Don't be silly. DVD players took years to reach the $200 price point and it will be no difference for Blu Ray. I do expect you will see $300 brand name players by Christmas however and a few no names for much less than that.
I'm not sure how you figure that timeframe. I can't imagine a consumer making a decision to give up on Blu-ray forever, just because players are $100 more than they'd like at the end of this year. Just like with any product, people will buy when the price is right, whenever that happens to be.
But regardless of that, I'm absolutely certain that there will be players at $200 and under this holiday season. They may not be the latest & greatest Profile 2.0 players, but if someone isn't worried about interactive extras, there will definitely be many bargains to be found.
Understand where you're coming from but there is a difference between when DVD started out and Blu-ray has. DVD didnt have a recession to deal with, so it was just bad luck timing for Blu-ray. When gas is 4 dollars and food is high cost, I don't see the normal families switching over quickly.
I think the economic climate is definitely a consideration and must impact prices and sales. However HD is taking over so I see no reason in general that Blu Ray has anything to worry about. It is a no-brainer that if you upgrade to HD that you will want HD content to play on it. Blu Ray fits the bill perfectly and is backwards compatible too.
Price is absolutely a hurdle but it was with DVD too. Prices drop over time and I expect we'll see the prices drop substantially in the second half of this year. The promotions and bargains will kick in and then we'll see what way things go. I expect starting with June we're going to see a lot more mainstream prominence of the format.
Jesus...here we go with the retarded comparison to DVD again.
This isn't 10 years ago. This isn't DVD. DVD had NO COMPETITION. Blu-ray has the biggest competition of all-time: DVD.
DVD had nothing but time for prices to come down since there was nothing it was going to lose out to.
Cheap upconversion is good enough for the vast majority of people...the same people who can't even tell a difference between SD and HD content. The same people who think watched stretched 4:3 480i content on an HDTV makes it HD.
Blu-ray is not DVD. Blu-ray's situation is nothing like DVD's. Blu-ray needs to get its prices down ASAP or we'll be stuck with DVD until the end of time.
superklye, this "retarded DVD comparison" is entirely 100% valid. DVD was competing with VHS. It took YEARS for DVD sales to exceed VHS sales. The argument that Blu Ray should suddenly overtake DVD overnight, or that prices should be in the gutter this early in its lifecycle are moronic in the extreme. They are so moronic that the only people pushing them appear to be disgruntled HD DVD owners.
DVD was a brilliant new product that everyone wanted as it offered huge advances over VHS, but bigger than that, it enhanced audio and video qualities for everyones TVs and sound systems on the planet, no matter what they had! C'mon, stop it with the brainwashed rhetoric, BR in your eyes might be a good product and i am sure it is for many enthusiasts and early adopters, but the majority of the public don't agree as it is very expensive, and for the average consumer with his basic TV and audio set up BR offers nothing new! Please, shout to the roof tops your enthusiasm for your product of choice, but your insistence that BR and DVD are on the same footing is laughable. As superklye said, "This isn't 10 years ago. This isn't DVD. DVD had NO COMPETITION. Blu-ray has the biggest competition of all-time: DVD........... add to that downloadable content, cheap storage facilities, extreme BR pricing and the future is grim. BR has a small window of opportunity to break the shackles of being a niche product and that revolves around cheap pricing, the clock is ticking.
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A name-brand BD player had better break the $200 barrier by Christmas, or Blu-ray is going to start down the path to "stillborn".
Don't be silly. DVD players took years to reach the $200 price point and it will be no difference for Blu Ray. I do expect you will see $300 brand name players by Christmas however and a few no names for much less than that.
I paid $278 for a Samsung BD-P1400 LAST Christmas......
I'm not sure how you figure that timeframe. I can't imagine a consumer making a decision to give up on Blu-ray forever, just because players are $100 more than they'd like at the end of this year. Just like with any product, people will buy when the price is right, whenever that happens to be.
But regardless of that, I'm absolutely certain that there will be players at $200 and under this holiday season. They may not be the latest & greatest Profile 2.0 players, but if someone isn't worried about interactive extras, there will definitely be many bargains to be found.
@DrXym
Understand where you're coming from but there is a difference between when DVD started out and Blu-ray has. DVD didnt have a recession to deal with, so it was just bad luck timing for Blu-ray. When gas is 4 dollars and food is high cost, I don't see the normal families switching over quickly.
I think the economic climate is definitely a consideration and must impact prices and sales. However HD is taking over so I see no reason in general that Blu Ray has anything to worry about. It is a no-brainer that if you upgrade to HD that you will want HD content to play on it. Blu Ray fits the bill perfectly and is backwards compatible too.
Price is absolutely a hurdle but it was with DVD too. Prices drop over time and I expect we'll see the prices drop substantially in the second half of this year. The promotions and bargains will kick in and then we'll see what way things go. I expect starting with June we're going to see a lot more mainstream prominence of the format.
Here we go again with the ridiculous comparisons to DVD, aaarrrrrghhhhh!
Gus, the comparisons to DVD are entirely valid. I know you and the few others in your disgruntled clique think otherwise but you are wrong.
Jesus...here we go with the retarded comparison to DVD again.
This isn't 10 years ago. This isn't DVD. DVD had NO COMPETITION. Blu-ray has the biggest competition of all-time: DVD.
DVD had nothing but time for prices to come down since there was nothing it was going to lose out to.
Cheap upconversion is good enough for the vast majority of people...the same people who can't even tell a difference between SD and HD content. The same people who think watched stretched 4:3 480i content on an HDTV makes it HD.
Blu-ray is not DVD. Blu-ray's situation is nothing like DVD's. Blu-ray needs to get its prices down ASAP or we'll be stuck with DVD until the end of time.
superklye, this "retarded DVD comparison" is entirely 100% valid. DVD was competing with VHS. It took YEARS for DVD sales to exceed VHS sales. The argument that Blu Ray should suddenly overtake DVD overnight, or that prices should be in the gutter this early in its lifecycle are moronic in the extreme. They are so moronic that the only people pushing them appear to be disgruntled HD DVD owners.
Zym, youre BS knows no bounds!
DVD was a brilliant new product that everyone wanted as it offered huge advances over VHS, but bigger than that, it enhanced audio and video qualities for everyones TVs and sound systems on the planet, no matter what they had!
C'mon, stop it with the brainwashed rhetoric, BR in your eyes might be a good product and i am sure it is for many enthusiasts and early adopters, but the majority of the public don't agree as it is very expensive, and for the average consumer with his basic TV and audio set up BR offers nothing new!
Please, shout to the roof tops your enthusiasm for your product of choice, but your insistence that BR and DVD are on the same footing is laughable.
As superklye said, "This isn't 10 years ago. This isn't DVD. DVD had NO COMPETITION. Blu-ray has the biggest competition of all-time: DVD........... add to that downloadable content, cheap storage facilities, extreme BR pricing and the future is grim.
BR has a small window of opportunity to break the shackles of being a niche product and that revolves around cheap pricing, the clock is ticking.