Blu-ray Disc Association Says Prices Won’t Drop Soon

I am not particularly concerned about player prices. There are several decent players that are relatively affordable already, given the technology that they offer the consumer.

The problem continues to be disc pricing. Most people simply will not move to Blu-Ray until they can get discs at a price that is comparable to DVD or at a small premium.  A $10 to $15 premium for Blu-Ray movies over DVD is a non-starter.

This is a classic chicken vs. egg debate. the Blu-Ray association wants volume to grow before dropping prices. They are obviously hoping to realize economies of scale that will allow them to have decent margins while allowing prices to drop.

However, unless consumers see real value in Blu-Ray, they won’t jump to the format. At today’s disc pricing, most consumers don’t see Blu-Ray as being a good value and will continue to ignore it.

Yep it’s a catch 22 situation:the prices won’t come down until volume increases but if people won’t buy at todays prices they won’t come down.
No thanks,I’ll wait.

While seeing player prices come down, I agree that disc prices across the board need to drop a bit, too.

Still…it makes me think that regular old DVD on a decent player ain’t so bad for now.

I have no intention of moving to BR until I can get a movie for the same price as a standard DVD. I highly doubt that any download service will replace disk media. People want to be able to hold what they buy and use it where they want.

I could not agree more with the previous posts.  I have two very nice 1080p LCS sets (one from Samsung and the other from Vizio) and am in no rush to upgrade to BR until BR discs come down in price.  Right now I use Red Box to rent movies which I think is the best so far since it only costs $1.

I would consider moving to BR if BR titles were available at Red Box and I would be willing to pay a small premium, say about $1.25.  I think if they made a move like that then they would find the volume that they’re looking for and help accelerate the transition from DVD to BR.  Any thoughts?

With all due respect to the above opinions , what were talking about is greed, and BD players that the companies hyped as being so great at 1080p and upconversion, simply not producing the resultsthey promised.
The companies that produce BD’s , and the stores that sell BD’s , don’t have to charge the prices they do. Appearently, people are not buying as the BD player’s manufactures hoped they would. Though if you consider that the average video buyer sees the BD’s as twice as expensive as a regular dvd, and the top and better BD players can cost anywhere from 7 or 800.00 dollars to as much as 13 or 1400.00 dollars, with some priced around 2000.00, the sticker shock is simply to great. Let us also not forget that the average dvd buyer is looking for a level of upconversion , so they can continue to use the dvd’s they already have, and are not finding it, I know I’ve looked. Simply put, the people that make the BD players and the BD’s, are going to have to decrease their level of greed and increase the level of product quality ,player and BD disc, and then the ,“average’, video consumer will start buying more.

Here’s the breaking-point:

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

This is when I’m going to buy.  In the mean time I’ll watch my upconverted DVD’s.

John, you speak about “greed” as if it’s a bad thing. In fact, “self-interest” is the hallmark of capitalism and freedom, which makes America tick.

I would not criticize you or your business practices if I could not afford your wares. I might be sad for myself, but I would assume you’re smart enough to know which pricing models are best for your business.

You, like the BD folks, could be wrong, at which point you’ll adjust your pricing models.

speaking as one that has owned a BR player for over a year, I would agree the media prices are just too high. I only own 2 BR titles which cost me $80.  The player cost me $80 at the copmusa going out of business sale. I just can’t justify paying $40 for a movie that I can see in a theater for $10 & own for $4.99 to $16 from itunes or DVD purchase.

They will have to lower the price to get the volume in today economy.