2015 UHD player prices?

[4K fanatic]

Any inside info or educated guesses on how much the first stand alone players will be priced at? I'm wondering if I'm going to need to wait awhile to purchase one because they'll price these like the Sony BDP-S1 at $1k a piece. I'm not buying in for a grand. I'd pay max $350 but therein lies the problem- in order to get the price point lower for these players, they must produce and sell on a massive scale. With UHD tvs representing a very small percent of HD tvs in the home and an even a smaller percentage of UHD owners wanting to buy UHD Blu-Ray players, I'm guessing I'll be able to buy a
PS4 and Xbox One together for cheaper. What's your thoughts on United States prices ( U.S. dollars) for the first stand alone players?

Lastly, my thoughts ( if the UHD alliance was smart) would be to get them into an updated or any future Xbox One/PS4 consoles. They should make a deal to put the tech in at cost so adoption can spread and make money off the software ( movies) and not the hardware ( the players) until profit margins increase, while production margins decrease. Blu-Ray took hold, largely in part, IMO due to PS3 and its $400-600 price vs the $1K price of standalone players. I know I personally returned my BDPS-1 in exchange for both a PS3 and Xbox 360 for the same total price.

[bailey1987]

Reports say two to three times the price of current players.

[schan1269]

Originally Posted by bailey1987

Reports say two to three times the price of current players.

Don't know what those reports are...

As the wholesale sector has zero pricing...or model numbers. (and "we" know that stuff 6 months before CEDIA. Which means there probably won't be any info for the October convention. CEDIA "home theater boot camp", at the end of this month...has nothing scheduled for UHD disc)

[4K fanatic]

If UHD Blu-Ray wants to even have a small shot of success they've got to launch this year. People can obviously stream select Netflix and Amazon titles in 4K. With Blu-Ray dying a slow death to streaming, the BDA has got to launch now and for a low entry cost for quality players. They've also got to have a launch library of minimum 100 titles with top tier ones out- think a Avengers, Avatar, Titanic, etc. I'm more worried about this format's success because the format must launch to give competition to 4K streaming as well as be on the leading edge of the format.

[sonicyogurt]

Originally Posted by schan1269

Don't know what those reports are...

That's referencing a quote from Ron Martin, VP of Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory.

"[Prices] will be high to start with, relatively speaking," Martin said. "But it won't be as severe as some launches in the past, we won't be seeing thousand dollar machines. Maybe two to three times the cost of equivalent HD players. But that will drop over time."

[Dylan34]

I'll pay 300, 350 tops. UHD is supposed to be an extention of the blu-ray format, not an entirely new intity. If players are any higher, it's game over for 4K blu-ray IMO.

[Wendell R. Breland]

For reference, the Sony FMP-X10 has a MSRP of $699.99, the Nuvola NP-1 has a MSRP of $299.00, Redray (now defunct) was $1,600.00. AFAIK those are the only two UHD/4K devices on the market as of now, don’t know of anyone that discounts them.

IMO, introductory, entry level UHD BD players will be $300 to $400

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Dylan34

I'll pay 300, 350 tops. UHD is supposed to be an extention of the blu-ray format, not an entirely new intity. If players are any higher, it's game over for 4K blu-ray IMO.

Even though they're calling it an extension there is still a lot of new technology and chipsets and each component manufacturer is going to want to recoup their own R&D for their product.

[schan1269]

Originally Posted by sonicyogurt

That's referencing a quote from Ron Martin, VP of Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory.

So IFA in September means nothing for the US. Typically IFA announcements lead into January for the US.

Nothing on the docket by October in the US. Which means we will probably be lucky if anything is available by Black Friday.

(the lack of noise in the US leads credence to what I've said for a few years now. Europe and Latin America will be the last bastian for physical media*...with Germany and Brazil leading the charge...

*non "tent pole" movies.)

[sonicyogurt]

It's definitely down to the wire. A soft launch would sound about right: not all that much promotion behind it, only a couple models available for the first few months, a very limited selection of movies at the outset, and not much that really seizes full advantage of what the format has to offer, with something more fully formed and appealing following 4-6 months later. That's certainly the story for the past few home video formats. It doesn't seem like a winning idea for a format to come in so hot at the holidays, though.