Recession-busting $150 Blu-ray players coming this year

by Tim Stevens posted Feb 3rd 2009 at 11:26AM

If digital distribution is going to be held off for another year, Blu-ray players are going to need to achieve some serious market penetration at a rather difficult time. VIZIO's $200 VBR100 should help when it releases in a few months, but could be quickly undercut by a predicted flood of $150 drives said to be inbound from a number of other industry players, including Lite-On. These "white-box" drives will probably be short on features, but so too were the cheap DVD players that killed off the VCR, and nobody thought twice about that. If all goes according to plan look for stacks of inexpensive drives to start appearing at whatever retailers are still in business later this year.

Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray

Tags: blu-ray, bluray, lite-on, liteon, white box, white-box, WhiteBox

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highest Ranked

jeremyturnley @ Feb 3rd 2009 12:29PM

The white box DVD players that killed the VCR didn't require near-constant firmware updates in order to watch any given movie you bought. People who settle for profile 1.1 players are going to get annoyed with that little "feature" in a big hurry.

People complain about DRM in music, at least music DRM doesn't change from month to month and require you to burn a CD and re-flash your iPod every time you buy a song in order to play it.

Neutral

hey hey @ Feb 3rd 2009 2:51PM

To true!

Neutral

Jonsson @ Feb 3rd 2009 2:27PM

Blu-ray players do not need near constant firmware players either. Early adopters might have encountered this when the specs where still moving.

Nothing that I have thrown at my player have failed to work.

Anything that is "cutting edge", unfortunately, requite firmware updates. That doesn't mean that everyone bying a mature layer today will have to go off updating the player once a month.

Neutral

mitchelljd @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:12PM

oh please, it is very easy to deal with the firmware update. all you need ie either a flash usb drive, or the unit plugged into your ethernet with.... internet.

this stuff is easy, you just hate DRM and want to be able to copy movies.

Highest Ranked

jeremyturnley @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:46PM

Copying BDs is so easy any idiot can do it, the DRM does nothing but make the process more complicated for the common person.

No, I'm sick of companies making it increasingly difficult for people to use technology for fear of piracy, and then blaming piracy for their crappy movies not selling. Sure, those of use who are tech savvy can figure out that the movie you want to play requires you to go out to the manufacturer's site and grab a file, burn it to a CD or a thumb drive, bring it to the living room and follow some arcane instructions to flash the box, but can your MOM do it? Or your Grandma? They're the ones that couldn't set the clock on the VCR, remember? You trust them to flash a BD player and not brick it?

DVD didn't need a disclaimer on the beginning of the movie saying "Some features of your movie may not work", because it was a well-conceived format with the consumer in mind. BD (and to a lesser extent, HD-DVD, may it RIP) were conceived with accusing the consumer of theft in mind. That's what that little disclaimer really means, "to keep you from stealing this movie, we change the way that copy protection works on a regular basis; you need to go kiss our arses so we feel safe that you aren't ripping us off to play this title".

I can go with the whole protected path thing. I can go with the copy protection in general, even though I think the DMCA is way too heavy handed and actually illegal. But changing the copy protection on a regular basis as PART of the standard? That irks me.

Highly Ranked

Gus @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:28PM

Not much point having BD live anyway, everytime I try to connect my Panny crashes, I haven't been able to successfully connect once!

Neutral

GhostDoggy @ Feb 4th 2009 5:50AM

Umm, I've owned DVD players that didn't play DVD movies. This is nothing exclusive to the newer formats. At least the newer formats allow you to easily update. I'd much rather live with a condition that I can resolve in my home than simply suffer.

Imagine if you couldn't update Microsoft Windows. And that product has nearly weekly updates.

Highly Ranked

Macca @ Mar 3rd 2009 6:46AM

Unlike Blu-Ray, the cheap DVD players that killed the VCR didn't require people to buy a new HD compatible TV.

Highest Ranked

wreckedchevy @ Feb 3rd 2009 12:34PM

i'm all for cheap low feature players but unlike dvd players i really worry about what's going to happen to the consumers with these when they start running into java issues and can't play certain movies

Neutral

David S @ Feb 3rd 2009 12:55PM

There might be a nice new buying rush come Christmas, when the Summer 2009 Blockbusters come out on Blu-Ray. But I'm not sure $150 (before July) or even $100 (before July) will attract many customers that $200 didn't over Christmas.

Christmas 2008 marketing got people to jump for Blu-Ray with $200 players and titles like Iron Man, Bat Man, etc. Increasingly I think content is the real push for Blu-Ray. As 2009 content becomes available on Blu Ray (which will naturally happen as the year progresses) people might jump on board. Harry Potter 6, Lord of the Rings being released, Transformers 2, Terminator 4, etc., will push Blu-Ray hardware sales more than a $50 price cut.

Once those titles are out, cheaper players will matter, but I'm not sure today a $50 price difference is stopping someone from going Blu to watch TDK today.

Neutral

tom @ Feb 3rd 2009 12:58PM

I picked up a Sony BDP-S350 over Christmas for $150 thanks to a deal I found on TechDealDigger.com . No need to buy a white-box model, stick to the deal sites and you'll find a good deal on a name brand model.

Highest Ranked

Bozster @ Feb 3rd 2009 1:23PM

At this point in the format's life I don't really think that player price is a turn off anymore. Sure the lower it gets is better but we already have players hovering at about $200. This is tempting enough for anyone who wants to get in to buy it. The problem lies in software. I know people who go the store, see the picture on the screens and are wowed but they say what good is the player for me when I can't afford the discs and they simply don't buy.

Obviously the whole Blu-ray replacing DVD backfired on studios and I'm sceptical they will ever manage to boost their revenues with Blu-ray as they hoped for. Instead they should simply lower the prices of media to DVD levels and go from there, otherwise I'm doubtful they'll manage to grab even predicted 11% by some analysts by 2010.

Neutral

Peter @ Feb 3rd 2009 2:20PM

It's not the price that is holding people back, it's the lack of an HD display. Unless you have an HD display there is absolutely no point in buying a Blu-Ray player. If you are willing to drop $1500 on an HDTV, then another $200-300 for a BD player is no big deal. You need to wait until more people have HDTVs before BD really takes off. And by then, the player prices will have dropped dramatically.

All that being said, I picked up a Samsung 2500 for a song when I bought my HDTV and I'm loving it. If you spent money on a decent HDTV and you're not getting a Profile 2.0 player, you're just wasting your money. Profile 1.x players are a complete dead end and some manufacturers aren't even doing updates for them any more.

Neutral

DrXym @ Feb 3rd 2009 2:44PM

Not quite true. Even in SD, the picture quality and audio of blu are superior to DVD because of the higher bitrates. Even fast moving scenes won't suffer from visible blocking. It's not a huge reason to go blu but it's still an advantage. I expect as prices drop, even SD owners might pick up a BD player simply because they intend to upgrade to HD at some point.

Anyway, the HD market is growing and will continue to grow substantially if for no other reason than its hard to even buy an SD set these days. It's not hard to see Blu growing with it.

Highly Ranked

Jim @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:16PM

Actually the sound quality of Dolby Tru HD and DTS-MA is quite amazingly better than the earlier compressed digital soundtracks, assuming you have halfway decent audio gear.

In many ways I find the increase in sound quality more striking than the increase in picture quality. Sure, a 1080p movie will look great on a large display that properly shows 24p content. However, if you have a 720p display, an older 1080i display, or a smaller screen you won't get the full effect of Blu-Ray video quality.

Even many older receivers that have 5.1 or 7.1 analog multi-channel inputs will allow you to enjoy the improved sound quality of the new lossless audio compression standards. Lossless video compression is years away and may never be feasible. Lossless audio compression is here today and it can sound wonderful.

Highly Ranked

Gus @ Feb 3rd 2009 6:34PM

I agree Jim, for me the audio is a bigger plus then what I think is an incremental video gain, but if you don't have the associated audio gear, there isn't much point.

Neutral

mitchelljd @ Feb 3rd 2009 4:12PM

Having $100 and $150 models is very doable. it is a great thing to help mass adoption.

the best thing though for blu-ray adoption, would be for all movies and content to not be more than $5 more than the comperable DVD product.

Players are great, but now that DVD sales are slipping, the studios need to realize that Blu-Ray is a DVD replacement and NOT overprice it! the time of $35-40 list price titles needs to end.

Neutral

Mike @ Feb 3rd 2009 7:04PM

I bought my Samsung 1500 for $150 last Nov. and Sony sold their 350 model on their web site on thanksgiving weekend for $150 too. Even after sold out you were still able to go on back order at the low price.

All these new sug retail prices of $199 better street for $129...$199 isn't news...$149 isn't news...$129...$99 that's news.

Highly Ranked

imonit @ Feb 4th 2009 8:24AM

@DrXym - do you have any links supporting that there is actually any noticeable differences between a standard DVD player and a Blu-Ray player played on a non hdtv? I searched myself and couldn't find any actual test results.

As far as people picking up a Blu-Ray player with the intention to upgrade later - that's ridiculous. Why would you spend money now on something you won't be able to utilize when prices will obviously drop and newer players will be out with even more features?

Neutral

BluFan @ Feb 4th 2009 3:17PM

There is no doubt in my mind that we will see a variety of $150-sub players this year. Overall player costs dropped profoundly in 2008 and there's nothing to suggest that, that slowdown is going to subside any time soon. I've been working with Warner Home Video on some blu-ray projects and have watched player and title prices alike drop like rocks.

Neutral

Randall Lind @ Feb 4th 2009 12:02PM

All I need is a way to update firmware. I am a strange person I buy movies for the movies. I hate previews and all this fancy crap.

I hate that some movies won't let you skip all the crap and get to the movie. So this is why I rip DVD's I buy so I can get to the movie.

$100-150 is my target range. I want a nice looking uniot the cheap Magnavox ones look ungly. I am aiming for maybe Samsung.

Highly Ranked

Frankiep @ Feb 4th 2009 3:55PM

A slight dip in player prices is almost irrelevant when the cost of software is still hovering over $25 a movie. NOBODY WANTS TO PAY $25+ FOR A MOVIE!!!! Especially when upscaling DVD players and regular DVD's are often 10-15 bucks. As new technologies like streaming over the Internet (in HD) come online and are incorporated into more products like your regular TV or telephone the audience for traditional media will shrink. The cost and space requirements for long term storage also make traditional media less and less viable. The music guys were dragged kicking and screaming into the new all digital world already, reality now has the movie guys by the short and curlies and has begun dragging..... welcome to the party movie guys.

Highly Ranked

jarofchris @ Mar 13th 2009 1:37PM

An easy-to-find list of the current Amazon Blu-ray deals from the homepage of Blu-ray.com:

1. Iron Man (Ultimate Edition)
$16.99, Save 58%

2. Tropic Thunder
$16.99, Save 58%

3. WALL•E (WALL-E 2-disc)
$19.49, Save 46%

4. Transformers (Special Edition)
$19.49, Save 51%

5. Eagle Eye
$16.99, Save 58%

6. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
$19.99, Save 50%

7. Amadeus (Director's Cut)
$16.99, Save 53%

8. Weeds: Season 1
$12.99, Save 57%

9. Top Gun
$14.49, Save 52%

10. Weeds: Season 2
$12.99, Save 57%

Other popular titles recently on the list include the Godfather Trilogy, Band of Brothers, Indiana Jones, Narnia and others. Warner Brothers recently permanently lowered the price of BDs on its back catalog to $16.99 MSRP, meaning that retailers will be selling them for $10 and below. It is SO easy to find good deals on BDs, both online and in retail stores. I have NEVER paid $25 per disc, even though I have 70+ BDs. Welcome to reality, Frankiep, and welcome to the party.

Neutral

Frankiep @ Mar 13th 2009 3:20PM

MY GOD YOUR RIGHT!!!!!

Online distribution of digital media isn't more convenient!!!! It isn't even the future!!! The future is ball bearings, it’s all ball bearings now-days....

Without this little gem of a reply how would I have known that I can buy movies that were released a year ago online for less than 25 bucks!!!!

What a fool I was....

Thanks man!!!!

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