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Vetteman94 on 25 February 2010
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Kasz216 said:
Vetteman94 said:
Kasz216 said:
Vetteman94 said:

Again, you underestimate them, also you dont tend to read what I said.  I never said that they can do anything against the others, the others are just left behind because they fail to adapt.  But once one member starts to do something that is beneficial, the others will follow.  Digital copies of movies are a great example of this.  

I am going to compare it with VHS vs DVD,  because its basically the same thing. Plus comparing the end of the VHS vs DVD format war to the beginning of the Blu-ray vs DVD format war is a little ridiculous since there is no correlation.  

The points you mentioned are valid, sort of.

The part about the sizes is true,  it made sense from a logistics standpoint because you could get more product on the shelves.  But the same can be said for Blu-ray as well.   Blu-ray cases , while the same width, are shorter and much thinner.  Which means more shelves and more product on those shelves.

As for the costs of shipping, that is something that is passed onto the customer because it is figured into the cost of the product on the retailers side. Its not like the cheaper shipping was passed onto the consumer for DVDs, especially not early on

And here is why it is a great comparison.  DVDs when launched were around $40-50 a peice,  they didnt come down to an "affordable" stage until about year 4, which was the $20-25 range.  Which is basically identical to Blu-ray.  Plus in order to really make a dent into VHS, they had to start making exclusives to DVD.

I think your error is in thinking it will definitly be beneficial. It may just end up in movies doing less sales. There are MUCH less profit to be made in the switchover between blu-ray and DVD as there was VHS to DVD. DVDs cost less then VHS, and cost less then Blu-ray... once the market switches to Blu-ray as a majority you really can't charge a blu-ray premium anymore, you'll have to drop down to DVD prices, which if blu-ray costs haven't hit DVD level will actually HURT them. They're going to milk blu-ray as a luxuary format for a while i think.

When you line up the timeframes though,  Blu-ray and DVDs are the same prices.  Plus the cost to manufacture DVDs were still quite high then.  Why is everyone acting like when DVDs came out at $15 per movie and only cost a dime to make.  Blu-rays will come down in price when the cost comes down, just like DVDs did. 

You're missing the point. DVD's didn't cost a dime then... but neither did VHS. There is less of a profit margin here, not because Blu-ray is expensive... but because DVDs are so cheap whe VHS was always kinda pricey.


No I am not missing the point, just some people arent reading.   When DVD was released its manufacturing process was more expensive then VHS.  It did close this gap within a few years, but at first it was not.  Hence why when DVDs were released they were $40-50 and VHS tapes were only $15-20.  While Blu-ray may never be cheaper to produce than DVD due to the similar maufacturing but with much higher technology, it was in the same situation when it launched.  Like most products, it was expensive from the beginning to make, and the cost of manufacturing has come down quite significantly.  This is why we are seeing prices drop for Blu-ray.