Post by: jasonditz on January 21, 2006, 08:16:50 AM
Even the cheapest new Blu-Ray DVD players will retail for about $1,000. David Carey, president of electronics-component specialist firm Portelligent
Can that possibly be true? Who in the hell is going to shell out a grand for a Blu-Ray player? What's the target market?
Moreover, since the PS3 is going to be one of the first Blu-Ray players out there, will it really cost half of any other Blu-Ray player and have all the extra high end hardware on top of it?
Sony's only got a little under $3 billion in free cash, how much of that's going to be blown on the launch? Are they going to have to launch this thing as a $500+ console just so they don't have to go further into debt to get it to market?
Post by: kirby_killer_dedede on January 21, 2006, 08:39:18 AM
Post by: jasonditz on January 21, 2006, 08:52:43 AM
Post by: Bill Aurion on January 21, 2006, 08:56:54 AM
Post by: KDR_11k on January 21, 2006, 09:43:22 AM
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on January 21, 2006, 10:06:10 AM
Post by: Renny on January 21, 2006, 11:22:01 AM
Post by: Arbok on January 21, 2006, 02:56:49 PM
Doesn't Nintendo make a profit on their systems sold?
"If each game is priced at $50, Microsoft might earn about $25 in profits per game, suggests Carey. If the average Xbox 360 owner buys four games, Microsoft will have recouped the estimated $100 loss."
$25 of profit for Microsoft per game? That seems very, very high unless that was only talking about first party titles. If it was a first party title, there is also the production cost of the game to factor in as well.
Maybe it's just me, but I got a very anti-Sony/pro-Microsoft vibe from the article as a whole.
Post by: stevey on January 21, 2006, 04:31:24 PM
and off topic, I just google blu ray and this was the first link I got. lol
Post by: nickmitch on January 21, 2006, 04:43:04 PM
Post by: UncleBob on January 21, 2006, 07:02:47 PM
For example, a major factor for DVDs catching on was because of the porn industry - they're cheap as heck to produce, the skip-to-scene feature works great for viewing a porn flick (or so I've heard), DVDs are much cheaper to ship (in plain, brown envelopes), much easiler to include "free" with magazines... Granted, a lot of these same reasons is why the general market picked up on DVDs so fast, but have no doubt, if it wern't for Porn, much like 900 Phone numbers, Pay-Per-View Television and even the VCR probably wouldn't have rushed into our lives so quickly. Heck, I believe the Porn Industry is pretty much credited with VHS winning out over Betamax.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-03-09-onlineporn_x.htm
Post by: Epitaph on January 21, 2006, 07:25:28 PM
Post by: KDR_11k on January 21, 2006, 09:28:50 PM
Post by: BlkPaladin on January 21, 2006, 10:52:41 PM
As for the DVD player they were expensive. I was a semi-early adopter and it cost me $350.00 for a striped down player that now costs $50.00, and at the time there was only about 20 titles avaible in my area.
Post by: BigJim on January 22, 2006, 06:54:56 AM
Consoles don't follow the same supply/demand rules as other electronics, as far as pricing goes... or else the 360 would have been something like $1000 itself due to the limited supply. It's already been mentioned that BRD drives will cost in the neighborhood of $100 to manufacture, so the drive wouldn't add much more cost than that to the final price if their goal is to break even or sell at a slight loss.
Their goal is specifically mass penetration through PS3. It's their trojan horse. So even if they sell it at break-even or a partial loss, the rewards of winning the HD format later will be huge. At worst, BRD is a game format like UMD.
Post by: Galford on January 22, 2006, 08:10:02 PM
For example, HD-DVD drives require at least a 128 Megabytes of RAM. Early DVD drives required something close too 2 Megabytes...
Post by: MysticGohan on January 22, 2006, 08:27:14 PM
Can history repeat itself? Actually... Slightly, different situation but similair methods are being applied in a situation that rises once again! so yeah..!
Post by: KDR_11k on January 22, 2006, 08:41:17 PM
Why hack? Just plug 'em into your PC and get on with life.
Post by: jasonditz on January 23, 2006, 05:27:24 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: Epitaph
Im not sure if im right with this but I think the major reason for the cost is the power within the machine to run the HD video. If you look at the specifications to run HD video on your computer they sujest you have at least 1.8 ghz machine. Not sure one the ram and video capabilities but needless to say it takes alot of power to run HD video. They also have to offset the cost of making it in the first place so the early adopters usually cover those cost. Once those are out of the way then they drop the price.
Yeah, but Sony's managing to pack enough hardware into the PS3 that it's probably a factor of 10 at least more than what's required to decode HD video... and even the "worst case scenario" has them able to squeeze all that plus a lot of other game-specific hardware into a box with a Blu-Ray for $700 or so...
I can't imagine that the cost of the Blu-Ray drive ($100) plus the cost of the rest of the components is any more than $200-$250... charging $1,000 (particularly when a video game system is offering the same media playing capabilities and a lot more for probably half the price) is completely moronic.
Post by: Sir_Stabbalot on January 23, 2006, 11:02:48 AM
Post by: stevey on January 23, 2006, 11:20:06 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: Galford
It will be interesting to see what happens when people start hacking HDDVD and BRD drives? There is going to be a lot of power available to who ever can harness them.
For example, HD-DVD drives require at least a 128 Megabytes of RAM. Early DVD drives required something close too 2 Megabytes...
http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/02/blu-ray-players-to-punish-users-who-hack-their-gear/
Post by: kirby_killer_dedede on January 23, 2006, 11:28:15 AM
Post by: Galford on January 23, 2006, 11:32:19 AM
Welcome to the New World Order...
PS - Edited post so it made sense.
Post by: Epitaph on January 23, 2006, 01:36:57 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: Galford
I haven't read that article yet, but I 'm not surprised. What the article doesn't elaborate, is both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have tcp/ip and http connections built into the standard. One "feature" being talked about is content being stored on disk and then having to pay for over the internet to enable.
Welcome to the New World Order...
Thats only true if people are willing to put up with it. If people think its gone too far they simply wont support it and things will change. You cant make profit without support.
Post by: wandering on January 23, 2006, 10:02:26 PM
Post by: Arbok on January 23, 2006, 10:16:45 PM
Quote
Originally posted by: wandering
But when high definition Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Titanic are on the line, it's hard to see people taking a stand....
There were a lot of great films on laser disc, which was vastly superior to VHS... yet it didn't catch on. Simply having great movies in slightly better quality will not attract customers, they need more than that, and if they honestly go as far as to charge for extra content (which people will have to access online, ie not average joe friendly) then that's a huge strike against it. Even if they don't, they still have a lot of work to try and convince consumers to adopt another format so soon.
Post by: KDR_11k on January 24, 2006, 02:18:14 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: Galford
I haven't read that article yet, but I 'm not surprised. What the article doesn't elaborate, is both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have tcp/ip and http connections built into the standard. One "feature" being talked about is content being stored on disk and then having to pay for over the internet to enable.
Welcome to the New World Order...
Ever played Half-Life 2?
Post by: Epitaph on January 24, 2006, 06:27:48 AM
Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11kQuote
Originally posted by: Galford
I haven't read that article yet, but I 'm not surprised. What the article doesn't elaborate, is both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have tcp/ip and http connections built into the standard. One "feature" being talked about is content being stored on disk and then having to pay for over the internet to enable.
Welcome to the New World Order...
Ever played Half-Life 2?
If your talking about half-life's 2 copyprotection it was cracked pretty much upon release. The crack just used a fake version of the steam engine and allows you to play.
Post by: Galford on January 24, 2006, 04:37:55 PM
Wasn't the big thing about HL2 was, when it was released early, no one could play b/c Valve wasn't allowed to release the activation keys early?
Post by: KDR_11k on January 24, 2006, 10:18:41 PM
Post by: Galford on January 26, 2006, 05:50:35 PM
Such is they way of things...
Post by: Epitaph on January 26, 2006, 08:22:34 PM
Post by: UncleBob on January 27, 2006, 04:07:08 AM
"I'll stop picking locks when people stop locking their doors!"
Post by: KDR_11k on January 27, 2006, 04:28:26 AM
Post by: UncleBob on January 27, 2006, 04:45:21 AM
None the less, no company forces you to buy CDs, DVDs or computer software that has restrictions on it you don't like.
Post by: KDR_11k on January 27, 2006, 06:23:39 AM
Post by: jasonditz on January 28, 2006, 08:32:39 PM
Or the Sony route from a few years ago where when you inserted their audio CD in an iMac it would destroy your (non-user servicable) CD-ROM drive.
