Your 1st DVD player vs. 1st Blu-ray player: How much and when did you buy? (1 Viewer)

[Adam Barratt]

My first DVD player was a Yamaha DVD-1000. It was actually two players: the chassis was from Singapore and everything else was from the US, imported into New Zealand and then assembled. It was the first Yamaha DVD player officially imported into the country. This was in January 1998 and I paid NZ$2500 all up (~US$1660). When I ordered my first DVDs from the US, the retailer took several days confirming that they were allowed to ship DVDs the New Zealand (they wanted to check whether it might be counted as either advanced technology or software under export restrictions at the time).

My first Blu-ray player was a Panasonic DMP-BD10, bought in May of 2007. At the time it retailed for NZ$2999 (~US$1990) but I got it for the bargain price of NZ$1500 (~US$1000). It has since been replaced by a Pioneer LX70A (BDP-95HD) which also retails for NZ$2999 here.

I also imported an HD-XA1 HD DVD player in January 2007 for the very reasonable price of US$600 (inc. shipping).

When I see people complaining about the cost of electronics in the US, I just smile. You have no idea how lucky you are compared with most of the rest of the world!

Adam

 

[David Norman]

DVD Player -- Sony DVD-S7000 -- 5/1997 for $960 (incl tax) -- unit is still in use.

BluRay -- Panasonic DMP-10A -- 6/2007 for $560

HD-DVD -- Toshiba A2 - 3/2007 -- $384


LD Player -- Pioneer CLD 3090 12/1991 for $1100 (just an awful lemon spent more time in repair shop than in the rack later replaced by Pioneer somewhere mid year 1993 with a brand new CLD-D701 which was superb for years until being replaced by a Elite CLD-79 I got on "clearance" for $830 in April 1997)

Just for kicks:
Mitsubishi U67 SVHS -- 2/1993 $900 (more or less)

 

[Carlo_M]

Toshiba SD 2006, May 1997. I believe it was $499. L.A. was one of the seven test market cities for DVD.

Sony 60GB PS3, November 2006. $499.

Back in 1997, $499 was probably 25% or more of my monthly gross [just out of college]. Now it's considerably less .

 

[PaulDA]

In 2007 dollars (the best I could find in a quick search of inflation calculators for the US) your first DVD player cost 642.38$.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

My first DVD player was the first Toshiba model in March of '97. I paid 500 dollars for it(ordered from J&S Musicworld).

I'm embarassed to say what I paid for my first BD player. Suffice to say that I got the Samsung BDP1000 on the first weekend it was released from Circuit City in June of '06.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

DVD introduced in the US market: March 1997

First DVD player:
April 1997, SONY DVP-S7000, $840 (MSRP $1100)
This was arguabally, but widely accepted as the best DVD player at the time.

Second DVD player:
January 1999, SONY DVP-S7700, $870 (MSRP $1300)
Arguabally, but widely accepted as the best DVD player at the time. Believe it or not, this player still works fine and since it is also rated as an excellent CD player I still use it to listen to audio CDs.


Blu-Ray introduced in US market: June - July 2006

First Blu-Ray player:
August 2007, SONY Playstation 3 60GB, $500 (MSRP $500)
Widely accepted as the best BD player at the time.

Second Blu-Ray player:
December 2007, SONY Playstation 3 80GB, $500 (MSRP $500)
Widely accepted as the best BD player at the time.

Now if one were to simply calculate the corresponding depreciation in value of the dollar, I'd say Blu-Ray is wayyyyyy ahead in the price curve than DVD. Personally I simply cannot understand the people who keep complaining about how high BD player prices are, when the fact is that in less than two years since the introduction of the format one can buy a BD player for $250. In fact, for a while now one can buy the 40GB PS3, arguabally still the best BD player, for $400.

 

[marcIs]

my first dvd player was a memorex at wall mart bck in 1998 for the low price of $400cdn I now bought a bdps blu-ray for $450 i wonder what one is better. As for the price of a Blu-ray now, vcr's in ther first and second year were over $500cdn

 

[Mark Butler]

Thank you for your posts everyone. I think this is definitely showing a trend that perhaps prices are not as over inflated as they are made out to be for Blu-ray players at this point in the formats growth. Please keep them coming. Don't be embarrassed about prices as I'm sure we have all at one point paid more than expected (or wanted to) for something we just had to have for our home theater. Also if you could be as specific with the dates and models as you can be that would be great.

 

[Dave_P.]

DVD - RCA 5200(?) for $700 June 1997
Blu - Samsung BDP1000 for $1000 Sept. 2006

 

[Scott Merryfield]

First DVD player: Sony DVP-S300 in autumn 1998 for $299

First Blu-ray player: Sony DVP-S350 about a week ago for $258

I was waiting for three things before I bought into BD: (1) The end of the format war; (2) Upgrading my old 1080i CRT RPT with no HDMI inputs; (3) The price of players to become more affordable.

After upgrading to a new Samsung 67-inch LED DLP set, I was looking for an upconverting DVD player. When the Sony S350 hit the $258 price on Amazon, I decided to go that route instead, since it was only slightly more money than the Oppo DVD player I was considering.

Remember, though, that the price of the software is another consideration. In that respect, DVD was a lot more affordable than BD currently. The late 90's and early 2000's were the time of incredible Internet deals on DVD's, so it was very inexpensive to build a library compared to the high price of Blu-ray discs right now. I certainly do not plan on buying nearly as many BD discs as I did DVD's, and I will start doing something I have not done in 10 years -- rent discs.

 

[PaulDA]

This was not the case everywhere (shipping to Canada was expensive then, not to mention the exchange rate at the time was brutal). I remember DVD prices in Canada in that period (as late as 2002--USED DVDs at local video stores were 20$ plus) and current BD prices in Canada are, if one takes inflation into account, cheaper than SD DVD was at the same period. Moreover, far fewer people in that period were regular internet users, so the exposure to such prices was far smaller than today. So, all told, the "more affordable" DVD prices of yore were not nearly as widely known as you might think (and, thus, their impact on market behaviour was likely less important than one might think).

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Agreed. The insane deals/prices (that eventually helped cause the dot.com crash) did not really benefit everyone. Only those of us who were willing to shop online in those early days (and deal w/ such things as webserver crashes, eg. 800.com had loads of that, IIRC, among other things) benefited from them. The average B&M shopper did not benefit. And then, there was the repercussion of the dot.com crash when one considers the big picture.

DVD pricing at B&M retail level back then was not that much lower in absolute terms than BD pricing today. Basically, we're talking maybe ~$5 diff in most cases, which is roughly what you get from 10 years of (relatively low) inflation. Prices have not been *artificially* inflated at all. Just lots of people have short memories and/or don't look at it objectively -- and only compare BD prices to the recent trend of bargain bin DVD pricing. In fact, online DVD prices were actually *artificially* deflated back in late 90's up until the dot.com crash (and retailers like Hollywood Video paid for it w/ near-billion-dollar failures like Reel.com IIRC).

Of course, I'm not suggesting that the studios and hardware makers should not continue to (gradually) bring prices down (just like w/ DVD before). But some of the complaints about prices are really overdone.

Personally, I don't mind going a bit backwards w/ my movie shopping habit and do a little renting w/ more selective buying. Buying way more than I have time to watch (and/or rewatch) isn't exactly the best thing anyway...

_Man_

 

[Brent Hutto]

I was already cutting back on DVD buying and substituting some rentals even before doing the Blu-Ray upgrade week before last. I got up to three little "DVD bookcase" units plus two shelves on a regular bookcase and still had a couple dozen DVDs stacked up next to the TV on any given day. Even when many of them were bought for $15 or less the mindless library-building has a downside.

I just culled out and gave away 40-50 titles and will not be buying any more SD DVD's except for a few television show seasons here and there. And we're going to try to rent instead of buying Blu-Ray titles whenever we can, hopefully keeping the ratio up to 2-3 rentals per purchase in the future. That'll still mean getting rid of another 50+ old DVD's eventually because we're not buying any more shelves...if it can't fit in 20 linear feet of shelf space then we don't need it!

 

[Marvin]

That was my first DVD player, and I got it around the same time, but I'm pretty sure it cost me $399.

I'm just about to order the Sony 550, also for $399 (but minus $150 for using the Sony credit card).

Come to think of it: my first VCR, a 2 headed Panasonic top-loader, cost me $399, back in late 1984 or thereabouts.

 

[Paul McElligott]

I bought a Sony Player (forgot which model) in 1999 for about $300 (Actually it cost me nothing because I bought with Best Buy gift cards earned as a bonus from work). That would be about $390 in today's dollars.

My first BD players will probably be the S550 which will be no more than $399 (probably less, since I plan to wait until after Black Friday). So my first DVD and my first BD will cost about the same adjusted for inflation.

 

[Vegas 1]

MY first dvd player was a Marantz early model '97 or '98 cost me over $500, I still have it sitting in my closet, what a brick! My first LD player was also Marantz (520) still works fine. Looking to pick up a Panny BR player soon.

 

[Michael Nelson]

In November 1997 I bought a Toshiba DVD player for about $400. I don't remember the model #, but I DO remember it being finicky as heck.

It came with 5 movies. I remember Absolute Power was one of them and I think maybe Blazing Saddles was another, but I could be wrong on that one.

Sometime in 2007 I bought an HD-DVD player, also a Toshiba (Model: HD-A2). again, around $400 (not sure on that - may have been $300) and finicky!

Early in 2008 I bought Blu-Ray - a Panasonic BD30K - ALSO $400. I remember being bummed because I missed the 5 (or was it 10?) free movie offer by just a couple of weeks.

Just to round things out, my first CD player was a Sharp circa 1985.

 

[Nathan Eddy]

You guys are definitely not the norm. You can congratulate yourselves on your anecdotal evidence justifying what you already want to believe . . . but it's just that: anecdotal. You've got to take into account lots of factors being ignored. The economy was a lot better 10 years ago. Sure, we're all making more money, but there are currently people who are at exactly the same point in their careers where you were 10 years ago.

I was not an early adopter in any sense. My first DVD player was a cheap Apex at Walmart for $80. I wouldn't have even bought that in 2001 if it weren't for getting my hands on a bootleg disc of Fellowship of the Ring (don't worry, I later bought both versions and I'll get the BR too).

My very first HD TV was purchased this year.

It may be true that BR is dropping faster than DVD did, but it seems there ought to be objective, industry-wide information on that. Can't someone just find that and post it?

Anyway, there is a HUGE difference which even this alleged faster dropping must be measured against: when DVD came out, there wasn't a dirt cheap digital format to compete against. It's *all* relative. BR *has* to drop in price much faster, simply because the competition with the current dominant format is so much more demanding. And, of course, DVD didn't require new receivers, TVs, etc. in order to enjoy, either.

I'll probably buy a BR this holiday season. But again, it will be tied to a release I want to watch: the Rush Snakes and Arrows concert in BR. So much of this depends upon the available software. I certainly will not be buying many BR discs. I'll be renting. But then again, my DVD collection is probably still under 100, including concert DVDs (the main thing I buy). Like I said, you guys aren't typical.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

1st dvd player was a Sony DVPS500 in March of 98--$500, had built-in dd decoder but no dts. This was replaced by a DVPS550 later in the year that's still going strong at an ex's house.

1st BD player was the intro samsung around sept of 06 when they dropped to $699. Replaced by a 60 gig PS3 in Feb of 07-$599

1st HD DVD player was an HDA1 in April of 06-$500-rationalized by cost of 1st dvd player, now have one HDA2 and 2 HDA3s--bought as backups due to large collection of HD DVDs when the price dropped to $79 at Costco.

 

[Mark Butler]

You are absolutely right that all things are relative but your statements seems to draw the conclusion that DVD had an easy ride to mainstream acceptance. DVD was an unproven new technology that had no previous track record. VCD's had existed before DVD but not in North America at that time. Most of the people I told about DVD back in 97 were very skeptical about movies on on a CD it sounded cool but then again it just sounded like a small laserdisc. Most of the major rental companies were not in favour of DVD's (Blockbuster, Hollywood Video etc.) as the sell through model eroded rentals. If you think the installed base of DVD's is big you should see the size of the installed base of VCR's that DVD had to overcome to gain acceptance as an alternate video format. There was also the confusion between open DVD and DIVX that turned off consumers. It wasn't until 2000 that DVD started to take off (http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...dvdsales.html). I had to buy a new receiver and TV in order to enjoy all the DVD format had to offer (5.1 Surround, 16:9 Anamorphic video) just like you have to have an HDTV and an HDMI 1.3 Reciever to get the full benefits of Blu-ray (you can use 5.1 analog on some players for sound, too). But you can hook up your blu-ray player to a 14" 4:3 TV and 2 channel receiver and it will work but you will not get the full benefits of the format just like it was with DVD (even VCR's had pro logic and most people just hooked them up and used their TV speakers not even taking full advantage of that format).

Out of the 30+ posts in this thread the consensus seem to be that Blu-ray players are comparatively priced in accordance with their DVD players during the same period in the formats growth. If myself and the people who posted are considered to be atypical in that our purchases of DVD players and Blu-ray players fall within the same price parameters, I guess we must just be lucky. In my opinion I believe we will see $100-$150 dollar Blu-ray players but probably not for another two years (perhaps around the same time they started to appear for DVD players). But that's another thread.