SonyNEC Optiarc projects sub-$100 Blu-ray optical drives by year's end
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 6th 2008 2:50AM
posted Jun 6th 2008 2:50AM
If you'll recall, SonyNEC Optiarc was the same company that suggested BD prices would be halved by 2008 from what they were in late 2006, and while stickers are still relatively high on standalone decks, the prediction actually wasn't too far off. A new report from Tom's Hardware notes that the aforementioned outfit is expecting Blu-ray combo drives "to reach the $100 line before the holiday season." For around $50 more, it reckons you'll have access to slim-line notebook drives that handle the same duties. Granted, there's no real confirmation surrounding the assertions, and we'll be the first to blindly hope such wishful thinking comes true, but we'd say BD prices in general have a whole lot of falling to do in six short months for this one to even stand a chance.[Via TechDigest]
I hope this means sub $200 (around $150 range preferably) stand alone players as well.
It means.
I submitted this news yesterday afternoon, but no credit was given.
Anyways, this is great news for Blu and bad news for those who are harping on price as the reason for Blu's doom! I wonder if our usual suspects are man enough to eat their words?
I suspect we will see prices for standalones come down as well and the adopotion rate to increase an well as seeing more blundled Blu players with HD TVs at the major electronic stores!
* quote
XDragon
Anyways, this is great news for Blu and bad news for those who are harping on price as the reason for Blu's doom! I wonder if our usual suspects are man enough to eat their words?
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Well let's at least see it happen for real first instead of anyone pretending that it already has, eh?
Talk is cheap, sadly for Blu-ray their supposedly 'final spec' players are not and a proper range of profile 2.0 standalone players is still non-existant.
A bare DVD burner with BD ROM drive @ $100 by year's end?
With that stated as it's regular year-around price?
I'd be surprised
(tell me it's a burner and I might show a little interest, but you & I already know it isn't).
A Blu-ray profile 2.0 standalone player @ $200?
(regular price, not X-mas season or Black Friday one-off.....we already saw $279 last X-mas and it went straight back up to $379 after HD DVD vanished)
I very much doubt it.
Besides, if you think all anyone ever complained about was price then you are misrepresenting what has been said for some time.
Although it would clearly be much better, $200 (in the USA alone) is not the 'magic' point for true mass-adoption anyways.
$100 is more like it (in the USA alone).
As HD DVD proved.
........and even then there's still a lot more wrong with Blu-ray than that.
We've yet to see them truly begin to torture their paying customers with their variable BD+ DRM cr@p yet.
No, they'll just keep shifting the goalposts. "I'll never buy a player until they're $300", "I'll never buy a $300 player until it is internet enabled", "I'll never buy a $200 Chinese player", "I'll never buy a $150 player unless " etc.
Anyway back on topic, if this device with DVD+-RW is $100, it must mean read-only devices are $50 to OEMs or less. I expect that combined with VLSI for Java, video processing means sub $200 players will be available next year
m.knell@talk21.com
YOU missed the point! The same 2 always complain about price and saying it will never go down and this shows that it will. Now that prices are being lowered ahead of expected including the Wal-Mart offer, you'll see them FIND something else to complain about.
I'm not saying anything is perfect but I am enjoying my HD and I was smart enough to get a safe and upgradable player, the PS3, which I primarily used as a Blu-Ray player. I'm not dictating anything but what i'm saying is this is FURTHER evidence that our extreme haters are off base and their opinions and predictions are completely unreliable.
I wonder why "Truth Teller" has suddenly become m.knell@talk21.com
I was in our local Walmart store the other day (I hadn't been there in 7 weeks before that). We are in a smaller area with a total population of about 40,000 people in a 20 mile radius. The blu-ray movies used to be 5 rows across and about 4 movies going downward. The other day, they added another 10 rows, making it a huge blu-ray movie selection.
Also, 7 weeks ago they had (only one available-the demo) Sony 300 player. This time, they had a complete section of players that included the Panny BD-30, The Sony 300, the Samsung 1500, the new Magnavox and the PS3 all in the huge display with very large blu-ray signs that you could see from other departments around the area. The Samsung is $348 and the Magnavox is $298. This is a huge difference for this Walmart store and I assume it is the same in most of them. Plus the offer of a $100 gift card with any blu-ray player purchase (including the PS3), shows that Walmart is now very much behind blu-ray.
This is exactly what turned the tide for dvd. Very exciting. I was never an anti-hd-dvd person, but now that there is one format, I am all behind it so we can have available true 1080p content with lossless sound. I think the prices are even going to be lower for the holidays!
There was a report released yesterday (see Home Media Retailing or The Digital Bits) that said home video is expected to be one of the areas that will make money, as people are not traveling and spending alot of money outside of the home. I think the rest of the year, especially starting in the fall when the weather turns cooler, will be the start of some major blu-ray promotions and sales will be way up. The only problem I see now is prices of the movies. To release movies like Batman (1966 Adam West), Sand Pebbles, and other catalogs at $39.95 suggested retail is not going to help the format, in fact the opposite. I understand that the studios do not want blu-ray to end up in bargain bins and at loss prices like dvd did, but suggested retail of $39.95 for older titles, and some smaller newer titles, is out of line with what mainstream consumers are willing to pay when they can get the dvd for 15.00 less, especially on the older catalogs.
The HMV, Best Buy, Future Shop and Wal-Mart stores in my area have expanded their Blu-Ray sections also.
They had started before by using the HD-DVD section for Blu-Ray but its significantly larger in the last 2 weeks or so. I've also noticed more sales and reduced Blu-Ray movie prices as well as 2/30, 2/40, 2/50 sales especially at HMV, which is usually way overpriced to begin with.
Flipping between Amazon USA and Canada also is very inconsistant so there are many deals to be found there ex. Amazon.ca will cost $60 for the 2 National Treasure movie combo and Amazon.com is $40 which converted to $42 VS $60?? ..and then Batman Begins is only a $1 difference?
Things are improving but there's still a need for smart shopping.