Will price of blu-ray player/movies go down now?

Question

After recent HD DVD dead.

Answer 1

Why, now they have no competition.

Answer 2

Movie prices will drop a bit, or at least will go on sale, in order to convince people to buy Bluray movies.

Also, in regards to Profile 2.0, so long as a current player supports the spec, it can be upgraded via firmware (whether it's a disc or internet update depends on the player).  The PS3 will be Profile 2.0 compliant, because there's just too much horsepower sitting in the PS3 not to.  So 10.5 million people won't have to buy a new Bluray player when Profile 2.0 comes out.

But people are irresponsibly associating Sony with the new profiles.  Yes, Sony was the primary contributor in creating Bluray technology, but the specification is run by the Bluray Disc Association, which is chaired by several movie companies and manufacturers.  There was a similar group for HD DVD, and there is one for DVD.

EDIT: Profile 2.0 doesn't mean the movie won't play.  It just means that some of the extra features may not work, so you don't have to buy a new player.

Answer 3

Players and movies will drop in price.

I was just at a Sony meeting today. They are releasing the BDPS350 in the Summertime for $350 and it will be Profile 2.0.

What you guys who bash Blu-Ray and Sony fail to realize are 4 things.

1-Blu-Ray is still in competition with a much larger opponent, DVD. If Blu-Ray is to succeed as the primary video format it will have to be accepted by everybody, not just the rich.

2-Sony isn't the only manufacturer of Blu-Ray. If Sony is to sell players then they will have to be competitive with all the other manufacturers in the marketplace. With 2nd tier brands like Funai getting into the mix at $299 you can bet that others are soon to follow, especially now that there is some clarity in the market.

3-With more players on the market Studios will be able to drop their prices per movie as the cost to make them will drop. I know that some of the introductory offers will go away but so what. That always happens as a format gets off the ground.

4-If they stay too expensive they will fail! 2 words. Internet Downloads. Vudu, Netflicks, Microsoft, Apple TV, and other companies are gearing up for the downloadable movie business. Vudu's model looks very good with a >$400 player that has instant access to thousands of movies delivered directly via the internet for rent or purchase and no disk to worry about. If Blu-Ray is too expensive then Internet Downoadable movies will kill it before it gets a chance to grow.

Answer 4

No - the prices are going to go up.

A recent LA times article talked about this. Sony also plans to create a 2.0 version of BluRay which will force people to buy newer players.

I have put a link which contains 2 articles. Please read them both.

Answer 5

Player prices, yes (but not to DVD price levels). Disk prices will probably go up from current subsidized sale price levels to closer to MSRP.

The market for Blu-ray is much less than for DVD (everyone has a DVD, less than half of consumers will get any benefit from Blu-ray, and a majority of them will get limited benefit and many of this group will stick with DVD as "good enough" ... particularly on an upconverting player). So ... overall ... Blu-ray has only an assured market for 25-30% of consumers.

Studios can't stop selling DVD since it would cut off their main revenue stream. Also most of the 80,000+ DVD titles in the catalog won't ever be ported to Blu-ray ... so DVDs will continue to be made.

Studios won't sell Blu-ray for the same price as DVD ... they are more expensive to produce ... and why would they accept a lower profit? Besides they make more money by differential pricing and selling somewhat fewer DVDs and a greater number of higher priced Blu-ray disks than they lost in DVD sales, than they do by killing off DVDs and selling Blu-ray for the same price.

Consumers want Blu-ray to be cheap .. studios don't ... and in fact consumers who really value HD benefit from higher prices since premium prices for Blu-ray will allow many back catalog movies -- that would otherwise remain DVD only -- to be profitably released on Blu-ray.

Current disk "sale" prices were largely subsidized to help win the war .. this will stop.

Blu-ray players won't come down to DVD player prices (Licensing alone is significantly more expensive, and the players are more complex).

Since prices will stay higher many consumers who would get marginal benefit won't adopt Blu-ray as a replacement for DVD (and the majority who won't benefit at all won't buy Blu-ray either)

Blu-ray will stay what it is, a premium alternative to DVD for those able to benefit and willing to pay extra.

Answer 6

Yes - supply and demand.  More on the market.