Nimbus

Just wondering...

Is there any chance of Blu-Ray player price reductions before release? Maybe knocking off a couple hundred before release in a couple months.

I believe the Sony player won't even be out until July. Who even knows when Panasonic players would be out? Plus a price reduction would help compete against the competition.

I kind of want to stick with either a Sony/Panasonic/or Pioneer player. I wouldn't feel comfortable paying a high price for a Samsung item.

Anyone think there is a chance? $999 is kind of ridiculous.

$500? I would buy one on launch day and have no regrets. Even $600 wouldn't overly bother me. I could do $700 if I had a strawberry daquri before hand. But, $1000?

I really want one. I really, really want one. But...

Is the technology just too costly to release moderately affordable players at this time?

$500-$700 would be considered even crazy to others. But, that would be moderately affordable to me.

I guess I just want one before PS3. I don't really want to wait. Who's to say the PS3 will even be a good player? I don't know for sure. But, I have a bad feeling from the PS2 DVD player sucking. I hope I am wrong on this and that it's a good as a stand alone.

Ah, the hell I know. I don't even know what I want anymore...

Augustes

HD DVD sales might have an effect on Blu-ray pricing, but its such a new technology that I think it may take them a few months to get the prices down. However, a $1000 MSRP might mean real world prices of $800 or less online.

To be fair it looks like Toshiba may have kept their player prices so low simply by using older PC parts and customizing them with Hitachi's PC HD DVD drive. If Blu-ray is using more specialized parts it may take them much longer to get their prices under $500.

Nero

I understand.

I also plan on using one as a sole player. I am hoping the upscaling capabilities are good on these players. They should be for the price. They should be just as good as a DVD player costing $400 IMO.

The Toshiba HD player's upscaling just doesn't do much for me. That's a little more understandable due to the lower price. So, I am hoping Blu Ray handles this issue better with being double the price.

It's just I kind of started to think about it. OMG. $1000. I just don't know what to do. I guess I am just praying for false hope of a price decrease.

$800 online?

Where do you guys order from for these discounts? If I could get a decent discount, I would just order online.

redford

That would be nice, but doesn't seem to be the case. $1,000 MSRP for the Blu-Ray players is looking like $999 (or so) online. Just like Toshiba's MSRP for their lower-priced player is $500 and $480 is the cheapest anywhere.

It's all speculation on my part, but I doubt we see lower prices until 2007. The upcoming (Nov/Dec/2007?) Philips Blu-Ray player might end up being more affordable. But again, that is pure speculation based on branding.

Nimbus

One reason I heard is that HD-DVD is able to be offered for less because it is basically just a beefed up version of DVD. Basically, much of the same technology is used.

Whereas Blu-Ray is starting from scratch and is completely new technology.

Is this true as well?

Augustes

They both use blue lasers (versus red for DVD), so they are both new technology. The Blu-Ray laser is slightly narrower, but I doubt that explains the cost differences.

My guess (speculation) is that Toshiba is taking a loss on their player (or perhaps parts for the player. A 2.4 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, the HD-DVD drive alone probably cost Toshiba close to $400.

The Pioneer Blu-Ray player (July) is going to be $1,800. So, in comparison to that, $1,000 isn't too bad. But seriously, these issues concern me as well. I was planning on getting an initial Blu-Ray player until recently (and no HD-DVDp). Now I'm planning on picking up the Toshiba soon and waiting for a PS3 (assuming it winds up playing BR discs). Those two should be had for slightly more than a standalone Blu-Ray player, but of course is more waiting.

Nero

Being a Pioneer and Toshiba fan I am real torn on this - I want one good player for HD and standard DVD. The reviews of DVD playback for the Toshiba are not real great and I had intended to support BR. But $500 fits in the budget pretty well. The Pioneer which I feel will most likely offer excellent upscaling (currently - unless I am way out of the loop and I might be - the Pioneer Elite DVD player is about the closest to the Denon as far as DVD King of the Hill - closer than any of the other manufacturers coming to market this summer). That fact makes me want the Pioneer - plus the fact that they have always been a "disc" leader (see LD) so I figure their first gen player should be a little more apt to last. Its just that damn MSRP. I mean usually Pioneer will come in under or way under MSRP - I mean the current player is 1000 and sells between 750-900 depending on the merchant but that would still leave the BR player at like 1500 or so. I have decided to just wait for Thanksgiving - I am avoiding new releases for the most part renting a little more and trying to catch up on my viewing.

redford

So for AT LEAST the next year or two, the cheapest player that will handle Blu-Ray will be probably around $1000.

By the time they reach $500 or around there, who's going to care? Even THAT is too much for the regular consumer. It's when things like this come up that I just want to jump on HD-DVD without question.

Nimbus

There are the usual "back of the truck" discounters. Sane people stay away from them.

AVS could have a special buy on something when it comes out, I always check them out. They have a killer deal on the Sony Ruby PJ, and had even better on the latest iScan scaler that came out a few months ago. You only have to be a member for these, I think, not a paid member.

Augustes

Pioneer made the best LD players by far, but it took a very long time for them to get DVD players right. It's only recently that they started making DVD players with quality deinterlacing and no Chroma Upsampling Error. They were well behind the curve in relation to other manufacturers.

What this means for Blu-Ray I can't say. These are all brand new technologies, and I don't think brand loyalty means much of anything anymore.