Average Price of Blu-ray Players Drops, Shows Product Index

As a consumer it’s no different than any other new electronic technology - the price needs to drop to the point where “John Q Public” can justify the purchase.  The manufacturers lived on high margins from the early adopters and now it’s time to market to the masses.

Why would lower prices be bad?  The format has been around for a couple of years and the higher margins have helped recapture some of the R&D;costs.  Now it’s time to lower the price points on the equipment and get the players into more homes.  As the number of installed players increases, so will software sales.  As adoption quickens and the number of “catalog” titles increases, software prices will decrease as well. 

I’ve not made the jump to Blu-ray yet, but I probably will soon.  However, I love the current DVD market where I can pick up some top-notch older titles for $5-10 each.  Add a good upscaling player and it’s a great time to be a home theater fan!

I find the inference that price declines are bad for the Bluray formay curious - and ridiculous! Features/content catapulted Bluray over HDDVD, but it will be pricing that determines how it does against DVD and online.  Bluray pricing MUST fall more in line with DVD - a premium is OK, but not double/triple!  The price declines are not surprising, and will continue, and are a very good sign that Bluray is here to stay.

Simon Says “Features/content catapulted Bluray over HDDVD”.

That is inaccurate my friend.
Blu-ray must come down even more in price if it is going to mainstream, and it may never do that.

I will probably make the move to Bluray later this winter, that is if the titles drop in price.  As a DVD fan (over 400 movies) I watch them over & over.  I was about to leap into the HDDVD realm with Toshiba over Sony, (personal reasons with the after sale support of Sony) but to my dismay,they left the market because of non studio support.  Without titles, there is no reason to own a player no matter the price.  I have an OPPO now that makes DVD’s look pretty good (maybe not quite as good as Bluray) so I am satisfied for now.  Ended are the days of buying the $1200.00 Denons that don’t last.(2 bit the dust on me.)  Give me a good deal on a player, and reasonable movie prices & I’ll fully support the format.  Just my opinion though….

Most people I know have a DVD player. They don’t believe I paid over $500 for a disc player (at least the ones who don’t remember when I had a LD player).

It was the same when I got the DVD way back…The entry level cost is still a bit high for most.

At least there’s only one format for this holiday season. It took me 3 store trips to decide to get BD (and 2 headaches).

This is why I live computers. I have an HDTV video card with HDMI out and Blu-Ray play in my computer (that was purchased at a major retail store for $150) and have it hooked up to my HDTV.

Blu-Ray players are so much cheaper for the computer just like DVD-Roms were. Dont know why but truthfully, dont care! lol

I didn’t read the line “this may not bode well for holiday sales” in reference to the drop in price.  I read it in reference to the part that came immediately before that mentioned that it may be an indication of effective online marketing and a soft consumer demand for high end electronics.  If those 2 things are true, then the author is right, it doesn’t bode well for Blu-Ray.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  I hope the format takes off.  I would love to see some great on-demand content as well.  Hopefully the market can support both so we the consumers get options!

You expected differently? Prices gotta drop sometime, and I think the time was right. All the early adopters have been cleared out by now, and even some of the mainstream people. Add in that Christmas is right around the corner and they want to have a strong season, seems like a good time to me. It also seems like a good idea if you want to boost the format a bit to keep video on demand from taking off too much. Blu-ray has the picture and audio quality hands down, but VOD has the convenience factor. To the average J6P, convenience might be the deciding factor, unless they can be shown the light first (the Blu light, of course).

Doom and gloom. All we seem to here about this format in the media. I’m beginning to think most media outlets want this to fail.
now we have a “Blu-ray index” which we can visually show people what a failure of a format this is! Hazaah! What’s next? The Blu-ray technology replacement poll where everyone can predict what will put the final nail in BD’s coffin?

Anyone who expected a DVD-like surge in Blu-ray adoption in the middle of a recession is not starting with a reasonable hypothesis. It’s succeeding but you wouldn’t know it by reading the headlines. I just bought a second Blu-ray player for $219. How is this a bad thing again?

Hey! HDTV prices are dropping too! Maybe HDTV is a dying format!

I have to say everytime i have thought of buying one i cant do it, its just a waster 30 bucks for most movies, i prefered hd dvd but they decided that to pay more for the same product, I cant stand sony and with the softneing economy, video on demand services blu-ray is not going to be the second coming of dvd its just too late it should have been a success by now and they dont have another year to wait for chritsmas

I have not seen the price drop on any name brand players as you say. Sylvania and other entry brands are at $300.00. Have you ever seen the PS3 lower than $399.00? The Best Blue Ray player there is. Sony IS price fixing because they hold all the cards.

Here’s what needs to happen…

PS3 = $199 (FIRM)
stand-alone blu-ray = $99 (FIRM)
BD-ROM = $49 (+ or - $10)
BD burner w/ HDDVD-ROM = $79 (+ or - $10)

This is what I’m waiting for to buy a blu-ray.

You’re only about two years away from those kinds of prices. I wouldn’t be surprised to see PS3 at $299 a year from now and $199 the following year.

If you hate Sony, it’s no surprise to anyone that you think the format’s failing - it isn’t.  Blu-ray may be too late for you because you wouldn’t buy it no matter how good or cheap it is because it’s Sony. Enjoy your DVD and heavily compressed downloads. The rest of us will enjoy full HD with Blu-ray.

Blu-ray will replace DVD, but because it isn’t being adopted at thesame rate DVD was, it will take longer to do it than people can comprehend at this point.