Market Scan – It has been about four months since Toshiba decided to shut down its HD DVD format and so far, consumers have seen Blu-ray player prices on the rise. However, June is the very first month in which we observed a decrease in average retail prices of Blu-ray player prices. As stores are clearing out their inventory for BonusView and BD-Live players, this may be the very first time we could describe Blu-ray as becoming affordable.

Amazon.com made headlines earlier today with a $300 Blu-ray player . The Samsung BD-P1400 is offered by the online store for $298, which represents a $101 discount over the suggested retail price of $399 and another $100 discount of the $499 price tag when the player entered U.S. retail in September of last year. According to Pricegrabber.com, the BD-P1400 is currently selling for an average retail price of about $335, with at least one store offering the player for less than $280.   

A closer look at price trends of other Blu-ray players (without BonusView and BD-Live features), reveals that the BD-P1400 is not a fluke. Over the 20 days, most mainstream Blu-ray players have come down in average retail prices and left the $400 territory, which was pretty much the target area since the departure of HD DVD. We have compiled the price trends of four mainstream Blu-ray players below. At least according to current retail pricing, the Samsung player may be the best deal out there right now. If you are shopping for a Blu-ray player and watch how much you spend, then keep your eyes on this one, while we do expect especially Sony’s and Sharp’s players to come down sharply as well.



According to average retail prices provided by Pricegrabber.com, Blu-ray players saw a sharp climb in prices when Toshiba pulled out of the market in mid-February. Prices somewhat stabilized and appear to finally come under pressure and begin playing with the $350 mark.

As a side note and just in case you are stuck with HD DVD movies, there is good news for LG’s BH200 combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player as well. Average retail prices for the device have come down dramatically and currently hover around the $450 mark, down from $1000 last December. According to Pricegrabber, there is still plenty of supply in the market left.

At that price, u might was well buy a PS3 so u have...

Jun 06, 2008 13:59     

At that price, u might was well buy a PS3 so u have a bluray for yourself and a gaming system for the kids Two birds with one stone
Ish report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +17

it usually does

Jun 06, 2008 14:22     

It usually does come down in price, eventually. I call it the 'Walkman effect'. When the Walkman first came out, it was expensive. As more competitors come out makeing similar products, the prices for these devices come down. It will come down to the point where blue-ray will be competitive with dvd.
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4

WOW!!! I cannot belive this!!! :)

Jun 06, 2008 15:14     

$300 for outdated player, I definitely gonna get five. LOL :)
BDD report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +6

Too expensive

Jun 06, 2008 15:31     

Even at the $300 price it's still too expensive to adopt this technology. It has to come below the $200 range. Buying a PS3 isn't that great of idea because I haven't seen one 'must have' game.
Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

@Headward

Jun 06, 2008 18:02     

MGS4, Final Fantasy XIII, improved bioshock
meow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -11

@Meow

Jun 07, 2008 10:30     

Like I said there's no must have games. I just think it's funny that you listed 3 games and one of them released over a year ago for the 360 and PC. Too funny.
Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

@meow

Jun 07, 2008 10:50     

you can only put MGS4 on there and only because it's reviews are good and it's on the verge of release. headward meant games that have actually come out.and bioshock is hardly worth buying a system for since it's already been on the PC and 360 for months.
john J.D. report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

Price isn't bad

Jun 08, 2008 17:07     

Yes, they're still high for the late adopters that made DVD big, but 2 years after DVD's launched, a cheap dvd player over $300.00. At 300, there are lots of consumers that will jump in. I don't really get what the big deal is. If you've got a a decent HDTV, you've already spent at least 1-2k on it, what's another 300 to actually exploit the technology? You sure don't maximize your viewing pleasure with Cable, DVD or Satellite.

casey report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

@ Headward

Jun 08, 2008 20:12     

Are you serious? If you have the money, HD is beautiful and a must have. So, you go out to buy a Blu-Ray player, and you see one for $350. Next to it you see a ps3 for $399. $45 for the capability to stream music and movies, browse the internet, play games, download online content. Hmmm... tough call. Oh did I also mention its software driven, so you can download Blu-Ray updates (firmware) as they come out without having to send in your blu-ray player. As a game console alone, the ps3 isn't even close to worth it. Like you mentioned there is a lack of supporting games, but it's a hell of a Blu-Ray player with lots of added functions for the average price of any other stand-alone Blu-Ray player.

crawlgsx report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

@crawigsx

Jun 10, 2008 01:29     

I have a HD/BR-DVD player in my PC. At $149, it was the cheapest HD/BR-DVD/DVD/CD player that I could find. I've purchased 1 movie for Blu-Ray only. I watched that movie through the DVI port to a 22" Samsung monitor. I wasn't blown away with the quality for the price. The colors were about the same, only the image clarity was enhanced some. Even with a 9800 GX2 video card, the movie stuttered 3 or 4 times (about once per half hour). It made me think that the movie was switching layers and that the laser hadn't kept up. The picture was about what I had expected. It wasn't revolutionary when compared to the same movie under standard DVD format, and that's even when I pixelate the DVD movie by stretching it up to full screen. It certainly didn't seem as big of a jump in quality as when I went from VHS to DVD, more like DVD augmented or enhanced, but not redefined. At 50% more for the discs and 300% more for the drive, Blu-Ray (or HD media in general) just isn't worth the money.

9Nails report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -4

If HD-DVD won I would have adopted

Jun 10, 2008 16:17     

I would have been fully for HD-DVD since they did have a great standard. But they are no longer in the race so that arguement is dead. Blu-ray is too expensive. The profile is constantly changing. Spending $400 for a PS3, and then $30-40 per movie should be rape in some states. The movies and content I get from my 360 at HD is $3-6 per download. Plus the 360 has a great gaming library and content on the market place. The PS3's online experience is non-existance. Until Blu-ray comes down in price, it will NOT be mainstream. Downloadable content is the way of the future. Just look at Netflix releasing their TV box.

Headward report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

@ @crawigsx

Jun 24, 2008 12:43     

First off, your DVI monitor was probably not HDCP complient. Copy protection on your computer degraded your image to DVD quality or lower. Secondly, Blu-ray is not made to be viewed on a tiny 22 inch screen. 56 inch is the point where HD starts making a difference. It looks much better on 65' or larger. The biggest misconception about HD is that it is about picture quality. Yes, HD does have a far better picture, however the biggest and most important difference is sound. The 7.1 uncompressed audio from any good Blu disk is stunning. Words don't exist to describe it. The second biggest misconception is that what cable and satellite and broadcast call HD should be called HD. The hyper compressed 5.1 channel audio and artifact ridden low quality low color count video may have the minimum pixel count to be called HD, however, the overall quality is not much better (Sometimes worse) than an upsampled DVD.

Ralf The Dog report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

@ Ralf - HD can make a huge difference at 22"

Jul 02, 2008 12:03     

Ralf - this whole "you need 56" to make a difference" is completely false. If you're sitting 20 feet away from a 56" TV you would likely not notice the difference between 1080p and 480p. Screen size without viewing distance means absolutely nothing at all. A 22" monitor at average PC viewing distances of 2-3 feet will showcase the benefits of HD completely. You are right though, he either has a copyright issue with the PC or he got a movie that has very little picture upgrade with Blu-ray, like 28 Days Later, Kiss of the Dragon, Short Circuit, Wall Street, etc.

Steve report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

@9Nails

Aug 06, 2008 05:45     

A very big misconception is that computer LCD-monitors deliver the same quality picture as LCD-televisions. These two are simply different beasts due to picture processing. Given that your Samsung 22" monitor was HDCP-compliant, still (LCD and plasma) televisions have so much additional software algorythms specifically dedicated for picture enhancement, that the result is miles ahead of what you can see on your computer monitor. "Cinema enhancing" software of videocards will still bite the dust. You don't have to test this with Blu-ray. You will see the difference already with DVDs or MPEG movies.

Will report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

In response to 9Nails' comments

Aug 06, 2008 13:09     

The performance issues you mention are the effect of your hardware setup. I am running a PS3 on a 57" 1080p television and the Blu-ray performance is always perfect. As for the difference in image quality between Blu-ray and DVD, there is no comparison. On my television I am able to change the playback of dvd video to its native resolution. The image is sharp, but tiny. Blu-ray fills the screen with data. It is beautiful.

A.C. report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

2 dead models being discounted proves nothing

Aug 11, 2008 17:49     

The Sharp & Samsung are old dead models and skewing the results.
DaveBG report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Ooops make that 3 dead models

Aug 12, 2008 11:00     

......cos the Sony S300 is also now a redundant model along with that Sharp & Samsung.
DaveBG report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

can we finally just call id HDDVD now?

Aug 12, 2008 21:02     

Everything is HD this HD that now. Keeping it named BluRay is stupid and confusing. I will not buy BluRay... but I will (if the price is MUCH lower) buy a HDDVD player that uses BluRay technology.
Emmet Brown report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -7