Report: Blu-ray prices going up, not down

Now that HD DVD's on the way out, it looks like Blu-ray manufacturers and retailers are feeling free to jack up prices. Meanwhile, prices for HD DVD decks and combo players are plummeting.

The editors of TG Daily (by way of Audioholics) have been scouring the Web for Blu-ray and HD DVD player prices, and can you guess what they found? That's right: Since Toshiba gave up on HD DVD in mid-February, Blu-ray prices—which had been showing some modest declines back in December—have spiked.

Take, for example, Sony's entry-level BDP-S300, a Blu-ray player that doesn't even have the latest Blu-ray profile (it's stuck with the bare-bones 1.0 spec). Back in December, the S300 (which originally sold for a whopping $600) actually fell to about $270 on Amazon; now, according to TG Daily, average prices for the player have swelled to $403.

Then there's Samsung's BD-P1400, one of the first Blu-ray players to sink below $400. On January 10, the P1400 skimmed the $300 mark, according to TG Daily; now it's back up to an average price of $374.

Meanwhile, prices for HD DVD decks have, unsurprisingly, been tumbling. Toshiba's mid-range, 1080p-capable HD-A30, which originally sold for $400, began the year with an average price of $254; now, it's selling for a mere $134, TG Daily reports. The entry-level HD-A3 1080i player can be had for a song: just $101, on average.

Also, combo Blu-ray/HD DVD players have been showing steep price drops. As I noted in a previous post, the Samsung BD-UP5000, originally listed north of $1,000, is on sale for about $500, while TG Daily has the average price for the LG BH200 pegged at $699, down from its original $999.

So, what's going on here? Didn't Sony just promise that we'd be seeing $200 Blu-ray players by next year? Maybe so, but as Chris pointed out in his post, Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association are holding out on licensing Blu-ray technology to Chinese manufacturers, who'd more than likely flood the market with cheap (or cheaper, at any rate) players.

Well, we wouldn't want that, now—would we?

Related:
Pricewatch: HD DVD in free fall, Blu-ray continues upward trend [TG Daily]
Format War Pricing Aftermath: Blu-ray Up, HD-DVD Down [Audioholics]