Lack of competition sends Blu-ray player prices upward

[wraggster]

Late last month, we actually posed the question of buying a Blu-ray player now (being that the format war is over and all), or waiting things out until prices sink and Profile 2.0 players flood the market. Aside from the PlayStation 3 -- which is actually priced fairly reasonably if you were in the hunt for a new console anyway -- it seems as though HD DVD's exit has actually caused Blu-ray player prices to creep back upwards. Granted, this is about as far from surprising as it gets -- after all, it's nothing short of supply and demand working its magic. Still, it wasn't too long ago that we saw Toshiba actively putting pressure on the Blu camp to reduce prices in order to stay competitive, and now that said pressure has vanished, stickers on the whole have headed north. Ah well, it's not like the consumer didn't ask for this, um, right?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/12/lack-of-competition-sends-blu-ray-player-prices-upward/

[Emulation_Chief]

Hello:

This is Economics 101 in any camp. Competition drives lower prices. No competition doesn't drive price reductions. It even allows a raise.

I just want to really know who is the winner of this format war. I'm certain that it is not the consumers. Sony finally won a video format war, after the disappointment of Betamax. HD-DVD is certainly cheaper than Blu-Ray, has the same quality in video playback and has enhanced features not available on Blu-Ray players, except the PS3.

Does the winners are the big movie companies? Sony? the manufacturers?

Still, in the end, this trend will give you two main possible outcomes during this year. HD-DVD movies and players' demands increase, even after Toshiba closes it doors or High Speed connection user increase and decide to download HD content. An HD capable PC is, depends on who uses it and for what purposes, a high priced-but-better investment than a stand-alone BR player. And many people will not want to buy a PS3 as THE MAIN movie player, even if it is cheaper. An Xbox360 will be a better bet if HD downloads is the choice.

[jdnation]

Having competition for a standard format for movies will not be tolerated by consumers, if the studios didn't move to a single format soon then they stand to lose far more money as the formats wouldn't be as lucrative and everyone would stick with DVDs. Studios know that to approach the mass market that players and disc prices will have to come down, it will happen eventually, there may not be competition between HD-DVD and blu-ray, but there is still competition between hardware manufacturers of blu-ray players and they'll all be competing to get the public to adopt their brand. Soon DVD players will be phased out and everything will be blu-ray as blu-ray players still play and upscale DVDs. This will happen once manufacturing costs for blu-ray components are close enough to DVD.

HD downloads are a thing for the far future, with HD downloads only being limited to a time restriction and the fact that not everyone has access to high speed internet access plus the fact that those that do are finding companies applying bandwidth caps and limiting the amount you can download or you'll have to pay per MB after that, not to mention that download speeds for HD media are still pretty slow even on fast access considering their file sizes, it's more of an inconvenience. Also DRM on digitally downloaded items will restrict you from taking them anywhere, particularily on the Xbox 360...

To raise prices on BD players is understandable but a shitty move. Can it be confirmed as to whether the prices of the long available players has gone up? Or is it that newer players with profile 2.0 are releasing at a higher price? Because if that's the case then you can't call it a price hike... as it's a new or upgraded product.

Anyway the price of PS3 will remain the same and is a well reviewed player and profile 2.0 ready and futureproofed for any updates. People will indeed go for the PS3, it is the best value and stores will recommend it to those iffy about what to purchase. Hard core ethusiasts will prefer stand alone units, but at the same time those people are also the sort who'll pay more for a better dedicated player so price isn't such a hindrance to them.

[DPyro]

HD downloads is not really feasible to most people. The problem is you need a FiOS connection to really take advantage and you also need enough bandwidth to support peoples needs. Your also paying for a digital download, something you can't sell to anyone else. Whereas with Blu-ray, you get a hard copy of the movie so you can sell it later and it also takes less time to goto a store to buy/rent a movie then it would to download.

[jamotto]

HD downloads I believe are possible. Statistics on Internet usage are hard to come by, but Steam does post a hardware survey every other month or so. The last survey showed about 75% of the people had broadband.

It would also seem that people are willing to wait up to a week to get their rentals, considering how well netflix doing, even Blockbuster has started a similar program in an effort to compete.

[nomi]

yes people have broadband but you should see the speed. My internet peaks at 60 kbps at day and 100 kbps at night. That speed takes about 10 hours to download a standard movie, if you download a hd movie god knows how much time it will take.

[Triv1um]

yes people have broadband but you should see the speed. My internet peaks at 60 kbps at day and 100 kbps at night. That speed takes about 10 hours to download a standard movie, if you download a hd movie god knows how much time it will take.

Really? That slow?

I get about 500 kb/ps all day, and im on quite a low internet package.

[jamotto]

yes people have broadband but you should see the speed. My internet peaks at 60 kbps at day and 100 kbps at night. That speed takes about 10 hours to download a standard movie, if you download a hd movie god knows how much time it will take.

Well it is broken down by speed I'm just not sure how reliable it is as your internet connection would show.

Unspecified 20.06 %
33.6 Kbps 0.52 %
56.0 Kbps 2.49 %
112.0 Kbps 1.61 %
256.0 Kbps 12.20 %
768.0 Kbps 14.06 %
1,024.0 Kbps 5.52 %
2,048.0 Kbps 32.07 %
10,000.0 Kbps 11.47 %

[F9zDark]

Blu-Ray player prices go up? That sucks. PS3 is still $399 (in the US at least).

Honestly, I think the consumers are the winners here. We got the format that was superior (in terms of capacity). As far as I am concerned we all have won simply because of that. When the day comes that Blu-Ray Burners become cheap as hell, it will serve as the perfect computer backup medium.

As well, being the winner, will allow it to become mainstream. Game companies for PC games can use Blu-Ray to make "compilation" discs (imagine Far Cry, Far Cry 2 and Crysis all on one disc, sold in a limited edition pack with making-of materials or concept art books, etc...)

HD movie downloads, however, will never come to fruition, in the US, anytime soon. ISPs in the US are stuck to their profit models.

When Cable first came out, the cost of delivering the service was high (since it was new technology). Its price to consumers was high as well. So the companies had a situation where they had high cost/low profits because they made "new" technology available.

Now cable's costs to the company are far less, so they add "new" features or increase the bandwidth slightly, but maintain the same cost to consumers.

Now they are in the realm of low cost/high profits and they don't want to give that up.

Unlike some European countries that would rather "advance" the internet and deliver 100mbps bandwidth to home users. Granted I don't know what cost this comes to for consumers, but in my area, only Businesses can come close to getting this kind of speed, and even then, that is determined on Business size (small companies can get Optimum Online for Business, larger companies can get Optimum Light Path).

With enough money I am sure you can get anything, but I would firmly believe that these "business" services are offered to businesses because there is some degree of safety to Optimum for doing so; a business is more likely to pay the bills, and is more likely to be in a situation where it can afford the bills.