Panasonic: No price drops for Blu-ray players yet
Posted on 10/03/08 17:28 by Tim Stork                             
Panasonic: No price drops for Blu-ray players yet

Last week we came to the conclusion that we don't have to expect any significant price drops in the upcoming months. It is expected that around Christmas many manufacturers will drop their prices and this could mean an overall decrease in price for Blu-ray players. Some people stated that with Blu-ray being the standard many studios will now start creating content. With more and more content becoming available we can automatically expect a player's price drop they say.

Michael Langbehn, spokesman for the German Blu-ray Group and Panasonic Germany stated that he didn't expect significant price drops in the next four to five months. 'Around Christmas, we can expect more dramatic price decreases,' he said. He also expects that the development of a mass market will take two to five years. This development is expected to generate even more price cuts.

'When we are really in mass production, I think we can easily hit prices of 300 euros or lower," he said. "The market will develop in the next two to five years. Maybe by then it will be 50-50 Blu-ray and DVD.'

With this announcement we now know that it will take two, or five years, until we can finally start buying cheap Blu-ray players. ;)

Reactions
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By ivid, Monday 10 March 2008 17:54
The longer they take to lower prices the closer they come to extinction.
By micro$soft (guest), Monday 10 March 2008 18:17
ivid wrote"The longer they take to lower prices the closer they come to extinction." I remember you predicting HD-DVD was the future...give up mate you're making yourself look bad.
By Rich86, Monday 10 March 2008 19:01
Rich86If blu-ray takes more than 2 years to offer profile 2 players for under $200 - it will be doomed to remain the small niche it is today forever and be swept away by the next technological home theater development before it can become mainstream. It would be lucky to even approach the rather meager market penetration laser disc achieved. cool
By Crabbyappleton, Monday 10 March 2008 19:57
CrabbyappletonWho "needs" Bluray?
By Dr. Who, Monday 10 March 2008 20:01
Dr. Who"Who "needs" Bluray?" said Crabbyappleton. The movie studios says we do Stick Out Tongue
By Timmie, Monday 10 March 2008 20:19
Yeah, they do... And because of them Blu-ray will reach a mainstream position.
By Hypnosis4U2NV, Monday 10 March 2008 23:22
Hypnosis4U2NVC'mon, we all new that this was coming.. With HD-DVD out of the competition, why would they lower the prices? Its not like they have to win support from the consumer.. Sony took care of that by buying support from the studios.. Hell, Im perfectly happy with my SD DVD's and my Toshiba up-converting player (cant call it an HD-DVD player since it doesnt matter).. Eventually after a few years, Ill get a blu-ray player once the price goes well under $100 and burners/recordable media become affordable..
By Achant, Tuesday 11 March 2008 00:13
AchantPlayer price means little to me. It's when the media prices for movies and blanks are in line with current dvd prices that will cause me to start shopping. The jump from cd to dvd was a lot more interesting than the increase capacity of blue ray. In the mean time, I'll just be up-converting. Why don't you up-yours Blu-ray Smilie
By shaolin007, Tuesday 11 March 2008 01:38
shaolin007"Maybe by then it will be 50-50 Blu-ray and DVD.' " LOL, now that is dreaming. Hate to tell the Bluray fanboys out there but it will be a LONG time before that happens. DVD, when it came out, worked on normal TVs. To watch a Bluray, the customer has to go out and buy a TV that is capable of displaying that resolution. Alot of people out there are not so in tune with technology like some that visit this site. Most are happy with regular SD DVD which was easy for them to switch to from VHS. That is the single reason why DVD took off like it did and why Bluray won't.
By Dennis_Olof, Tuesday 11 March 2008 12:05
It is going to take a lot longer for bly-ray to take over from the DVD format. I say probably 10years or more. DVD is still great quality, it is cheap, works and so on. I don't think that peope are scared of high blu-ray prices on the units. It is the media, and movie prices of blu-ray. If this remains high it will take blu-ray longer to reach the same level as dvd. You allso need a new TV to take advantage of the format, that was not the case with DVD as it was only a replacement of the old VHS technology (more or less). The prices dropped fast when the price was right on DVDs, and I would say that pc burner, cheap media and cheap movies go the market of that ground. Now it is everywhere, will blu-ray be able to do the same thing. Probably but it will take way more time that for dvds. Perhaps HDTV will help drive this market with people getting HDTV devices but if that don't happen blu-ray will have problems. Over in europe for example HDTV haven't even taken off.
By koba, Tuesday 11 March 2008 14:10
kobaDont know how it is in other countries, but over here in JP Sony had a shortage of Blu-ray recorders during Xmas and they started selling units intended for Sony Employees. Also over here in JP normal Analog TV will stop in 2011 and everybody who buys a new TV now buys HDTV. The only real enemy for Blu-Ray over here is that many HD capable recorders are able to record in HD definition to normal DVD discs. Also I just visited a local media shop and they just changed a rack from DVD to Blu-Ray (its easier to find Blu-ray in 10pcs packs than DVD+R in 50pcs cakeboxes....).
By FidelC, Tuesday 11 March 2008 19:19
FidelCKoba wrote: "many HD capable recorders are able to record in HD definition to normal DVD discs." Do you by any chance know what codecs are used in such recorders? Can they playback x264? Thanks
By ivid, Wednesday 12 March 2008 01:45
micro$soft, you remember me. Awww shucks Wink I don't remember "predicting" anything but I sure was hopeful, and for all the right reasons. Look how many people out there are upset blu ray "won". Look how much anti-Sony/anti-BR sentiment there is out there, even though unwarranted (they are not the sole BR backers!). It is true, BR faces huge competition from other emerging formats and delivery methods and more so from DVD, so if they keep their prices high they risk going the way of HD DVD. After witnessing the unbelievable speed at which HD DVD died and dissappered, I personally believe that BR could also vanish quickly. I truly hope it doesn't because I am a optical-format oriented HD enthusiast, and once BR spec has settled and prices are reasonable, and I am not required to update the player's firmware with every new BR movie release, then I will be more than happy to buy a player, even though I did not belive in BR when there was competetion from HD DVD.
By koba, Wednesday 12 March 2008 10:15
kobaFidelC: Its called AVCREC and can be found on many Standalone HDD-BD and HDD-DVD recorders by Panasonic. You can record about 1hr 40 minutes of HD contents to DVD discs. As the name already says this uses a Mpeg-4 AVC codec and is based on BDAV application format. But these disc can only be played back in players compatible with AVCREC. AVCREC was made by Panasonic. Toshiba also had HD REC on their HD-DVD recorders. This is similar to AVCREC but based on the HD-DVD application format. Most Blu-ray players however can playback DVDs recorded in AVCHD format with out any problems. This is a Sony/Panasonic format. Mostly AVCHD is used with HD video camcorders.
By DeadMan, Thursday 13 March 2008 23:41
DeadManI am waiting for BD PC recorders and blank media to come into ligh with DVD recorders. At least I will be able to brun those -25GB BD images and rips to something a bit more stable (Hopefully) than a potential hard disk loss. Then again I might just buy a big RAID array and use an external hard disk to take movies around to my relatives/mates Wink Until it gets cheap enough and the remove this bullshit DRM I am not buying into a stand alone nor the movies. :P
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