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Why do blue ray dvds cost more?

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I'm so confused on the whole blu-ray dvd thing! Will it play on my regular dvd? I'm majorly confused!! Help a teen out please!!

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  1. Because it's blue.


  2. blu ray is a type of high definition "dvd"...it's like the successor to the DVD. it's more expensive b/c the movies are in high def.

    blu ray disc requires blu ray player.

    hd dvd requires hd dvd player.

    blu ray/hd dvd discs will NOT work in regular dvd players, but regular dvd discs SHOULD work in the blu ray/hd dvd players.

  3. a blu-ray disc will not play on a standard dvd player, it must be a blu-ray player. a ps3 is the simplest example. the reasons for the higher prices are 1. new technology 2. blu-ray discs are not made the same way as a regular dvd, sony had to come up with a whole new pressing format for these special discs because of the amount of info they can hold, so they literally cost more to make which then trickels down to the consumer. the prices will slowly drop over the next few years.

  4. Most people haven't answered  ... "because it's new" isn't why!  I'm sure I'll miss some of the cost drivers but here are some of them:

    First of all a high definition digital master of the movie must be made. This can be the same master as is used for the DVD, so no extra costs here. Although if it is an older film and a new master is required the cost all go to Blu-ray (unless the studio plans to issue a new version of the DVD too ... which they probably will).

    The replication of blu-ray disks requires a different plant than for DVDs -- and since all had to be built new recently, the costs must be recovered from all Blu-ray disks.

    Licensing fees (higher than for DVD) must be paid to copyright owners. Sony for Blu-ray, Sun for BD-Java, whoever owns BD+ copyright protection, etc)

    The yield of "good" Blu-ray disks is still fairly low (some figures say between 3 and 5 out of 10 are useable), so -- like if you copy DVDs and create coasters for every 2nd copy -- the cost/disk is higher than if you got 80-90% yield.

    The extras are sometimes specially made for the HD disk (although often just shared with the DVD), but to the degree there are Blu-ray specific they are an extra cost.

    The programming of the menu for the disk (to play the disk, select extras, etc) must be programmed in BD-Java ... a complex and (because there are relatively few good programmers) expensive job (unlike HD DVD which used relatively simple HDi). All these costs have to be recovered from the Blu-ray disk sales.

    The big factor is that Blu-ray disks sell a fraction of the volume of DVDs for "day - date" movies (new releases) and almost nothing for "catalog" titles (older movies), so extra costs must be amortized across fewer units.

    Add it all up and Blu-ray is inevitably more expensive to produce, and unless the studio is willing to take a lower profit margin, will result in higher prices.

    Relatively low sale prices we have seen to date have been subsidized to try to establish the format. This can be expected to change.

    Hope this helps explain.

  5. No -- they require a different player. Higher quality = higher production cost = higher price to consumer.

  6. they cost more because it is newer technology.

  7. Blu rays are high defenition dvds ....they have a greater picture and sound quality then ordinary dvds...they cannot be played in anything other then blu ray players...which can cost you a good 400 new...since it is newer technology they will cost more..but eventually the price will go down like the current dvd

  8. no blue rey use a different tchnolnoy then reguaalr DVD's they will NOT play on regualr or convnetional DVD players you have to have a Blu Rey playerto play them you can play standard DVd's on a blu rey player you can't play Blu Rey DVD's on a regular player

  9. they claim to be better and more clear

  10. Blu-ray holds up to 50gb of information when dvd if i'm not mistaken only holds up to 8.5gb. so yeah, you can fit a movie un-compressed so its resolution is crisper and the sound is way better. yup. plus blu-ray has beat hd-dvd so you might as well join us... JOIN US!!! lol

  11. It will only play on a Sony Blu Ray player.  The reason they cost more is because the price tag has a higher number on it.

  12. remember when the DVD came out???

    it was super expensive...and now...everybody has one....it's the same thing...give it 2 or 3 years and they will go down.

  13. new technology!!

    so it costs more!!

  14. It takes much longer to make the clear picture and and it takes more time, plus its new and not a lot of ppl buying it.

  15. the simple answer is they are more expensive because they are a high definition format (better picture quality and sound quality) No a Blu-Ray Disc (BRD) will not play in a DVD player, but it does work the other way around. If you buy a Blu-Ray player it will still play your old DVD's.

  16. Blu-Ray and (the now dead) HD DVD are High Definition versions of DVD(for the most part). They both cost more than DVD does because they are new.(DVD used to cost way more than it does now when it was new too!) Blu-Ray cost more than HD DVD because it is completely new where HD DVD used alot of technology from DVD so they saved time and money in research and developement. Unfortunately for HD DVD, that meant that they couldn't match the capacity of Blu-Ray and they didn't match the marketing of Blu-Ray so HD DVD is going away. BD(Blu-Ray Disc) movies will only play in a Blu-Ray player (which is also included in the PS3) but DVDs will play in a BD player.

  17. blu-ray can only be played on a blu-ray dvd player. your standard dvd player will only play regular dvds. blu-ray cost more because blu-ray dvd's are high-definiton which means they looks 10x better than any standard dvd. blu-ray also can fit up to 6 times the amount of information on the disk than a standard dvd making it able to hold more information.

  18. new technology that not a whole lot of people are buying..so its gonna be more expensive duh

  19. Because they provide a better quality (HD) be careful when buying them though, i own a ps3 and blu-ray discs are incredibly easy to break

  20. because they're the newest thing out there
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