Blu-Ray Prices Remain Stubbornly High
Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:33PM EST
See Comments (32)
Want to make the jump to Blu-ray now that HD DVD is out of the picture? Well, expect to cough up at least $250 for a new player.
I just did a quick check of online retailers, and for now, prices for most new Blu-ray players remain stubbornly over the $300 mark (at major retailers, at least), and that includes some of the models that had seen steep price drops in recent months.
Take, for example, the Sony BDP-S300, a full-on 1080p Blu-ray player that was selling for $299 at Best Buy and Circuit City just a couple of months ago. Well, that same player is now retailing for $369 at Circuit City and $399 at Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
Meanwhile, consider the Samsung BD-P1400, one of the first Blu-ray players to fall below $300. Back in December, the deck was selling for $270 at Amazon; now it's back up to $356 at Amazon, and $399 at Circuit City.
That said, I did find the BD-P1400 on sale at CompUSA (yep, they're still around) for $250; if you're interested, though, you'd better snag it while it's still in stock.
Another option is to snag a Blu-ray player on Ebay, but the savings there aren't all that spectacular. Taking a look at soon-to-close auctions, prices were well above $200 (save for a handful of broken, as-is players), with the cheapest being Samsung's BD-P1400 for about $215.
Combo Blu-ray/HD DVD decks, on the other hand, are showing some decent price drops. LG's second-generation combo player, the BH200, is selling for less than $700 on Amazon (the original price tag was $1,000-plus), with used units going for $550.
Meanwhile, the Samsung BD-UP5000, originally prices at $1,050 and then discounted to $799, is now going for $629 on Amazon. I'm guessing these combo decks will see even steeper price drops in the coming months, and they might be good options for those with substantial HD DVD collections.
Through it all, the best Blu-ray bargain remains the 40GB PlayStation 3, which sells for $399 and delivers Blu-ray goodness as well as next-gen gaming. The PS3 is also the only future-proof Blu-ray player on the market (most older Blu-ray players can't be upgraded to the latest firmware versions, which allow for features like picture-in-picture commentaries).
Anyone out there have a lead on some cheaper Blu-ray players? We're all ears.
Comments on Blu-Ray Prices Remain Stubbornly High
Post a Comment
Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
-
2 Posted by burner0921 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:15PM EDT Report Abuse
Well even 720p is a huge difference between high-definition and no high-def so Blu-ray is a great feature. High bandwidth may be increasing but I don't want to sit around and wait for a 30gb movie to download, I'd much rather purchase it. Also, flash drives??? You have flash drives large enough to store high-definition film?? I'm sure they're out there but must be very expensive. Blu-ray is the next step after DVD even though that format will exist for sometime well into the future.
-
3 Posted by bence2g on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:05PM EDT Report Abuse
tdeer3 are you kidding me? Why are you talking about flash drives? They can't reasonably hold 50 GB or even 25 GB, which is what most blu-ray movies require. I don't think you have any idea about what you are talking about. You can all the USB ports you want to a DVD player, you won't be able to view movies in high definition. Please don't post comments that mislead people like this, you're clueless.
-
4 Posted by perla_bonkers on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:07PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm glad one format finally "won." I've been putting off even shopping for a new player until now. I don't mind forking over $300 or more for a player, it's the $30 price tag for the darn discs that really irritates me. In the meantime, I'm going to stick with HBO and Showtime for my "HD" movies. Then again, maybe I'll wait until 2160p comes out...
-
5 Posted by domesa18 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:46PM EDT Report Abuse
At the end of the day are you really that concerned about how your movie looks on your tv. Can you see the features get good sound. Then guess what thats fine. Why do movie studios need to charge you what they do for a blue ray movie. I mean its a freaking movie not some amazing thing of grace. Its all just money hype and another way they can squeeze more money out of the consumer. I for one im cool with my dvd player my 32 inch lcd from olevia which was like 549 online. It works.
-
6 Posted by fcaraco on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:59PM EDT Report Abuse
Blu-ray is Beyond Fantastic! I thought that HD DVD would lose out and this is a win for the consumer (unless you already have an HD DVD player) I got the PS3 for its Blu-ray capabilities and to a certain extent the gaming. The PS3 offers firmware upgrades that allow you to keep it up to date with the technology. Even if you don't use the gaming part of the machine I feel the $399 price is worthy for the 40Gb model when choosing a player. The 1080P picture and HD sound together on a Blu-ray disc is something to behold... It is more of an experience than to just sit down and watch a movie. The price of a Blu-ray movie is a bit too high but hopefully they will come down to a more reasonable plateau in time. One thing to mention here is that if you enjoy 5.1 surround sound now then stepping up to 7.1 will allow you to take full advantage of the uncompressed audio that is found on a Blu-ray disc. The leap in sound quality is comparable to that of the video quality. So to take full advantage you will need to have A/V receiver that is capable of 7.1 and decoding HD sound... Commonly listed as TrueHD and DTS Master Audio. If you want the ultimate Home Theater experience this is no doubt the way to go...GO Blu!!
-
7 Posted by adrianclay81882003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:46PM EDT Report Abuse
From what I read, because of Blu-Ray's success in winning the format war, retailers like Amazon and Best Buy are hiking up the prices on them because there isn't any competition because now it's just Blu-Ray and they know that people will be flocking to Blu-Ray like mad and they want to get as much as they can from them. When there was both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray competing, the prices were a little bit more competitive, but Blu-Ray was still more expensive. I already have a Blu-Ray player (60GB Playstation 3), so I don't have an issue with buying a Blu-Ray DVD player, but I also have to admit that Blu-Ray DVD's are still pretty high to me. I really can't bring myself to pay $30 per Blu-Ray DVD unless it's a Really Really good movie that I want. I really don't think that Blu-Ray DVD players are really that expensive, but Blu-Ray is still relatively new and the prices will come down. New technology always costs a lot more when it's first avaliable. In conclusion, the majority of the people that will be buying Blu-Ray DVD players or have bought Blu-Ray DVD players are people that own HDTV's, and if they can afford to buy HDTV's, they can definantly afford to pay for a Blu-Ray DVD player without thinking it's expensive.
-
8 Posted by mqflowers on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:27PM EDT Report Abuse
And what am I supposed to do with my HD DVD player by Toshiba? They act as if people's money is just growing on trees and we can just go to the tree and pick off money to purchase bhis Blu-Ray player.
-
9 Posted by iangus37 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:22PM EDT Report Abuse
Good point Adrian. $300 really isn't that much money, especially for people who already own a decent size HDTV. Mine was $1399 before tax. Here's a wild idea, skip the rip-off insurance policies from Best Buy and Circuit City and get a PS3 instead. If you own a big HDTV, you're really cheating yourself if you don't get a home theater system and Blu-Ray. Make sure you use digital audio cables and HDMI also.
-
10 Posted by alexrider828 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:50PM EDT Report Abuse
In my opinion, in the near future companies will be no longer making DVDs they will only be making Blue Ray Discs so it's best to buy one because it's going to be the only thing your going to be able to watch movies on, unless you have On Demand or something like that.
1 Posted by tdeer3 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:59PM EDT Report Abuse
What is a big deal with blue-ray anyway? It is so expensive and will be outdated soon if the price is not coming down. I barely see the difference in sharpness between 720p and 1080p, unless you have a 123" widescreen TV??? Is there really one out there somewhere? Flash drives are so convenient and have a huge potential and advantage right now, also cable and high bandwidth downloading are more competitive now. I 've been using flash drives for my car receiver, Kenwood KDC-X491 and never carried any cd any more. I can search music by folders, albums or individual songs in one touch and I can delete certain song when I get bored without buying another flash drive.. By adding a USB port on a DVD player,the war between Blue-ray and HD dvd would be meaningless. Flash drives will be cheaper, last longer, portable and reusable. It will be the future's format