Blu-ray Making Gains Like A-Rod

[admin]

According to NPD Group, Blu-ray is well on its way to mass market acceptance. The format is kicking disc and taking names with first quarter ’09 standalone player sales growing 72 percent in the US over Q1 ’08. That’s 400,000 more “standalone” players in homes than the same quarter last year. I wonder if by standalone player NPD group includes PlayStation 3?

Discuss "Blu-ray Making Gains Like A-Rod" here. Read the article.

 

[Djizasse]

The price of the players are coming down, slowly, but surely.
The price of the discs is what's keeping me away from it.

 

[allargon]

72 percent is on fire for an allegedly nascent market? *cough* Blu-Ray had better growth when it competed against HD DVD.

 

[GlocksRock]

The price of the players are coming down, slowly, but surely.
The price of the discs is what's keeping me away from it.

You can find good prices online, and you can still rent blu ray discs, so you might as well get one and enjoy the enhanced quality of the format.

 

[westcott]

The price of the players are coming down, slowly, but surely.
The price of the discs is what's keeping me away from it.

Me too!!!!

I do not own ONE single BR disc. In matter of fact, I just bought several HD DVD discs the other day at Fry's. They were a steal at less than US$10 a piece.

I suggest they make haste and drop the prices of BR discs quick before everybody and their mother owns a BR burner!!!!!!

 

[westcott]

You can find good prices online, and you can still rent blu ray discs, so you might as well get one and enjoy the enhanced quality of the format.

NetFlix just tried to raise my monthly rental fee by 3 or 4 dollars for BR. I took it off my service!!! Not worth it. Still can't get the titles I want to see in BR and the quality is still a hit or miss proposition over standard DVD.

 

[PhillyDan1969]

I have to agree about the disc pricing...Too High!!! Honestly I still can't believe that the average Blu-Ray new release is selling for $29.99!!! Yes there are viable online retailers selling the media at better prices, but I truly believe that Blu-Ray is losing the fight vs. upscaling DVD players when you can get new release DVDs for well over $10 cheaper per disc!!! They need better price points in the typical brick and mortar retail giants like Wal-Mart and Bestbuy!!!

 

[Djizasse]

You can find good prices online, and you can still rent blu ray discs, so you might as well get one and enjoy the enhanced quality of the format.

I have a small collection of HD-DVDs

I could rent BDs and watch them through my Sony Vaio, but the only time I did that, the movie started stuttering (in an almost still scene, the minute before I could watch a lot of explosions without a problem), could this be that obnoxious copy protection? I won't even start about region encoding.

I'm not buying a standalone player just to watch less than 20 movies that are avaiable where I live. I will buy it when the players get cheaper (or install a HD-DVD/Blu Ray player in the HTPC) and when I have a good selection of movies to rent.

Somewhere in the future, prices will drop and disks won't carry the price premium as they do now (compared to DVD).

As for the enhanced quality, I don't think it justifies the (still) high prices for hardware and discs. It's way better than SD, but I just don't feel I enjoy a movie much more just because of it.

So, for now, IMO, there are some things that need happen:
- players have to get even cheaper
- disc prices have to drop to "DVD zone"
- better avaiability of titles in the rental market

I can only see one reason for this not happening so soon and it's the industry trying to establish the prices and waiting to see if the market accepts it. They're abusing the market because they have the monopoly on HD.

 

[fast1]

well its only a matter of time before blu-ray catches on... the thing is will there be anything new in the market in the near future that will topple it. otherwise i think it will be a winner.

 

[j_garcia]

I have to agree about the disc pricing...Too High!!! Honestly I still can't believe that the average Blu-Ray new release is selling for $29.99!!! Yes there are viable online retailers selling the media at better prices, but I truly believe that Blu-Ray is losing the fight vs. upscaling DVD players when you can get new release DVDs for well over $10 cheaper per disc!!! They need better price points in the typical brick and mortar retail giants like Wal-Mart and Bestbuy!!!

If you guys look around, Wal-mart has regular sales of discs at about $9.99 every week; granted they aren't new releases, but that is about as cheap as you are going to find titles. Fry's recently had their $9.99 sale again as well, which they previously had only done at Christmas. Best Buy's prices are still too high, but once in a while they will have a good deal on one or two items. So it really is about shopping around and waiting for deals with BD. People have gotten spoiled with cheap DVDs - the current prices are no different than when DVD came out. If it is $25 or higher, I wait until it drops, usually in a few weeks.

I just bought X-men and X2 for $16.99 each on release day, and with the $10 movie cash, that effectively made them $7 each. I'd call that pretty cheap.

For what Netflix is charging, even with the price increase, you still cannot beat that deal. I have not had any problem getting brand new BD releases. I own more movies than either Blockbuster or Hollywood Vid have in stock locally.

 

[Wayde Robson]

Interesting thoughts all.

Yeah, discs need to get cheaper. I can't believe many new releases are still over 30 bucks. When I go to the US they're no cheaper.

But you can get older discs for around $15. That's not too bad. Too many mediocre disc/movies are selling for $20 though. That should be the premium price of a new release. I will not pay $25 or greater for any single movie on disc. $20 buck ONLY if I absolutely gotta have it.

@PhillyDan

but I truly believe that Blu-Ray is losing the fight vs. upscaling DVD players

There is no such format war. DVD has already won!

 

[jostenmeat]

I have to agree about the disc pricing...Too High!!! Honestly I still can't believe that the average Blu-Ray new release is selling for $29.99!!!

Yeah, discs need to get cheaper. I can't believe many new releases are still over 30 bucks. When I go to the US they're no cheaper.

Wow. Who pays $30? I never have, and that includes special editions as well as Criterion titles.

I have on the way (maybe arriving today in fact) on Bluray, including tax and shipping.

Space Cowboys $13.49

Reservoir Dogs $11.49

Coral Reef Adventure IMAX $14.99

UFC best of '08 $13.49

Ok, I also have a couple of $25 titles on the way in Body of Lies and Curious Case of BB (Criterion). I never go to the theater, since my HT blows the local ones out of the water, and the money saved there is spent on the titles. Since I can host 8 people at a time, it really means a lot of money saved among friends and family. Maybe that's why my they've bought me about 35 titles thus far.

For the last two titles, if I knew I wasn't going to watch them on BD, I would've watched them in the theater. Least $20 right there, just for me of course. I do have a netflix account, and the last viewings were Tell No One, Slumdog, Into the Wild (of which I should've put the $3 rental towards the purchase) . . .

sometimes you go get you pay for. I do not expect, whatsoever, top notch PQ from Space Cowboys, nor Reservoir Dogs, but I would with Rataouille, or Kill Bill, or Galapagos, or Man on Fire, or . . .

Man. I submit that most people, including most Audioholics, do not understand how good the video is on so many Blurays. The software itself is incredible, and perhaps with quality that is wasted in most home theaters. I'm being frank, do not mean to be condescending, and am a rarity in my good fortune to have a dedicated PJ theater . . . but, I AM quite certain most people don't know how good the software is.

Then again, most people, including most Audioholics, do not have a viewing angle to even benefit from 1080p.

I've been going through my HDDVD collection again recently, and I think most of my BDs look significantly better. Though I can't do an apples to apples comparison, since I haven't double dipped on anything, that is my overall impression.

Take a look at this stats page. Yeah, you'll see the msrp, but look at the selling prices right next to it. Keep scrolling. Yeah, they are mostly under $20.

http://www.blu-raystats.com/Stats/Stats.php

in addition to what j garcia has said. I got the Xmen trilogy for less than $50 on release day. Band of Brothers cost me about the same. The Godfather Trilogy, all 200 GB for roughly the same as well.

The most expensive titles I've bought are generally cartoons, such as Pixar stuff. Still well worth it.

As for upscaling DVD players, give me a break. BD players already are upscaling DVD players. $250ish for a Panasonic BD60 today? What is that, like their 5th generation player? Or 6th gen? I've lost count.

 

[ned]

What happened to the original article from this site that declared it dead and will not survive?

 

[MatthewB.]

I have about 150 HD-DVD's and about 200 Blurays and pay about 10.00 each for em. Fry's has great deals on various movies every week for 9.99/ea and Amazon always has killer deals and 2 for 1 deals. I also save money by selling my equivelant regular DVD's to co-workers for 5.00/ea when I buy the Bluray version for 9.99 I am finding that I have aquired a massive collection for far less than what I paid for the regular DVD's. I pity all those who dumped their HD-DVD's because Fry's has a huge selection for 5.99 or less, so after selling my regular version of a movie, I pick them up for .99 I have four HD-DVD players (two in storage as backup that I bought for about 50.00 each) and figure my two active players will play for years and they play just as good as Bluray with lossless audio to boot also. I also have two Bluray players, deals are everywhere for Blurays and I have yet to pay more than 15.00 for any of the 200 or so Blurays I currently own.

 

[jostenmeat]

What happened to the original article from this site that declared it dead and will not survive?

This is the one I think of, and I thought it very interesting at the time. I was reading, and sharing, the article before I jumped on the BD wagon.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/10-reasons-why-high-definition-dvd-formats-have-already-failed

Now, I can hardly care less what others think in regards to the impending demise of the format. I get to enjoy spectacular video and audio; the best available today. If people don't want to join, that's fine:

Their loss, not mine.

 

[Matt34]

I own about a dozen BRD, just too expensive to buy like I did with DVD's. I've been really happy with netflix so far and their selection.

 

[j_garcia]

The most expensive stuff I've bought are imports, so those don't really count. I got Band of Brothers for $35 off Amazon.

Online pricing is much more competetive and even with shipping, you can usually get titles for less than or equal to local pricing shipped on or near release date. Though I have slowed purchases considerably since getting Netflix, I have still been buying quite a few titles recently.

 

[PhillyDan1969]

If you guys look around, Wal-mart has regular sales of discs at about $9.99 every week; granted they aren't new releases, but that is about as cheap as you are going to find titles. Fry's recently had their $9.99 sale again as well, which they previously had only done at Christmas. Best Buy's prices are still too high, but once in a while they will have a good deal on one or two items. So it really is about shopping around and waiting for deals with BD. People have gotten spoiled with cheap DVDs - the current prices are no different than when DVD came out. If it is $25 or higher, I wait until it drops, usually in a few weeks.

I just bought X-men and X2 for $16.99 each on release day, and with the $10 movie cash, that effectively made them $7 each. I'd call that pretty cheap.

For what Netflix is charging, even with the price increase, you still cannot beat that deal. I have not had any problem getting brand new BD releases. I own more movies than either Blockbuster or Hollywood Vid have in stock locally.

I hate this argument of comparing prices now for BD vs. when DVD came out because there isn't any comparison!!! When DVD came out, and I was an early adopter, VHS tapes were expensive (because they cost so much to manufacture) and poor quality compared side by side with the advanced features of DVD!!!

This is not the case now!!! DVD is still a cheap alternative, especially if you want to buy new release films every Tuesday which I normally spend about $16.99 on unless it is a 2-Disc edition and the quality differences are hard to justify when you factor in great upscaling DVD players!!!

I know I can find cheap Blu-Rays, unfortunately I have a large DVD collection (just under 1000) and I will not double dip for a Blu-Ray unless I consider the movie to be really worth it, so I prefer to buy mostly new releases and you don't find cheap or on sale new release Blu-Rays!!!

So argue all you want about bargain hunting for cheaper Blu-Rays, they are hard to find unless you are wanting older catalog titles!!! I can buy Benjamin Button on DVD right now $16.99, how much will the Blu-Ray disc cost me???

 

[PENG]

I think it depends on each individual's H.T. environment. For me, sitting 12 feet away from my 50" screen, BD and HDDVD are better but probably not worth any more than a 20% price premium because my upscaler offer PQ almost (with a little exaggeration) as good. If I had Jostenmeat's HT then I would likely never watch DVD in it now that I am spoiled with 1080p or even 1080i.

 

[just-some-guy]

i don't care what they cost. i don't buy them.