Blu-ray movies are cheaper than HD DVD
Here at HD Beat we follow the latest format war and the latest information is early confirmation that Blu-ray has the advantage in regards to content, which according to some experts is the key to the format war. Henning over at HDBlog.net has done the leg work and calculated the average cost per title available from Amazon. The verdict is that Blu-ray is actually less expensive and has more titles. Of course this is all speculation at this point and we will know more when Blu-ray is actually released.
Filed under: Programming, Industry
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris @ May 13th 2006 7:19AM
This is just a pointless story ....
I can walk into a store today and buy HD-DVD's - it'll be over a month before I can say the same for Blu-ray. How can something thats not available be cheaper?
Anyway, even at a few bucks less per disc, it will take you a long while to re-coup the difference in the cost of your early adopter player.
Robotic House Plant @ May 13th 2006 11:51PM
This makes no sense. Blu-Ray movies are generally unavailable, so to compare the cost of 4 unindentified movies to the equally unindentified, but greater
library of released HD DVD movies seems pointless. It's also unfair to average the cost between 4 movies vs 9 movies and draw any real conclusion.
If and when a studio releases a movie for both foramts, or when a studio releases a new movie unreleased to DVD to either HD DVD or Blu-Ray, then and only then will we truly know which format, if any, costs more than the other.
Right now this is premature.
Hey Alex @ May 14th 2006 12:00AM
Doesn't Amazon commonly give you a discount on unreleased movies vs released movies?
I noticed the basis for the article was on the sale price instead of list price.
zombieflanders @ May 14th 2006 12:00PM
The retailers want Blu-Ray to win, and it'll have more content from day 1, including that carrot to the masses, Disney.
Retailers are much more excited about Blu-ray, as it stands to have a higher sell rate due to content. The big-box stores seem to be the most ecstatic, since the profit margin on Blu-ray is much higher than HD DVD. That's what Toshiba gets for low-balling. That's also why they've got so few manufacturing partners. The Blu-ray folks know the PS3 will make it a household name, but they also know early adopters (for whom price is not usually an issue) will stick with the STBs because of the stigma of console DVD quality. Therefore, they get both types of consumers.
By next fall, look for 3 or 4 brands of Blu-ray players to each HD DVD brand, and nearly the same ratio of actual players, with very competitive pricing. Of course, Blu-ray will have a zillion more titles, too, which will most likely include some combination of the Bond, Star Wars, Pixar, and/or Spider-man series.
Not supprized @ May 14th 2006 3:47PM
This isn't really supprizing at all, since blu-ray members will get more money in the long run if the format wins they are taking profit losses now in order to try and assure a win, after that they can jack up the price, or leave it there until their wallets cannot hold anymore.
Its a good system really because no one would buy blu-ray if they thought both the system and the movies would be more epensive when they couldn't use them without a new TV. Now Blu-ray has a higher start up cost, but movies are cheaper, and when you upgrade your TVs, your liberary will seem to upgrade to. Genius.
I hate this name and email thing. @ May 14th 2006 3:51PM
"By next fall, look for 3 or 4 brands of Blu-ray players to each HD DVD brand, and nearly the same ratio of actual players, with very competitive pricing. Of course, Blu-ray will have a zillion more titles, too, which will most likely include some combination of the Bond, Star Wars, Pixar, and/or Spider-man series."
Also would like to mention that spiderman is guarenteed since sony owns it, and it is the blu-ray leader.
Finnaly, it won't make much different in the end, because whoever wins all the companies will start producing.
Dave @ May 14th 2006 10:36PM
That's really surprising considering that the cost HD-DVD media is much cheaper. Are you sure you're not talking about movies that contain both HD-DVD and regular DVD movies on the same disc? They're significantly more expensive than HD-DVD-only movies.
henning @ May 14th 2006 10:54PM
They weren't unidentified movies. And it wasn't four versus nine movies. Just go to Amazon and see. I compared the prices of 19 identified HD DVD movies and 23 identified BD movies. I'd say that's a pretty good sampling. As to whether or not pre-sale movies are cheaper, I don't know. But on the other hand, lots of the HD DVD movies were pre-sale as well.
Dave @ May 15th 2006 12:55AM
Just checked--they're not combos. I can't explain the lower price for Blu-Ray titles. Although, the most expensive Blu-Ray discs are more expensive than the most expensive HD-DVD discs listed. Interestingly, a title announced for both formats, Chronos, is $0.50 more on HD-DVD.
Dave @ May 15th 2006 9:13AM
This guy lists prices for HD-DVD that are misleading or don't exist. The $31.99 title he listed is a HD-DVD/standard-DVD combo. The next two highest-priced titles he lists for HD-DVD aren't listed as far as I can tell.
PJ @ May 15th 2006 11:44AM
Henning (the article author at hdblog.net) has ZERO credibility. Hopefully everyone is aware that Henning also runs PS3blog.net. Henning is just a fanboy....nothing else.
boots @ Jun 20th 2006 12:29PM
I hate this email thing:
Don't forget that HD-DVD has "Doom" exclusively for it!!!! LOL