I too have heard many stories, but my original point is that this guy shouldn't be dismissed just because he at one point picked HD DVD to win. Regardless of how it happened, before WB went BD only, many were picking HD DVD.

Now if he picked HD DVD in March of this year...that would be a different story.

That would be one entertaining article to read.

That's true, but then, I think any price comparison made in a vacuum is somewhat disingenuous, including the comparison of a Blu-ray new release title priced at $25 against bargain bin DVD titles priced at $5 (most of which I would never watch, even if you paid me the $5 ).

Go into any Walmart store, and you will find hundreds of DVD titles priced at $19.97. While I agree that BD prices should be the same, I don't think the disparity is as great as some are claiming.

What does need to happen, though, is that studios need to break the mythical $20 price point for BD, and soon. That is the same complaint I had about DVD when it was starting out, and nothing in that regard has changed. Most consumers still have a stigma about spending more than that amount on a movie. I think that if the average BD price were $19.97 right now, we wouldn't even be having this debate.

I too have heard numerous stories. No need to rehash the past.

Yeah, catalogs will be cut a bit, but Day and Dates is what keeps most people interested. If they do drop the 2 Disc DVD sets...there will be even a bigger gap between the DVD and BD pricepoints. Unless they position the BD to be the same price as the 2 Disc DVD sets were...I can't see it actually helping the format out. It just makes BD look even more higher priced especially considering how quickly 1 Disc DVDs drop in price compared to the 2 Disc DVDs of the same film. Plus we get to pay the premium price for some (me at least) useless Digital Copies.

Kung Fu Panda hit that price point (well, very close to it) and while it was nice to see a Day and Date priced that low, it didn't appear to help sales more then any other title at $27-$30 (still, hard to tell since it came out on a different day then Tuesday).

You're right, that should be reason to dismiss him. But you must admit, having him say that it pains him to predict that Blu-ray will continue to grow kind of implies that he still harbors some bitterness toward the format. Whether that is due to it "beating" HD DVD, or the fact that he has had a bad experience with his player (where many others have not) might be interesting to find out. But in either case, I don't think such bitterness is particularly productive at this point in time.

Maybe it's because I have a PS3, but my experience with Blu-ray has certainly been different than that of the author. I've never been frustrated by load times or changing profiles since owning the player and the prices I've paid for my discs have been worth it to me (I do tend to be patient and wait for decent deals).

His comment that he's not willing to pay "$25 to watch Step Brothers" is a red herring. He seems to be implying that $25 is too much for such a crappy movie, but the studios never price new releases, even on DVD, according to the perceived quality of the movie itself. As a counterpoint, I gladly paid $25 to watch the Dark Knight in hi-def on release day and apparently hundreds of thousands of other people did too. And many, many more paid $20-$23 for the comparable DVD, so I think new release BD prices are just fine (most catalog titles and year-old day and dates are another story).

It's also worth noting that he can easily watch Step Brothers on Blu-ray for the $3 to $5 rental cost.

Or maybe it just reflects the issues he's currently having with the format in regards to his player and price issues.

We'll never know unless he tells us.

Yeah, but you could have easily gotten them for $10-$15 back in 1998-2000. With all the dot-com boom and websites nearly giving stuff away, there were always plenty of channels to buy them for cheap. Plus, for so many titles, the DVD prices were the same as or cheaper than VHS prices. Not so with Blu-ray. Blu-ray prices are always more expensive than DVD prices.

Anyway, more on topic of the thread, that is a horrible article. Christopher Null too often writes these lame articles. I never take him seriously.

Agreed.

While I agree the author was pretty biased, the point is valid, and Brian sums it up pretty well:

I just don't feel the yearning to upgrade to HD like I did for DVD back in the day.
Also, reading about Blu Ray releases that drop extras from the DVD versions? Even if they're in standard def, it won't kill the studio to add them in. Things like that just make me feel it's business as usual for the studios, so I'm going to wait until they really make an effort to sell me on the format.

Absolutely true, but the point I was making was that BD on one hand benefits from DVD blazing the trail into the marketplace, becoming as common an item in any retail establishment as soda pop, on the other hand, suffers from the fact that studios over the years have devalued the "perceived" value of a movie where many people will look at that $25 TDK and say "I'll wait till it hits the $7.50 skid" or whatever pricepoint they are comfortable with. It definitely cuts both ways.

However, to the point you made, I do agree that the price between DVD and BD on release its not that great. However, DVD prices drop much faster than the very steady pricing of BD.

It really is all about expectations.

I agree. In an environment of disinflation things will only get cheaper, I still enjoy my dvd's alot.

To your point about missing features, I think the studios have a good idea how to play the double or triple dip game, that is what they are setting up for. Yet again another reason why our country is in the shape it is in.

Exactly. And that is probably the main problem that the BDA has had, setting and managing consumer expectations.

So far, Blu-ray seems to be growing in spite of their efforts, not because of them.

come on namja, i thought we all agreed to go apples for apples in this thread.

if i walk into Best Buy, today, I am paying $30 for most Blu titles. just like walking in to The Wiz back then and paying $25 for Analyze This.

Sure I could have found titles for $15 back then through on-line means, just like today I can get Kill Bill (Blu) for $12.99 on-line, but still have to pay $30 at Best Buy.

My first 90 DVDs averaged just over $5/title with all the deals we used to get. But I am talking about the typical shopper and the prices they are seeing in stores now v. then.

Seriously? I have to admit that I am just the opposite. Even when DVD was the new big thing, I always viewed it as a stopgap format. I knew HD was coming, and that was what I really wanted.

Granted, I now view BD and DVD as two halves of a whole (just as HD and SD broadcasts are both part of the digital TV spectrum), but I am still very excited about a 'Blu' future for video.

And let's not forget that most of the great deals found during DVD's infancy were as much due to the dot com boom/bust as anything else, and they weren't exactly financially viable marketing plans. How many online dealers went out of business by offering such "deals"?

And, gee, with marketing slogans like "Beyond High-Definition", how could they have ended up with that problem?

Isn't there one criterion or some blu-ray that's cheaper than dvd

Bottle Rocket on Amazon was last time I checked. I've also seen some Blu-Ray prices $4 or $5 more than the 2 disc deluxe DVD (both are still more expensive than the 1 disc DVD).

But that is what I'm talking about. It's NOT apples to apples. With DVDs (yes, thanks mostly to the dot-com boom), there were avenues to buy them for cheap right from the beginning. With Blu-ray, that avenue does not exist.

There's no such thing as reasonably priced movies on retail shelves as a whole. Maybe a few bones they give us here and there. DVD prices are even outrageous on retail shelves. Why? Because you're paying RETAIL.

I would bet most Blu-ray purchases are online and not in a B&M store.

Further, I would bet you most DVD purchases are online and not in a B&M store.

The only reason people go to B&Ms is to price-match, and/or take advantage of a price mistake of a coupon or a misprice. But this is certainly not going to fuel Blu-ray or even DVD.

So, yes, I use my example. And I think its rather valid. If you expect a shitload of $10 Blu-rays in B&Ms (and I'm not talking Echo Bridge bullshit titles which look like utter shit, thanks), you can kiss that idea good-bye right now.

If you want good prices, you have to look. They won't pop out at you when you walk into a Best Buy.

I dunno. I think I disagree with you here. We've had several B1G1 sales online and had some really good deals when HD DVD was competing with Blu. Not so much anymore, but I have to say, I've done pretty well.

I guess if you're a Blu-ray adopter and don't use the internet, you're fucked. You simply need the net to look for deals and those deals are purposely placed online more than they are in stores. We're possibly looking at a two-tier marketing system which wants to sell more bulk online and doesn't care about higher prices on discs in the stores.

I sort of agree. It's a different yearning.

From VHS to DVD was a huge step. It was revolutionary. It's like going from a typewriter to a word processor on a computer. I had to have it. And I bought just about every movie. Going from DVD to Blu-ray is a pretty big step, but it feels more like the next version of the DVD rather than something revolutionary. It's sort of like going from Windows XP to Windows Vista. It's supposed to be much better, but not everyone is seeing it. As such, I'm much more picky about buying movies. If I don't think I'll be watching it at least 3x in the next 12 months, then I won't buy it.

I think you're grossly overestimating the regular folks that walk into Target, Best Buy, or Circuit City and buy a movie that thought was good for $19.99. Or in the case of new releases, at $14.99 - $17.99. Hell, watch people at a store on Sunday and see how many people are grabbing the big release from last week that is no longer on sale.

I also think you're grossly overestimating the number of people that price match or hunt for bargains.

Ha! Don't I know this! I've long said that I personally put the web sites out of business! That's how most of us dvd-talkers who are long in the tooth discovered this web site and made it such a hit! 10 years later and we are still taking advantage of weird web site deals (like 2.75 for season one of three's company! Remember when blank VHS tapes cost that much?) Ha!