Why are Blu Ray Players still so expensive?

Question

Sony already won the hi def video war from Toshiba a few months back. But still the price of the player has not gone down to an affordable price for mass audience.

It's almost as if Sony was as stubbon as Microsoft when MS is price the Xbox360 over the price that most people would not buy it for and still they do'nt realize that price these days is a major factor, considering soaring gas prices and all. What do you think?

Answer 1

It's because the consumers are confused between Blu Ray and HD-DVD formats. Manufacturers don't want to invest in either of them unless there's a good chance that their investments will be repaid, and that will happen if one of those technologies becomes "standard".

I suspect Blu Ray will win over HD-DVD and that would drive down the cost of the players. For now, you can find the least expensive ones around $300. PS3 is still the best value (you get the Blu Ray player that you would pay $300 & a powerful game console for $150 more).

Answer 2

The "LA Times" reported in Feb that the price of BluRay players will be going UP.  They also said that Sony plans new features on the disks to ... encourage existing owners to buy new players.

Netflix employees have quietly leaked that Sony is restricting sales of BluRay disks to rental companies to force consumers to buy retail if they want HD movies.

To put HD-DVD out of business, Sony is waving hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for some studios.  So they are keeping prices high to make up for this.

Sony - put RCA out of business with televisions, then raised prices

Sony - put root-kit virus on audio CD's

Sony - Paid for glowing reviews of "A Knights Tale" movie to a guy who later admitted never actually seeing the film.

In anyone (who pays attention) surprised by high prices now that HD-DVD is gone?

Answer 3

Blu-ray is a ".5" generation technology much as laserdisk was in my opinion. It will come down in price eventually but I can promise you that the average person is not going to go out and replace their DVD collection, and bluray will stay a niche for the forseeable future.

It is probably the last, or at least close to the last technology that will be based on a physical media, i.e. disk.

Answer 4

Prices are not higher now just because HD-DVD is gone. They have been slowly coming down if you look at past prices. I admit that it still is not cheap, but I would just recommend that you go buy a PS3. You get a Blu-Ray player and a gaming console. Great Deal.

Answer 5

Sony wants to "Jack" you just like the oil companies .

The choice should have been left to the consumers because prices for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD would be lower .

Answer 6

because there is no competition. I am sure they will increase the price for sometimes.

Answer 7

Because its new technology.  Back in the early 80's I paid $150 for a CD player and I considered that a bargain at the time.

Now you can get CD players for $10.

Once sales of the players pick up it will be a commodity item.  Hopefully Sony won't be so stingy with its technology licensing.  Oddly enough my Blu-Ray player's operating system is Linux and a mish mosh of freeware that Sony has collected from the internet.  Cheapskates!

Answer 8

Eventually the price will come down when the market growth.

The main factor is the price of the Bluray movie disc itself. If the Bluray disc is selling at DVD price today, manufacturers will  be able to sell more Bluray player which directly translated into cost saving in mass production.

Bluray movie disc price down --> Bluray player production volume up --> manufacturing cost down --> selling price down --> popularity up --> competition up --> price down down down... ^^

Answer 9

Welcome to Sony-World with no competition. It's called a monopoly.  It's what you all wanted right?

Answer 10

EDIT:  HOLY COW!!

Some people apparently don't know yet so.....BLU-RAY WON!!  Toshiba isn't making HD-DVD anymore! HD-DVD is already dead. No movie studios are supporting HD-DVD, All the movie Studios are releasing only Standard DVD and Blu-Ray.

Also: Sony isn't a monopoly. Blu-Ray is also being made by Sharp, Pioneer, Samsung, Panasonic, Denon, Funai (Sylvia), Philips and more on the way. Beside the movie servers that have already integrated it like MediaMaxx and other (Kaleidescape comming soon).

To Grumpy: You are funny. It was Thompson, owner of RCA Television, that killed RCA when they decided to produce junk. Every consumer report had RCA as the worst track record for repairs . Also the Blu-Ray consortium (Not Sony) did offer money to 1 studio but ONLY as a counter to the $75 Million offered by HD DVD to that studio to abandon Blu-Ray who they had ALREADY SIDED WITH! HD DVD also paid for their only 2 exclusive studios. Warner Studios WAS NOT PAID to switch to Blu-Ray and that was the deciding factor for the whole war.

I am not saying that some companies don't use every advantage but don't start making stuff up.

Sony has nothing (well almost nothing) to do with the price. While they do have a say in the licencing fees it is the market that is driving price. I don't know if everybody knows this but right now there is a shortage of Blu-Ray players. I am an AV integrator and a Sony direct dealer as well as Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp through distribution. All of my sources are telling me the same thing. There is a 2 month backorder list on any Blu-Ray player I order except for the PS3 (which I can't order direct.)

Think about gas prices. If demand is high and supply tight, how can the price come down? Why would it? They can't keep up with demand as it is now!

As supply loosens up and increases to meet demand the prices will come down.

People who say there is no competition don't understand the market. Within Blu-Ray there are now plenty of manufacturers in competition with each other and Blu-Ray itself is still in competition with DVD and now Vudu and Netflicks downloadable movies, Apple TV, DirecTV On Demand, Cable On Demand and more downloadable services showing up all the time.

I would wait anyway. As a dealer I have noticed that Sony has recently made some strong price moves and they will soon have the least expensive BD Profile 2.0 machine. The BDPS350 will be $350-$399 for a Profile 2.0. The only other is the Panasonic for $699.

Want cheaper, Funai at $299 for Profile 1.1