New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop? - Page 3

post #61 of 84
7/7/06 at 7:01am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Based on what I read here and other forums the gist I'm getting is the price probably wont drop anytime soon. BD (with the Samsung release) is the weakest release to date. HD-DVD was in the same boat for a couple of weeks but each week a couple of movies are released, firmware upgraded and fixed various issues, meanwhile Sony has delayed their release ( I just got an email from Sony style) till October which translates to no price dropping for BD. For me it's tough in a two format war to spend that kind of money for a "1st Generation player". I'm glad some of you went to HD-DVD and some went BD because with out you guys we would not know what to expect from either product.
Reply
post #62 of 84
7/7/06 at 8:49am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Steve,

Just for clarification....

What player at day one was $500?

The very first DVD player was the Sony 7000 and that was $1k.

I bought My Panasonic for $499.00 at the "Nobody beats the wiz" the first month it came out. I forgot the model number. It's still working flawlessly till these days. My brother is currently using it. The only thing that it won't play is the rewritable disc.
Reply
post #63 of 84
7/7/06 at 9:36am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterTHX
BD is more of a revolution (a whole new disc form factor) than an evolution like HD DVD..which is based off DVD itself. R&D and startup costs are naturally higher for such a thing.

$1k players, not much software...and the software there was wasn't much better than another format and had artifacts, months before a dual layer disc arrived...sound familiar?

Yet now DVD is the king of the hill and is everywhere.

Those who are declaring the format war over in favor of HD DVD aren't looking farther down the line...say 6 months. Ever read "The Hare and The Tortise"?

Not much of a revolution since BD is using Mpeg2
Reply
post #64 of 84
7/7/06 at 10:21am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_Walton
The company (isupply) who carried out the BOM on the HD-A1 have been costing products for a while now, so it's highly unlikely they used consumer prices as the basis of their cost estimate...
I agree that it is unlikely that they used consumer prices, but it is also unlikely that they used Toshiba’s real costs—that is known only to Toshiba.

iSuppli also has predicted that combination HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players would be on the market in 2006—a bold prediction indeed.
Reply
post #65 of 84
7/7/06 at 1:41pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

I'm sure it's been posted in here somewhere already but the rumor of Toshiba selling their players below cost and at a loss has been proven false. The president of Toshiba stated this himself. I'll see if I can locate the link.
Reply
post #66 of 84
7/7/06 at 2:12pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
But for $599, do you think you'll really get a good quality Blu-Ray player in the PS3? Take a look at the terrible quality of the DVD player in PS2 and I think its a bit premature to assume that Sony will deliver a decent Blu-Ray player in PS3.

Just curious, does the X-Box 360 function as a DVD player also? If so, what is the quality?
Reply
post #67 of 84
7/7/06 at 11:28pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron-P
I'm sure it's been posted in here somewhere already but the rumor of Toshiba selling their players below cost and at a loss has been proven false. The president of Toshiba stated this himself. I'll see if I can locate the link.
The president of Toshiba said no such thing. He called for a unified standard to his shareholders. Then lower down the article a Tosh exec working in Australia said he didn't think Toshiba would sell a device at a loss, based on his past experience with the company. The isuppli BOM estimate has yet to be challenged by Toshiba, and seems to be generally accepted as accurate, especially considering the expensive goodies included in the A1 box. Someone disagreeing with the BOM estimate would need to explain why the BD player is sold at $1000 and Toshiba are themselves selling their player for around $935 in Japan.
Reply
post #68 of 84
7/8/06 at 7:45am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

I just deleted some posts that added nothing to this discussion. If any of you care to continue that type of discussion then please do so off-line or some other forum. No more warnings!





Crawdaddy
Reply
post #69 of 84
7/9/06 at 10:38am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

i heard the price of the blu ray drives were alot more than the HDDVD drives....the sony blu ray is supposed to have a seperate sound board in there's for 999 but it cant play CD's so i heard...all the spec sheets on the blu ray players are so vague its hard to say what they can cut out to make them cheaper....i think they will be stuck at 999 for a while....and the upscalled blu ray players will have no bounds....
Reply
post #70 of 84
7/10/06 at 9:52am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Bryan
Just curious, does the X-Box 360 function as a DVD player also? If so, what is the quality?


I primarily use my xbox 360 as my main dvd player even though i have 2 sony players (1 5 disk changer, and 1 single disk). The xbox has a progressive scan dvd player and with my 57" HDTV I have it set up through it's component cables. I see no difference in the quality compared to a stand alone. While some people like to use the PS2 DVD player analogy I think it fails in this respect. It looks like MS did it right.
Reply
post #71 of 84
7/11/06 at 5:41am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

I think you will see individual retailers start giving discounts early in the new year, maybe even during the holidays...but don't expect anything substantial for at least a year or more.

I also expect there to be a 2:1 price difference between BD and HD-DVD for quite some time, unless the BD manufacturers decide to take a hit.
Reply
post #72 of 84
7/11/06 at 8:58am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_Walton
The president of Toshiba said no such thing...
Your right Rob, it wasn't the president, but a Toshiba exec. Here's the article.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4817/53/


Quote:
HD DVD losses false, unification makes sense says Toshiba exec
By Stan Beer

Friday, 30 June 2006

Reports that Toshiba is selling its HD-A1 high definition video player below cost are false, according to a senior executive from the company. What’s more, the executive claims Toshiba is still firmly committed to the view that HD DVD technology will prevail over Sony backed Blu-ray, despite suggestions that the company is wavering.

Earlier this week, technology analysts estimated that the HD-1, Toshiba’s first HD DVD player, costs about US$700 to produce, suggesting the retail price of $499 is $200 below cost and thus unsustainable. In addition, a speech by Toshiba’s president Atsutoshi Nichida called for the unification of the two competing formats were seen by some as indications that the company is wavering in its commitment to the HD DVD format.

Mark Whittard, general manager of Toshiba Information Systems Division in Australia, says that Toshiba is making a profit on sales of the HD-A1 and is still firmly committed to the HD DVD platform.

“My understanding is that the price is set to make a profit. We’re not in business to lose money,” says Whittard. “The audiovisual market is tough enough without reducing your prices to an unprofitable position when there’s no competition at the moment. The direction from Tokyo is that we have to make a profit.

“The only time when Toshiba ever sells technology at a loss is in a competitive environment where we have to and it’s a necessity. Then we work aggressively to find a way to reduce the cost and be more competitive. I could not understand a business position where they would be pricing HD DVD players in the market and selling them at a loss when there’s no competition. I know Toshiba and that’s not how we do business.”

So how will Toshiba compete with PS3 players equipped with Blu-ray players which sell below cost but are able to recoup losses on games sales?

“I imagine that we would stitch up relationships with most of the motion picture movie companies and package it up that way,” says Whittard. “Also there will be a lot of third party companies that will rebadge HD DVD and bring it to market. That’s how we made money on DVD which we invented. We still make a royalty on every DVD player in the market today.”

According to Whittard, recent statements by president Nichida calling for unification of the two competing high definition technologies are not signs that company has weakened its commitment to HD DVD.

“Internally that’s not how it is viewed,” Whittard says. “It’s just good common sense. Whenever there are two competing technologies in the marketplace, in the end it just confuses the market so you can’t maximise on the opportunity from the business. There is a lot of debate as to whether there is room for two formats in the market or whether it really does have to consolidate to one.”

But what does consolidation actually mean?

“Toshiba believes that HD DVD format is the strongest overall package for everyone in the marketplace but there are some good technology strengths on the Blu-ray side as well,” says Whittard. “If you look at it from Sony’s perspective, Blu-ray is a very important piece of technology. However, Sony may not have any choice if HD DVD gets traction and momentum in the marketplace and there’re a number of reasons why we think it will.

“I think some of the things that are really driving HD DVD in a lot of these format war discussions are the fact that Intel has said that it supports HD DVD, believes that it’s going to be the format of choice and supports it in the Viiv platform going forward. Microsoft has also committed to supporting it natively in Vista and Xbox. Even HP has done a back flip back in December and supported HD DVD because it expects the cost of Blu-ray to be unreasonable. They’re three very big IT players. Also, most of the motion picture companies who initially supported Blu-ray now have a foot in both camps.”
Reply
post #73 of 84
7/12/06 at 6:43am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Also, most of the motion picture companies who initially supported Blu-ray now have a foot in both camps.
If that statement is true then there's only two ways to deal with this, drop the price on the format alone or re-invest into a dual format player and cut your losses with the hope that one format is better than the other. Hard to tell, but it's looking like to me that BD will have to come down on cost some point next year, just my hunch.
Reply
post #74 of 84
7/12/06 at 7:52am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

It's not really in Toshiba's interests to deny selling it at a loss, even if they're not. That creates a sense of the consumer getting a good deal, which encourages sales. Why refute the notion?
Reply
post #75 of 84
7/12/06 at 9:09am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Also, most of the motion picture companies who initially supported Blu-ray now have a foot in both camps.
Quote:
If that statement is true

Trouble is, it isn't. It's the opposite.

Warner & Paramount initially supported HD DVD only. Now they support both.

Lions Gate, Fox and Disney still support Blu-ray only (Disney may change, but not for now). Of course MGM & Columbia/Tri-Star are exclusive.

Universal remains the only HD DVD exclusive studio.
Reply
post #76 of 84
7/12/06 at 9:35am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterTHX
Trouble is, it isn't. It's the opposite.

Warner & Paramount initially supported HD DVD only. Now they support both.

Lions Gate, Fox and Disney still support Blu-ray only (Disney may change, but not for now). Of course MGM & Columbia/Tri-Star are exclusive.

Universal remains the only HD DVD exclusive studio.
In the end, it's going to be all about the hardware units sold that translates into software product sales. All of the studios will support the format(s) that makes them the most money. As of now, it's too early in the rollout process to determine whether one of these two formats will generate enough profit for the studios to choose it over the other or just support both formats for an indefinite period of time.





Crawdaddy
Reply
post #77 of 84
7/13/06 at 8:44am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterTHX
Trouble is, it isn't. It's the opposite.

Warner & Paramount initially supported HD DVD only. Now they support both.

Lions Gate, Fox and Disney still support Blu-ray only (Disney may change, but not for now). Of course MGM & Columbia/Tri-Star are exclusive.

Universal remains the only HD DVD exclusive studio.


Of course, it's possible that a high executive at Toshiba might know of successful talks between the company and some of the studios that we haven't heard about, yet. I just wonder why, if not, he would make such a statement.
Reply
post #78 of 84
7/16/06 at 7:43am

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron-P
There is no other way to find out. If BB would give me a proper demo then I would not have to, but they won't, I asked when I was in last week. How else will I be able to judge for myself? I'm open to suggestions.

My suggestion is that rather than buying, opening & returning a player you have no intention of keeping, go to a better retail source than BB.

No offense to either you or BB, but BB is only a cattle call. I can't imagine testing any AV equipment there. It's like a circus. I laugh every time I see people in BB critically listening to BB's audio equipment. It's so loud in the store, I can't imagine what nuances the customer thinks he is going to hear.

There are certainly locally-owned and AV specialty stores that carry & properly demonstrate both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Even a chain like Tweeters is much, much better. If you don't have those options in your town, then wait till you are in one, but don't buy and return something just because you want an experiment.
Reply
post #79 of 84
11/17/07 at 7:14pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

I just walked into BJ wholesales club in Manchester Connecticut today and they have bluray player by Sony for $347.00 last month I saw it listed for $447.00
I hope it drops more after Thanksgiving. I would love to get a standalone player for my room.
Reply
post #80 of 84
11/17/07 at 7:33pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

I saw the Sony BD300 today at Wal-Mart for $399, thats $100 price drop.
Reply
post #81 of 84
11/18/07 at 9:20pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

BD300 is also $399 at Best Buy -- and they have alot.
Reply
post #82 of 84
11/19/07 at 1:07pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

What makes a BD300 superior to a 40GB PS3? Does it have analog audio outs?
Reply
post #83 of 84
11/19/07 at 1:17pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Any price drop is always good, but at 399.00, that I'd have to say is still a bit steep. Going through what's advertised for BF, doesn't look like it's going to be any cheaper than that. I think if BD went down to 299.00 you would probably get a lot of people buying into BD. We do have till Christmas to see if Sony will take the risk.
Reply
post #84 of 84
11/19/07 at 1:23pm

Re: When will the price of Blu-Ray hardware start to drop?

Rick,
WM had them for $388 as of Friday or so.

The BDPS300 has analog outs but won't decode any of the advanced audio codecs out there. It's also not BDJ compliant. The PS3 is(allegedly).

The PS3 is a better bet IMHO right now but times are changing.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home