$299 Blu-ray player by end of year?

The recently announced BDP-S300 will cost $600, but Sony says Blu-ray players might hit $299 by the end of the year.

(Credit: Sony)

The TV Week story upon which this blog entry is based was in error, according to a Sony representative. Read the updated blog for the complete story.

It was already pretty big news that Sony would be releasing a $600 Blu-ray player this summer, but it's possible we could see that price drop by half again before the year is over. According to a report by TV Week, Sony President and COO Stan Glasgow said on Monday that Sony might cut the prices on its Blu-ray players to as low as $299. If true, that would be the first Blu-ray player that would cost less than the PlayStation 3, which we've found offers excellent Blu-ray playback for less than all other Blu-ray players. It would also be a pretty significant change of course from Glasgow's interview with CNET in January, where he said he didn't think Blu-ray players would hit $299 for another two or three years.

It's possible that Glasgow was misquoted, but if Blu-ray can hit $299 in 2007, that's bad news for HD DVD, which has had a significant price advantage over Blu-ray in the early stages of the next-gen high-definition disc format war. For example, we've seen Toshiba's new HD-A2 selling for $400 online, while most standard format Blu-ray players cost over $600. Considering Blu-ray's much broader studio and hardware support, we can't help but feel that the end may be near for HD DVD.

[tatatijo]

$299 Blu-ray player by end of year?

this would be the end for HD-DVD....

[make_or_break]

Bold assumption.

Ever think there might be even CHEAPER HD-DVD players on the horizon? There's already speculation and rumors of a $100 Chinese-manufactured HD-DVD unit coming to market shortly. And reports seem to show that WORLDWIDE, HD-DVD is faring better than Blu-Ray in terms of player adoption. Sony's pronouncement seems more of a reactionary release to spurring sluggish BR movie sales than anything else.

And don't forget that the porn industry has thrown their not insignificant muscle behind HD-DVD. Like it or not, perverts and sex fiends have a lot of purchasing influence when it comes to video.

Frankly, I don't care which wins in the home theater market. The picture quality is great in either format. But I would like to see all those supposedly AFFORDABLE Blu-Ray and HD-DVD burners that were promised to be available ACTUALLY show up sometime soon.

[appliance]

This Blu-ray skecptic is impressed

A $300 Blu-ray player will be a game changer. I hadn't planned on buying any High Def disk format because of the last DVD format wars, but when I got a PS3, I did break down and buy a single Blu-ray and I was convinced -- Blu-ray looks really great. I'm sure HD-DVD does too, but the way the sales are trending in Blu-ray's favor, the PS3 built-in Blu-ray player, and soon a $300 stand-alone player for Blu-ray will probably bring this unfortunate format war to a close.

I don't see a download service taking over the high-def movie deliver service any time soon given the poor internet speeds in the states. Perhaps in some areas of the world with higher internet speeds, long-form high-def content delivery might happen, but not in the US.

[blackblood75]

what a joke

It is kind of funny to think about this. First, Sony said it would have to keep the price of this Player in the range of $900-$1000, and also charge us the PS3 for the price of $600. Now, they are planning to lower the cost due to a lot users decide to buy the Toshiba player instead. My question is: is it justify with the fact lot of us pay for PS3 with the price of $600, should they lower the price of PS3 now too? Moreover, when they decide to lower the price, we need to know why they do that since the Sony will lose around $400 for each PS3 being sold, so when they are lowering the price of this player, are they gonna lose more than $500-$600 per player? Come and think about guys