Cheaper Blu-Ray players on the way, still too expensive to matter |
This morning one of the first things that jumped out at me on Google News was that this summer Sony is going to start offering a Blu-Ray player that costs a little less than the Playstation 3. Are they giving up on the PS3 being the most cost effective option for Blu-Ray playback?
The Sony BDP-S300, according to Trusted Reviews, will now cost $499. I checked Amazon and found the price still at $599 and didn’t see a direct link on Trusted Reviews to preorder the player. The official Sony Style website pictured right still shows the price at $599.
On the PC side on Saturday Engadget confirmed an earlier news piece they linked that Pioneer will be offering (next month) a combo PC read/write Blu-Ray drive for $300: Pioneer BDC-2202. Amazon? No link yet.
If readers find any working buy links to either of these two products at the lower prices along with actual release dates please share in the comments below. The standalone Sony BDP-S300 player for $499 (or less) price or the Pioneer BDC-2202 Blu-Ray drive for the PC. I didn’t do any extensive searching, but some cursory searches revealed no links for either at those prices.
The only stand-alone Blu-Ray player I’ve seen in local retail stores cost $999 which made buying versus a PS3 which can play Blu Ray movies a completely unwise buy. The Sony Style lists that model at $799 with a $200 price drop, so hopefully the local retailers have adjusted the price by now.
Personally, I think at $499 or even $300 it’s still too much. An add-on HD-DVD drive — the competing format — for the Xbox 360 costs $199, which still hasn’t made people go out and buy HD-DVD players in large numbers.
Until and/or if Blu-Ray players go for under $250, I don’t see any significant adoption rate. Though I don’t know for certain, that’s when I remember DVD players start to take off. The problem with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray remains that people still need to buy an HDTV to truly experience the next generation video so it’s not only the player to be concerned about. More and more people are getting HDTVs but I still believe neither HD-DVD or Blu-Ray will replace DVD.
My money is on something with no moving parts like holographic storage or perhaps protein-based storage. What about you? Do you think Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will have any legs? I can see hardcore home movie enthusiasts buying them and sure, those who get the PS3 will probably buy a few Blu-Ray movies, but will people not in these niche groups buy in large numbers?
Did this post make you go hmm?
(Hmm, no ratings yet)
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Amazon.com has the Toshiba Stand alone HD-DVD Player for $250 bucks.. and I’m sure we’ll have them for under $200 before the end of the year.
K.
Comment by Kiltak — June 4, 2007 @ 1:12 pm PST
You taken the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray plunge yet, Kiltak? I keep watching the movie racks but the content selection, particularly with complete seasons for TV shows is lacking.
Comment by TDavid — June 4, 2007 @ 1:22 pm PST
No, not yet. I’m probably going to wait another year or so… or until I decide myself to get a new game console
For now, I’m just using my good old upconverting DVD player.. and to tell you frankly, the picture it gives me looks fantastic on my 32″ HD samsung set…
As for the HD movie selection, I haven’t looked much at it yet. The only thing I know is that last time I went to my local Walmart, there was around 10 title total.
Comment by Kiltak — June 4, 2007 @ 1:38 pm PST
In our area at least Best Buy has about 8 back to back sections holding movies and TV shows. On 1/3rd of one section they have it split between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Much more than 10 titles, but probably less than 150 for both. That’s the biggest selection of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies I’ve seen at any store locally.
And if you’re waiting a year, who knows Kiltak, you might be able to buy the PS3 for under $300. Closer to what it’s actually worth IMO.
Comment by TDavid — June 4, 2007 @ 1:53 pm PST
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html
An interesting article by Digital Bits that explains why they think that Blu-Ray is the better format and why HD-DVD will eventually fail.
excerpt: “HD-DVD is not going to win this format war. In fact, one of two things is possible right now: Either Blu-ray will win, or neither format will win. But the best HD-DVD can hope for is to just keep hanging in the game as long as possible.”
Comment by Wayne — June 4, 2007 @ 4:40 pm PST
Currently EBgames Canada sells the 60gb PS3 for $399CND if you can bring them 10 games to exchange for the unit…
The problem is that my xbox games are too old to be part of that deal..
Hey, what’S that thing about the “double captcha” plugin? A simple one wasn’t enough anymore?
Comment by Kiltak — June 4, 2007 @ 6:06 pm PST
Good article Wayne, thanks for sharing. I don’t have a frame of personal reference for HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray yet. I did write about my experience watching Mission Impossible on Blu-Ray at 1080i which promptly resulted in a comment that my TV was lousy and thus wasn’t a fair test of the capabilities.
Kiltak - I’d be reluctant to trade in 10 newer games just to save a few hundred Canadian $$ off the price tag, but that’s just me. Maybe you can find a good deal on a used system at eBay or Craigslist.
And you are seeing the CAPTCHA? Once someone has made five comments and if he/she is allowing the cookies with their info the CAPTCHA shouldn’t even be there (assuming the programming is correct, of course). I just checked and from what I see you’ve made 24 comments to date and thus shouldn’t have to use the CAPTCHA. If you are still seeing the CAPTCHA and allowing the cookies then please holler back and I will do some debugging with your credentials. Something is going wrong
Assuming you are not blocking the cookies that contain your user name, email address and site URL it should be like enter the comment and hit submit, no challenge needed.
reCAPTCHA is for a good cause actually and offers options for sight impaired which are the kind of CAPTCHAs I’m in favor of.
Comment by TDavid — June 4, 2007 @ 6:36 pm PST
Nope, I’m not blocking any cookies over here..
And now, the captcha feature does not display
So I guess your code is working after all. lol 
Comment by Kiltak — June 4, 2007 @ 8:13 pm PST