No competition is causing premium prices everywhere!!!

Well, I wonder if the BluRay fans are excited about the premium price they are now having to pay to purchase HD materials.

I walked into Wal-Mart a couple of days ago, and not one BluRay disc was under $30. Some that I had noticed that were in the $25 dollar range are now all...yep you guessed it...$30 now. So, if WalMart has raised their HD prices then everyone I am sure is raising them.

Let's see, Netflix announced a premium price for HD now too. That's great!

I honestly don't think the price of BluRay is ever going to come down. They'll try and blame gas prices or G.W. Bush for having to keep the price at $30 bucks, but we all know that when their is no competition there is no deal.

What did you expect? Prices to fall??

And to think there was a format war...I think we know on which side we landed!!

Not only that, the players are all very high still, $400 being the cheapest. I cannot even convey how much I hate Sony. Good luck seeing a $200 Blu Ray player for a couple years more. They will come out with 2.0 players later this year and say they need to sell at premium price for the new features which already existed years ago on HD DVD.

Ok, like we didn't see this coming. If you didn't you live in a fantasy world.

Sad to say but this is what happens when corporate deals are made and decisions are made on our behalf (the consumer). I believe the war ended to soon.

Let's start a campaign and call it Bring Back HD DVD! I'm kidding of course but in all seriousness if HD DVD won prices would probably have gone up on the movies also. Both formats invested a lot of money so they have to get that cash back somehow.

Competition was good, very good. It's all Warners fault!

[Post edited by Falcon01 on Apr 22, 2008]

Sony got what they wanted. They won the war, at little margin loss (Didn't have to cut prices!). Now they can rape and pillage Blu-Ray supporters with Profile 1.1! Its a win, win...

By the way did I mention that my Blockbuster store has not received any new Blu-Ray disks in the last month? Have you guys noticed the same thing in your area? I did however see that they still have to cut prices on the HD DVD stuff.

Nothing new to add to my collection.

And I am sure even with these high prices the PoS3 is still only creating a loss of money.

Quote:
Now they can rape and pillage Blu-Ray supporters with Profile 1.1

-Reaggiep

Now, Now Reaggiep, Sony actually produces a 2.0 player with Dolby TrueHD, dts HD/MA decoding, WiFi connectability and is priced far less than any of it's competitors. I do have to agree with the argument that prices have gone up on players like the Panasonic BD30K. Once wind got out that it was the best BD standalone on the market and it was selling like no tomorrow the price went from $420 to $500 in no time. But think about it, BD standalone prices have basically stayed the same with the exception of the BD30. As far as movies go we all know that BB,CC, Wal*mart and other walk in retailers are going to be more expensive. Like Falcon said if HDDVD would have won the same would hold true ON THE MOVIE SIDE OF THINGS. Thank Goodness we have online retailers like AMAZON.

[Post edited by tony1569 on Apr 22, 2008]

KungFuTaco,

What do you mean a loss of money? It would only spell a loss to the PS3 competitors. SONY breaks even on PS3. They sell it at cost.

Speaking of amazon, I just checked the price of Toshibas HD XA2 HD DVD player and it's $1,499!

The HD A35 is $699, the HD A30 is $355, the HD A2 is $300.

So it's not just the bluray players that have gone up.

Hey Falcon, I think the reason for this is that the demand for these player have exceeded what limited supply is still out there. Believe me when I say this they are going to sell at those prices. Sometimes I think Ebay has as much to do with pricing on AMAZON as well. Check out Ebay to see if the same is happening.

You know right after Toshibas announcement that they were jumping ship this guy on craigslist in Toronto was selling his HD XA2 and he wanted $300 for it. I didn't get it because I thought prices were gonna drop more. Man do I regret it now.

Well because you looked out for me with Bruce Lee. I found this for you. $280.00 for an HD-XA2. Check your email.

I thought both the 360 and ps3 were sold at losses with the goal to make up the difference on games.

Nice...it looks like new. Thanks for looking out!

I'll be watching this one with great interest as some really evil bad guy said in a really weak movie that killed a really great franchise that I loved so much. :p Ok I'm over it now.

As much as I hate to quote Wikipedia,

Quote:
Since the system's launch, production costs have been reduced significantly as a result of phasing out the EE chip and falling hardware costs. The cost of manufacturing Cell microprocessors has fallen dramatically as a result of moving to the 65 nm production process.[75][74] Blu-ray diodes are cheaper to manufacture. As of January 2008, each unit costs around $400 to manufacture.

The EE chip in the 60 gig and 20 gig units (no longer in production) make them the most saut after units because they are more compatable with PS1 and PS2 software than the emulation software used in the 80 gig models for backward capability. That's why some retailers on AMAZON sell 20 gig units for 5 and 600 hundred dollars and 60 gig units go as high as $2000.

[Post edited by tony1569 on Apr 22, 2008]

But what about shipping costs is that included? I know at some point they were being sold at a loss. It was on G4. But anyway I will give them credit for making a cool video player that also plays games. If only it would work as a grill too.

In the past they were being sold at a $200 loss even when it cost you $600 to buy one, but SONY was able to cut production cost in half. As far as shipping, SLI (SONY Logistics International) handles that. Only kidding, it's probably figured in to manufacturing cost.

[Post edited by tony1569 on Apr 22, 2008]

I bet this has nothing to do with the fact that oil is more expensive.

Quote:
No competition is causing premium prices everywhere!!!

Ummm "no competition" has nothing to do with it. EVERYTHING has gone up because of high energy costs. Who do you think pays for it when shipping pays through the nose in gas to ship your product? Don't believe me, go grocery shopping sometime and not tell me you're spending an extra $30 to $40 on your monthly grocery bill -- I know I am!

Man, you guys will go to lengths to blame SONY for anything! Talk about reaching!

OK it's time for Kiss of the Dragon with dts HD/MA surround.

To piggyback on what Tim said...

Check out your local gas stations. Sam's, Costco, Exxon, Mobil, Sunoco, Speedway...plenty of competition within the industry, yet everyone is at the same price, roughly speaking.

Or go to the supermarket (like I am tonight). A gallon of milk goes for $3 in most places, even though CVS, Meijer, Kroger, Sam's, Costco, Walgreens, Pathmark and every other supermarket carries the product.

What material comprises the DVD's and the cases? Oil. What commodity is now $117 per barrel, thought to be going up towards $180 or so? Oil. What material is used in nearly everything we use in our daily lives? Oil. So, in reality, you can blame whoever you want as much as you want. Just remember how cheap gas was back in January 2003, before we got into Iraq.

Jason, back home and loving it

I was also just getting ready to "rip" Tims words off. I think that the powers at be are seeing that we are "accepting" such high gas price, without much question(just bitchin.I would like to see a full scale riot!) and saying to themselves..."Well, they gots to eat too..." Yaknow, basicly like how they rip you off at the movies,sporting events,disney,etc...

But you all do understand that high gas prices are all because of Sony!

Quote:
I think that the powers at be are seeing that we are "accepting" such high gas price, without much question(just bitchin.I would like to see a full scale riot!) and saying to themselves..."Well, they gots to eat too..." Yaknow, basicly like how they rip you off at the movies,sporting events,disney,etc...

Certain things, we don't have much of a choice. I work about 30 miles from home and there is NO public transportation in the suburbs. I'm stuck driving a good distance every day. With the rise of suburbs farther and farther away from the urban centers where people work (or even commuting from one city to another) and without the forethought about public transportation, there's not much we can do about it. We need to work to live. Same goes for food. Some stuff you can grow in the garden or do without. Other stuff? Not so much.

If we do riot over gas prices, for the sake of argument, where do we riot? In our own cities? The only thing that would accomplish is destroying the places we live. Renewable energy is the key, whatever form that comes in. Here in Michigan, wind and water power. In the southwest, solar power. But we're too damn stupid to figure that out.

Jason, not an eco-warrior

Jason said,

Quote:
A gallon of milk goes for $3 in most places...

That's just for 2%, whole milk cost us around $3.60.

EDIT:By the way did I mention that I have 3 insanely crazy cereal loving kids. A box of cereal almost $5.

[Post edited by tony1569 on Apr 22, 2008]

Kroger has milk on sale 2/$5, Tony. Just so you know.

Jason, 1/2% milk is the only way to go

Jason, the wife and I try to find milk sales and buy alot then freeze them. The problem is that either they get dranked before they actually freeze or they don't have time to thaw.

Tony I feel your pain man, we go through milk like crazy in my house. Between my one and a half year old that drinks milk through the bottle and the 6 year old that loves cereal, shakes, chocolate milk, etc...Man it's expensive.

Ah well, it's worth it. Right now they have the 2 litre boxes of milk on sale in some places like Dominion (grocery store) and if you buy two of them it's cheaper than buying a 4 litre bag of milk. Score!

Jason

"What has sitting on your hands ever gotten you?"
I am not suggesting violence. Just democracy. And if it takes everybody staying home for a few days for them to get it...then so be it.

I just moved back to Canada, and Gas is $1.17 a liter! Crap that's like $3.75 a gallon! Milk is $3.20 for 4 litres... Wow! I think no matter what goes on, everything has inflated.

Ironically today I went shopping for a second BD-Rom drive because the Lite-On I bought went tits up after 40 movies... They are down to $160 with dual layer dvd writers! By the way don't buy a lite-on. Geesh nothing but headaches trying to get warranty out of those guys.

Tony,

I know the PS3 is the only dual 2.0/greaseless grill on the market. I was more refering to the standalone consoles. I just find it ironic, that the the Blu-Ray camp hasn't made stronger efforts to stranglehold the market to push Blu-Ray to the next step. I know they are waiting to recoup profits to make the next giant leap, to battle on DVD. I think for the most of us on this site, Without Amazon, we wouldn't have much of a High Def collection of any sort...

Quote:
I just find it ironic, that the the Blu-Ray camp hasn't made stronger efforts to stranglehold the market to push Blu-Ray to the next step. I know they are waiting to recoup profits to make the next giant leap, to battle on DVD.

I'm willing to buy in to Blu, but I'm waiting to buy a descent SA 2.0 player when they do come out, but if they sit on this for too long it will just be another laserdisc disaster.

Now there is some SHOCKING news!!!! LOL

Canadian and bagged milk.

This is due to higher energy costs, not Sony. Mostly. We're all being crunched, and we're all gonna feel it.
But dont worry. Dubya says its all ok. It's not a recession. That $300-600 will fix everything. Surely, he's never lied to us before.


Thing is, Blu Ray may die because it came out at precisely the wrong time. With costs of everything going up, how can the government expect everyone to get HDTVs and receivers by next Feb? All this HD paraphanelia is premium, needless stuff.

bladerunner1,

The problem is the people who need gas prices to come down the most are the ones who can't afford to take those two or three days off from work. You think the people with thousands in the bank and seeing massive paychecks give a rat's rear end about $4 gas?

JServo,

I love you man. Seriously. I'm man enough to say it. Glad to see I share the same thought about the "stimulus" with someone else. $600 ain't going to fix jack squat.

Jason, "Stimulate This!"

All the high prices make me nostalgic for war times(Format war) remember the war times? times where the price of the players would be down 25% every six months, the discs would sell two for one i guess I think of my self as a veteran. a format veteran.

Tonnloco, I miss the good ol' days also.

There were sales every couple of weeks on hidef movies, player prices were dropping slowly also....ahhhh good times.

Can't wait for the next "format war" whatever it may be. Competition is a great thing.

Jason,

Sometimes you have to suffer in order to thrive.

Quote:
Sometimes you have to suffer in order to thrive.

So taking unpaid time off from work to give the oil companies a "lesson" is going to work, you think? I don't get the logic in that. Sure, it hits the bottom line (as in dollars), but it will be for a few days. When a company makes BILLIONS of dollars per year, do you think one day is going to make a difference? Or even a week?

At some point, people have to fill up. End of story. We're not at a point in our civilization where we can park the cars and walk everywhere.

Jason, economically conscious

Jason

It was an idea,a thought. Ideas and thought promote "change". Action is what is needed for change to stick. If you are happy with the current economy then by all means continue to go with the flow. But know that "flow" will only lead us over the cliff. I guess what I am trying to say is that maybe we spend too much time on here, and not enough paying attention to important things.

Quote:
Well, I wonder if the BluRay fans are excited about the premium price they are now having to pay to purchase HD materials. I walked into Wal-Mart a couple of days ago, and not one BluRay disc was under $30. Some that I had noticed that were in the $25 dollar range are now all...yep you guessed it...$30 now. So, if WalMart has raised their HD prices then everyone I am sure is raising them.

The original posting is complete nonsense. A quick search on walmart.com produced over 125 Blu-ray discs under $21 and almost 200 under $25. I also did an advanced search on Amazon.com for "Blu-ray" and "under $20" and received 540 results.

Yeah, prices aren't at the lower level as they would have been with a format war still raging, but as Falcon pointed out, the same thing would likely be true if HD-DVD had won, too. The Blu-ray camp also needs to get more people buying Blu-ray discs (instead of SD-DVDs), so there's likely to be lots of promotions in the Fall.

NOTE: edited to replace "this whole thread is nonsense" with "the original posting is complete nonsense"!

[Post edited by sbmess on Apr 22, 2008]

sony has crammed awful prices down people's throats for decades, but the same victims keep asking for more of the same. guess what? in this case, the victims ruin it for everyone else.

Quote:
I guess what I am trying to say is that maybe we spend too much time on here, and not enough paying attention to important things.

I have been saying that for a long time. If we put half the thought into curing cancer or making sure there were no homeless kids in the world that we put into the silly format war, this world would be better off. Yet we didn't. I'm with you on this 100%.

Jason, humanitarian

posters5, good grief dude... no one forces anyone to buy Sony products. They don't hold a monopoly over the world's food supply for gawd sake. Pull yourself together man.

Jason

And if we were to spend just half as much time as we are here, trying to get in the last comment ,and we focused this intense energy into something "important"...wow, we wouldnt have anything to bitch about at all!

Happy Earth Day.

-Jade

FYI - (yet again)

> FUNAI '$300' Blu-ray player by Q2

"The optical head for the unit will be provided by Sony and the core system will be the Matsushita / Panasonic UniPhier chipset."

Plus, don't forget the forthcoming (summer) two Sony Sapphire BD players (profile 2.0 upgradeable) - INFO HERE - and ALSO HERE (better pics) - with prices between $350 to $499 (from what I heard).



-JIMI LOVE (the Voodoo Child)

Quote:
Thing is, Blu Ray may die because it came out at precisely the wrong time. With costs of everything going up, how can the government expect everyone to get HDTVs and receivers by next Feb? All this HD paraphanelia is premium, needless stuff

What does the government want people to buy HD tv's for by next Feb?


Kung Fu Taco
I ain't on crak, so I know to vote for McCain

[Post edited by KungFuTaco on Apr 23, 2008]

Tim,

I agree with you that fuel costs have upped the ante on end consumer pricing, but, I don't think it's the sole reason. I could be wrong, but, wasn't it said a long time ago that Sony had to keep their stand alone Blu player's cost up so that it would keep consumer focus on their cash cow, the "PS3"?

After all, fuel costs have been rising a lot longer than Sony Blu Ray prices have been @ or near $300. In that same period of time, and before WB jumped ship, HDDVD players were under $300.

I agree with Eddie on this one. No matter what Sony product you're talking about, they have been notorious for the exuberant pricing of their products. I rember the Sony "Sports walkman" (a portable CASSETTE TAPE player) being well over $200 in the 1980s, when other players of comparable quality and build, were half that price. As well, portable CD players were just becoming popular, and were nearing the cost of portable cassette players.

I haven't bought a Sony product since 2005, when I bought one of their 1GB mp3 players, and if Sony doesn't change, I'll probably continue that trend.

Being on the cutting edge of HD technology does not justify it's current cost, in my opinion.



- Josh

Quote:
I ain't on crak, so I know to vote for McCain

There isn't a big enough in the world right now.

Jason, repealing the federal gas tax of .18/gallon isn't going to make a material difference in the economy

Quote:
sony has crammed awful prices down people's throats for decades, but the same victims keep asking for more of the same. guess what? in this case, the victims ruin it for everyone else.

They must be suffering from Stockholm syndrome!

Quote:
What does the government want people to buy HD tv's for by next Feb?

No, you can keep your existing TV, it just means that you will require a digital box to decode the signal.

[Post edited by enc66 on Apr 23, 2008]

Quote:
I agree with Eddie on this one. No matter what Sony product you're talking about, they have been notorious for the exuberant pricing of their products.

I agree with this, too. Sony has always overpriced their items and they are overrated -- then again, Sony is not the only company guilty of corporate greed and overrated products. To be honest, the only Sony product I've owned that has not given me major to minor issues is my PS2. However, I should point out that a $300 to $400 Blu-ray player is a far cry from $1000 just over a year ago, so technically the prices have dropped drastically.

I have no doubt that high energy costs have contributed to rising costs of their products, but Sony is not the only company raising prices. As I've said, high prices for just about anything are everywhere right now, and high fuel costs are surly part of the blame.

Quote:
As I've said, high prices for just about anything are everywhere right now, and high fuel costs are surly part of the blame.

Agreed, Tim. Maybe we should be discussing/ranting about politics and the environazis keeping us from using our Alaskan oil reserves to become independant from the stranglehold of the middle east Oil cornered market. ?




- Josh

Quote:
Maybe we should be discussing/ranting about politics and the environazis keeping us from using our Alaskan oil reserves to become independant from the stranglehold of the middle east Oil cornered market. ?

I'm no enviro-Nazi, but maybe we should be looking at renewable fuels instead of depleting all the fossil fuels. Create several new industries (and jobs), clean up the environment AND be less beholden to petroleum...

Jason, thinking out loud

Instead of hijacking, I'm going to carry this into a new thread.