What is your price?
by Matt Burns 
posted Apr 4th 2006 at 12:25PM
Our April Fools joke
went over well, (sorry to everyone that fell for it), but it got us thinking. If there was a way to kill this format
war early, it certainly would be to undercut the competition. Many of us have already drawn our battle line and choose
a high-def camp; FYI, mine is HD DVD. Everyone has a price though. We would drop up to $350 to buy a first generation
high-def optical drive, but not a cent more. What would your limit be if they really come out that cheap?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Varghese @ Apr 4th 2006 9:54AM
I would do $300 max if and only if the player could output at 1080P.
I know people will jump on here and say the difference between P and I would be neglible on the screen that I'm looking at (37") but honestly, I don't care. I just want something that will work for both now and later. Until it hits that price-point and feature set, no thank you, I'll stick to a good upconverting DVD player.
Adam Jones @ Apr 4th 2006 12:55PM
When I saw the April Fool's blog I thought "$300 is exactly what I would pay for a 1st-gen Blu-Ray player". I would probably only be willing to pay $250 for a 1st-gen HD-DVD.
leo prieto @ Apr 4th 2006 1:19PM
I'm with Blu-Ray, and I would be willing to pay up to US$500.
Mind you I'm in Chile, where all the HDTV I can get is through BitTorrent (yes, you CAN find HDTV in BitTorrent, chinese torrent sites are full of it), so I'm probably willing to pay a bit more because I don't have too many options.
zelig2 @ Apr 4th 2006 1:39PM
I'd go up to $399 since that could very likely be the price of the new PS3. That's my Blu-Ray right there. I'll most likely skip HD-DVD unless it starts gaining momentum.
Dro @ Apr 4th 2006 1:39PM
Leo Prieto you should share some of those nice sites! :)
TV @ Apr 4th 2006 3:01PM
$25.. Should be the price on Ebay after they both
flop!
It'll depend on the restocking fee!
No really, I won't buy first gen at all (when does that end btw? When a particluar company releases a new player or after all companies release a player?)
I'd like to see all features of either format. Without the interactive layer (or whatever else is left out), this first gen. would be this format's version of non-upconverting DVD players, which I think are useless anyway..
MrSatyre @ Apr 4th 2006 3:32PM
None of the announced or planned HD DVD players will output 1080p. Most (if not all) of the Blu-ray players will. HD DVD players will be cheap because they are mass produced by the same Chinese companies that produce $49 DVD players at Walmart. Toshiba went that route in order to be first to market, a sure sign of desperation. Which would you rather have: a low-quality player or a quality-build player? By year's end, there will be only three HD DVD players to choose from, and around 10 or more Blu-ray players. There are currently about four times the number of HD DVD movies in the works for Blu-ray. Wouldn't you like to have more options? I know I would. Toshiba has consistently pushed back their product releases, each time denying and avoiding the issues. First it was November of '05, then March of '06, and now it's presumably April of '06. Will there be another delay? Woudln't be surprised! None of the Blu-ray supporters have fibbed about release dates, and have been up front about delays.
Richard Lawler @ Apr 4th 2006 4:18PM
Satyre, I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but it's pretty inaccurate to accuse toshiba of fibbing about release dates and then call Blu-ray providers up front. They've been equally delayed and redelayed, and each side has issued press releases saying all is well but we're not coming out yet each time.
Calling HD-DVD "fibbers" for delays caused by diagreements within the Blu-ray camp over AACS is being just a bit overzealous.
I'll decide what i will and won't pay once actually see some players and discs, I haven't had the opportunity to yet, but I won't be buying first day, week or month.
leo prieto @ Apr 4th 2006 4:42PM
Dro: I'm not sure Matt is going to allow this, but here are a couple of chinese BT sites full of HDTV:
http://bt.hd-tv.cn/
http://bt.eastgame.com/
Both are in Chinese, but easy to figure out.
Actually, if you read the comments about Ben's post on how there is "no HDTV via BitTorrent", you'll find more links to "true" HDTV content via BitTorrent.
http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/03/08/there-is-no-hd-via-bittorrent/
Jim @ Apr 4th 2006 7:09PM
$249-$349 It must play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles and output at a true 1080p for me to pay top dollar ($349) for it, as well as upconvert standard DVD titles to 1080p. I'd consider a lesser-featured 1080i unit (as that is what my TV is) if it were like $199 or less.
I paid $249 for my Denon that upconverts via DVI (HDCP) and it has that Faroudja DCDi chip in it. I won't pay much more than that.
Thomas Crymes @ Apr 5th 2006 11:56AM
Players are useless without content, and until there is substantial content for either player, this question is moot.
I'd rather watch Star Wars in Black and White/Mono then watch the Pacifier in HD and 7.1.
Give me a decent library and we'll talk.
sMoRTy71 @ Apr 6th 2006 10:25AM
I would pay $249 for a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD hybrid that upconverts regular DVDs. 1080i is fine with me.
And I agree with Thomas. A strong content library has to be there before I buy anything.
PeteL @ Apr 7th 2006 2:26PM
Well since I purchased a Sony 7000 when it came out for a grand, and 7700 for another grand when that came out. Don't forget the Sony MDP-650 LD player I tossed some good coin for, then paid about 250.00 to have it modded for AC-3 RF output. I'd figure I'd pay a grand for a combo player HD/BD.