http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/ Engadget HD Comments for Sherwood might cancel Blu-ray players due to competitive prices http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/30/the-rumors-of-blu-rays-death-are-greatly-exaggerated/comments/15215659/

Blu-ray simply isn't making money and one of the ways to cut losses is to get out of it (at least for now).

Toshiba did and have just said it had a positive & beneficial impact on their financial results this quarter, I did not expect them to be the only ones to get out of disc-based high def and here we go, looks like that was correct.]]>Oct 30th 2008 9:55PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Obviously I meant Toshiba got out of highdef on disc production, not Blu-ray production.]]>Oct 30th 2008 9:57PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
That's a major boon for Blu-ray. It's how they beat out HD-DVD in the first place. You're already in their home as a dvd player (or game console) why not check out what this whole blu-ray thing is about?]]>Oct 31st 2008 11:07AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/And don't say we didn't tell you..."We mean, who in there right mind would buy a stand-alone DVD player if they could buy a Blu-ray player for the same price?"

Let us know what year you imagine that is going to happen.

There's also the not-so-small matter of a $150 - $200 POS no-name Blu-ray junk-pile verses a brand name $75 upscaling DVD player. That's not exactly a certainty for Blu-ray.

Besides they are nowhere near $150 yet nevermind "the same price"
(and limited numbers of old dead model stock clearances do not count or make for a regular selling price)
so Ben's own little opinion and expectation comment is hardly a definitive reflection of present reality.

Keep taking the Kool-aid.]]>Oct 31st 2008 1:06PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 31st 2008 1:19PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
The only Blu-ray players in the $150 - $200 bracket are no-name junk heaps or small numbers of old dead lines being cleared (ie the S300 Sony or the BDP1400 Samsung).

That's not exactly a like-for-like comparison with a current $50 - $75 DVD player.

You can ignore that & go off and rant about Blu-ray's benefits if you like but when the majority, by far, that do have an HD TV have a small HD TV with a 720p resolution (as EngadgetHD confirmed here in a recent report) it's not quite the leap you so obviously want it to be to.

Good luck with the hysteria! ]]>Oct 31st 2008 1:33PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Do you really care this much that Blu-ray should fail? Should nobody else enjoy it if you don't? I just can't quite grasp your motives for these "I told you so..." moments you seem to cling to in every story about anything Blu. A high-end manufacturer decides that it can't make money gouging consumers for pretty common tech and that's a bad thing and a clear sign that there's no money to be made for anyone? Would you say the same thing if they decided they can't make money selling $250 DVD players? Something tells me: no....]]>Oct 31st 2008 2:14PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Clearly I'm ranting. I'm saying I enjoy something that you do not, which can't be allowed in your world. I must be imagining that Blu-ray movies look better than upscaled DVDs on my tv because you say that's not true."

Yeah and inventing a funny little story too.

The facts are that on a small to medium HD TV (32" - 50") @ 720p (which are the majority of all sets out there in the minority section that is the HD TV sector then the gap between DVD upscaled & Blu-ray is much narrower.

I never once said there was no difference (typical fanboy straw man argument).

I actually have a Blu-ray player (in fact it's a brilliant little combo player so I don't have to play your silly fanboy games, it's also multi-region for DVD & Blu-ray so I think it's probably more accurate to say that I am enjoying something you are not)

The piece of this tale you started out with was completely wrong.

You claimed DVD and Blu-ray were at or about to be getting down to equal pricing.

They aren't.

It doesn't matter if Ben made the comment too it's still not reality out there.

The closest you get to that reality is
(1) stock-clearance on some old dead models (specifically the S300 & Samsung 1400). Neither of which are very good models (being both slow & buggy) or
(2) POS no-name brands currently @ about $200.

Neither $150 (the clearance Sony & Samsung price) nor $200 are equal in price to a decent brand-named DVD player (say a Pioneer DV310 @ $69).

Enjoy your silly little inventions & predictable ravings
(oh great one, lol, try & get a grip)
]]>Oct 31st 2008 2:46PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 30th 2008 9:59PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Why would they ditch existing profitable DVD players (which continue to constitute the vast bulk of sales right now)?

You really can't spin this one as any sort of positive for Blu-ray you know.]]>Oct 30th 2008 10:01PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 31st 2008 12:05AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
It's definitely not good times for Blu. I don't want it to die though.. I like getting top quality and the ability to rip my Blu-Ray discs to my huge drives at full resolution is a bliss but with things like this starting to happen, I'm definitely not seeing it being mainstream.]]>Oct 30th 2008 10:53PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
I didn't ask for your "common sense", I asked for evidence. Demonstrate to me that Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp, Funai, Philips et al are not paying licensing fees.

You might have a point if it were just Sony doing a Toshiba and dumping their players but it isn't. The simple fact is that these companies are in it to make money. They wouldn't be selling at those prices if they weren't making money.

As for Sherwood, I have no idea what their motivation is, or whether they were doing their own R&D or outsourcing to an OEM, but launching this time of year was just asking for trouble. ]]>Oct 31st 2008 5:00PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Let me tell you as an owner of a retail business, if I become overloaded with stock as is currently happening in the economic climate, I have NO CHOICE but to dump old stock at cost or below to make way for new stock that hopefully will be profitable. This is how it works in retail, normally that is only a small percentage of business, sadly it is growing as a consequence of the economy.
It is quite conceivable, and after recent reports here on this site about stock gluts etc, it's more than probable that those companies you mention are indeed dumping stock below cost, ie losing money, to make way for new stock, they have no choice, and In the process, this will shut out the other BR producers in the market, compounding the problems.
BR is starting to unravel and if it does not get a big kick this holiday season, it is dead. The other producers will have no choice either, they will have to get out of the business and focus on the profitable ares of their businesses and not this painful niche.
Unless BR sees a massive spike in sales this holiday I wouldn't mind betting that by this time next year there will only be a 2 or 3 BR manufacturers left to manage what will remain a niche market.]]>Oct 31st 2008 7:04PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Nov 1st 2008 6:17AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Grow some balls and talk like a grown up will you, pathetic.]]>Nov 1st 2008 7:10AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Nov 1st 2008 4:14PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/I do think Blu-ray will be around for awhile cause soon they will only make Blu-ray players and SD DVD players will not be manufactured and not everyone will want to download movies.]]>Oct 30th 2008 11:18PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
The problem is two-fold.

First no-one is complaining about lower prices of players, the point is that several up-the-ladder BDA companies who don't have to pay licenses are undercutting everyone else who pays for licensing with prices completely killing competition.

Samsung, Sony and Panasonic can dump prices in waves because they pretty much don't pay heavy BD licensing fees and can't compete with the losses Sony and other are willing to take in order to try to push Blu-Ray further.

It's purely a business problem and it's a problem. When you want to push the format you kind of want everyone to be able to make it not just those who want the money back on their investment.

Second problem is with your optimism that everyone will stop buying DVD players and go pick up a Blu-ray player. If you look at the real numbers you will see that Blu-Ray players are maybe 1% or 2% at best of all dvd player sales and let's not even compare disc sales.

The numbers you keep seeing on Engadget showing some 20% up or 10% or what have you, are very smudged. They are smudged because they are taken out of context. They are not comparing overall Blu-Ray sales with overall DVD sales, because that comparison would make no sense and would show Blu-Ray to be nothing but a blip on the radar, they take "revenue" over top 20 titles on DVD. Of course you can get some positive numbers when you slice and dice statistics so it appears positive.

The more likely scenario is that Blu-Ray will be going on as it is, a niche, for those demanding the best and pure quality for much higher price and those who already have or buy DVD players now eventually switch to either watching HD movies through their computer with Netflix services (eventually) or using Xbox or buying Vudu who is like $250 and gives you $200 in free movies and that's just a start.

I think whoever thinks that DVD won't last for at least another 10 years for those with tight budget and that within those 10 years people won't switch to better quality and convenience such as digital downloads, i think is pretty optimistic.

Just look at the facts, it's a year since the format war ended, take real numbers of total blu-ray sales (not revenue) compare it to dvd player and disc sales and you will see that Blu-ray will need at least a decade to come to 50/50% with DVD, little less overtake it.

It is fair to say that in 10 years from now, and I'm sure it will be much much sooner, digital downloads infrastructures, association that defines universal DRM as mentioned here on Engadget (including major studios and CE companies) will be at the level of ultimate convenience offering same quality as Blu-Ray but with much more future expandability without reinvestment into hardware or any type of replication.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying Blu-Ray immensely but I do find myself more and more using HD downloads from multiple sources including Vudu who is now officially outpacing adding content then any other media including Blu-Ray on a weekly level.

The fact that revenue for downloads (including rentals) is now on the same level as Blu-Ray is a strong witness to this new rising trend.]]>Oct 30th 2008 11:37PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Do you have any evidence that they don't pay licence fees or that they're not making money on their sales? If it were just Sony then perhaps they might doing a Toshiba and selling players below cost, but its not just Sony. What reason do the others have to dump players? How are Funai able to sell players wholesale to the likes of Bestbuy, Walmart etc. and we still see them retailing for $200?

Why are you even drawing the comparison with $200 players when Sherwood are supposedly a high end equipment manufacturer? Perhaps its simply the case that the specs of this Sherwood are no better than a $200 player and people rightly wonder where the hell all that extra money is going. Without seeing the backplate it's hard to say for sure if its a rebadged OEM model (like the Onkyo player is), but the Sherwood specs sure don't look great. ]]>Oct 31st 2008 6:05AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
So, no, I definitely don't blame them, and I don't think it's a problem for Blu-Ray as a format.]]>Oct 31st 2008 8:04AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
"Do you have any evidence that they don't pay licence fees or that they're not making money on their sales? "

You don't need evidence because it's common sense. Sony and Panasonic are members of 3C for BDA. Samsung probably got no licensing deal because they were first to bend over in the war and are getting benefits. 3C BDA members are the founders of Blu-Ray (including Philips) and are not only not paying licensing fees, they are getting money from those who do.

This is why they can dump prices so low and not feel loss because they are making money from companies like Sherwood, chinese brands and others like Onkyo and so on. Everyone who is hoping on Blu-Ray bandwagon is paying heavy licensing fees.

This is probably one of the reasons why Sherwood is going out. They simply cannot be competitive when major BDA CE companies are undercutting everyone else who's paying licensing fees. It's really unfortunate business model and there is definitely common sense that other not so strong and connected CE companies trying to make it on the Blu market will have to rethink their decision before competing with $150 or $190 Profile 2.0 Samsung player or Sony player etc.

It's the same problem Blu-Ray fans were pointing out during the format war but in the Toshiba direction. Well, obviously the "competition" among Blu-Ray is not so fair after all, thus leading to what we are witnessing.]]>Oct 31st 2008 12:52PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
This article is their "spin" on how consumers are ruining high end video by seeking lower prices.

Why do I call it spin? In addition to their history of criticizing competition in the marketplace (ie, low prices), there are some spurious claims in the text. Here's an example: Oppo has said repeatedly that they wouldn't have a player for Christmas. The fact that Widescreen Review got them to say "well we could have a 1.1 version player but we're not sure we want to do that" is the worst kind of leading question / seeking a specific answer to fulfill an editorial agenda.

]]>Oct 31st 2008 12:46AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 31st 2008 1:01AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Onkyo fleeing the sinking ship, firesale, beginning of the end, all terms heard here ohhhh about 9 months ago.]]>Oct 31st 2008 1:06AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Let's break this down:

> The reason is a good one for consumers, which is that Blu-ray player prices are dropping so fast that Sherwood doesn't think its player would be competitive

This is not "good news for consumers". Sherwood believes that the cheapest player they can make would not be competitive with current Sony/Panasonic/etc prices (which benefit from the subsidization BD's biggest backers are giving the format.) If prices were genuinely low at the moment, then yeah, the spin would be honest. But prices right now are barely at the $250-300 mark for players that aren't being actively discontinued, and what we're seeing is evidence that it's going to be tough to get prices below $200 (oh sure, we'll see a bunch of discontinued inventory-clearing stock sold below $200, but in terms of getting something up to date at that price, forget it.)

> We don't think anyone predicted that player prices would drop this fast

Really? Because EHD has been predicting sub-$200 BD players by the end of the year pretty much since HD DVD was discontinued, as have numerous pro-BD advocates in the comments area. In the meantime, while we've seen price cuts, $250 is about the floor at the moment with the exception of specials and discontinued models.

> and not only are "value" companies like Sherwood likely to drop the budget players...

Meaning "value" companies who generally operate on the "Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap" principle aren't finding ways to credibly make hardware cheap enough...

> but the old fashioned DVD players are sure to follow. We mean, who in there right mind would buy a stand-alone DVD player if they could buy a Blu-ray player for the same price?

DVD players currently sell for between $25 and $100, with a few such as the XDE selling for a small premium above that. Those are for new players that are still coming out of factories.

Let's put it in a more scary form:

Technology Cheap Decent Premium
DVD $25 $40-100 $150
Blu-ray $250 $400-1,000 $1,500+

"We mean, who in there right mind would buy a stand-alone DVD player if they could buy a Blu-ray player for the same price?" - don't know, but we're not really at that stage yet, are we?
]]>Oct 31st 2008 7:05AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oh dear, how sad, never mind.]]>Oct 31st 2008 7:53AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Half the country is probably still on dial-up & can't get any sort of broadband at the moment.

Laying fibre optics etc & spending billions of dollars to do so, to improve broadband ISN'T a priority to companies/government who aren't exactly flush with money at the moment.

The economic crisis making people stick with DVD's I'll accept as being reasonable, but if you're using the economic crisis as the reason for Blu-Ray dying & in the same breath say downloads will rule, that's utter lunacy.

It's gonna cost billions that no one has!]]>Oct 31st 2008 8:59AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 31st 2008 9:36AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
I'm sure it'll mostly be housing/hospitals/energy/transport infrastructure projects that'll get the majority of any funding.

Also even if faster broadband was available, it'd have to be at a premium to recoup the cost of the new infrastructure. Do I want to pay an extra $20-30 (I'm guessing) a month for faster broadband? My connection is already pretty decent (bar downloading HD movies) & not so sure I want to pay the higher premium each month.]]>Oct 31st 2008 10:12AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/If you think the economic climate is affecting BD manufacturers, who do you think is going to be willing to invest BILLIONS into improving broadband infrastructure?"

Haven't you been watching the news Hippo?

Governments across the world are increasing public spending to offset the worst effects of the coming recession & credit crunch.

Not only are taxpayers bailing out the bankers/financiers and easing the worst effects of the credit crunch but taxpayers money will be used to blunt the worst effects of the looming recession.
Right-wing, centrist & left-wing Govs all over the world are adopting a little Keynesian economics, they are not only on the way but clearly the only way, to anyone with a sane view of what is happening, to stave off a major economic collapse.
No-one in their right mind wants another 1930s style depression.

Expensive major infrastructure projects (like improving the country's broadband infrastructure) are exactly the type of project, that will be self-evidently to the long-term 'national good' & the country's future wealth potential, that they are talking about.

In effect this current economic climate is a double blow to the prospects of something so frivolous as Blu-ray.]]>Oct 31st 2008 11:08AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Unless they can give the WHOLE country fast broadband, you can't replace physical media with downloads.

Given the current economic climate (there is so much debt that the 'national debt clock' doesn't have enough digits to display it properly!), I'd say you should add at least another 5 years onto your estimates...]]>Oct 31st 2008 9:11AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Once.

When you tried to pull the usual fanboy strawman rubbish claiming I had said upscaled DVD was no different to Blu-ray.
Which is something I have never said.

It was a fully justified & deserved comment too, if you're going to try and pull that cr@p.

You also managed to run away from your initial claim (relating to Ben's comment in the article about Blu-ray and DVD prices being the same now or the same very soon) with some daft opinionated comment about how prices will move in future.
Talk about shifting your ground.

The truth is you did get shown up, but ultimately by your own self, not me.

Even more amusing was that you then ran off to weep about it to someone you thought would back you up.

Pretty tragic stuff.

Maybe if you read what I have actually been saying
(which basically boils down to a view that the idiotic grossly over-done & ridiculously biased PR campaign ought to stop and a realistic picture of where Blu-ray is and where it is going take it's place instead of this obvious manipulation and fraudulent attempt to boost the format at every turn)
we might have something to say to each other.
I prefer reality.
If you prefer obvious fairy tales then that's your look out.]]>Oct 31st 2008 8:43PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Now I've been saying this all year, once we get through the 2008 Holiday shopping season and increase blu-ray base, then in 2009 software sales grow, then blu-ray is here to stay. If that doesn't happen, then by 2009 Holiday season blu-ray better be bargain priced or it will die off. But if any of you think blu-ray is going to go niche only this year or tank completely, then you need a serious head check.

Software sales are already growing and I bet it will only continue upward at a healthy pace...]]>Oct 31st 2008 11:40AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 31st 2008 12:30PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
You're not going to change any of their minds (and why should we have to?). If they need this space to vent, I guess all you can do is skip their comments and just let them work things out...]]>Oct 31st 2008 3:32PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Get over it instead of going crying to others.]]>Oct 31st 2008 4:11PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Ah crap...here I go again with the arguments. Done! Damn, you guys are good...I'll give you that.]]>Oct 31st 2008 4:28PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
Hippo, Besides the fact that there are so many already existing technologies that companies are already building out or will soon start to build out with one of the goals being to improve broadband penetration in rural areas and and provide a cost-effective last-mile broadband access, it wont be long, and will probably be even sooner because undoubtedly they'll invent some amazing new thing we can't even imagine. About the Debt Clock, you'd best try and live your life like it didn't exist. Hopefully it'll get better but it will be slowwwwwwwwwwww, kinda like a fire in a coal mine (or a 30 yea tire fire if you prefer lol). You son't have much option but to wait it out...]]>Oct 31st 2008 12:20PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
As previously announced by the brand, the Sherwood BDP-5003 will be available in mid-November. The Sherwood Newcastle BDP-6003
has been been reconfigured to take advantage of falling prices for
Blu-ray sub-assemblies and will be available in Q1, 2009.]]>Oct 31st 2008 8:13PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/
As previously announced by the brand, the Sherwood BDP-5003 will be available in mid-November.

The Sherwood Newcastle BDP-6003 has been been reconfigured to take advantage of falling prices for Blu-ray sub-assemblies and will be available in Q1, 2009.]]>Oct 31st 2008 8:15PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/30/sherwood-might-cancel-blu-ray-players-due-to-competitive-prices/Oct 31st 2008 9:52PM