HD DVD and Blue Ray

Nisqually Dave

I was out at the PX yesturday and they are carrying both the Toshiba HD DVD for 350.00 and the Sanyo Blue Ray 750.00 why such a serious difference in price.

Dave

Systems

Hummm not sure why but Sanyo must be a new player in the game as I had not heard that they had a player.Are you sure it was'nt a dual format (HD-BR) player?that would explain it.

Sherardp

while I cant answer why the huge price difference, I can say that you cant go wrong with either. It more of which offers the titles youre into. I enjoy both.

krabby5

Actually after a $100 Toshiba promotion, you can get HD players for $299

Maybe less online and Costco..

I wonder how this will all shake out..

cheddar

Nisqually Dave wrote: »

I was out at the PX yesturday and they are carrying both the Toshiba HD DVD for 350.00 and the Sanyo Blue Ray 750.00 why such a serious difference in price.

Dave

Toshiba has always been very agressive on price since HD-DVD's inception:

http://www.tekrati.com/research/News.asp?id=7344

Since December they have been falling behind in software sales:

http://www.dvdempire.com/Content/Features/hidef_wars.asp?view=1&userid=99365301400678

So I would expect as the only major manufacturer of stand-alone hd-dvd players that their agressive pricing will continue. Can you get the $100 off the $350 price?

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/High-Def_Retailing/Hardware/Toshiba_Offers_$100_Rebate_on_New_HD_DVD_Players/637

At $250, that would be a great price with all the free movie deals too. Even the stripped down 360 add-on is $199 retail.

Just make sure, as has already been said, that you check movie availability:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=766588

Monster Jam

Count on Cheddar for a subtle vote for Blu-Ray!

From what I've read, both Sony and Toshiba are taking a huge financial pounding from this technology. Specificly for Sony its the PS3 thats killing them.

Its true that there is currently more media available for Blu-Ray, but that doesn't explain why there is such a price differential. If I had to guess, its that Blu-Ray is simply more expensive to manufacture.

While Blu-Ray's potential is greater than HD DVD, some have argued that this difference is so marginal that (where video and audio are concerned) it wont matter.

cheddar

Monster Jam wrote: »

Count on Cheddar for a subtle vote for Blu-Ray!

I actually think that if people like the movies on hd-dvd, now is a very good time to take advantage of toshiba's current marketing push trying to reverse the recent gains of blu-ray. $299 for a stand alone player at major retailers is a very nice price point. And don't forget the free movies included in the deal bring down the price even more.

If people want blu-ray, I'd advise against purchasing a player before the end of summer unless you have an excess of cash and can't wait to see the summer movie releases. Those $799-$1000+ players should see some nice price reductions as newer, lower priced models come out and competition heats up. Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Samsung, etc. all make players and competition should heat up the nearer we get to the Christmas season. The market sets the prices for these since there are so many companies creating the market. Except for game machines like the ps3 which traditionally sell at a loss initially just like the article and you said.

Toshiba however doesn't have any competition in the stand alone market except for the much criticized universal player from LG. My guess would be that they are feeling the heat from blu-ray software sales and are setting their price to stem the loss of market share. If the hardware were truly that cheap and simple to produce, I think we would see more consumer electronics companies jumping in the ring to give Toshiba competition and get a piece of a growing pie for themselves. But since Toshiba is the only stand alone game in town, that leads me to believe that they are setting the price much too low for other companies to take a chance on and who want to make money on player sales.

But that's just my educated guess too...:)

bsoko2

The big problem with Blu ray is that the different manufacturers of the player have different picture quality. Where HD DVD only has one manufactuere now and give a better picture and upconversin of dvd. The new AX2 from Toshibia is the latest and greatest and is around $529 on Amazon.com and I haven't seen that player anywhere else for sale. This months Home Thester Mag has done a article comparing the Blu Ray, HD DVD, and the LG combo (dual Blu ray and HD DVD) player. The HD DVD AX2 is rated the better machine.

ilikesound

yea i have one. its great. but i just wish that the price for media would come down a bit. some places are selling the discs for around 35 bucks a piece. to me, that's obscene. honestly, a regularly priced dvd is kind of outrageous if you think about how much it costs to actually produce one. i think hddvds and blu-rays will see a large monetary gain if the cost of the media is reduced.

polkatese

Any more news on new dual format players ala LG HD-100?

I have my add-on 360 HD-DVD player right now that is good enough to carry me until I get my dual format player, whenever that would be.

Monster Jam

bsoko2 wrote: »

The big problem with Blu ray is that the different manufacturers of the player have different picture quality.

Thats a tough assesment to make. I would say the quality of the transfer is going to dictate picture quality differences between HD DVD and Blu Ray, not the machines themselves (where next gen movies are concerned).

Ron-P

Why the price difference, HD-DVD was built off of existing dvd technology where as Blu-ray is all new. Takes a lot more coin to develope something from scratch then building off something that already exists.

As for PQ between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, I have the A1 and the BD-1000p, both provide identical PQ, no difference between the formats.

DesertPilot

I finally broke down and bought the Samsung 1200 Blu-Ray (their 2nd gen model released recently). BB has marked them down to $700. The player incorporates the new silicon optics chip to upconvert Sdvds. Watching Blu Ray or Sdvds is simply an awesome experience. I'm glad I bought it.

marcus

goingganzo

hd dvd uses a modded dvd setup where blu-ray is totaley new and has a higher upside

BIZILL

goingganzo wrote: »

hd dvd uses a modded dvd setup where blu-ray is totaley new and has a higher upside

INTERNET: MIS-information super-highway.:rolleyes:

LuSh

I'd recommend saving your pennies there is more evidence to support that the typical consumer doesn't care about the added picture quality and would rather spend $50 on an upconverting DVD player, if they even know what that is. If I were a betting man i'd say the format war will end much like the SACD vs DVD-A battle; alot of people debating while the mainstream market place moves on to a lower res format supported by a file sharing PC based system.

Monster Jam

I partially agree: while I think this war will be drug out over time without a clear winner between the two formats, the real winner will be a different technology altogether (such as a hybrid or downloaded content.

Unlike audio (and as much as it baffles me), I think general consumers shoot for the best picture quality available. This, in the future, will even translate to portable devices.

LuSh

MonsterJam I can see where you're coming from my only problem with this 'consumer demands better picture' is I think its artifical...people are buying televisions because women demand flat panels on walls as much as the husband wants to believe that the TV is being bought because its HD.

Furthermore television technolgy went from black and white to color during the course of 50 years. It's just recently that things have changed...I'm not sure how much the average consumer demands and how much the tweakers (myself included) and manufactures want to believe the general public cares as much as we do.

cheddar

LuSh wrote: »

...people are buying televisions because women demand flat panels on walls as much as the husband wants to believe that the TV is being bought because its HD.

Used to be a 27"-32" TV was a nice set to have in the family room. Lots of LCDs come in those sizes and they are comparatively dirt cheap. 50"-60"+ screens mean that the husband still has a lot to say about what goes up on the wall...:D. No wife I know begs their husband to make their entire wall a TV and pony up mortgage payments to finance it all.