Lower prices needed for 'Blu' Christmas

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

I just posted the article Lower prices needed for ‘Blu’ Christmas.

Consumers continue to demand lower player prices ahead of what could be a big holiday shopping season for Blu-ray, as consumer spending is expected to increase.

Read the full article here: [http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/21227-lower-prices-needed-for-blu-christmas.html](http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/21227-lower-prices-needed-for-blu-christmas.html)

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#2

My grandparents have comment how how good things look on my HDTV. They are aware about HD technology (allthough I don’t know if they’d remember the name of the disc that contains the hd movie).

They just don’t seem to feel like dolling out the cash for one.

that being said, I’ve liked the decrease in the cost of older movies, now if only new releases would drop in price.

#3

The price of New Releases are where the studios want them, at least for now… unless blu-ray players reach mass home penetration (which will never happen unless forced by the studios… as in blu-ray only new releases) prices won’t go down for the new stuff… and blu-ray only new releases are liable to cause a backlash in consumer support that will send even more delving into the world of pirated products or illegal downloading.

FACT: The average consumer could care less about blu-ray and are perfectly fine with standard DVD… those who want quality that is a little bit better than DVD are fine with upscaling players. These are the ones who have looked at blu-ray and said “I could really care less about having a hairs difference in quality” and have ZERO interest in adapting to the format… unfortunately for the studios and those who continue to hope for mass penetration… it’s the MAJORITY of DVD owners, and nothing can be done to change their minds. It’s not like the night and day difference of the VHS to DVD choices people could make… more like the choices people had when it was VHS or Laserdisc… even though Laserdisc was the better quality format… it was never accepted by the masses and only served the movie aficionados out there…

While everyone who likes blu-ray likes to think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread… in reality they are a very small group and supporters of what has become this generations Laserdisc…

Sorry, but there is just simply nothing you can do to change it.

The next dominating format still is on the horizon… when it comes you’ll know, and it won’t be a disc based format, it won’t be a online download only format, it will be some form of packaged media (to be successful). I don’t know what it will be, but blu-ray it’s not.

My2Cents

#4

I just bought an Insignia Blu-Ray player at Best Buy that is Netflix enabled for $106 including tax. A similar player with wifi built in was $150 + tax. At about $100, even without Netflix, the players and maybe $50 more than the cheapest straight DVD players. Hardware pricing at $100 is no longer an issue.

The problem is software. Bly-ray disks are wildly over-priced compared to DVD’s and on the 42" and smaller screens that most folks have, the price differential is not warranted in terms of what you see.

There should be a, at most $3 differential between a regular DVD and the Blu-Ray if Blu-Ray is to go mainstream. The 2X price multiple that is more typical is simply unwarranted. The studios would also do themselves a favor if they included a DVD version on each Blu-Ray disk to help help convince those thinking of switching in the near future to actually do it sooner than later. HD-DVD had it right in that regard.