Sub-$500 Blu-Ray Player to hit Stores This Month

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32312/97/' target='_blank'>http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32312/97/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The BDP-S300, first announced in February, was originally planned for an MSRP of around $600, but Sony confirmed today that it slashed the price by $100, bringing it down to $499. It's the first Blu-ray player to retail for less than a Playstation 3, which remains the </i>dominant hardware for BD sales. Toshiba is winning the price war, though, with its HD-A2 HD DVD player, currently selling for a limited-time price of around $300."[/i]<br /><br />While we're finally starting to see price drops on Blu-Ray players, HD DVD is still leading the charge to the magical $199 price tag. Amazon recently had an HD DVD player for $267, and you can buy the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive for $199. Most consumers are going to walk into a store, see the HD DVD and Blu-Ray drives side by side, and ask "why should I spend twice as much?" At the moment, there's no compelling reason to pay more for Blu-Ray. What's interesting is that Sony is dropping the price to below the level of the PS3, which tells me that Blu-Ray functionality isn't helping them sell game consoles. My prediction: HD DVD players hit $199 (or less) during the holidays, and many of them end up under Christmas trees. Meanwhile Blu-Ray players end up collecting dust on store shelves.

[Felix Torres]

Low-water mark on the HD-DVD players is $249, so far.
Plus five free movies. Amazon is sweetening the pot with two more movies if you pick up the Matrix trilogy.
I'm sorely tempted.
Especially with Amazon running the bulk of the HD-DVD movies at $20.

But I swore I wouldn't buy HD-DVD until BD was dead and buried (or vice-versa). Cause my real concern isn't the cost of the hardware as much as the investment in the movies themselves.
But those Matrix clips on XBOX Live sure do look sweet in all their glory...
&lt;sigh>
If early reports of PS3 sales tanking even further for may than April maybe the smog will dissipate a bit and we'll get a clear sign of who's going to win. Say, Fox and Disney doing HD-DVDs... :wink:

[Jeremy Charette]

That's where HD DVD is also leading Blu-Ray: prices for the movies themselves. Amazon is pricing most HD DVD movies at $20, and Blu-Ray at $24-28.

HD DVD is going to win. Just you watch.

But in the end it's not going to matter. By this time 2009, we'll all be arguing over who has the best downloadable HD movie pricing and selection. Xbox Live Marketplace has a hell of a lead at the moment. And as much as I like watching movies over and over again, honestly, renting it when I want to watch it for $5 is probably much cheaper in the long run than purchasing a physical disc.