Wal-Mart puts stake through HD DVD's heart

[nonrev]

Care to wager on that?

It's at a crawl because of the format war.
One format = more people will buy = lower prices = more people will buy = mainstream

One format = no reason to lower prices.

It appears this is true, I haven't seen BD lower prices, if I'm not mistaken prices of BD have gone up. WB announcement has really emboldened BD. Now manufacturers will try to recoup all the money they lost during the format war. I doubt there will be any price drops until the 4th quarter.

 

[Peter Parker]

What has BD really won? With one format the have a monolopy and can keep prices higher for the percieved value over standard def. I'm glad we have DVD around to keep them honest in pricing.

What they seem to have won (we don't know for sure) is the format war with H DVD. Whether that helps consumer is another issue. they have less competition to be sure but if they price themselves too high they still won't nove units.

This is the type of thing that would have been called FUD if it was posted about BD. is it? No. it is an honest expression of your opinion. We will see if this leads to lower or higher prices and whether it speeds or slows down the adoption rate for BD.

 

[chicagofilms]

One format = no reason to lower prices.

Yes, it was the great DVD vs. Divx battle that gave us cheap DVDs.

Prices will come down, just like they did with DVD.

 

[blueaurora]

The adoption for DVD was a different scenario for the common person. We had the same crappy quality for most people for decades. DVD was adopted heavily because who the hell wants to buy a crappy quality VHS who's tape will break after watching it a few times and quality degrades over time.

Divx was barely even really a competitor to DVD it was more of a version of DVD to replace rental services.

 

[navychop]

OK.... The Fat Lady has Sung.

She done screeched, put her hair up in rollers, and left the building.

 

[Carl B]

Prices of BD players will fall to "reasonable" levels once all the consumers, willing to pay plus$500 for a movie player, but were waiting for the format war to end, have purchased their BD player. That should take a couple of years. I predict sub-$500 1080p BD players will be common-place for Christmas 2009.

Carl B.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Nothing more to argue about really.

Maxpower(another BD insider) stated this morning that the Reporter article had merit, and Penton said something was looming that caused the Toshiba decision. This must have been it.

And to the price complainers, BD has had another sale on Amazon.

Worse news about this is they are dropping the software.

Universal and Paramount, can't wait to see you

 

[Fiveft20in]

What has BD really won? With one format the have a monolopy and can keep prices higher for the percieved value over standard def. I'm glad we have DVD around to keep them honest in pricing.

Your argument doesn't hold water. I remember when blank VHS tapes were in the $12-$15 range and paying over $400 for a 4-head hi-fi stereo VHS VCR. Prices fell dramatically, despite the demise of the competing Beta format.

 

[gadgtfreek]

One format = no reason to lower prices.

It appears this is true, I haven't seen BD lower prices, if I'm not mistaken prices of BD have gone up. WB announcement has really emboldened BD. Now manufacturers will try to recoup all the money they lost during the format war. I doubt there will be any price drops until the 4th quarter.

You really are delusional. You know this right?

 

[Buzzdar]

This is just the Beta - VHS debate all over again. I think if someone would create a play that would play both the problem would be solved.

 

[Peter Parker]

Therre are players that play both.

 

[gadgtfreek]

 

[JohnL]

One format = no reason to lower prices.

It appears this is true, I haven't seen BD lower prices, if I'm not mistaken prices of BD have gone up. WB announcement has really emboldened BD. Now manufacturers will try to recoup all the money they lost during the format war. I doubt there will be any price drops until the 4th quarter.

Nonrev,


Or you are totally wrong, now BD has won the Next Gen Optical Disc format war, dozens of companies will jump on the Bandwagon and there will be alot of different BD brands to choose from. This will push Player Prices down, more players means economies of scale which will lower chip and component prices, again pushing prices down.

What company lost more on the Player wars than Toshiba. Sony and a couple of other BD branded players lost money but not like Toshiba. Sony will recoup any losses with Royalty payments from other manufactures.

Movie companies might raise prices, but the Movie companies need the Next Gen Optical format to win, besides before DVD Movie, sales were in general vastly more expensive on VHS/Beta but mostly because of the time involved in producing the final product.

 

[db2]

Wow, a lot of sour grapes in this thread. Here's my $0.02, all MHO of course:

1) Those that invested heavily in HD-DVD and are now pissed, I'm sorry but this was a format war. You should have known the risks from the beginning. The good news is that your HD-DVD's will still play in your HD-DVD player and it will also play DVD's.

2) Let's face it, a lot of people who jumped into HD-DVD did so because it was cheap(er). Those people are now upset because BD players are not cheap. Well, either stop whining and buy one or be prepared to wait. BD player prices will come down eventually like every other electronic gadget. BDA isn't about to start selling players at a heavy loss like Toshiba, look where that got them.

3) The 2.0 player argument is overblown. Manufacturers will push to get 2.0 players on the market by Q4 of this year and before long all players will be 2.0 and this argument will be dead. A great number of users will never take advantage of 2.0 features anyway.

4) HD-DVD dying can only help HDM adoption. Every poll or study ever done said that the format war was the #1 factor keep people from jumping into HDM. But in the end, who cares? I enjoy HDM because it provides the best PQ/AQ so I'll continue to buy HDM. If you think downloads are the future then go download something.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I dont see why everyone contiunes to think the pricing is going to be a 180 from DVD's history, instead of right in line.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Wait, there is still hope:

DailyTech - HD DVD Still Equally Represented at Canadian Retail and Rental

 

[teamerickson]

That should make the Canadians happy.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I wonder if nonrev and vurbano will move to Canada in protest, kinda like some did after the last election :haha

 

[teamerickson]

I think Diogen is Canadian (really).

 

[tnsprin]

One format = no reason to lower prices.

It appears this is true, I haven't seen BD lower prices, if I'm not mistaken prices of BD have gone up. WB announcement has really emboldened BD. Now manufacturers will try to recoup all the money they lost during the format war. I doubt there will be any price drops until the 4th quarter.

See the prices on Amazons 3 for 2 sale (even before the free disc) or J&R's sale. Surprisingly low prices for media.

And lots of sales on Hardware.