Blue-laser players see price drop, market acceptance

by Steve Kerrison on 2 April 2007, 21:07

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HD DVD and Blu-ray players are dropping below the $500 mark, and Taiwan manufacturers reckon the number of sub-$500 players is set to rise as we head towards the second half of this year.

In the US, Samsung dropped the retail price of its BP-1000 to $469.99 in March, while Toshiba's HD-A2 HD-DVD player was nudged down to $399 to compete. DigiTimes reports that a price war is looming, citing Taiwanese manufacturers as the source of such claims.

It's believed that towards the second half of this year, more manufacturers will have blue-laser products retailing below the $500 mark... in the US of course. What does that mean for us? We can hope it means the UK gets to enjoy plenty of sub-£500 players.

$500 is, apparently, considered an indicator of market acceptance for optical drives, and the two blue-laser formats weren't expected to hit such pricing en-masse before the fourth quarter of this year. So, with both formats set to 'be accepted' a quarter or so early, are we any closer to working out which one will win? 'Course not! My money's still on Betamax making a comeback.

HEXUS Forums :: 22 Comments

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Posted by deleted - Mon 02 Apr 2007 14:40
At todays exchange rate $469.99 = £237.44, so for me to even consider HD (either blueray or hd-dvd) it would have to be well below £500.

It is good that the price war seems to have finally started, poss nudged by the release of the ps3 bundled blueray, this has got to be good for the consumer.

Of course to enjoy all this goodness, I'll have to buy a wide screen HD lcd (and the HD movies to watch), maybe a sub to sky (can't get cable) and a few more hours in the day:)

P.S. Navin, if you're reading this, where's your ‘Content Around The Web’ bit gone to? Are you asleep? The last one was on 21/03/07. I want it back, I want it back now:)
Posted by deleted - Mon 02 Apr 2007 14:44
I do believe that Navin's back later in the week. As for content around the web… you'll have to ask him :)

I guess I could do a ‘steve special’ if you really, really wanted.

Oh, and my sub £500 comment was a cynical dig at the UK/US price divide; something that's a bit of a hot topic around these parts at the moment.
Posted by deleted - Mon 02 Apr 2007 15:01
The format war hasn't even started yet and it may not even start.

For a war you need a couple of ‘armies’ to duke it out, what we have at the moment are a few nerds gesticulating at each other…..

Maybe if decent, low cost, dual format players released we could move forward and a large number of new releases would come out in HD and help push this whole thing forward. With the cost of these laser diodes though, this isn't going to happen any time soon. I have a feeling that whatever new format that comes in the next 5 years with 100GB+ capacity will be the new format, both BR and HD-DVD are starting to look like the new LaserDisc.

And I own both….US Toshiba HD-XA1 and a UK PS3.
Posted by deleted - Mon 02 Apr 2007 15:17
Deleted
I do believe that Navin's back later in the week. As for content around the web… you'll have to ask him :)

I guess I could do a ‘steve special’ if you really, really wanted.
.

Thanks for the offer Steve, but you may not be up to Navins standard, and I'd end up being dissappointed:p
Posted by deleted - Mon 02 Apr 2007 23:44
With HD-DVD players available in the UK at circa £265 now it looks that by Christmas we may see our first sub-£200 player priced to sell.

Remember how DVD took off when Tesco started selling the Wharfedale 750 at £179?

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