Production Cost of Blu-Ray Player to Drop to $50

[Smokey]

Optical disc drive (ODD) manufacturers from Taiwan expect production cost of a Blu-ray disc (BD) player to drop to $50 next year. This is likely to lead to emergence of inexpensive BD players and accelerated transition to the new format.

.At present production cost of one Blu-ray player is about $100. The blue laser pick-up head is still the most expensive part of the player and represents about $50 of the cost. Chipset accounts for about 25%. In addition to acquiring other components to make a BD player, manufacturers have to pay $9.50 for technology license to patent holders.


Manufacturers hope that improving production yields of pick up heads and chipsets will allow to trim bill of materials (BOM) of a BD player to about $50.

[pixelthis]

Not really surprizing considering its basically just a DVD drive with a blue laser and
upgraded electronics.
I HAVE always said that BLU isnt really a "new" format, just an upgrade of DVD.
Kinda like SVHS for VCRS'.
Eventually you will have trouble finding a DVD player outside of dollar stores

[Smokey]

Eventually you will have trouble finding a DVD player outside of dollar stores

I really think that DVD players are already obsolete given that no longer TVs with DVD native resolution are manufactured. So the only market for DVD players would be if you DVD player breaks and/or your TV is not HD.

[pixelthis]

I really think that DVD players are already obsolete given that no longer TVs with DVD native resolution are manufactured. So the only market for DVD players would be if you DVD player breaks and/or your TV is not HD.

Not really.
SD tv sets with digital tuners are still being made for some reason, but also every
HD set made will upscale 480i, certainly 480p.
And since all but the cheapest DVD players are 480p, they are not quite ready for the boneyard yet.
There will always be those who are penny wise and pound foolish, ignoring the superior
picture for both DVD and BLU that a blu player provides, in order to save a few bucks.
like the guy who didn't buy a color set until 1989, said he was waiting for the price to go down.
We all know guys like that....
But anybody who is even halfway serious about HT will have to have a BLU player,
anything else would be a joke, really.

[Feanor]

Not really.
SD tv sets with digital tuners are still being made for some reason, but also every HD set made will upscale 480i, certainly 480p. And since all but the cheapest DVD players are 480p, they are not quite ready for the boneyard yet.
There will always be those who are penny wise and pound foolish, ignoring the superior picture for both DVD and BLU that a blu player provides, in order to save a few bucks.
...

HDTV penetration is still much less than 50% in North America. So there will be plenty of people inclined to be "penny wise and pound foolish", (e.g. me), who don't see why they should pay extra for BR players or software when they can't display it.

However as (a) Blu-ray players drop below $150 (virtually there already) and certainly $100 (soon), and (b) the street price of BR discs fall within 133% of DVD, the foolish will see the price spread as immaterial. When one of my DVD players dies, I will replace it with a Blu-ray even if BR remains a bit more expensive and I still perhaps don't have an HDTV.

[Smokey]

However as (a) Blu-ray players drop below $150 (virtually there already) and certainly $100 (soon), and (b) the street price of BR discs fall within 133% of DVD, the foolish will see the price spread as immaterial.

Fir (b), the price match between BR and DVDs discs might take little bit longer than a year. With bench market price of $3 for DVDs at Biglots and Walmart, BR discs have some ways to catch up.

[02audionoob]

For me...It isn't so much the cost of the player as the media. DVD's are pretty cheap to begin with, but they're in libraries, thrifts, used book stores, etc. The DVD selection on NetFlix is better than Blu, too. Much of my watching happens on a small TV, so DVD resolution certainly gets the job done. The big TV gets a BD player, but our two other TV setups still have the DVD players.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Not really surprizing considering its basically just a DVD drive with a blue laser and
upgraded electronics.
I HAVE always said that BLU isnt really a "new" format, just an upgrade of DVD.
Kinda like SVHS for VCRS'.
Eventually you will have trouble finding a DVD player outside of dollar stores

Sorry Pix, but a bluray drives spin alot slower than a DVD drive. DVD players are not firmware upgradeable, have far less memory with far slower processsing speed. The lasers are different, their wavelengths are different, and a DVD player can only decode MPEG-2 while a bluray player can decode VC-1, MPEG-2 and AVC video codecs. Bluray players are far more complex to manufacturer, and since you cannot play a bluray disc in a DVD player, they are as different as different can be.

You also could not play a SVHS tape in a VHS player as well, so much for simularities.

[kexodusc]

$50 huh? Methinks the player will soon be cheaper than some of the software...

[pixelthis]

HDTV penetration is still much less than 50% in North America. So there will be plenty of people inclined to be "penny wise and pound foolish", (e.g. me), who don't see why they should pay extra for BR players or software when they can't display it.

However as (a) Blu-ray players drop below $150 (virtually there already) and certainly $100 (soon), and (b) the street price of BR discs fall within 133% of DVD, the foolish will see the price spread as immaterial. When one of my DVD players dies, I will replace it with a Blu-ray even if BR remains a bit more expensive and I still perhaps don't have an HDTV.

Walmart has a sub 100 buck BLU right now, Magnavox, made by the same people that makes them for Phillips.
The guys on Revision3 TV gave it good marks as a basic Blu player, no net but it does have onboard decoding and 7.1 outs.
You would have to be nuts not to get one of these, even if you don't have an HDTV
yet, because you will have one sooner than later and you can watch DVD on this one
until then.
Just makes sense.

[pixelthis]

Sorry Pix, but a bluray drives spin alot slower than a DVD drive. DVD players are not firmware upgradeable, have far less memory with far slower processsing speed. The lasers are different, their wavelengths are different, and a DVD player can only decode MPEG-2 while a bluray player can decode VC-1, MPEG-2 and AVC video codecs. Bluray players are far more complex to manufacturer, and since you cannot play a bluray disc in a DVD player, they are as different as different can be.

You also could not play a SVHS tape in a VHS player as well, so much for simularities.

None of that makes any diff, like SVHS a Blu player is backward compatible,
the discs are similar in appearance if not construction, and to most the difference
is less than the similarities, except the much better picture, and sound.
Its a big advance, but still more evolution than revolution.
Check out my new thread on this section to join the
revolution