Blu-ray players: Mighty pricey
The demise of the HD DVD format has been bad news for both bargain hunters and at least one big-time technology company.
The Sony BDP-S300
(Credit: CNET Networks)In the three short weeks since Toshiba announced that it was pulling the plug on the high-definition technology, prices for standalone players using the rival Blu-ray format have been headed north. In fact, as noted by PriceGrabber.com, Blu-ray prices are at their high point for the year, at an average of about $400 apiece for the devices. The Sony BDP-S300, for instance, was just a small mocha latte above that level, at $403 as of Wednesday.
Prices for Blu-ray players had been dipping down to around $300. Just last week, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said that the company would be "at a $300 rate" through this year--and would even hit the $299 mark in 2008. Apparently, though, retail outlets haven't gotten that message just yet. (Glasgow also allowed that the price might reach $200--next year.)
If you're a penny-pincher who's of a mind to buy technology on the endangered species list, you could of course go out and buy a $99 HD DVD player.
You might also do well to heed the advice of TGDaily, which in musing about the Blu-ray price increases is also looking ahead to later this year when Blu-ray players gain some advanced features and the ability to connect to the Internet: "Many of the current Blu-ray manufacturers have announced new players that will support BD Profile 2.0, so my advice would be to buy a PS3 or wait for the next-gen players." (The PlayStation 3 game console offers Blu-ray and Internet connection already. But don't go looking for Blu-ray on the Xbox 360.)
But if you're still buying Blu-ray today and ruing having to shell out a few extra bucks, imagine how Toshiba feels. The consumer electronics giant, a leading backer of HD DVD, could see a whopping $986 million loss in its high-def DVD business for its current fiscal year, according to Japan's Nikkei business daily. Correction: This sentence initially had a "b" instead of an "m" in the dollar value of the loss. The expected loss is $986 million.)
- Prices need to drop
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by Ksal005
March 13, 2008 11:51 AM PDT
- HD-DVD players are very affordable. Yes, they will not make any new movies for these players. However, they are a great, affordable upconverting DVD players. Sony needs to realize that they are not winning the mass market, the average family. HD-DVD players can still be used for upconversion. Until Sony gets a grip on their overpriced product, I'll stay watching regular DVDs on either a cheap HD-DVD player or a regular DVD player. Not to mention that you can still watch HD-DVD movies that are already available.
By the time Sony sees the big picture, it will be too late. The average family would have gone to renting downloads. You don't have to wait for an entire movie to download. It loads/streams in the backplane while you start watching the movie on the front side.
Sony better get it together.
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