Blu-ray Players Up In Price With HD DVD Gone

It seems that the format war ending was not all good. Despite people believing prices for Blu-ray would become more reasonable, the opposite effect has occurred. Thanks to the fact that Blu-ray faces absolutely no competition in the high-definition market, why lower the prices? Seems like a simple concept.

According to Tom’s Hardware, while some Blu-ray players have hovered around $300 for the past few months, they are now back up around $400 thanks to the lack of competition. Two cases specifically show one player having gone from $358 to $440 in the past two weeks, while another jumped from $629 to $666. It’s not a great situation for those looking to join the Blu-ray fray. I do stand by my thoughts that the Playstation 3 is a good value for most anyone, however, thanks to the inclusion of Blu-ray playback.

Personally, I am not too concerned with the player prices, though, but rather the prices for the movies themselves. Sure, they are high-definition and offer a lot when compared to DVD, but I think prices will need to go down a bit before wide-spread adoption occurs. Some new releases are reasonably priced, but when most new releases retail for an average of $27… that’s a lot to stomach for the avid movie buyer.

By looking at these prices, it is pretty clear that the PS3 did in fact almost singlehandedly declare the winner of the format war. Another point worth noting is that all of these players will reach a certain level of obsolescence later this year, as soon as the new BD Profile is released.

Source: Tom’s Hardware