RSSSony's New Blu-ray Players Still Pricey
By Ed Oswald | Published September 6, 2007, 11:21 AM
After making announcements in Europe regarding its Blu-ray disc player lineup late last month, Sony used the backdrop of CEDIA 2007 to announce its two newest players for the North American market.
However here in the states, Sony's Blu-ray players are none the cheaper. The new BDP-S500 will cost approximately $700 USD, while the top-of-the-line BDP-S2000ES will set the consumer back about $1,300 USD. Both are expected to begin shipping this fall.
Most of the functionality between the two new players is the same, with support for 1080/24p, Dolby TrueHD and Digital Plus, HDMI 1.3 ports. The enhancements to the S2000ES seem to be more in the way of manufacturing, with dual shield construction and a rigid beam chassis.
"From the enthusiast level of our ES line down to the entry-level models, our commitment to the finest quality video and sound delivered by the BD format has never been stronger." Sony's home entertainment chief Chris Fawcett said in a statement.
Even with all the marketing speak, what is undeniable is the fact that price is still very much driving the market for next-generation DVD formats. With neither side able to yet make a coherent argument as to why its format is better, much of the sales have been driven by external factors, such as price for HD DVD and on Blu-ray's side the PlayStation 3.
Despite Blu-ray's considerable lead in the number of players shipped (when including the PS3), its actual sales of movie titles has yet to match that lead. HD DVD has been able to consistently keep its competitor at bay with cheaper set-top players, where it holds a 2-to-1 lead in sales.
Sony players pricey, but still outselling HD DVD players, according to NPD Group.
http://www.videobusiness...amp;articleid=CA6475686
That really says alot, nobody wants that cheap Toshiba HD DVD crap, and are prepared to pay more for Blu-Ray.
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|"and are prepared to pay more for Blu-Ray."
Hate to break it to you, but the people that matter(average consumers) wont be. For example look at Vizio. It is a low end TV and is not as good as say a Samsung or dare I say it a Sony TV for example. Now then can you refresh my memory on what the #1 selling brand was and which one was cheaper? Also in this case HD-DVD looks as good or better than Blo-Ray 99% of the time. Therefore have no selling point. Sorry but all this technologically crap you try to spew is going to be nothing but "blah blah blah" to the average consumer. Which is a good thing because now they can spend less money and have a format that will be indistinguishable from the pricier DRM/Rootkit infested Blu-Ray.
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|"For example look at Vizio. It is a low end TV and is not as good as say a Samsung or dare I say it a Sony TV for example."
I don't know. If I had to choose between Vizio and Sony and they even both cost the same, I'd go with Vizio. I aready know Sony's bad so I'm willing to take chances with Vizio.
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|"If I had to choose between Vizio and Sony and they even both cost the same, I'd go with Vizio."
LOL, what a sad loser you are.
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|"Sony players pricey, but still outselling HD DVD players, according to NPD Group."
- Yeah well that proves it huh?
Research (who paid for it cos they don't do this kind of thing for free) 'cited' by Sony say what Sony wants people to hear.
One report.
One source of unknown (financial) origin.
Naturally all the Sony shills leap on it as if it were the 2 coming.
http://www.videobusiness...ndex.a...leid=CA6467868
You did check the references right? Those two AV sellers are local Chicago companies. They are not even on the map when it comes to sales of anything compared to BB, CC, Wal-Mart.
Just because it is in print does not make it fact.
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|you calling someone a loser LOLOLOL that's rich
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|The guy recons he would choose a Vizio over a Sony Bravia.
He is obviously either a retard, or so hateful of Sony, that you can't believe a word he says.
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|As much as I hate Sony I would still haft to choose the Bravia. But in reality they are not the same price and if I am going to go high end it is going to be a Samsung. My 2nd choose would probably be Panasonic. Toshiba is supposed to be good, but I have never really looked into them.
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|That's one of the many reasons I hate Sony. They never lower there prices. They think because it has the Sony name on it, people will buy it regardless if the other is better or not. Like MiniDisc's (Hi-MD's) are still $7, even though it's a failed format. I would have thought they would have lowered the price to try to compete with.... CD's.
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|kashin you have missed the point entirely. If Sony sell a PS3 to every household HD-DVD would cease to exist because there simply wouldn't be a market for it. Everyone would already have a HD player. They won't of course but I had to use an extreme example to explain it too you.
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|That makes zero sense whatsoever, as not everyone uses their game machine to watch movies.
As has been demonstrated with all playstation models, frequent use as a secondary device and game player runs the system down a lot faster.
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|can we get some consistency with these articles ED?!
from HD DVD Claims 'Undeniable Momentum' (http://www.betanews.com/...ble_Momentum/1189094089) you say "Despite lagging behind Blu-ray in both sales of discs and overall players, HD DVD still put on a happy face for..."
but in THIS article, you say "HD DVD has been able to consistently keep its competitor at bay with cheaper set-top players, where it holds a 2-to-1 lead in sales."
Which is it gonna be, Ed? Does HD-DVD lead in players sales or DONT they?
(i realize someone has mentioned this already)
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|^This^
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|No they do not.
If you include PS3, it's 5million Blu-Ray vs 200,000 HD DVD
If you exclude the PS3 and Xbox add-on, then it's closer (naturally, as the PS3 is the cheapest way into Blu-Ray), but Blu-Ray is still outselling in standalones also.
Whichever way Toshiba try and spin the stats, they no longer work.
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|*sigh* Allow me to say it yet again. I seriously doubt it will get through your thick skull this time either though. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT 1% OF THE SALES HERE! This format war has not even begun. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are both failing miserably at the moment and will continue to do so until the prices come down.
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|nope it won't get through his skull siryak, he's still getting those paychecks
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|Let's face it, Sony never intend to market this to the average Joe enthusiast. Their format technology is for the elites and will remain an elitists' toy until they adopt the next new format (since neither HD-DVD nor Sony's will ever drop in price for anybody).
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|"The important fact is that they are getting players into peoples homes in huge numbers and over the next year sales of the PS3 are going to boom."
Wrong. You can sell 10 million PS3s (yeah right) and pretend you won the next-gen format war, but when the large majority of those consoles were bought to play games, not movies, it's irrelevant. This is already showing by the poor movie to PS3 attach rate.
Microsoft could've forced 10+ million people to buy an HD-DVD drive by including it in the Xbox360 by default. Would that have meant an automatic victory for HD-DVD? Probably not. As it is, we can know a couple of things for certain. Not all PS3 owners are going to buy BD movies. They might just buy games (if there were any good ones that is.) On the other hand, ALL purchased HD-DVD add-ons for the Xbox360 are going to be used to play movies, since that is their sole purpose.
Also keep in mind that the PS3 is in a distant 3rd position right now, well behind the Wii and Xbox360. As much as you would like to pretend the PS3 is helping BD win the next-gen format war, it's really not looking that great.
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|kashin you have missed the point entirely. If Sony sell a PS3 to every household HD-DVD would cease to exist because there simply wouldn't be a market for it. Everyone would already have a HD player. They won't of course but I had to use an extreme example to explain it too you. I suggest you read my post again because your arguments indicate that you seem to have completely missed half of what I said.
Attach rate is in no way shape or form important. Getting players into peoples homes is the number one priority because once you have the player in a home that home belongs to that format and makes the friends and family of that home more likely to choose that format for themselves.
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|See you are wrong as it has shown with the little amount of standalone hd-dvd players the attach is higher compared to the millions of sony ps3 out.
Just because the device has the ability doesn't mean you are going to use it, my phone has an mp3 player, phone, and I can watch movies on it if I want. Do I? No as it eats the battery and is not practical, same with the ps3 as with previous playstations using it as a multi-device wears it down that much quicker.
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|At the end of the day the attach rate of the PS3 isn't really relevant. The important fact is that they are getting players into peoples homes in huge numbers and over the next year sales of the PS3 are going to boom. The simple fact is that at the moment around 1 in 250 people in the US and 1 in 100 people in the UK own a BluRay player in the guise of a PS3. Not only are those people probably not going to now buy a HD-DVD player they are all essentially working as PR for BluRay. If a member of your family or a friend buys a BluRay player not only will their purchase advertise the product to you it will also make you more likely to choose BluRay over HD-DVD if you decide to get a hi def player in the future.
The HD-DVD group can try and ignore the PS3 all they like but every PS3 sold is fantastic PR for BluRay and a lot of potential future sales lost for HD-DVD.
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|"At the end of the day the attach rate of the PS3 isn't really relevant."
How is that not relevant? This is the dumbest reasoning I heard all week. BD makes money on software (movies) not on hardware sitting in homes, going unused. Right now all BD has is bragging rights about having more players in homes, nothing more.
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|Attach rate is to important but you obviously don't get it. So what if the whole world were to own a Pcrap3 but didn't buy movies for it. I thought the PS3 was a game machine first, and not a very good one either.
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|Pricey - & out of date in 6 - 12 months (depending on how long they take to get 'profile 1.1' functional).
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|In Ed's HD DVD story, he claims that Blu-ray has the lead in both hardware and software sales; in this story, he claims HD DVD has the lead in software sales.
Some clarification is in order.
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|HD DVD has the lead in set-top players.
Blu-ray has the lead in total players if you include the PS3.
Blu-ray is also selling more movies, but their attach rate is lower when you consider all players. That's what Ed means by the sales of movie titles not keeping up. People are buying the PS3, but not movies.
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