Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems How is the Economy and Stock Market impacting your Audio/Video Budget

It certainly was not meant to be. The question is completely relative everyones respective budget.

I really do love this site where folks with a 5x8K/800/861/810 budget to the 501/2xM60's all get along and help one another. And I hope it continues regardless of the economy.

Hi, You may find this interesting.

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/node/8412

Bluray predictions etc

I like the quote, "You have to have a market before you can drop prices".

Bob is right, its all about the catalog.

Cheers, Chris

Disposable income?

What's that?

Economic times certainly makes me more selective and less inclinde to take a flyer on a piece of gear. Also more inclined to live with stuff that, while still perfectly functional, is no longer at the leading edge.

Interesting point on Bluray pricing. I am not sure it is as simple as 'you have to have a market before you can drop prices'. Bluray seems to be teetering on the edge of early adoption/mass adoption, and I simply do not think it will gain greatly as long as pricing relative to DVD remains as high as it is. I'm sure they have their price elasticity models, but I certainly remember significant DVD price reductions around year 3 to spur mass appeal.

People see things in terms of cost and benefits.

DVD for most people was a quantum leap from VHS - a dramatic improvement in picture and sound, random access, disc size, ease of use etc.

I`m not convinced that for most people, Blu-ray offers the same perceived improvement over DVD.

I think therefore that prices need to be even lower at this point in the formats life cycle, to induce people to buy Blu.

Personally, I find this rather naive (but what do I know). Has it not occured to the BDA that pricing BR discs at acceptable levels to the market might stimulate rapid growth in a market that could be lost to them if they balls it up? If they follow traditional volume/pricing models they may lose everything.

I have to say that I haven't bought a single Blu-Ray in six months due to catalog and cost, but I bought six more HD DVDs for �2.99 this week. It's not a like-for-like comparison because the HD DVDs are clearance stock, but I'm not paying �18 for Blu.

I am sure you are right, although it has not been my experience. I had given up on VHS long before DVD, so when the latter showed up it was relative to laserdisc for me. In that comparison, I see much more of an improvement going to Bluray form DVD than I did going to DVD from Laserdisc - although, as has been pointed out many times in many places, the size of the display is a big factor in this 'preceived improvement' comparison.

It is why I believe that thinking of Bluray as a replacment for DVD is incorrect - IMO it is a complement! Sure, eventually DVD will go away, but not for a long time, and in that period DVD, Bluray and downloads will co-exist based on different consumers requirements for quality, cost and accessability.

The critical aspect of pricing for Bluray, IMO, is that it must fall enough such that a sustainable demand is reached - otherwise it will fail and we will all be losers. I have always felt that if Bluray players can reach a level where they are no more than a $150 premium to DVD players, and Bluray movies no more than a $5 premium to DVDs, then we will be good to go!

Simon, I agree with your comments.

I was talking about DVD replacing VHS from a mass market perspective, not that of an enthusiast.

Like you I ‘upgraded` to DVD from Laserdisc and was disappointed to discover that sound quality was often a step backwards.

I think Blu-ray will be complimentary to DVD for many years, until high definition panels are ubiquitous and as you say, hardware and software are an affordable premium over the cost of DVD for most people.

Should Blu-ray fail, it would be disaster for those of us who value quality. Not just because of the picture improvement we get over DVD, but also because Blu-ray is most likely our last chance to have a mainstream high resolution music format as well.

Amen to that! I watched a regular DVD on my projetor the other day, after being exclusively Bluray for many months - what a come down! Couldn't believe how fuzzy everything looked. It was really hard to watch.

I suspect the chances of another mainstream high resulution music format sailed down the old flusher with the mass-market demise of SACD and DVD-A - at least for music-only releases (as opposed to concert videos) in any volume. But as an enthusiast I am always irrationally optimisitic, so here's hoping!

It`s actually a really odd comment from Parsons actually considering Panasonic`s new players are to carry MSRP's of $399 and $499, cheaper than their models from earlier in the year and cheaper than had been expected for the new machines, and Sony are lowering player prices too. Such hardware will obviously be discounted further by retailers during Thanksgiving/Christmas rush. I can almost hear the rest of the BDA turning to Parsons and telling him to speak for himself since Pioneer are the main manufacturer not showing any real interest in driving their own player prices down.

On the software side Warner have plans to reduce select catalogue prices this winter, and Fox have finally begun announcing titles with $29.99 and $34.99 price tags which, for them, is a step up form their previous “everything is $40” mandate. Discussion of how dire the film was put to one side, the two-disc Blu-ray of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in the US is actually carries the same price as the two-disc DVD version so I think progress is being made, despite what Parsons says… Baby steps to be sure, but nothing out of line with DVD pricing in its first couple of years.

IF Dark Knight proves to do for Blu-ray what The Matrix did for DVD then adoption of the format this winter ought to rise handsomely. Paramount are doing rebate offers where you can claim $10 back from a purchase if you`ve previously owned the DVD version (Disney occasionally do something similar). Even my Godfather set from them - which is stunning incidentally - has such a rebate offer. Universal are doing some well priced “themed” three packs of titles too which they`re actually dubbing ‘starter packs` too, so there are some early offers in place coming directly from the studios that are trying to encourage adoption.



Where are you buying your discs from? The majority I get end up costing me between �10 and �15 inclusive of the shipping. I divide my purchases between a few retailers - primarily Movietyme and Tower.com. If you`ve not used Tower try them out as they like to try and undercut Amazon where possible. They don`t do discounts on shipping for bulk orders, BUT they clearly seem to have a UK distribution house as all my discs carry pre-paid royal mail post marks and I get my orders within four days after shipping (and that`s with their cheapest shipping option). Consequently there` are no customs worries with them either.



Manufacturers and studios might be more stubborn than we`d like when it comes to lowering prices, but the climate we`re in at the moment is basically encouraging the retailers to step in and do the discounting instead. There`s evidence of this already which is why, as I say, it pays to shop around and check various retailers on occasion and I expect prices and deals to become more appealing as the holiday season approaches.

The truth is I have a large stack of HD DVDs that I have still to watch and the BR catalog isn't exactly inspiring me to go out and by discs. I am not paying �18 for my BRDs and Movietyme *is* my main source of discs. My point was really that �18 discs in the High Street aren't going to stimulate mass adoption of the format. Thanks for the pointer to tower.com; I'll check it out.

Its also disappointing when the likes of warner Bros. take the decidedly backward step of releasing ' Blow' , a New Line dts-HD 7.1 film if ever there was one with just a Dobly Digital 5.1 track

This doesnt augur well for the future if it becomes more widespread even on 'catalogue' films

Thats not an upgrade , its a sidegrade

Best

~M~