jjcool

Keep in mind that Media Play was part of The Musicland Group, which inlcuded On Cue, Sam Goody and Suncoast stores. I know there was at least one Sam Goody brand store in every state except Vermont at one point during their run.

Travis McClain

It's not a matter of how many stores a chain has; it's a matter of how widespread those stores are. If they have five in a state, but three are in one city and two are in another, then everyone else in the state has to drive to those two cities to have access to the chain. It may sound like an exaggerated stereotype, but I personally know quite a lot of Kentuckians who wouldn't have considered Laser Disc something worth driving to Louisville or Lexington to buy. I'm sure that's a mentality that can be found in most states among rural residents.

jjcool

I guess that scenario may have been possible.
I do know that the different models of stores were setup differently. Media Play or On Cue stores were designed to be free standing stores that had alot of different lines of products that were intended to be on their own, where as Suncoasts were intended to be in a mall type area.

Duality

never blu rays arent worth it

who cares dvds are just as good as blu ray

It's hard to believe anyone who has a decent 1080p HDTV and a Blu-ray player would ever choose either of these statements. The difference/improvement is quite obvious and I now regret waiting so long to adopt high definition. All my new purchases are Blu if it is available. DVD is fine if it's the only option. VHS is dead.

EnigManic

Personally, I refuse to buy blue ray for a number of reasons.

Mainly, from what I've seen so far, I'm not impressed enough to put out money for a new, more expensive player so I can play more expensive discs. It feels like the same crap the industry pulled when CDs first came out. It was "the new thing", so CDs typically priced around ten dollars more than cassettes which were actually more expensive to manufacture.

Can someone please explain to me why most of the blue ray movies I've seen in stores like Suncoast cost at least ten dollars more than their DVD counterparts?

slop101

Because you're going to Suncoast....

Here are some amazon prices of SE DVDs, vs their blu-ray counterparts:

Up:
dvd: 19.49, b-r: 19.99

Inglorious Basterds:
dvd: 21.49. b-r: 19.99

Benjamin Button:
dvd: 27.49, b-r: 18.99

Che:
dvd: 35.99, b-r: 34.99

District 9:
dvd: 22.99, b-r: 19.99

I could keep going, but I think you get the point.

Anyone who's still clinging onto the argument of blu-rays being way more expensive than dvds needs a tall glass of shut the fuck up.

mdnitoil

Unless of course you don't happen to be all that interested in the latest crap to hit disc, but rather the older catalog titles. In which case you still have to pay the blu-ray tax, if they even bother to release it at all.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Pretty much. Catalog titles on DVD also come out high and then later drop significantly.

slop101

sigh...

Casablanca:
dvd: 23.49, b-r: 19.99

Wages of Fear:
dvd: 27.99, b-r: 21.99

Raging Bull:
dvd: 15.49, b-r: 8.99

Robin Hood (1938):
dvd: 25.99, b-r: 17.49

Seventh Seal:
dvd: 27.49, b-r: 21.99

Amadeus:
dvd: 22.99, b-r: 17.99

Wings of Desire:
dvd: 26.99, b-r: 21.99

Goodfellas:
dvd: 20.99, b-r: 11.49

dkedvd

Who in their right mind would ever pay that much for DVD or Blu?

Dane

What a lousy comparison!!!

Has got to be to most expensive prices EVER! I got these for half the price in some sale or promotion in whatever region.

mdnitoil

Well, now I don't trust your previous posts at all. Thanks for clearing that up.

slop101

Wow, the wanton ignorance and lack of logic in the last three posts is astounding.

These are prices for the 2-disc SE DVDs with the same feature-set as their blu-ray counterparts from the same store (amazon). Therefore, if you can find these dvds for cheaper during some promotion, it means that you will also find the blu-rays discounted just as much. Just ask Trevor about it.

My god, you anti-blu-ray people really have to take a leave of your senses to justify clinging onto your ridiculously outdated arguments.

orangerunner

These titles are highly inflated examples. Are we comparing the Special Edition DVD to the bare-bones Blu-ray? I know the bare-bones Goodfellas and Raging Bull DVD can be had for $4.99 in almost any dump bin across the country. Even if they are special edition DVD prices, they are over-priced significantly.

The new release special edition DVDs are artifically priced higher than Blu-ray by the studios because they want the movie fanatic consumers, who love the extras, to switch to Blu-ray. They are the easiest target group to make the switch. There's still an $6-$8 difference between Blu-ray and bare-bones DVD. At least now they've worked the price where you actually do get extra value (other than just better picture & sound) in the Blu-ray for the $6-$8 extra but only because they now give you less stuff on the DVD.

The new release special edition DVD is just designed to market the advantages of Blu-ray & make the consumer feel confident in the extra value they received by buying Blu-ray at a lesser price. I don't think they really expect to sell too many new release SE DVD copies.

That said, I agree they have really sharpened their pencil in the last couple of months with Blu-ray hardware & software making prices much less of a factor.

slop101

But my main point wasn't even that blu-rays are cheaper than dvds; overall, they're not; they're just not much more expensive than their dvd counterparts like they used to be (and getting cheaper by the month), and anyone still clinging onto that argument either hasn't checked out recent prices or they're just lying to themselves in order to hold onto a losing argument.

Carcosa

Not to mention that many catalog titles are actually considerably cheaper than their DVD counterparts....like THE SEARCHERS, etc.

You can see the shift happening now with retailers. Best Buy is now offering many recent catalog titles in sales as low as $3.99. I've been slowly divesting myself of some DVD titles now that I know I will be replacing with blu-ray eventually. More obscure discs and many older films I have from the 1920's through the early 1950's I'll probably never replace regardless.....

Josh-da-man

Depends how you define price.

MSRP on Blu-rays is almost always higher than its DVD counterpart. Various stores will frequently have sales on DVDs and Blu-rays, though, and some really sweet deals can be found if you're inclined to seek them out. I certainly stocked up on Blus over the holiday season between Amazon's deals and Target's $5 coupon.

As a general rule, Blu-rays do cost more than DVDs. Particularly with catalog titles, and certain studios.

slop101

Wild Bunch:
MSRP
dvd: 19.98, b-r: 14.98


Seriously though, generally, blu-rays are only a couple dollars more than their dvd versions, except for Criterions which have the same MSRP for each version. But in a lot of cases, you're getting way more bang for your buck for that extra couple dollars. Take Up: the blu-ray's MSRP is $5 more than the 2-disc dvd, but you're also getting the dvd disc in that blu-ray package. Regardless, if you look around for a deal, which aren't too hard to find, the price discrepancy is even less than a couple dollars and practically negligible. Which is what makes it a non-issue now.

WMAangel

AND Lionsgate TV series...seriously, look it up, same MSRP for either DVD or BD on Mad Men and Weeds, which then typically translates to the same sales price (like this week's release of Weeds: Season 5 - $24.99 for either format at Target)....they are one studio who know how to price things right!

jjcool

Funny that you mention that specific title. As the dvd is 5.79 at Amazon right now, and the blue ray is 9.99.

Carcosa

I think you see some of the DVD pricing that you do is an attempt to blow out stock at this point. The format shift IS coming quickly, whether people like it, or not. The transition, like before, is spotty regarding selection but that will change also, as retailers like Target, Wal-mart and the like expand their floorspace for this product. I remember when the DVD aisles were small and VHS was the bulk of the displays. And the studios get to sell all their movies all over again.

slop101

Not to mention what Gizmo brought up in the HD thread:
Even I think that kinda sucks, but if that's not a sign of the disappearance of dvds, I don't know what is.

EnigManic

You made a very intelligent post and a good point. But this is exactly why I dislike blue ray.

Maybe I can't afford a blue ray player right now, maybe I don't want one. I do happen to have a very nice dvd player, an xbox 360 and a respectable dvd collection. I feel it is unethical to force consumers to buy blue ray by deliberately offering less features on the DVDs.

Carcosa

Well, its hardly unethical. The marketplace dictates these changes. A better format has come along...like it always has. The studios will be all for it, a chance to cycle through their catalogs all over again. And I will buy many films all over again because they look and sound better.

A lot of people had respectable VHS collections and said the same about DVD. I had a very respectable laserdisc collection and that was gone pretty quickly when DVD came to town. Blu-ray-DVD combo packs will be the future for awhile.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If someone can't afford the price of a blu-ray player, something that can be found for less than $20 more than a new xbox 360 game, they should learn to save their money.

Is it unethical that there's newer video game consoles even though I have a large collection that won't work with the newer system? There's nothing unethical about it. The same thing has happened and will happen with every advance in technology.

Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. Can you not go to a store and buy a DVD? No. Have they recalled DVD players? No.

It's fine if someone doesn't want to get a blu-ray player but don't complain when, not if, technology advances and things change. Grandma dealt with it, or got put in an abusive nursing home when DVDs came out, and the rest of us should be able to handle it too or they'll just get put away somewhere.