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How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

post #1 of 24
1/5/08 at 1:32pm
Thread Starter 
Just curious what everybody thinks and why. Blu-Ray players are still priced high enough to stop many people from buying the players. It seems to me that $199 is the price point where a lot of people just shrug their shoulders and buy. Right now, I am still happy with my 1080i upconverting DVD player. Actually, for me, the biggest jump in perceived picture quality came when I went from a standard DVD player to a progressive scan DVD player.
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post #2 of 24
1/5/08 at 2:06pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

If you are gonna spend $199 spend $299 and get a PS3. Its the best BD deck out there imo and worth it to have over a lame ole deck =)
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post #3 of 24
1/5/08 at 2:49pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

I agree with Sam... and the PS3 is not only 1.1 (PIP) ready with a firmware flash, but it will also be firmware updated for full 2.0 BD-live web as well as onboard DTS-HD MA decoding.

Quote:
How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Not long, considering they're already just $50 more.
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post #4 of 24
1/5/08 at 3:02pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

I believe there's been some good talk about Chinese BD players making an appearance at CES. So the price on the hardware side will continue to drop soon enough.
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post #5 of 24
1/5/08 at 4:36pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

The PS3 will not help Blu-ray to mainstream adoption. If a game console was going to do that, it already would have.

With the least expensive BD player at $399 (list price), Blu-ray companies have a ways to go to add the hardware side of the equation to the HD landscape. $399 is not mainstream pricing. Toshiba already showed that.

The problem the BD companies have is the relatively higher price of the most expensive component in a standalone player, the drive. The only reason Toshiba was able to get their pricing down so quickly was their ability to design and build a low cost HD DVD drive. Until there is a BD drive at a similar cost, higher priced BD players will continue to hold back mainstream adoption of that format.
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post #6 of 24
1/5/08 at 5:08pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

I agree with Robert. I also think that once the BD drives for Mac and PC gain this year, it will help Stand Alone players for HT.
It won't happen soon, but remember the early Panasonic DVR series and where it is now. We'll get there.
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post #7 of 24
1/5/08 at 5:26pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

And Sony needs to earn back a big investment they may have been making yesterday...


Cees
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post #8 of 24
1/5/08 at 6:19pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

If someone here has confidential information about what WB did, it was likely shared in confidence and should probably stay confidential.

I think the Christmas 2008 shopping season will see affordable Blu-Ray players.
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post #9 of 24
1/5/08 at 7:29pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikah Cerucco
I think the Christmas 2008 shopping season will see affordable Blu-Ray players.

That's what I'm expecting to happen too. I expect we'll see another similar loss leader in the same vein as the $99 HD DVD player from this past year.
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post #10 of 24
1/5/08 at 7:43pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

The cheapest stand-alone Blu-Ray player I've seen in Canada is $450 (while an HD-DVD player can be had for $250).

When the prices hit around $200-$250 (and when there are a decent amount of quality films available in the format), then I'll jump in.

I don't want to own a game console to play movies, so that's out of the question.
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post #11 of 24
1/6/08 at 3:01am

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Funai have confirmed the launch (Q1 of 2008) of their Blu-ray player which will retail at under $300. Chances are this will have an in-store price below $250.

http://www.funai.us/BDPrelease010208.pdf

I also believe there will be at least one Chinese Blu-ray player announced at CES.

Certainly, by Q4 of 2008, I expect $199 Blu-ray players to be quite common.
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post #12 of 24
1/7/08 at 8:42am

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

It's not so much BD players being $199 as proper profile 1.1 players getting down to that floor. That will probably be two years off, so I'll be reverting to SD DVD in the meantime.
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post #13 of 24
1/7/08 at 8:54am

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Mark, that cheap-o Funai IS being billed as being proper profile 1.1.

What's a matter with you - don't you want Immortal Beloved in high-def?
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post #14 of 24
1/7/08 at 2:23pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Um, that I can live without. Thanks anyway, Dennis.
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post #15 of 24
1/8/08 at 11:58am

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

How long, unfortunately not soon enough for me. This flurry of information about Warner Bros going Blu exclusively has put the breaks on my efforts for a player in the 200.00 range. Hopefully we won't have to wait till Xmas 08 for sub 200.00 players. 299.99 is a bit much for me.
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post #16 of 24
1/8/08 at 12:27pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Call me prejudiced, but I wouldn't trust the first batch of Chinese-made sub-$200 players to be something all that desirable -- I still haven't touched any Chinese-made players for SD either, and it's not like I ever spend more than ~$400 for a player (and that only because I wanted SACD, etc). Personally, I don't understand why people must wait for a $200 player. If it takes a full year or more for a comparable quality player to drop by ~$100 (and that's my guess), why not make the jump and just start enjoying BD? You'll probably save most, if not all, of that $$$ back by not having to do a double-dip upgrade -- for some, it might also make sense to rent more in BD (for now), if you feel software pricing is too high. That's assuming the titles you want are getting released of course.

I'm w/ Mark in thinking a good, full featured, $200 player is probably still ~2 years away -- maybe during the 2009 holiday season at the earliest.

_Man_
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post #17 of 24
1/8/08 at 12:54pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

While I dipped my toe in HDM with a sub-200$ player (A2 for 169$) and price was a factor for which one I tried first (I got it before the Warner announcement), that was a function of the format war and not my need for a sub-200$ player. My first DVD player cost me 700$, but there was no war, so I didn't mind paying that much. I've purchased some more players since then for less (save my universal hi-res audio player--cost about the same) but that is because later generation players either offered the same for less money or more for the same money.

However, I do find it interesting that this early into the new formats people expect the kinds of pricing that took 6+ years to appear with SD DVD AND they expect a whole host of features that SD DVD could not dream of offering. My 700$ player in 2001 would cost me close to 900$ in today's dollars and it was not a hi-res universal player (I got that capability in 2004 for the same price in dollars (but about 7% less cost in real dollars) as my 2001 player). If I'd had the same expectations in 2004 regarding universal hi-res audio players as many do about HDM players today, I would have expected to pay about 300$ instead of 700$.

Now, I fully understand that not everyone can afford 700$ players (the same was true in 2001) but the difference is that then, not everyone expected a 700$ player for 199$. People who could not afford one then had to wait--and did. Seems our willingness to wait today is gone.
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post #18 of 24
1/8/08 at 1:41pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Aye. I perfectly understand about being reluctant to spend more if one's worried about the format war -- I didn't jump in myself until a month ago. And I also understand the average consumer waiting for very cheap players. But it just seems a bit odd if even HTFers will wait for $200 players before making the jump assuming we're no longer at risk from the (ending) format war...

_Man_
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post #19 of 24
1/8/08 at 3:28pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

The question is at what price does the average person buy into? I used to think $200. Now I think $100 is the price level. At that point, it matches upconverting players. Thid is where I think Warner and the blu-ray supporters may have shot themselves in the foot. Anything above $100 and people look at hd-dvd and refuse to throw good money after bad. There is risk. The risk is that dvd beats
br.
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post #20 of 24
1/8/08 at 3:43pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

It's not just the price that's the problem, though. It's the profile confusion that the BDA has engendered.
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post #21 of 24
1/8/08 at 4:00pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

I don't think most people care about the profile thing. The movie plays and that's all most people need/want to know.
Quote:
Hopefully we won't have to wait till Xmas 08 for sub 200.00 players. 299.99 is a bit much for me.
$100 difference is that big of a difference?
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post #22 of 24
1/8/08 at 6:19pm
Thread Starter 

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulDA
However, I do find it interesting that this early into the new formats people expect the kinds of pricing that took 6+ years to appear with SD DVD AND they expect a whole host of features that SD DVD could not dream of offering. My 700$ player in 2001 would cost me close to 900$ in today's dollars and it was not a hi-res universal player (I got that capability in 2004 for the same price in dollars (but about 7% less cost in real dollars) as my 2001 player).

Isn't it an amazing world? Who would have thought that Costco would have a 60+inch plasma for under $2000? Globalization has accelerated many processes including the commodization of electronics.
Thomas Friedman wrote a book: The World is Flat. Or, something close to that title. I got halfway through before it depressed me so much that I had to stop.
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post #23 of 24
1/8/08 at 6:49pm

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

I went with my mom to look at TVs because hers is dying.

There was Samsung and Element 32+ HDTV for $450-550 (which would be fine for her). With a bit ot tweaking I got both looking ok and could do better at home with the proper calibration discs.

I remember paying over $400 for a 19 inch Mitsubishi w/ S video (that I watched LDs on) that I thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread back in the early 90s. Youre right its amazig how much things have changed and what you can get for less nowadays.

I think TV prices will came down even more now that Blu looks to be the winner.

I also saw a SonyDBPS300 for $299. I wasnt planning on going Blu for awhile(I was HDDVD), but since I had 2 Xmas gift certificates I got it paying only a bit above $150.
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post #24 of 24
1/9/08 at 10:19am

Re: How long until Blu-Ray players are $199?

Yeah, although I've stayed away from the cheap Chinese-made gear, I have to admit that I do own a nice Chinese-made cello of all things. It was not that long ago when Chinese-made stringed instruments were pretty awful, but nowadays, they can be a great value for student and amateur musicians.

Of course, all this globalization also carries a hefty price for many of us w/ the outsourcing of work of all kinds. I guess much of it evens out at the end of the day though it does mean that some/many have to look for different jobs and/or careers as a result...

_Man_
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