Blu-Ray Question. When Are The Inexpensive Players Coming?
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With Toshiba exiting the HD, one would of thought that Sony would march in with Blu-Ray players with a huge bang. But it seems that the Blu-Ray rush to buy, has turned into a rush to wait. Have people given up on Blu-Ray or is it to early to tell yet?
So I went out on the Internet for a look see at several of the major retailers to find out what brands are available and at what price.
Best Buy - the cheapest are name brand unit from Samsung, Sharp and a PS3 all at $399.99
Circuit City - same as the above but with a Phillips thrown in for $369.99
I’ll stop right here. I could bore you with a bunch of links and pricing from every available retailer on the planet, but the bottom line is this. There are no $99 Blu-Ray boxes available. Why $99 as the price barrier? I believe that is when the masses will think that dumping their old DVD player will be worth it.
Not to throw a monkey wrench into the mix, but what happens if another company comes out with say, Q-Ray, that is bigger, badder, clearer, whatever better than Blu-Ray? Not going to happen? Yeah right.
What’s your take. Are you ready to make the Blu-Ray switch? Or are you like me waiting for the $99 value edition? 
Comments welcome.
7 Comments
Don Naphen
May 25th, 2008
at 7:26am
Hope you get this Ron, as I’m still adapting to your new format! Personally, I think SONY threw in a ton of money to buy into the Blu-Ray domination within the industry. It probably still remembers how it lost out (many years ago) with its Beta to VHS.
As much as I’d like to have one hooked up to my SONY 40″‘er, I will definitely wait for pricing to come down to a more realistic number. In the meantime, my DirectTV connection offers me many movies to occupy my time to make the wait more bearable! LOL
Denny
May 25th, 2008
at 8:01am
. . . . AND . . .
I Still Have 3–DVD Players FOR . SALE
No OFFER . . REFUSED
Paul Gorski
May 25th, 2008
at 10:51am
Walmart has Blu DVD players for $289.
Ron Schenone
May 25th, 2008
at 11:51am
Hi Don,
Thanks for the info.
Denny,
Nice try!
Cory Zimmerman
May 25th, 2008
at 4:36pm
I would love to get on the blu-ray abnd wagon because the video quality is great but you hit it right on the head. My first Panisonic VHS player cost $1000.00, I am happy with DVD until the price of the Blu-ray players becomes resonable. then again I may have to make the choice to fill up a vehicle in gas instead.
Doug
May 26th, 2008
at 5:46am
The other issue that is going to start to be experienced is Profile 2/BD-Live . As far as I know, there aren’t any players that are 100%, out-the-box Profile 2/BD-Live compliant because the specifications haven’t been finalized yet. If you happen to buy a Blu-ray player, make sure it’s firmware can be updated. This update could happen by burning a disc or buy connecting the player to an high-speed Internet connection.
Going simply by price and features of a Blu-ray, it seems that buyers/users have to choose between a PS3 or the newly released Samsung BD-P1500.
Ron Schenone
May 26th, 2008
at 9:06am
Hi Doug,
Interesting. Thanks for sharing the firmware issue.
Regards, Ron