Heat

Just wondering if the prices of Blu Ray DVDs are inflated "because they can" or if there are higher costs assocated with Blu Ray DVDs.

Or maybe it has to do with the fact that fewer Blu Ray DVDs are being sold, thus higher production cost per unit sold. I foresee a time in the next two or three years where the cost of a Blu Ray DVD and the cost of a normal DVD are the same.

Gizmo

Blu Ray DVDs do not exist

orangerunner

Blu-rays are more expensive to manufacture largely because Sony and their investors need a return on their development costs for the format.

Fewer factories have the capabilites to make Blu-ray discs equals higher price.

Volume is relatively low compared to DVD - price higher.

Re-transferring the films in HD does require extra expense which has to be recouped.

The actual cost of materials and the pressing costs are pretty much identical to DVD especially once the format starts producing large quantities the difference is very minimal.

bse

DVDs are so cheap to manufacture now - you can get 1000 DVDs and Cases for $990 - so just think of the break on larger quantities.

Also you have to factor in this for the price of manufacturing blu-rays:

Blu-ray utilizes the Advanced Access Content System (AACS). This system is designed to prevent illegal copying of DVDs and it’s inclusion is mandatory on all Blu-ray disks. As with Macrovision for SD DVDs, AACS has licensing and royalty fees. The client applies for an AACS license with a one-time fee of $3000. Then there’s an AACS per title fee ranging from $1500 - $1785, a $.05 per disc fee, mastering fees, and other miscellaneous fees. These do not include the cost of authoring or replication.

joltman

Yet another way the consumer wins with DRM, not only do we not get our Fair Use, we get to pay more for that privilege!

rw2516

Standard DVDs have AACS also.

bse

It is required on blu-ray, it is not on SD.

Jay G.

DVDs have CSS, which requires its own licensing fees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Scramble_System
http://www.dvdcca.org/css/

AACS is the next-gen successor to CSS. So the cost of licensing AACS as compared to CSS isn't the reason why Blu-rays cost more.

Jay G.

The manufacturing costs for Blu-ray Discs, (or BD, but not "Blu Ray DVD") are higher than DVDs due to the costs associated with pressing a disc with smaller pits on new materials (and initially higher failure percentages associated with new technology). However, these cost differences are on the order of a few cents to maybe a dollar more per disc. Also, since DVDs and CDs cost almost literally pennies to make, it's never been the cost of the media that has dictated the price on the shelf.

For some titles, that time is already here. BDs of titles like The Terminator have been on sale for as little as $7.99. Hell, I got the BD of Roadhouse, which includes a DVD, for that price.

Heat

Got it, no more "Blu-Ray DVDs" from me. At least I didn't call them Blue Ray DVDs...

Jay G.

No problem; it's a new format, so it's understandable that not everyone would get the name right the first time.

Did the rest of my post answer your question?

Heat

Yep. Blu-Ray's are marginally more expensive to produce but for now it's a question of supply and demand.

Just like DVDs were really expensive ten years ago but the price has come down to what I consider "reasonable" levels, the same will happen to BDs. In the meantime I'll be picking up some BDs but I won't be stocking a library of them like I did with DVDs. Heck, I still haven't hooked up my BD player (PS3) to my TV yet since the PS3 is a Christmas gift for my kids.