Congress Investigating Alleged Problems With Martin's Management Of The FCC

Blu-ray Prices Go In The Wrong Direction (For Now)

from the wait-and-see dept

Thu, Mar 13th 2008 3:28pm — Mike Masnick

Gizmodo points us to the news that it appears Blu-ray DVD player prices have gone up, rather than down, in the wake of finally winning the standards battle with HD DVD. Of course, the immediate finger pointing is to the fact that it no longer needs to compete with the cheaper HD DVD players (and certainly that new HD VMD thing isn't serious competition). However, it seems unlikely that this price hike will last very long. As more movies come out on Blu-ray and competition heats up between the makers of Blu-ray players, price drops are inevitable. Besides, given the growing (if still quite weak) efforts to deliver movies online, Blu-ray isn't completely free and clear of competition. Besides, as the Tom's Hardware article makes clear, buying a standalone Blu-ray box these days doesn't make much sense, as the standard is about to be upgraded, and most of the players on the market today won't be upgradeable.

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Filed Under: blu-ray, competition, prices

18 Comments

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Taylor, 13 Mar 2008 @ 4:06pm

What article?
Can you provide a link to what Tom's Hardware says? How could you not link that????
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Chris, 13 Mar 2008 @ 4:12pm

Re: What article?
Are you serious? Did you miss the hyperlinked text "Blu-ray DVD player prices have gone up, rather than down" links to the Tom's Hardware article?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Mar 2008 @ 4:27pm

Only thing I really want on HD disc is Planet Earth. I'm going to pick up a 360 HD-DVD player and Planet Earth for around $60 screw Sony and Blu Ray.
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some other guy, 13 Mar 2008 @ 4:28pm

Re: Re: What article?
I suspect that Taylor is suggesting that the link to tomshardware is in some way wrong.
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Mike (profile), 13 Mar 2008 @ 4:34pm

Re: What article?
Can you provide a link to what Tom's Hardware says? How could you not link that????

Er. There is a link...
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Mar 2008 @ 5:23pm

I'm surrounded by morons in a hurry named Chris and Taylor.
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Seth Brundle, 13 Mar 2008 @ 5:30pm

No way Blu-Ray
Anyone who pays $400 for a blu-ray player is a moron.

I don't know how they won this format war in the face of $150 HD-DVD players. It confounds me.

I will gladly watch plain old DVDs on my set until Blu-Ray players go under $200. You can see the difference but its nothing like the difference between broadcast tv and hd.
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Jman594, 13 Mar 2008 @ 5:47pm

I told you so..
Anyone who wants to find the previous HD-DVD/Blu-Ray article and see that I called it can do so if you wish. The fact of the matter is that they have to recooperate from the shit-ton of money that spent pushing HD-DVD out of the market.

I hate, hate, hate stupid Sony. They can go to hell. Oh, and now blu-ray can ride there with them.
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Rekrul, 13 Mar 2008 @ 6:13pm

I don't know how they won this format war in the face of $150 HD-DVD players. It confounds me.

Blu-Ray had stronger copy protection. That's the only reason that the studios preferred it over HD-DVD.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Mar 2008 @ 6:26pm

Am I the only one...
...who's going to call Blu-Ray discs HD-DVDs because I think Blu-Ray sounds like it's a sister product to Oxy-Clean?
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Falindraun, 13 Mar 2008 @ 6:38pm

Not enough difference
Personally iv seen Blue-Ray and it looks no different (to me) than regular DVD's. So for now I'm going to stick with plain 'ol dvd's till they stop making them.
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jonnyq, 13 Mar 2008 @ 7:37pm

I don't know how many times this needs to be repeated.

Blu-Ray != Sony. Sony is just one member of a larger organization in charge of the Blu-Ray standard.

NewEgg is currently carrying BD players made by Samsung, Sharp, Philips and Panasonic (not including the PS3)

I'm still trying to figure out what all this has to do with Sony. I'm also trying to figure out why Blu-Ray is suddenly a monopoly when there are at least 5 companies making players. The market is still competitive and prices will come down.
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Jman594, 13 Mar 2008 @ 8:14pm

Re:
Because Sony is the one who dumped all the money in the pockets of the studios to go exclusively bluray. or Blu-Gay as I like to call it.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Mar 2008 @ 10:49pm

Sony lost my trust long ago with that whole root kit fiasco so why should I pay extra for a format that's choked with DRM. I'll stick with regular dvd's and an upconverting player.
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Guy, 14 Mar 2008 @ 5:58am

A couple of weeks ago, I upgraded my home theater pc with a $129 blue-ray drive (now priced $139) and am very pleased with the results. The display at 1080p is really something to be seen. Even my wife was impressed...and believe me, that's saying something.

I do, however, refuse to buy blue-ray discs as they are still too expensive for my budget. Thankfully, netflix carries blue-ray discs, so I have begun to add them to my queue.
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nipseyrussell, 14 Mar 2008 @ 9:20am

a) i dont believe that Falindraun watched bluray and didnt see a difference from normal DVDs - must have not had a proper set up mate!
b)yep, DRM.....and region coding.....NO REGION CODING!!! ARGH
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Mar 2008 @ 4:07pm

Blu-ray, Shmu-ray. This is fukked ^ crap!
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BigBill, 28 Mar 2008 @ 4:50am

"Blu-Ray != Sony. Sony is just one member of a larger organization in charge of the Blu-Ray standard."

This is a common misconception. While the others have *some* input into the standard, Sony owns the core patents to Blu-Ray, and therefore has the ultimate control over it.

The others are parties to no more than a marketing agreement.
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