Consumer electronics manufacturers have announced the arrival of several new Blu-ray players across a range of prices and capabilities.
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CES: 2008 Blu-ray player lineup
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349-699, glad that format war ending lowered prices for consumers
Yeah, cus it happened sooooo long ago, right? Man, what's taking them so long? I mean, they should've been able to design and produce cheaper B-r players in the week since Warner's announcement, right? It's not like it takes months or even years for these things to happen... Oh, wait...
Ok, the 1.1 profile JUST CAME OUT.
Some people...
Yeah, cus it happened sooooo long ago, right? Man, what's taking them so long? I mean, they should've been able to design and produce cheaper B-r players in the week since Warner's announcement, right? It's not like it takes months or even years for these things to happen... Oh, wait...
And these players will be released next week right?
The featureset in 1.1 should have been released on day one.
Clearly you're having a reading comprehension issue... I was being sarcastic. Your expectation of the market being flooded with cheap players only days after the Warner announcement is ridiculous. I thought I made that clear...
I know. Because 1.0 players can't play any B-r disks or anything, right? Gotta have that 1.1 functionality to get your movies to play on your movie player.
The most popular B-r player on the market is already 2.0-capable (and beyond). There are many times more PS3s out there than standalone players, and through firmware updates each and every one of those can be upgraded to any foreseeable B-r spec. What's the problem here? I see none.Silent_Buddha
Legend
And yet even with that install base. I don't know a single PS3 owner that has even RENTED a move on BD much less bought one.
Blue-Ray group beating out the HD-DVD camp will only delay HD adoption for another 1-3 years.
The main competition for Blue-Ray and/or HD-DVD still isn't Blue-Ray or HD-DVD. It's DVD.
Until it's competing with DVD on price of players AND movies. HD Video still doesn't stand a chance.
HD-DVD came closest so far of hitting that mark, but it appears the Blue-Ray camp is willing to throw more money at it to get them out of the game early.
In which case they'll want to recoup their money and with no competing HD format to drive down prices, I'd expect Blue-Ray player prices to take 1-2 years longer to hit the 99 USD price point that will make them competitive with DVD.
In other words, the Big Companies with a stake in Blue-Ray win, the consumer loses.
The fun part is imagining if HD-DVD had never existed. I'm willing to bet CES would have seen the announcement of Blue-Ray players at the low low price of 699 USD rather than the sub 300 USD Funai is shooting for.
Regards,
SB
Blue-Ray group beating out the HD-DVD camp will only delay HD adoption for another 1-3 years.
The main competition for Blue-Ray and/or HD-DVD still isn't Blue-Ray or HD-DVD. It's DVD.
Until it's competing with DVD on price of players AND movies. HD Video still doesn't stand a chance.
HD-DVD came closest so far of hitting that mark, but it appears the Blue-Ray camp is willing to throw more money at it to get them out of the game early.
In which case they'll want to recoup their money and with no competing HD format to drive down prices, I'd expect Blue-Ray player prices to take 1-2 years longer to hit the 99 USD price point that will make them competitive with DVD.
In other words, the Big Companies with a stake in Blue-Ray win, the consumer loses.
The fun part is imagining if HD-DVD had never existed. I'm willing to bet CES would have seen the announcement of Blue-Ray players at the low low price of 699 USD rather than the sub 300 USD Funai is shooting for.
Regards,
SB
How do you account for my owning 12 B-r movies then? In fact, I primarly purchased my PS3 as a movie player for my new 42" 1080P LCD. I'd buy more too, but I started getting into some games and would like to finish those up before adding to my movie collection.
This doesn't make any sense. Please elaborate.
Perhaps those that have the money to spend don't mind paying more for better quality and more features. I sure don't. In fact, I don't even buy DVDs anymore. If that means I have to wait for titles to come out on B-r then so be it. I'd much rather have a single HD disk which takes full advantage of my TV, and that comes with tons of extra features.
Actually, the exact opposite of what you claim has occurred. It is the HD DVD group that was throwing money at studios for exclusivity.
We shall see. I don't have a crystal ball so I'll refrain from making my own prediction.
I don't see how this is true at all. No one is being forced to buy B-r. DVD is still the dominant home video format, so until studios start putting out B-r exclusive releases, no one loses. You simply choose the format that works best for you.
We can play "what if" alternate universe games all day long here, but it's just mental masturbation.
If you believe price is biggest limiting factor to adoption, and competition was driving lower prices, it makes perfect sense.
If the prices don't move lower, BD will stay niche and eventually go the way of laser disc.
Laser disk never achieved the level of market peneetration which B-r already has. It also never received anywhere near the studio support B-r has.
B-r has momentum going forward. The doom & gloomers are only seeing what they want to see.
Actually laser disc one time had a higher % of the market than BD does now, although I admit that DVD has made the market much much larger.
Source? The only place I ever saw any laser disk players was in class rooms. I'd bet that sheer volume B-r penetration outweighs laser disk by at least an order of magnitude.
Or if you believe Warner whose studies lead them to believe that the ongoing war itself is keeping customers from making the transition from DVD -> next format.
I think simple supply/demand will take care of that. That is, I think some see the BR consortium as a conspiracy to keep prices high and I'm not quite ready to look at them that way. Hopefully more competition WITHIN the consortium will lead to cheaper/better players....hopefully.
% of market.... yes there's probably more BR players now than there ever were laser disc units.... How many people with Vcr's did you know in 1980-81 or so?
Let's see,
I received Casino Royale free with registration to the european PSN. I have also bought the Simpsons movie and Die Hard 4.0. I have rented quite a lot of movies, including such titles as Hostel 2, 300, Departed, Blood Diamond, Flags of our fathers, and others. I would rent more if the selection in the local rental place was better but I have to resort to dvds more often than I would like.
In fact renting blu rays is a great idea because the price of purchasing one is very high at 30 euros... like whoa, only 2 movies for a price of 1 game? I rather rent 10 movies for the same price any day.
None. I was born in '81
Then your frame of reference is pretty limited and your comment that you only saw laser discs in schools, seems somewhat silly and meaningless.
I think the question then is, how many PS3 owners do you know? Certainly if you consider yourself as 'knowing' owners on this forum, then you'll find the majority to own/rent BD's.
What was delaying adoption was the format war itself; since BD standalones sold on the same level in 2007 as HD DVD standalones, despite their lower price, I don't think there's any single thing you can point to in framing the situation.
I think this is the biggest misconception of all. The companies supporting these high def formats aren't hostile to DVD... they don't view things as HD DVD vs DVD or BD vs DVD. These new formats are instead meant to expand and supplement the home video market so that revenues continue to grow in a period where DVD has become saturated. *No one* in these studios or CE manufacturers wants DVD to die tomorrow, but they do want the consumer to have an additional higher-margin option on the table, and one that doesn't have a stigma or cloud of confusion associated with it. Whichever was 'chosen' would have been fine, it's simply that BD had both the larger install base and media sales at the time the decision was made.
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