For example, Amazon now has the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player for $229, which is a 43 percent savings from the original $399 price tag.
Blu-ray players from Philips, Insignia, Magnavox, and Sylvania also are expected to drop to the $249 price range, which is a strong move ahead of the holiday shopping season. Furthermore, the Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player is expected to drop from $400 down to $300, while the BDP-S550 will launch with a $400 price tag instead of the original $500 price tag that consumers expected.
Brick and mortar retailers have also cut prices on select Blu-ray models, in an effort to generate sales. Best Buy dropped $50 on a Sharp Blu-ray player so it now is available for $349.99 instead of $399.99. Circuit City and other B&M retailers also have cut prices on both players and movie titles, although it is unknown if it has helped them move Blu-ray products off their shelves.
Blu-ray viewers have relied heavily on the Sony PlayStation 3, but sales of standalone Blu-ray players have been rather lackluster as of late. Even though Blu-ray playing technology has drastically increased since the first generation of players, the price of said units has remained too high for most consumers to hop on board -- but this latest price cut should help boost sales.
But until both Blu-ray players and Blu-ray movies drop in price, it'll be interesting to see if consumers are going to adopt Blu-ray. Standard DVD quality remains good enough for many consumers, and upconverting DVD players are available anywhere from $50 up to $150+, which can increase picture quality of DVDs.
Even with a price drop, Bluray is still going to have a problem convincing consumers to drop DVD.
If they wanted consumers to drop Dvd's they would not include support for it.
According to CDFreaks that is quoting an article on C|Net that refers us to a story over at HD Guru that cites "an industry source citing an unconfirmed report in the trade publication, Consumer Electronics Daily, Sony will be dropping the price of its leader Blu-ray player (BDP-S350) by $100, bringing the retail price to $299 on Sept 28, 2008."
God D*mn! This HAS to be true!!!!!!!!!!!! So what? It is still Bluray with all of it's pain in the butt restrictions and requirements.
Well, I'm happy to see that prices are dropping. However, I still have no desire to purchase a Blu-ray player. Until Sony wises up, I will keep my money in my pocket.
They could improve the DvD quality in the high-end Blu-Ray players. But the low-end Blu-Ray players need to compete with $50 DvD players which still look pretty good on HDTVs. When I see distorted TV in most all public TVs instead of correct aspect ratio, I figure lots of people don't care about quality.
But I do - but my Blu-Ray player is waiting until Christmas.
Again, it comes down to your other equipment - and not just the player. I don't know anyone with a 1080p TV - and the people with flat panels who THINK they are ready for 'the full HD experience' are going to be pretty miffed when they realise they haven't got what they thought they bought. It will further put people off. You are correct in saying that people don't really care that much about quality - and this is proven by the number of people who are okay with watching TV on 'You Tube' ! The companies assumed that this would be their new 'cash cow' - and people would flock to 'hi-def'. Guess that didn't work for them then !
Out of curiosity, what would it take for some of you to purchase a Blu-ray player? Prices to drop below $200? The price of movies to drop below $20 per title?
@psychoace
Why would anyone want to buy a Bluray player to play their DVD's when they have a perfectly good DVD player already? And why would anyone buy a Bluray player just to specifically play DVDs in the first place? That is why I said what I said.
@ Randomus
I don't think you're getting the picture. For some of us it isn't about money. It's about being told what we can or cannot do with something we've purchased. Imagine you buy a gallon of milk and decide to give some of it to a friend. "Wait", yells the DRM cop who jumps out from behind the bushes. "You can't share that milk. Only you can drink that milk. If you share your milk, that's stealing."
Get my point?
I'm just tired of Sony (and other companies) who think they can piss all over our fair use rights. So, I'll play it their way. I won't copy or share Blu-ray discs. I'll accomplish that by not buying Blu-ray discs.
Blu-ray will never become as popular as DVD has. Never ever.
@Randomous asks:
"Out of curiosity, what would it take for some of you to purchase a Blu-ray player? Prices to drop below $200? The price of movies to drop below $20 per title?"
The problem is that you need more than just the Blu-ray player. You need a house that is big enough to accomodate a decent size HDMI and HDCP (preferrably HDMI 1.3) compliant display ( preferrably 50 inch or greater) and then you need to have surround sound speakers and also a DRM compliant receiver. Not to mention you are better off with a Intenet connection that is available for the player for "upgrades" and chatting with the stars.
If your house is not wired for surround, then you need to do that as well or have wires on the floor. You might as well say that you need about $4,000 minimum to "enjoy Blu-ray".
So you don't have any dvd's then DukeNukem?
@DukeNukem
And your analogy is true for CD and DVD. So what's your point? You're not going to buy CD and DVD too? Oh I forgot, you usually download from torrent for free. 
"It is still Bluray with all of it's pain in the butt restrictions and requirements."
I wonder what those restrictions and requirements are, since I've never had any trouble playing any BluRay discs. I suppose you mean it is difficult to illegally copy rented BluRay discs. Or maybe you're so wealthy you can afford to import BluRay discs from other regions and are sad that some are region locked. But for 99.9% of users, that is users who don't steal and who aren't flying discs in from around the world, BluRay involves putting in a disc and pressing play.
@ psychoace
I have 650 store-bought DVDs. DVDs kicked VHS's ass in quality. Also, you didn't have to go out and buy a new TV. Comparing DVD to Blu-ray is like comparing George Bush and the mentally handicapped. No, wait...
@ ghost
I have CDs and DVDs. Sometimes I can't wait to watch a movie and I download it before it comes out on DVD. If I really like it then I buy the movie when it comes out. I'll be first in line for Dark Knight.
@ deckard68
"BluRay involves putting in a disc and pressing play."
Really? Word is that you have to wait forever for the disc to load up. Sometimes it will play. You might have to connect to the Internet for a patch or to access extra features. DVD was a finished specification. I wish I could say the same for Blu-ray.
@ deckard68
"BluRay involves putting in a disc and pressing play."
There is more to it than that unless you have the right DRM compliant setup.
Google search = blu-ray won't play
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,290,000 for blu ray won't play. (0.29 seconds)
@ DukeNukem
"Imagine you buy a gallon of milk and decide to give some of it to a friend. "Wait", yells the DRM cop who jumps out from behind the bushes"
Uh Dvd's and Vhs both have a form of DRM on them that protects the content on these discs from being copied. Video games and music cd's also contain some form of DRM. So your saying your nothing buying blu ray cause it has drm but yet you buy drm infected media elsewhere. This is considered a hypocrital stance and sounds like your main reason for not buying blu ray isn't DRM but the cost which is a completly acceptable reason right now. We all know that this stuff cost a lot but they arn't expecting you to spend $4,000 just for Blu Ray. They are expecting to get sales from people who already have spent the $1000+ to get a 1080p tv in order to enjoy the extended quality of this format. Mind you they also expect that you are able to afford such a player and for those who can't well they are trying there best to get this player at the cost level at which it will finally break the big market. This is not a product for everyone and if you can't afford a drm compliant setup then just stick with your DVD's but to call a format dead just cause your to broke is undeserving and misleading to the public.
psychoace (guest) It could be that he got fooled once with CSS and does not wish to get fooled again. We should be able to do what we want with these discs. We bought the darn things. This is a legal right as declared by US law. We should be able to stream them on a PC, make a backup copy whatever. These are our legally given Fair Use rights. DRM was invented and a law passed making it a crime to bypass protections, because the industry does not wish for us to have these Fair Use rights. These restrisctions were do little to stop piracy as any TRUE pirate, can copy any material and then sell it anyway. And there are already laws on the books to cover these losses. If the studios were truly pissed about movies being ripped, then why do they digitize the damn things and sell them on the street? For even more money of course. These films already should have been profitable from the theater (if they are any good) so all this optical sales is gravy. I for one do not want to have to pay for processing power, software tech, ( AnyDVDHD) Algorithms, Keys, special dongles, updates Internet connections and interfaces to enhance corporate profits! If they don't want their stuff ripped- THEN DON'T sell it on shiny little discks that can be read on a computer!!!!!!!
"Word is that you have to wait forever for the disc to load up. Sometimes it will play. You might have to connect to the Internet for a patch or to access extra features. DVD was a finished specification. I wish I could say the same for Blu-ray."
Nope. PS3 loads and plays within a couple seconds. Which is why I picked the PS3. Try it you might like it.
Regarding upgrading firmware, yeah I heard that the original players were released before the standards were finished.
Google results for "bluray won't play in my dvd player" - lots.
Someone buy DukeNukem a BluRay player and get him up to speed.
deckard68 (guest),
"Someone buy DukeNukem a BluRay player and get him up to speed."
I thought you said you need a PS3 to get up to speed with Blu-ray.
"Nope. PS3 loads and plays within a couple seconds. Which is why I picked the PS3. Try it you might like it."
I don't think Duke will want to wait on a 250 dollar profile 1.1 player to load either- you ought to get him a PS3.
Totally agree with ya crabbyappleton. I think it should all be unprotected but with capitalism around the likely hood of that happening is nill or at least a novelty (DRM free music). Still the fact is if you buy a legit copy you can have legit playback with a legit player. I'm just saying it's kinda hypacritical to say your completly against Blu Ray because of it's DRM infection yet still support very proudly a product that falls under the same banner.
Anyone talking about DRM is just full of it, the true reason you folks bring that up is because you can't go out, rent the movie and pirate it, because if you were so concerned about "fair use" rights, you would know that more and more titles coming out on Blu-Ray now come with a digital copy that you can rip to your Ipod, etc.
Not only that, R66, but the funny thing about this DRM argument is that all this anti-Blu-Ray people were pro-HDDVD. Which was DRM free, of course, or else they would not support it. LOL
Basically a lot of sour grapes because their team lost the game.
I think the point is more that if you OWN a CD and want the music on your MP3 player you should be allowed to transfer it. You have only changed the form/format. Perhaps you have DVD you want to watch on your PSP during your flight.
People can always do illigal things, I am sure everyone had friends, neighbours, famliy with a copied vhs movie or cassette tape.
However we are facing the fact if you OWN a CD and have a copy on your Iphone, Ipod, MP3 player, mobile phone you could be charged as a criminal.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10004646-38.html
"DHS claims the border search of electronic information is useful to detect terrorists, drug smugglers, and people violating "copyright or trademark laws." (Readers: Are you sure your iPod and laptop have absolutely no illicitly downloaded songs? You might be guilty of a felony.)"
I'm sorry to say that after checking all aspects of blu ray my 34 dollar divx player pretty well plays what I want. It allows me to play on a regular tv or a wide screen, burn divx on a normal day to day computer not a super computer required for blu ray.
In effect you don't have to mortgage your home to upgrade
By R66 (guest), Thursday 28 August 2008 04:43
"Anyone talking about DRM is just full of it, the true reason you folks bring that up is because you can't go out, rent the movie and pirate it, because if you were so concerned about "fair use" rights, you would know that more and more titles coming out on Blu-Ray now come with a digital copy that you can rip to your Ipod, etc." Did it ever occur to you that they added this "feature" later, because their DRM infested products are not selling? Dude- what they giveth, they can taketh away. WTF! We bought the darn thing, why do I need the to provide an extra compressed low quality version? I can make my own!! Because you are impatient and cannot let the market help settle this DRM fiasco. Look at the music "industry". they suddenly don't give a crap about piracy and sell their songs DRM free due to no one was buying. Who is the hippocrite now? Mark my words, if Blu-ray can get enough market share to oust DVD- they will pull the rug out from under all these HD fanboi's and start charging you for every move you make...just watch. These corporate fat cats are only out for one thing with DRM- enhanced revenues AFTER the sale, for actions that are supposed to be free and legal according to the Fair Use laws.