Rant: Why Are Blu-ray Prices Still So High?

Posted by on August 18th, 2008   Filed under: DVD and Blu-ray, Features, Industry News, Technology

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got around to purchasing a Playstation 3… not so much for the games, but rather for the Blu-ray player. (With the recent release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, however, I think a lot of people also starting to buy it for the games too.) It’s been almost half a year since Sony secured its victory over HD-DVD in the high-definition war, and I figured that it was finally time to embrace the winning format. There are certainly more than enough titles being released on Blu-ray at this point, but the thing I wasn’t prepared for was the exorbitant price of most of these discs.

At this time last year, most HD-DVD titles were about the same price as their standard DVD counterparts, with the exception of the Combo discs that included both standard and HD-DVD in one package. It was understandable to pay a little bit extra for these titles. However, now that Blu-ray is king, a large number of the new releases cost $10 more to buy on Blu-ray than on standard definition DVD. What gives?

Back in March, it was reported that the lack of competition was actually driving Blu-ray prices up, but it was also believed to be a temporary side effect of the sudden increase in demand for Blu-ray. This “temporary side effect” doesn’t seem to be letting up, however. There are currently some back catalogue titles that can be had for under $20, but the price of new releases remains rather steep. Engadget recently reported that Warner Brothers were planning on dropping their Blu-ray prices for the holidays, once again on older titles only.

Are consumers and retailers locked in a stalemate right now? It would appear so. According to an article in PC World, high prices are being tagged as the main reason why consumers have been slow to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon. We can probably expect prices to drop on players by Christmas, but since Sony wants to continue to push their Playstation 3 console, I doubt that we’ll see many stand-alone players significantly cheaper than it. All I know is that it’s a bit frustrating right now for the average consumer who is ready to start the transition to Blu-ray. Are you planning to go Blu-ray any time soon? Do you find the current prices to be acceptable?



  • Thunderstruck !

    Nice article,Sean……I have a Ps3 which I bought mainly for the added blu capability,I traded my Xbox for it….I went on a binge of buying some discs in mainly BOGOF deals…I have about twenty now…this was all before HD-dvd died a quick death….I haven’t bought any discs since then and I don’t plan on it until the prices go down…I really want to buy some killer titles on Blu like ‘There will be blood’…but not until the price of the stand-alone players and the discs goes down….

  • Primal

    I plan on getting my own PS3 for blu-ray instead having to go to a friends/relatives house to watch blu-ray movies. Yeah, the prices are still too high, but the price is not the main reason thats keeping me away from the full transition to the new format. It’s the limited selection of titles that blu-ray has. I am also still comfortable with watching DVDs. I’m guessing there is a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality with DVD owners.

    I wouldn’t even say that just because you own a PS3 doesn’t mean you’ve made the complete transition. A friend of mine bought the PS3 the day it was released and only has a handful of blu-ray movies atm. Hmm, lets say that if you own at least 30 Blu-ray movies you’ve converted.

  • I am the proud owner of a PS3 and I love blurays. The problem is that I own one movie and have had to borrow other ones because I REFUSE to pay thirty bucks for a friggen movie.

    If they start dropping the prices I’ll start buying Blu Rays like crazy.

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  • I have made no attempt to convert to any HD format. At first, it was because I wanted to see who came out on top, not wanting a self full of this century’s equivalent of Betamax. I hoped the HD-DVD would win, because I’m all about backwards-compatability. when Blu-ray won, it pushed back my purchase of a high def player indefinitely. I have no plans to play for HD, when I’m still totally comfortable with my DVDs. I normally try to hop on to new technology early. I bought DVd fairly early, and I got an iPod as soon as I learned of them, but with this, I shall wait. I have no idea what I’m waiting for, but I’ve still got 200 VHS movies, and about 100 DVDs, and I don’t need a third format taking up shelf-space.

  • mits777

    Im waiting till blank blu ray discs and cheap burners come out. Until then im happy with my burnt dvd’s played on an upscale player.

  • I traded in my Xbox 360 a couple of months for a PS3. One of the main reasons was for the Blu-ray player. I too am shocked by the prices of Blu-ray DVDs. I think we have it pretty bad over here in Ireland.

    If you go into a store and pick up a film that is over a year old, say Casino Royale you will have to pay 38Euro which is 59 dollars. That is why I’ve only bought two and both from online retailers.

  • Actually yeah, I think the U.K. has it even worse than North America. When I was there last year Jay had me looking for some HD-DVDs for him and the prices were insane.

  • Itchy-Finger

    Ouch @ Stephen, Ireland is getting the shaft.

  • joe

    I only buy my favorite imports on bluray. Domestic blurays are on netflix, and regular DVDs if they’re on sale for less than $10.

  • Steven

    I have had a Playstation 3 since it came out and I have actually never even thought about buying a movie on blu-ray because they are just way too expensive.

  • Reed Farrington

    I’m just starting to get into HD-DVDs. I had bought the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player when it dropped in price after Blu-Ray won the format war. I was waiting for everyone to trade-in their HD-DVDs so I could get them cheap, but I hadn’t seen any cheap, used HD-DVDs.

    And then, last week, Wal-Mart began selling brand new HD-DVDs for $5.00 each. I hadn’t seen Lady in the Water, so I picked that up as well as Richard Donner’s Superman II, Superman Returns, and The Twilight Zone. (Lady in the Water was actually a HD-DVD/DVD combo disc, but the packaging didn’t indicate it.)

    I’m waiting for the arrival of a 50″ Panasonic plasma right now.

    Maybe I’ll get into Blu-Ray when the new holographic format replaces it. :-)

  • Will you write a review of Lady in the Water?

  • Reed Farrington

    Henrik, I really wanted to hate Lady in the Water so that I could have another difference of opinion with Jay, but I have to say that I sort of loved it. It even made me sort of cry. (But I hear that depressed people will cry at anything.)

    I think I have to acknowledge that I can’t review things. I love reviews that reference pieces of knowledge relating to the item being reviewed. But I have a problem dissecting and examining things.

    I wanted to check out the movie podcast that Jay and Sean did for Lady in the Water.

    I’m not sure I could say anything new about the movie.

  • Alex Cronk-Young

    Its because dvds dropped in price too fast and we started to expect the lower prices. So they aren’t going to do that with blu-rays. They want to milk as much profit out of them as they can for as long as possible.

  • I’m not interested in ‘new’ tidbits about how it relates to other media. I’m interested in your experience!

    Glad to hear you loved it though. It’s a fantastic movie. Did you feel offended by the portrayal of chinese people? I think Kurt Halfyard on the movie club podcast made a big deal out of it, clearly failing to recognize the obvious plot device as an example of an obvious plot device. The film is having fun with the structure, exposing it, not failing at hiding it as so many people seem to think (admittedly, mostly retards who still hail Star Wars as the greatest film of all time, but even some halfwitted people have a hate-on for Lady in the Water).

    Ingmar Bergman observed that cold people cry easily.

  • Jason

    I use my PS3 to play my blu-rays and I love it. I only buy movies I think are excellent on blu-ray and I stopped paying full price early this year. Prices are just to high at retail. With a few exceptions I’ve bought all mine from Amazon because they have the cheapest prices, by far. Also, the only time I take the plunge is during one of Amazon’s frequent sales. You’re right, it’s far too costly to pay full price for any blu-ray movie you don’t truly LOVE. The thing that worries me is stuff like Man On Fire where they charge full price but don’t port over any of the bonus features found on the DVD version. That’s the biggest rip of them all.

  • “With a few exceptions I’ve bought all mine from Amazon because they have the cheapest prices, by far.”

    That’s what I was going to say. They are ten dollars cheaper on amazon than in a store and if you buy more than one at a time you are saving money!

    “The thing that worries me is stuff like Man On Fire where they charge full price but don’t port over any of the bonus features found on the DVD version.”

    I know! T2 is 15 bucks at Wal-mart but it lacks the special features. They suck with that.

    Btw, I’m sending an e-mail that every film junkie needs to hear before they go blu-ray.

    Oh, and Lady in the Water is entertaining…like a trainwreck.

  • theman

    See this is the reason why Bluray sales are flat. Because there to fucking expensive. Once they get around 20 dollars or so sales will go up.

  • Mick

    You North American based Film Junkers should count yourself lucky. New releases in the UK are about 50 USD, and even on Amazon only go down to about 35USD minimum. I have had a PS3 since the Stanley Kubrick stuff was released in the US last year and have amassed about 20 titles now, all but one of which I have bought from the US for about 20USD.
    There is a distinct lack of genre output which is preventing me buying more, especially as DVDs are so cheap and the transfers tend to be pretty good. Saying that, John Carpenter’s The Thing is finally getting released on Blu, so I can get another copy of one of my favourite films.

  • I’ll upgrade to BluRay when PC-Drives are below $80. The cheapest I’ve seen is about $130, with most being in the $250-300 range.

    I generally do not buy normal DVDs unless they are less than $10, or something special in the packaging/features/etc. department. Even then I don’t cross the $30 mark for uber-editions.

    It seems to me (I’ve got not stats) that Blu-Ray seems to still be in the A. ‘boys-who-want-toys’ or B. AV-aficionado or C. PS3 gamers (see also A).

    I don’t belong in any of these. Most of the stuff I watch at home (I have a 96″ screen with a 720p projector) is foreign, independant and festival-ish type films, which haven’t gotten much Blu-Ray support (Criterion going Blu is a good start). SFX blockbusters I generally venture out to the theatre on off-peak times like Friday @noon or Sunday at 10pm and as a general rule, do not rent/buy them on DVD.

  • dario

    Good post, Sean.

  • Paul Fuller

    The prices are way too high – considering they are just re-recorded with a few extra’s – How many films have actually been filmed in Hi Def? Thats what we were told about in the beginning – how wonderful it would be to see the film as the director wanted us to see it – yes re-recorded with black resolution a bit of a gamble depending on how good the original quality was. It’s just a racket to charge high prices for the same old stuff. -