Cost of players and movies
We are about to hit the Christmas selling season with rumored $199 and below prices on HD-DVD players. The best current price on a BD player that I have seen is $389 (Sam's Club). The discounted price on this player is still $200 higher than the cheaper HD-DVD players. Time will tell, but I think there will be a huge number of HD-DVD players sold this season.
I read in another thread that there are production issues with BD movies. As many as 90% are defective and scrapped in production. Currently the movies are priced about the same, except for the HD-DVD combo disks. If the HD-DVD disks are cheaper to produce and the movies are priced the same at the retail level, somone is taking a hit by selling BD over HD-DVD. Will that someone (manufacturer or retailer) continue to make less on the BD disk, or will he change the retail price to reflect BD's higher cost?
venomxr8 wrote a fairly well written defense of BD from the point of an enthusiast. Unfortunately, Joe Six Pack will ultimately chose the winner, not the enthusiast, and if JSP owns a HD television it is a 42" LCD he got at Walmart on sale and is only capable of 720P. JSP doesn't give a rip about 1080P or any of the advanced sound options (he may be using the speakers built into the set). Know what he cares about? PRICE PRICE PRICE
I will probably buy a 2.0 BD player later this year, if the price drops some more, because there are movies I want available only in BD. But I think BD is in a jam that I am not sure they can overcome with the price issue.
__________________
Toshiba 57H83 television, Paradigm Monitor 5 front speakers, Paradigm CC370 center speaker, Paradigm Mini Monitor surround speakers, Sony subwoofer, Yamaha HRT-5590 receiver, Denon DVD-2800 II, Toshiba HD-DVD A2, Play Station 3 - 40 Gig, Comcast HD Cable
|