell the movies.

The bottom line -- just how many BD players are you going to buy?

 

[SatinKzo]

The bottom line -- just how many BD players are you going to buy?

As long as people keep buying samsung models, then that will guarantee at least 1 repeat purchase.

OPPO will mark my third.

I'm waiting for the DVD-Audio to be figured out... I'm really not understanding how this is causing them problems when they have all the HD audio decoding already, yet they haven't got a feature from all their previous 980 series?

 

[jayn_j]

DVD's back in the late 90's were in the $30 range and people did not start buying up that media until it dipped in the under $20 dollar range. Where DVD's really got the booster going was when Walmart stated selling them for $9.99-$15.99. This changed the whole dynamic and sales took off. This is exactly what the BD Forum needs to do if they want BD movie sales to soar. Renting does not make them that much money -- they need to sell the movies.

The bottom line -- just how many BD players are you going to buy?

At least one more. I already have my bedroom player. Unfortunately it is connected to my main system I'm waiting for a price drop and was waiting for the early glitches to settle out. We seem to be between models right now, especially with panasonic, and I'm in no rush.

As for prices, my recollections are different. I saw DVD sales take off when the rental stores started putting a larger percentage of their new releases into DVD. But at the same time, studios started releasing more catalog titles and new title prices came down to more reasonable levels. The new titles were generally less expensive than VHS, as that was still considered a rental market.

It was easier to bring DVD prices down because manufacturing costs were less than for VHS. Remember those replication factories where a tech loaded 200 VHS recorders and then simultaneously hit record. Unfortunately, BR manufacturing costs are slightly higher than DVD.

 

[harshness]

Hello? The thread is about players.

At some point if the blades are too expensive, they won't buy the razors.

 

[jayn_j]

The bottom line -- just how many BD players are you going to buy?

I just went through the house and counted. I am able to play a DVD movie from no less than 10 components in my house. Includes XBOX, XBOX360, 3 computers, a HTIB, one built into a TV, 2 HD-DVD players and a BR player. That doesn't count the two players currently in storage. DVD hardware became a commodity several years ago and adding DVD capability usually doesn't add to the price. I bought the TV with the integrated DVD because it was only $10 more than the one without and had an extra set of inputs.

BluRay players need to aim for this point.

 

[meStevo]

At some point if the blades are too expensive, they won't buy the razors.

Ya we've got these nice toothbrushes in the bathroom, my wife complains every time we need to buy new heads because it's almost cheaper to just buy a new package entirely.

Unfortunately BD is like needing new toothbrush heads every Tuesdayish

 

[Bobby H]

I simply will not pay $29.99 - $39.99 for a blu ray movie simply because it is in hd.

You don't have to. Try shopping around. Anyone who pays full MSRP for a Blu-ray movie is just being plain lazy. Those who impulse buy only have themselves to blame for getting chiseled. Those are the same people any of us can blame for BD MSRP prices continuing to stay high.

Amazon routinely has new releases of movies on Blu-ray for well under $30. Sometimes the new releases come in at under $20.

Stores like Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have a good number of movies on Blu-ray for under $20. Some catalog titles like Top Gun and Patriot Games can be had for under $15. I have even seen some titles priced at $10.

JoeSp is right about DVDs being expensive in their first few years of availability. When dollar inflation is factored into the equation, the $25-$30 prices for DVD movies in the late 1990s and early years of this decade translate to $30-$40 levels very easily.

Let's also not forget that new releases on DVD are not priced at cheap levels. DVD MSRP levels are typically $25-$35. With in store discounts factored, those new release DVDs still often go well past the $20 level and sometimes even past $25.

The only area where DVD is truly cheap is in catalog titles that have been available for a year or more. By the time a movie is debuting on a premium channel like HBO the DVD version of the same film will often be priced down in the $12-$15 range and then fall below $10 a few months later. DVDs are barely profitable at all once they reach bargain bin prices.

Once Blu-ray becomes more common prices will start edging down futher, particularly in terms of catalog titles. We've already seen some noticeable price breaks lately. Fox used to charge $30 or more for everything they offered on Blu-ray. Now they finally have a good number of titles marked down below $20. Paramount has pushed many catalog BD titles below $15. We'll see other studios follow.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Hello? The thread is about players. Players at that price WILL sell well. I enjoy the crap out of blu-ray and I havent bought any movies in a while, thats what Netflix is for.

$29 movies (I dunno who the hell pays that much anyways, use Amazon and ebay) wont stop $150 players from selling well.

What kills me is, you have all of these people with Wii's, PS3's, and Xbox360's paying a ridiculous amount of money for games, and you think a $20+ movie matters.

Well, Elway, not everybody uses Amazon; many people shop at places like Best-Buy or Walmart, and the store prices on most Blu-Rays is still way too high, and the same person who will spend $150 for a BD player, is not likely to get excited about movies costing $30, or rentals that are 2X as much as DVDs. Given that many of these folks are going to see the BDs on the same shelves across form the players are going to pause at those prices.

And the people who buy gaming consoles tend to buy a $40 game, and play it for months - not watch it once, and put it in a collection.

Still, its great that players are coming down, but I don't think we should assume what the average consumer looks like - or how they shop. Given the state of the economy, BD manufacturers would be wise to drop the price of both players and content.