Blu-ray players outpacing supply

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by MrBogey

Personally I've been advising friends to get the PS3 and not get a standalone till next year.

Too late, we even have people on this forum who were apparently suckered by the "Buy a pre-mandate player before September 30, and get five free copies of Resident Evil!" promotion last June to clear out the faulty stock...

(Fortunately, I'd bought my first DVD player relatively late before the death of DiVX, and was thankfully able to avoid being stuck with copies of Twister, Lost in Space and Lethal Weapon 3.)

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Too late, we even have people on this forum who were apparently suckered by the "Buy a pre-mandate player before September 30, and get five free copies of Resident Evil!" promotion last June to clear out the faulty stock...

The five free applies to the PS/3 too. And every of these "faulty" players will play whatever title w/secondary comes out. They just won't be able to show a PiP. I expect they'll likely be able to show the secondary full screen.

And all those A1/A2 that can't (and A3 that won't) output 1080p? Are they faulty too?

[radagast]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Too late, we even have people on this forum who were apparently suckered by the "Buy a pre-mandate player before September 30, and get five free copies of Resident Evil!" promotion last June to clear out the faulty stock...

(Fortunately, I'd bought my first DVD player relatively late before the death of DiVX, and was thankfully able to avoid being stuck with copies of Twister, Lost in Space and Lethal Weapon 3.)

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "pre-mandate player"?

[reiella]

Originally Posted by radagast

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "pre-mandate player"?

Pre Profile 1.1 I believe.

[bluflu]

Originally Posted by radagast

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "pre-mandate player"?

I believe they're referring to HD DVD's trump card. You know, existing Blu-ray players will become obsolete when PIP arrives. Kind of like existing 1080i HD DVD players will become obsolete when 1080p arrives.

[dialog_gvf]

Early adopters (and we're still firmly in that phase) look beyond mere price. They always have.

DVD launch in 1997:

$499 player(s)
$999 Sony S7000 (35% market share)

Yet, when the exact same thing happened at the start of this generation, it was all "OMG, look how expensive Blu-ray is, Toshiba rulz"

But, at the start of this generation we had only a Samsung player, an initial stumbling by Sony on releases, and Sony players and Disney releases many months in the future. HD DVD was certainly a better challenger to Blu-ray than DIVX ever was to DVD.

Now the war looks like it's on the way to being settled, and the promise of Blu-ray (players, PS/3, studios, release superiority and computing) has been realized and is expanding, more people feel confident they can take the plunge.

We now see the Toshiba pricing isn't working any more, and that's the only weapon they ever had. And the wiggle room for further price cuts this year is razor thin to none.

At this point the entire hope for HD DVD zealots is $199 SRP (probably not possible) and even $99 SRP Chinese players (completely IMPOSSIBLE) arriving and saving the day. And there are many people out there who are going to wait and see if it happens and how it affects the war.

If $199 SRP players selling at $179 arrive, then the war continues and we have to wait until January to see the results. But $199 this year represents the end of HD DVD as a viable product for a wide variety of CE.

Another possibility is a $99 add-on for the Xbox 360, and the subsequent idea that the new Xbox 360 sales this Xmas w/add-ons will be the saviour.

If Toshiba players are still $299 SRP, the add-on is still $179 SRP, and the Chinese are no-shows, it is over.

They have to hit prices points they probably can't hit.

Gary