I don't care what the mass media is saying, we are closing in on the tipping point... (1 Viewer)

[Douglas Monce]

I noticed that my Walmart has reduced most of their blu-ray movies to $24. A step in the right direction.

Doug

 

[Douglas Monce]

I have no doubt that it was a Walmart special not unlike the $99 HD DVD players last year. But that special popped up again and again over the next year. Of course the average price was $250. Most players were still selling for $350 or above. And again I don't think this was the MSRP for the Apex player. It's suggested price was probably $150 or $200, but Walmart, as they often do, had a deal on them.

Doug

 

[PaulDA]

Then you were fortunate. When I first saw DVDs on retail shelves, most titles were stickered at 32.99$ and up (a few were 24.99$). This was in New England. In Montreal, with the low Canadian dollar of that time (nearly 60% lower in value than it is now), 45$ was the LOW price and 60$ was not uncommon. By 2001, when I started buying them, they were still around 30$ (I remember splurging for Galaxy Quest at 32.99 plus 15% tax). Until 2003, USED DVDs were routinely 19.99$ at the local video stores and 29.99$ had become the "standard" price for new ones. Today there are scores of 5.99$ specials (usually, older leftovers, but still) and my local video store will now sell me THREE SD DVDs for 12$ (used). Today's BD prices are numerically the same, and, with inflation, CHEAPER than most titles I saw until 2001 on SD DVD.

As for Laserdisc, I never got into that format because I never saw a title selling for less than 50$ (and most were closer to 100$)--in Montreal, at any rate. I didn't demand 20$ laserdiscs and 50$ players, though. I simply went without (and planned to get into laserdisc when I could afford it--SD DVD came along instead). So while Blu-ray will eventually reach "mass-market" prices, I don't expect that as of RIGHT NOW and I maintain that to do so is an unrealistic expectation.

 

[Danny_N]

Around 1998-99, on-line prices were relatively low because Amazon was in steep competition with Reel.com. I remember that almost every DVD was nearly always 60% off MRSP which translated in prices of $14 to $20 for new DVDs. Reel.com also had these games where you could earn dollars making it possible to get DVDs for next to nothing. When Reel.com stopped selling DVDs, Amazon (and other e-tailers) raised their prices significantly.

 

[PaulDA]

Perhaps this is the source of the different experiences. I never bought or even shopped for media online until 2003 or so--certainly not in the late 90s when I did not have a PC at home, never mind an internet connection (I used the internet for work and research purposes only back then and I did all of that from the school where I taught at the time). All of my exposure to SD DVD until 2003 was in B&M stores only.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

For me DVD seemed cheap in the late 90s (with some exceptions) because I was used to paying a lot more for LD. I also remeber taking advantage of the internet boom: Reel.com 800.com etc. I helped put several sites out of business thanks to their willingness to sell me things below their cost. I find I only buy BD on the really good sales.

 

[Jari K]

To me, it´s mainly about the quality. It´s not a huge problem for me to pay e.g. 20$ for some release with good 1080p quality, lossless audio and extras. First two (1080p and lossless) are something, that already beats the SD DVD hands down.

Of course, getting the Blu-ray prices down to the "SD DVD level" is something that I also wish, but at *this point* I can live with 20$ (or so) price range.

Then again, if some release has "mediocre" (well, "mediocre" means different things to different people, but still..) 1080p-transfer and no extras - and the price is still around 27$, I probably pass and wait for the upcoming "BOGO"-sales etc. I don´t want to kid myself here, since I have already probably over 150 (or something) Blu-ray/HD DVD/SD DVD-titles on my shelf "to be watched", so I´m not really in a hurry to watch everything as soon as they´re being released... It´s crazy actually..

Then again, if I love the film enough...

 

[jhinesjr]

I buy blu when the discs are on sale or bogo offers. I think blu will be huge (relatively) this Christmas.

 

[DaveF]

Blu Ray has several challenges. First, of course, are the worries of recession. If people believe times are tight, are they going to buy $300+ players and $30 movies en masse?

Second, BR's competition is growing. Can it take the market against OTA HD, HD Cable, HD Tivo, On-Demand cable with very recent movies, AppleTV, Netflix Roku, movies online (Hulu etc), and movies easily "pirated" online. Plus three great console systems vying for entertainment dollars and hours.

And, perhaps redundantly, there's the simple cost of the upgrade. It's the toy that keeps on taking. Who wants to pay $30 for discs when $5 DVDs are commonplace. I look to an affluent relative, in a $500k home, who owns hundreds of DVDs and is about to buy a $5000 Plasma: he won't buy BluRay because he thinks $30 movies are too expensive.

 

[David Deeb]

BD is going to do fine. There are simply too many of us Home Theater enthusiasts. And now that new releases are going day and date w/ the SD version, most BD owners will buy or at least rent the BD version.

The big challenge is that most people just don't "get" HD. Everywhere I go (bank lobbies, restaurants, businesses, other people's homes) I see stretched SD material on HDTVs. It looks like horse$#@$.

Until the public figures this out, how are they going to understand BD?

But home theater enthusiasts like us will be buying these BD discs. We're got a hobby that we all love. And we love showing it off.

 

[Patrick_S]

Everyone keeps mentioning BOGO sales but when was the last time Amazon had one of those, January?

Yes I know other retailers have had some here and there, the last I remember being Target but those discs were 29.99 to start with so it really wasn’t as great as when Amazon had the sales.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Well last year there was a BOGO sale every other week. I think they feel that now that they have won, they don't need to do them anymore. Or at least not as often.

Doug

 

[John Dirk]

I see what you mean. Thanks for the clarification.

John

 

[John Dirk]

That sounds about right to me. My point is, of this 40% [or whatever the actual number might be] many still have no interest in or knowledge of Blu Ray. While a HDTV can probably be considered a pre-requisite for owning a Blu Ray player, the opposite is not true. Further, of the remaining 60% who do not currently own a HDTV, it is basically a forgone conclusion that they eventually will.

At some point, HDTV will reach critical mass. The US government has all but guaranteed it. Blu Ray has no such assurance, thus people still need to be "incentivized." Lower prices (along with some educational marketing) are the quickest route to this.

John

 

[Jari K]

It could be, that it´s more like they don´t understand aspect ratios and don´t know how to use "set-up menu" with their TV-set. Now with their fancy WIDESCREEN-sets, everything has to "fill the screen", so 4:3-material is "stretched" and some people even use "zoom" with 2.35:1-material.. It´s of course quite sad.

 

[DeanWG]

Oh man . . . 800.com was awesome. Three DVDs for $1.00. Thankfully we were pretty early adopters of DVD, so I was able to use all of my family and friends addresses to max-out this promotion. I think I ended up with 24 DVDs for $8.00 total - a great way to start a collection. When I think about the nearly $10,000 dollars I've invested in the format overall - I still think it was worth it for the format.

 

[John Dirk]

I remember 800.com. Great deals while they lasted.

John

 

[LarryH]

Risking momentarily drifting even further off-subject - even one of my local TV stations is so clueless that they squeeze their video vertically so they can run sports scores or something across the bottom. I never actually read it, so I'm not sure what it is. Anyhow, it adds another twenty or more pounds to their news-readers!

Back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.....

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Great deals indeed though one has to wonder whether the economic impact of such was worth it. I love a great deal just like anyone else, but I wouldn't really want to see more of the same right now (w/ another .com crash and all that)...

_Man_

 

[Mark Zimmer]

The Apex pricing was weird because of a number of factors. The very first model was readily hackable not only to remove region coding, but Macrovision as well. As I recall, it sold in the summer of 1998 for about $175 off the shelves, but when Steve Tannehill and others started letting people know what that thing could do, you couldn't get them for love or money---they ran $400 regularly on eBay. They were insanely hot. The followup models were still hackable but not as easily and when they came in mass quantities then the price cratered and that let to the $80 prices. Still, the basic price was pretty attractive that early in the life cycle of DVD. And my first generation Apex is still playing fine.