The cost of blu-ray!

[admin_exported]

It's taken a while for the blu-ray format to take off. Really! The fact that a hugh number of the movies cost the best part of £20 might have something to do with it, you think?

I was in Tesco earlier and had to laught at the fact that they were selling Underworld on DVD for £3 but wanted £15 for the blu-ray. Which do you think will sell more copies?

Machine sales have started to rise though, according to the press. A big part of this has to be the drop in price. £80 now gets you a good, branded machine that will also do a fine job of upscaling you DVD collection. At this sort of price level a lot of people will pay the extra over a new DVD player so they can have the latest tech', even if they don't plan on buying many, if any, blu-ray discs.

Untill the price of movies drops I like I suspect many others will stick with buying old fashioned dvd and leave the blu-ray buying to those that are looking for something to get me as a gift.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Hi

I can rarely afford to buy new releases when they first come out, unless they are on offer and I have to say most of my blu rays have come from presents as well, but if you do search around then can be some really good deals on blu rays, its just finding them.

Thanks

 

[Big Aura]

the discs and kit need to encode them are a bit more expensive, but certainly not enough to make the same release more than £2 more expensive.

Although the best deals are online (play, amazon and HMV.com (which is ALWAYS cheaper than their highstreet stores).

 

[chudleighpaul]

Unfortunately with the value of the pound against the dollar it is not worth having the player modified to play area A discs.

When DVD was launched imported discs were much cheaper and that forced down the prices of R2 discs.

 

[Anonymous]

I only buy my BD after they have been out a while and are on offer, still they are more than a DVD and thats the biggest problem for the format!

Too many people trying to exploit the customer IMO

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that BD's are quite pricey still. However, I do like a good flick, and I'll only go to the cinema once every few years, if that, and a BD costs roughly the same - that's how I try to justify it !

One thing I won't do though is purchase a BD if I've already got the DVD version ( until Star Wars gets released). I'm also very choosy about what I buy, so that saves a few dollars too !

 

[Frank Harvey]

This is something I've never been able to understand. Five years ago, we were all happy paying £15-20 for new release DVD's - fast forward 5 years and now people don't want to pay for than £6.99 for a Bluray. Bluray brings us high definition pictures and high definition sound, plus more extras than DVD, some of which were never possible with DVD. Although there are a lot of sub £10 Bluray discs out there now, I'm qiute happy to spend £15-20 on a film I know I'll watch and enjoy many times, like Donnie Darko, Fight Club, and Shaun Of The Dead for example (which I remember paying £16.99 for the DVD in HMV).

Like Force has mentioned, a movie on Bluray will cost you no more than £15-16, if you're buying wisely, which is far less than an outing to the cinema for two people - £30 if you're going to see a 3D movie.

Just remember what you're getting now compared to what you were getting five years ago - it puts things into perspective. I'm not justifying high prices, but things take time - it took DVD over five years to get below £15 (usually about £20, some £25), and Bluray has achieved that in a much shorter time period.

 

[chudleighpaul]

Five years ago a lot of us were importing region 1 and region 3 releases so that we did not have to pay £15-20! I was buying new releases for about £10. This was the market that forced down the price of R2 discs. When one thinks of the manufacturing process and materials used DVD should have been cheaper than VHS from the launch.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I imported a hell of a lot of R1 and R3 discs before Bluray came along, but then companies like PlayUSA got wise to this and raised their new release prices. And films like Shaun Of The Dead were always released here first anyway, so there wasn't much choice with some films.

 

[Anonymous]

If the price they charge is the price they must charge then fine, but if they dropped the price to just above dvd prices I suspect they'd sell far more discs.

I never paid full price for any dvd. If it was a box set I'd get it on import or buy it abroad. More likely I would wait for HMV, Virgin, etc, to have a 3 for £20 special, or some such.

With the advent of the web it's much easier to find cheap discs, dvd and blu-ray, but even so most blu-ray still cost double the price of dvd.

 

[Anonymous]

£30 for cinema trip to a 3d film?? Thats one expensive cinema! Its around 15 quid for 2 people here in birmingham and then you get to know what the film is like too. I watched Avatar at IMAX and with the bluray release due sometime in June/July i definately wont be paying the £18-20 asking price for it. I enjoyed Transformers 2 at the cinema too but noway am i going to spend the current asking price of around £20 for it.

Current blu ray prices for new films are rediculous, especially when in couple months time the same movie is usually half the price. £20 for a bluray and factor in another £10 for two cinema tickets means £30 quid per movie..thanks but no thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi

I remember reading recently that one of the major film studios has already announced that the price of all it's films will be the same for blu-ray as they will be for the dvd equivalent - hopefully all the other studios will follow the same example and we'll see the benefits this year.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Well it's roughly a tenner per person, although I think on this ocassion it was £10.95 per adult. Once you've brought drinks and a couple of bags of sweets toy're easily up to £30, and that's not including any travel expenses.

After seeing Transformers 2 at the Imax in Birmingham, there's no way I'm paying £20 for it either, but that's mainly because it's not very good.

Most movies now I'll wait for the Bluray, as the audio and picture in my system is better than many cinemas, so £15-20 (but usually £12/13) per HD movie is a bargain as far as I'm concerned.

 

[The_Lhc]

mistermester: With the advent of the web it's much easier to find cheap discs, dvd and blu-ray,

It's been that way since DVD came out, I don't think I've paid more than 11 quid for a blu-ray (box sets aside), a fool and his money are soon buying blu-rays in Tesco...

 

[jase fox]

FrankHarveyHiFi:
This is something I've never been able to understand. Five years ago, we were all happy paying £15-20 for new release DVD's - fast forward 5 years and now people don't want to pay for than £6.99 for a Bluray. Bluray brings us high definition pictures and high definition sound, plus more extras than DVD, some of which were never possible with DVD. Although there are a lot of sub £10 Bluray discs out there now, I'm qiute happy to spend £15-20 on a film I know I'll watch and enjoy many times, like Donnie Darko, Fight Club, and Shaun Of The Dead for example (which I remember paying £16.99 for the DVD in HMV).

Like Force has mentioned, a movie on Bluray will cost you no more than £15-16, if you're buying wisely, which is far less than an outing to the cinema for two people - £30 if you're going to see a 3D movie.

Just remember what you're getting now compared to what you were getting five years ago - it puts things into perspective. I'm not justifying high prices, but things take time - it took DVD over five years to get below £15 (usually about £20, some £25), and Bluray has achieved that in a much shorter time period.

I agree with you here , i also remember when i used to pay between £35 & £50 for a laserdisc back in the day !

 

[Anonymous]

Ginder:
£30 for cinema trip to a 3d film?? Thats one expensive cinema!

I used the Gallery at the Showcase Cinema in Bluewater, and the tickets alone cost that for a couple ! It's pricier, but then you don't have to sit with the chavs, and the 15 year old single mothers with their leggings and boob tubes showing their fat guts. The chairs are the comfiest and widest I've seen in a cinema too, which is worth the price alone.

But....I still prefer chilling at home to watch a movie. At least I know who's been sitting in my seat before me, and I won't find chewing gum attached to my fingers after using the armrest.

 

[Andrew Everard]

THE_FORCE:It's pricier, but then you don't have to sit with the chavs, and the 15 year old single mothers with their leggings and boob tubes showing their fat guts.

With an attitude like that, I'm surprised you even venture out to mix with the hoi polloi...

 

[Anonymous]

I like watching films but there are only a handfull of films that i have ever seen more than one time unless they are on tv a few years after ive seen it in the cinema or on dvd. Im sort of done with a movie when ive seen it cause i know what will happen. That is why i will never pay 20 pounds for a blueray. A cd i can listen to 100s of times so i dont care about their cost really I would however buy star wars if they were released on blue-ray and i would not look twice at the pricetag When i get around to buying a BR player (prolly the new sony entry level model) the first thing i will buy it Alien and it can cost 100 pounds for all i care

 

[2cool]

whats all this talk about buy, RENT. i rent from b/buster and the £3 to £4 it cost is a bargin for a bd when you factor in that dvd costs the same. I rent about 10 blu ray's for every 1 i buy (i will only buy movies that are very good or classics) why not.

 

[Diamond Joe]

FrankHarveyHiFi:
Five years ago, we were all happy paying £15-20 for new release DVD's Bit of a sweeping generalisation there David, personally I've never been happy paying that sort of price for DVDs, most of the ones I've bought were on offer, I see no point in wasting money buying discs when they first come out when you only have to wait a few months before they go down.

As for BDs, the price is currently far too high IMO, I bought a BD player about 3 months ago but apart from the 3 discs that came with it I haven't bought a single disc yet and unless the price gets closer to DVDs I can't see me buying any. I get BDs from LoveFilm, and I'm happy with the upscaled picture from DVDs, so why should I fork out for BDs?

 

[professorhat]

I don't think anyone is forcing anyone to buy Blu-Rays for £20 are they? Just wait until they get reduced or go into special offer - I'm just about to pick up Moon and State of Play for £18 in Amazon's offer so that's £9 each...

I understand what David is saying, I used to pay £15 or so for a brand new DVD if it was a film I really wanted and I do the same for Blu-Ray (like I did for The Dark Knight, Watchmen and Quantum of Solace). But it just comes down to how much you're willing to pay. If it's too much in your opinion, don't buy it.

 

[Big Aura]

I think its slightly disingenuous to compare the cost of BD disc with the price of a cinema trip - two very different experiences. The nearest comparator is DVD, so why compare Royal Gala with cider, when you have Granny Smiths readily available!

I take the point that DVD was, at its inception, ridiculously expensive. I recall paying IR£32 for The Exorcist, but as the prices of players crashed, so did the disc prices. We've had the 5* Sony BDP-s360 available for under £90, so it's fair to say we might be on the cusp of the players becoming a feature in most living rooms. And that's the real trigger for the discs to drop in price.

Where blu-ray falls down is that it's hard to distinguish itself from dvd. Most people have the big telly, but few have the home cinema. Most people appreciate the picture is better, but, if pushed they'll say that they're perfectly happy with DVD, and the extra expense isn't worth it. People threw away perfectly fine VCRs to buy DVD players. That won't happen with blu-ray - they'll probably upgrade over time, but not at the same rate... unless they get a push.

With that in mind, it's really for the manufacturers and studios to promote the format more aggressively... be that on price or by promo.

 

[Frank Harvey]

THE_FORCE:I used the Gallery at the Showcase Cinema in Bluewater, and the tickets alone cost that for a couple ! It's pricier, but then you don't have to sit with the chavs, and the 15 year old single mothers with their leggings and boob tubes showing their fat guts.

Tell it like it is Jon!!

 

[Frank Harvey]

Diamond Joe:Bit of a sweeping generalisation there David, personally I've never been happy paying that sort of price for DVDs, most of the ones I've bought were on offer....

What I meant was that we all DID pay that....

 

[RodhasGibson]

professorhat:

I don't think anyone is forcing anyone to buy Blu-Rays for £20 are they? Just wait until they get reduced or go into special offer - I'm just about to pick up Moon and State of Play for £18 in Amazon's offer so that's £9 each...

I understand what David is saying, I used to pay £15 or so for a brand new DVD if it was a film I really wanted and I do the same for Blu-Ray (like I did for The Dark Knight, Watchmen and Quantum of Solace). But it just comes down to how much you're willing to pay. If it's too much in your opinion, don't buy it.

Same for me Prof,I use amazon a lot personally and am like you,going for the 2 for £18 deal anytime now