why do so many people say that Blu rays are too expensive

[1924]

and they aren't that much better than DVD. A bunch of people I know keep saying that and I have seen lots of people spreading those inaccuracies. Is this maybe the reason why Blu ray did not catch on like DVD?

[tylerdurden10]

Hate to say it, but this thread is about 4 years too late. Hardly anyone can say it's too expensive now, especially when I sometimes see DVD prices as high or even higher than the same title on blu-ray on release date!

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by 1924

and they aren't that much better than DVD. A bunch of people I know keep saying that and I have seen lots of people spreading those inaccuracies. Is this maybe the reason why Blu ray did not catch on like DVD?

Originally they were, but what actually got me into the format even before I owned a player was the fact that the bluray of the Wild Bunch was going for 7.99 and the two disc DVD was going for 19.99.

[dubious]

Costs? Who knows... try shopping around. Prices vary on lots of factors, amount of copies pressed, extras produced, restoration costs.

Quality? Some labels release inferior product with upscales, bad HD transfers, over applied DNR. Even when you get a great looking BD, most people have poorly calibrated televisions with all the hype-BS-marketing features enabled that soften and smear the image. Average screen size has been increasing over the past few years, but for the first few years of blu-ray most people were probably just watching 32-40" 720p LCD sets that weren't calibrated.

[1924]

Originally Posted by tylerdurden10

Hate to say it, but this thread is about 4 years too late. Hardly anyone can say it's too expensive now, especially when I sometimes see DVD prices as high or even higher than the same title on blu-ray on release date!

I think lots of people still believe it though. That is why they never upgraded to Blu ray

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by 1924

and they aren't that much better than DVD. A bunch of people I know keep saying that and I have seen lots of people spreading those inaccuracies. Is this maybe the reason why Blu ray did not catch on like DVD?

Show them this thread: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=210922

[benricci]

Originally Posted by 1924

I think lots of people still believe it though. That is why they never upgraded to Blu ray

This. Even though most blu's can be found under $10, people still think that they're at the same prices they were 7-8 years ago. And since they wrote off blu-ray then, they never bothered to give it another look.

[Al_The_Strange]

I still hear people complaining about Blu-Rays being expensive. I think they're looking at all the new releases, especially 3D and multi-format ones, which are in the $20 - $30 range. I tell them to just wait a year, and most new movies will probably drop to $15, $10, or even less, and catalog releases are always reasonable.

[morningtoke]

Expense is relative. A $19.99 new release blu-ray may not be expensive for some of us here, but it may be a lot to others.

[HeavyHitter]

I'm still surprised at how cheap some Blus are. I mean I picked up "Rush" as $5 at BB yesterday. A number of other good titles have dropped to this price whether it be a sale or not. Even if you pay $20 for a title, the cost savings is easily made up with $5-10 titles (some of which new scans) which is very, very reasonable for a high quality 1080p disc with lossless audio and sometimes good extras. Price is no issue with Blus unless where are talking the Twilight Time scheme, but even then you could still apply what I am saying.

[morningtoke]

Originally Posted by LuckyDragon

Even if I have the money, I usually won't do it on basic principle, except for a tiny handful of new releases I can't resist. Price drops happen so quickly these days anyway that waiting a bit usually isn't too hard.

I hear ya. I only buy a movie on release day if it's something that I know will sell out quickly, or if I wanna nab that original pressing slipcover.

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I'm still surprised at how cheap some Blus are. I mean I picked up "Rush" as $5 at BB yesterday. A number of other good titles have dropped to this price whether it be a sale or not. Even if you pay $20 for a title, the cost savings is easily made up with $5-10 titles (some of which new scans) which is very, very reasonable for a high quality 1080p disc with lossless audio and sometimes good extras. Price is no issue with Blus unless where are talking the Twilight Time scheme, but even then you could still apply what I am saying.

Yeah, Rush and a few other good movies went on sale last Sunday at Best Buy. I grabbed A Beautiful Mind, Public Enemies, The Place Beyond the Pines, and a Scarface Steelbook for $5 each

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Too often I see new DVD SKUs right next to new BD/UV or BD/DVD/UV SKUs and the difference is only a couple bucks.

Yep. For example Mockingjay Part 1 is currently $19.99 at Best Buy (DVD), and the Blu-Ray is the same price IIRC (save about $8 from the MSRP).

[HD Goofnut]

Too often I see new DVD SKUs right next to new BD/UV or BD/DVD/UV SKUs and the difference is only a couple bucks.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by 1924

I think lots of people still believe it though. That is why they never upgraded to Blu ray

I think in the UK it's sale prices people look at, you can go into a supermarket and buy a handful of DVDs for £3 each, but the cheapest BDs are £5 and there's only going to be a few of them, there will be 50-100 DVDs cheaper than that and people don't seem to care about the quality.

I think if the studios put out the same releases for the same prices (from sale items to new releases), several times a year people would take notice. The studios seem to think that Blu-rays been more expensive shows they're better, it doesn't. People don't think like that, otherwise BMW would sell more cars than Ford! They just see it as a luxurious product that does the same thing.

I don't think Blu-ray as a format has even been prompted that much, it's always been very quiet. DVDs had more promotion and they didn't really need it, as people were happy to get rid of their tapes. Digital Downloads get more promotion than BDs.

[NeMo_ET]

Most of the time now blu-rays will drop to $10 or less fairly quickly. I used to buy a lot more new releases than I do now. Now, I just wait for price drops and find titles that I previously passed on for cheap. There will be the occasional new release that I won't want to wait for, but DVDs used to be the same way. I'd say everything considered, blu-rays are currently in the same price state that DVDs were in their later years.

[Blu MacReady]

The only time I see bd more expensive is when importing a Scream or Kino title to the UK. Theyre releasing some of my favourite childhood movies from late 80s/90s. At around £18 (disc, overseas postage) for a movie that I have on dvd and could buy again for £3 brand new, that's more expensive.

But sometimes, like Cherry 2000. Cost me £17 to import the Blu, it's around £15 on DVD cause it's oop.

But I love em and you have to have a vice

[Professor Echo]

First, you have to teach people what the CONCEPT of Blu-Ray is and that it is not expensive.

Second, you have to teach them that Blu-Ray players are not expensive.

Third, you have to teach them that Blu-Ray discs are not expensive.

Unfortunately, the studios failed at number one and it's never recovered enough for numbers two and three to be effectively addressed. Trying to get people to buy Blu-Rays over DVDs now is a lost cause simply because abysmal executive decisions from the outset doomed the format into never being anything more than a relative niche market.

[Member-222782]

End of Watch is $4.99 on Amazon. Who says Blu-rays are expensive?

I haven't come across many people complaining about Blu-ray prices but I do encounter people questioning the benefits of the format over DVD. Lots of people. DVDs are dirt cheap today - if someone objects to paying $4 for a DVD I don't imagine they're going to want to spend $12-17 on a BD.

[thegrunter]

Look at your basic box store for your answer. A Target or a Walmart.

I routinely see the blu-ray there selling for $10 to $15 more than the DVD. Generally, with new releases, the formats are put in a prominent display spot side-by-side, and comparatively the blu-ray always looks more expensive.

I still can't believe anyone actually buys anything from the Target/Walmart MESS of a physical media section. It's completely disorganized. Aside from end-cap weekly new release kiosks, everything else is randomly tossed on shelves with no regard to format, genre, or title. In other words, if you don't scour each aisle, then you most likely won't find the title you're looking for.

Since physical media stores have effectively been killed by Appl ... er, "the internet" -- makes the face -- Joe Consumer has nowhere else to go, but the big box stores, to buy new releases in person on new release day.

[HeavyHitter]

It's been said, but just repeating it: let's also not forget the ~$120 laser disc price people were paying for many titles back in the day which would be equivalent to several times that amount with inflationary factors over time in today's market. And we're talking discs with 425i in comparison to 1080p.

[jscoggins]

Originally Posted by thegrunter

Look at your basic box store for your answer. A Target or a Walmart.

I routinely see the blu-ray there selling for $10 to $15 more than the DVD. Generally, with new releases, the formats are put in a prominent display spot side-by-side, and comparatively the blu-ray always looks more expensive.

You need to look at the "When the BD is cheaper than the DVD" thread.