I’m sure you’ve heard this from other dealers but, I’m having a helluva time dealing with the unavailability of Blu-Ray Players from my distributors.  I’m curious if any others in the country are suffering also frrom this shortage.  Are the various manufacturers stepping up production since the death of HD-DVD. 

BTW, our local ‘rent to own’ consumer electronics store is giving away a HD-DVD player this weekend at their big sale day!  Whoo-Hoo, I’m running right over to try and win it!

I believe most of the problem can be traced back to the fact that many of the manufacturers have either just recently or are about to announce new players.

By mid-summer I would expect a new generation of players to become more widely available. The CEDIA show should also bring a new wave of player announcements to fill the pipeline for the holiday season.

I think Robert is probably correct in his assessment.  To respond to Michael’s original question, I know there’s been some squawking by end users on Audiogon and other forums about backorders making it hard to get the Blu-ray players they put deposits on.  Talking to my retail connections here in Canada, we’re seeing a similar shortage.

In my pursuit of a Sony a BDP, 21st Century (who are not distributors for Sony) has some in stock which they somehow “acquired” however, dealer cost is 379.00 plus shipping with a MSRP of 399.00. So much for any margin… Normal cost is about 329.00. With luck Dow Electronics had a back-order cancel and we were able to get it just in time to complete a job. Hopefully 21st isn’t gouging due to the shortage.

Who wants to sell HD players when you face the following challenges:
- Shortage from the distribution channel.
- Almost inexistent margins (when available).
- Unreliable HDMI interface, (check out this article: http://www.cepro.com/article/hdmi_when_typical_installations_dont_apply/K35)
- $25 to $40 a movie.
- 2 to 3 minutes bootup process to start watching a movie.

I am sure I have not listen all of them…