So trying to compare HD-DVD stand alone player costs to that of the Playstation3 is just a ridicules argument.
Was my post really that hard to understand? OK, I'll try in bulleted form:
- you claim BD as new technology is expensive and should cost a lot
- I claim that expensive is a relative term and what BD costs today - and not my argument - is ridiculos.
Not much is known about the price of the players.
Please note, I don't refer to Toshiba statement made some ~
9 months ago about breaking even with $150 entry level players.
I fully understand that for a bluboy what Sony says is gospel, what Toshiba says is FUD.
OK, let say Sony is right and $399 PS3 is the breakeven point.
I don't give a f*ck how good of a BD player the PS3 is or what a marvel of technology it is - I use it only because we have some financials about it.
PS3 is more expensive to manufacture than other BD players, can we agree on that?
Let's say the drive and Cell CPU are 2 components that define PS3 price. A BD player has only the drive, hence should be breaking even around $199.
With me so far? I believe it doesn't cost them more than half that much, but let's stick to the numbers.
If there were competition, if BDA would be thinking not only about raping early adopters - we would see players on sale for around $200 (again, pessimistically speaking). We don't.
To summarize: BD players are expensive, i.e. more expensive than $50 DVD players. But claiming $400 as an entry point is a blessing for consumers when
the breakeven point is less than half that much is taking it too far...
Was it clearer this time?
I would guess that when DVD came on line the costs were high in the beginning.
Disc vs. tape? The disc was at least 3 times cheaper...
That's why DVD was such a success: it was dramatically better quality, it was cheaper to manufacture, it did not require new TV, receiver, speakers, and no "Please rewind"...
I will wager a guess that the studios are not loosing a penny on the blu-ray disks, their profit margin may be less but I seriously doubt they are losing money.
When "Matador" sells some 5,000 copies in hidef, how much do you think the studio made on it?
Diogen.