Blu-ray Association: Deliver a sub-$350 Blu-ray Player this holiday or else!

[Maxell]

Blu-ray has had very good momentum during this year. Movie sales are up and beating hd-dvd sales consistently now, especially on neutral titles. This holiday season can be very pivotal in the war against hd-dvd. But to do that there has to be at least one player selling at or below $350 (preferably $299). It might not be profitable in the short run, but in the long run there will be many more blu-ray player owners looking to buy more blu-ray videos.

If there are no lower priced blu-ray players, then Toshiba will dominate this holiday season with their HD-A2 inferior 1080i player. Just look at their current sales, especially #1 on Amazon. This will increase, especially if the cheapest blu-ray player is about $200 more. Toshiba's might even be cheap enough to buy 2 boxes of, compared to one blu-ray player.

Blu-ray has the support of Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, and of course Sony to pick from (and a few others). One of these companies needs to step up and make a sub $350 player ASAP!

(Btw, I do own a blu-ray player: PS3)

Otherwise Plan B: Get Warner Bros to go Blu-Ray exclusive!

[Whytewash]

Amen to that! We need this boost to push out the inferior

[Branden]

1080i is exactly why the A2 is so cheap. you have to compare apples to apples, the A20 isn't much cheaper than the S300 or PS3. we should have some amount of pride that blu-ray supporting CE aren't stooping to developing 1080i-max gimped pieces of junk.

[blublublu]

I don't think $350 is good enough.

Prediction: Toshiba will have a unit <= $200 by the end of the year.

I think a reasonable target is at least one "brand name" Blu Ray player need to be no more than 25% more expensive the Toshiba (e.g. $250).

Plus they need at least one low end noname brand player at the same price as the noname HD DVD player(s) that are now imminent.

This isn't the same format war as it was a month ago, and these huge price differentials that exist now won't cut it anymore if Blu Ray wants to get off the PS3 as the main Blu Ray player.

With the current amazon deals you can just about get the HD DVD player for the cost of 8 movies!

[blublublu]

Originally Posted by Branden

1080i is exactly why the A2 is so cheap. you have to compare apples to apples, the A20 isn't much cheaper than the S300 or PS3. we should have some amount of pride that blu-ray supporting CE aren't stooping to developing 1080i-max gimped pieces of junk.

Many people have 720p sets, so I doubt this is factor the masses would care about.

[LynxFX]

But don't deliver a crappy nonFullHD player like Toshiba keeps pulling. It is either capable of 1080p output or don't call it a HighDef player.

[Existentialist]

I think they need one at $200, $250 tops. I don't care if it is crap, honestly, I won't be the target audience. People in this forum would know better than to buy it, but it would reach the consumer who cares about cost over quality. As long as it works well enough not to turn people off blu-ray, is all that matters.

[Apollo 18]

I agree. We need a cheap 1080i blu ray player. People like their plasma tvs (because of the name i think) and very few plasmas are 1080p. But there are tens of millions out there in homes throughout the US.

Besides, this way the manufactures can sell them a second player in a few years when they upgrade their system to 1080p.

[kowhite]

While I have no interest in a low cost, 1080i BD player...I agree, it's something they should consider.

Better would be a low cost 1080p player though...

[Maxell]

Originally Posted by Branden

1080i is exactly why the A2 is so cheap. you have to compare apples to apples, the A20 isn't much cheaper than the S300 or PS3. we should have some amount of pride that blu-ray supporting CE aren't stooping to developing 1080i-max gimped pieces of junk.

The general public doesn't care what 1080i is. As long as it's a hi-def player.
I'm in favor of a cheap-o 1080i blu-ray player, as long as it's not one of the major brands. Perhaps Philips?

[richard lichtenfelt]

I can't tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p by visual. I know that there is a technical difference in the way that the info is shot on the screen, but it is the same info and the screen fill happens at a much faster rate than the human eye can discern.

[justinbaily]

Unfortunatlly IGNORANCE is bliss and for that reason alone there NEEDS to be
a $199-249.99 bd player. To stick it to hd-dud i'd recomend a decent quality
1080 p player -really an extra $49.99 to get 1080 p +not total garbage is worth it to me...i'd even get the parents 1 @ $249.99.
Though the target bd players suposedlly to be sold @ $499.99 would be out of date by this time next year...no eithernet jack for online games and i'm doubting
pip will really work on that unit. That's why i'm happy with my 2 60 G ps-3's
that get regular firmware updates and already have online enabled.

Just let me state again if there were a decent 1080p bd player @ $249.99
i'd get the parents 1 for christmas.

[kwhiplash]

The Toshiba is only $238.88 on Amazon! Sony and Blu-Ray need to either get on the ball or they may as well start flushing their profits down the toilet now!

[Apollo 18]

60 Million US homes have HD TVs. I bet 80% of them are 720p/1080i and they have no plans of upgrading to 1080p within the next 4 years. Blu Ray needs a cheap 1080i Blu Ray player.

When people spend $40 on a DVD player at Walmart they aren't overly concerned with the quality, nor how long it will last. They just know it's cheap.

[Izzy]

Sharp just annouced a CEDIA player.

New Sharp Player will MSRP for 499.00, so it will be lower. Not bad at all.

BTW you guys are going about this all wrong. BD is making a mistake trying to go toe to toe with HDDVD on price. No matter what the BDA does to lower a price, HDDVD will just lower it more. All BDA needs to do is stay CLOSE not match it. BD will kill them with Content!!

[shadowmoon]

I agree with the lower prices though. Most of the homes dont have 1080p TV as they will still be out of range for most middle class homes for the next few years. Toshiba made a killing on the 1080i players (not profit-wise, sales numbers) and flooded the market with their 'HD' players, I think BD should do something similar and just pump out cheap 1080i players for the average homes, still have the high end 1080p for us fanatics, and then the contents from BD once 1.1 is up and running will kill off HD DVD.

[iceman]

If you've read the latest news/rumours, I wouldn't worry about a cheap BD player for xmas....

[mswoods1]

A 1080i player will look the same as a 1080p player on a 1080p screen. 1080p players actually only output their movies in 1080i [because 1080p would be too much bandwidth], and then a chip inside the player converts it back to 1080p before it leaves the player for playback on your 1080p screen.

But as long as your 1080p set has a proper de-interlacer, the chip inside the player is not necessary. In fact, the de-interlacer chips inside the 1080p players are many times the same ones in your 1080p sets. There are some 1080p sets which cannot de-interlace properly [and benefit from a 1080p player], but last I heard the majority of 1080p sets DO de-interlace properly and something like 70%-80% don't actually need a 1080p player for their 1080p screen... 1080i will look exactly the same de-interlaced by the set.

So... I think it would be really smart for Sony to do a 1080i machine to compete price-wise. Unfortunately though, right now 1080p is a requirement to get the Blu-ray logo on your machine... so BDA's got to change some requirements if they ever want a 1080i player.

[Branden]

Originally Posted by mswoods1

right now 1080p is a requirement to get the Blu-ray logo on your machine...

is this true? i'm glad the BDA put quality first.


i realize not everyone has a 1080p TV and therefore a 1080i player is good enough for them, but a vast majority of consumers don't know anything about 720/1080/i/p. i'd hate to have these people unwittingly buy a 1080i player for their 1080p TV, and i bet that is happening to ALOT of A2 owners right now.
i'd just hate to see CE "tricking" consumers into buying a gimped 1080i player under the guise of price-advantage, like Toshita is doing.

[mngmikes]

yeah the new venturer hd dvd players have been confirmed for delivery this fall 199.99 msrp... which in turn they are guessing to be going for 149.99 in store. bluray needs to do something because less than a month ago i went neutral because of the momentum bluray was going on. this sucks bah