Reuters - Blu-ray Consumer Awareness on rise

[hc666]

http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...43456620080403

I didn't see this posted on the main page of topics so i'm hoping this is a first time post lol

[katharsis]

Thanks, very nice read

[Blu Titan]

Good news. There have been similar reports, but not fro Reuters. Now Blu-ray needs a Blu-ray player price below $300. Funai (under the Sylvania) was supposed to release their player for a retail price of under $300. Howerver, the player lists in Amazon for $399. they WON'T sell many at that price.

[hc666]

Originally Posted by BlueNeon

Good news. There have been similar reports, but not fro Reuters. Now Blu-ray needs a Blu-ray player price below $300. Funai (under the Sylvania) was supposed to release their player for a retail price of under $300. Howerver, the player lists in Amazon for $399. they WON'T sell many at that price.

Agreed. That price is disappointing for sure. I guess we need some saturation of different brands before we see that 300 price tag.

[moviefan]

Originally Posted by BlueNeon

Good news. There have been similar reports, but not fro Reuters. Now Blu-ray needs a Blu-ray player price below $300. Funai (under the Sylvania) was supposed to release their player for a retail price of under $300. Howerver, the player lists in Amazon for $399. they WON'T sell many at that price.

I don't understand the the fixation over the price of Blu-ray players.
Think about it:
If you spend an average of $25.00 per Blu-ray disc, and your collection is only 100 movies, you will have spent $2,500 on discs alone.
Add $$$$$ for your home theater equipment, and an extra $100 -$200 for a top quality player doesn't seem significant.
Why not get a quality player to compliment a quality system?

[JasonR]

Good read. Thanks OP!

[doctorsteve]

Idiots... YOU DO NOT NEED A NEW TV!!!!

For the Bajillionth time - Blu-ray still looks amazing on Standard-def TV's!!! Yes, you need a HD set to get everything out of it you can, but I've tested many discs and still see enough of a difference with my 27" RCA tube to warrant rebuys of existing movies and make Blu my only choice for new movies.

Wish there was someway for the BDA to get this point across: "You need a player, you do NOT need a new TV"

Cheers, Doc.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by moviefan

I don't understand the the fixation over the price of Blu-ray players.
Think about it:
If you spend an average of $25.00 per Blu-ray disc, and your collection is only 100 movies, you will have spent $2,500 on discs alone.
Add $$$$$ for your home theater equipment, and an extra $100 -$200 for a top quality player doesn't seem significant.
Why not get a quality player to compliment a quality system?

I would agree with you. But the average joe wants a player between $200-$250. I have had 3-4 people in my office asking me questions regarding Blu-ray (in the last month), and every single one has stated that they would wait until the price of players drop to $250. Most consumers will NOT pay $400 for any kind of movie player.

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by moviefan

I don't understand the the fixation over the price of Blu-ray players.
Think about it:
If you spend an average of $25.00 per Blu-ray disc, and your collection is only 100 movies, you will have spent $2,500 on discs alone.
Add $$$$$ for your home theater equipment, and an extra $100 -$200 for a top quality player doesn't seem significant.
Why not get a quality player to compliment a quality system?

Why didn't LaserDisc take off? The price was too high for the average person.

It will have to be in the sub $200 range for the average person to afford it.

If there are no cheap players, Blu-ray will suffer the same fate as laserdisc and become a uber niche format.

[ManUtd]

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by BlueNeon

Good news. There have been similar reports, but not fro Reuters. Now Blu-ray needs a Blu-ray player price below $300. Funai (under the Sylvania) was supposed to release their player for a retail price of under $300. Howerver, the player lists in Amazon for $399. they WON'T sell many at that price.

Aye aye.

What I find very interesting is that the Sigmatek player is already available for pre-orders on Amazon.fr
http://www.amazon.fr/Sigmatek-SBR-10...7236383&sr=8-1

at 250euros

Hopefully the affordable players are on their way in and will give a kick in the price war

[CptGreedle]

Glad to hear how well BDA is doing and how far BD has gone. So many people know of Blu-ray now, but it also is quick to point out how far BD still has to go.

[Chaka]

There is a magic $$ number that the average consumer would spend on a new media player hence the sub $300 number is being thrown around. Its better to get the player in the consumers hands then screw them with the cost of media. Once you go blu, you can't go back to sd-dvd.

[Thegide]

Originally Posted by moviefan

I don't understand the the fixation over the price of Blu-ray players.
Think about it:
If you spend an average of $25.00 per Blu-ray disc, and your collection is only 100 movies, you will have spent $2,500 on discs alone.
Add $$$$$ for your home theater equipment, and an extra $100 -$200 for a top quality player doesn't seem significant.
Why not get a quality player to compliment a quality system?

Only 100 movies? Hell, I don't even have 100 DVDs + Blu-rays combined yet... and that's after 8 years.

Now, I still agree with your point, but when you look at average households where the HDTV probably cost < $1500, and is probably running a sub-$500 sound system, the difference in player price is a more dramatic comparison.

For those of us with $3000 TVs and $2000 sound systems, obviously it's a moot point, but just realize that these kinds of investments only represent a very small percentage of the households that have HDTVs.

And for a lot of people, they have preconceived notions of how much things "should" cost before they buy them. In many eyes, a Blu-ray player is still essentially a DVD player, albeit with new tech, and therefore should cost a certain magic amount... probably in the $200-$300 range.

I could draw a personal analogy with iPods and mp3 players. Back in the days of the good ol' discman, I bought mine for $230. I won't pay much more than that for a portable music device, regardless of its capability, because I've set a personal value on how much that tech is worth to me. So, while I would really like a large-capacity iPod (i.e. 60-80GB), there's no way I'm going to pay what they ask for them. I could afford it any day of the week, but I'm not going to.

[skrill]

Originally Posted by doctorsteve

Idiots... YOU DO NOT NEED A NEW TV!!!!

For the Bajillionth time - Blu-ray still looks amazing on Standard-def TV's!!! Yes, you need a HD set to get everything out of it you can, but I've tested many discs and still see enough of a difference with my 27" RCA tube to warrant rebuys of existing movies and make Blu my only choice for new movies.

Wish there was someway for the BDA to get this point across: "You need a player, you do NOT need a new TV"

Cheers, Doc.

Wait -- with a 27" tube TV -- aren't you limited to 480p resolution (and with 27" you really have to be close to the TV to even notice 480p over 480i). Since most regular DVDs are encoded in that resolution -- couldn't you just use a decent upscaling DVD player to get the same result? Am I missing something?

I would agree that you need an HDTV (768p at least) to really get any of the PQ benefits of BR.

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Why didn't LaserDisc take off? The price was too high for the average person.

The top reason why LaserDisc never gained mainstream popularity was because very few video stores offered the discs for rent.

Most people prefer not having to buy a copy of every movie they watch. Even with Blu-ray, I've rented quite a few more movies than I've purchased.

As for pricing, right now the prices of standalone Blu-ray players are laugh out loud ridiculous. If anything, companies like Sony, Samsung, etc. should be running fire sales on their obsolete players. Most of them cost more (and even a LOT more) than a Playstation 3, yet all are mired in Profile 1.0 or 1.1 status.

The pricing is going to have to come down some. The dirt cheap price of DVD and lot of other entertainment choices will make it necessary for the Blu-ray format to have at least a few reasonably affordable BD players -at least in the $199 to $299 price bracket.

[owa]

Originally Posted by hc666

http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...43456620080403

I didn't see this posted on the main page of topics so i'm hoping this is a first time post lol

Good news.

Impressive that you were the first to post the article as well. That's pretty tough to do.

[owa]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

As for pricing, right now the prices of standalone Blu-ray players are laugh out loud ridiculous. If anything, companies like Sony, Samsung, etc. should be running fire sales on their obsolete players.

Is that really the case? Aren't the prices fairly normal for any new technology? I seem to remember paying a lot more for a VCR (especially when they went from 2-head to 4-head and eventually hi-fi) and that was several years ago. When HDTVs started out they were a heck of a lot more expensive not to mention the prices of computers early on. That is, doesn't it almost always work like this. Starts out high and slowly drops over time (as they get better making them, as more and more people buy them, as the materials used to make them get cheaper, etc.)?

[Bobby Henderson]

Every standalone Blu-ray player on the market is functionally obsolete. The Playstation 3 is the only device currently available that is able to show both Profile 1.1 and Profile 2.0 based Blu-ray content. None of the standalone players can do that, but nearly all of them cost more than a freaking Playstation 3. That's why I insist their pricing is laugh out loud ridiculous. They're a damned rip off.

With the Panasonic DMP-BD30 fetching as much as $550 (it's a Profile 1.1 player) I can only guess what Panasonic is going to charge for the DMP-BD50 (featuring BD Live compatibility). They'll probably tack on another $200 to the price tag.

Right now, the Playstation 3 is BY FAR the very best buy in the Blu-ray market. Honestly, I tell anyone I personally know interested in buying a Blu-ray player that Playstation 3 is currently the ONLY choice on the market right now. Everything else sucks. They suck for the combination of limited capability and very high price.

I don't see that situation changing very much at all until perhaps this fall.

[PeteS]

Very good hc666. btw. This also made it on MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23942230/
with the title "Survey: Blu-ray disc awareness on rise
10 million households have a high-definition disc player"

The study's Jason Kramer mentions the synergy with digital transition and HDTV which is something I've said many times. Plus, the percentage of HDM adoption is being discussed.