Expect Blu-ray/HDTV bundles for the holidays
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| Samsung P-1400 Blu-ray player. Image: Samsung |
It's been quite a busy few days for the high-definition format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. First, Wal-Mart (WMT) confirmed that it has begun selling the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player in stores for less than $200. The next day Amazon (AMZN) and Circuit City (CC) began offering the player online for a penny less.
Now there are reports that Wal-Mart today will sell the Toshiba player for less than $100 for a limited time; Best Buy (BBY) might follow suit.
So what's the Blu-ray camp thinking about all this?
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The best way to find out is to ask. So I got on the phone with Bill Sheppard, who serves as a director of the Blu-ray Disc Association and the Chief Digital Media Officer of the Client Software Group at Sun Microsystems (JAVA).
Sheppard had plenty to say. He's still confident that Blu-ray will beat HD DVD, unless millions of shoppers "take the bait" and buy the low-cost HD DVD players. But the Blu-ray camp has some of its own cards left to play – he said to expect to see them offer discounts to shoppers who pick up a TV for the holidays. But how far will Blu-ray backers drop their prices to compete? Listen to the two interview segments below to find out.
Part 1:
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Part 2:
Sony better figure out that there is real resistance to having to have this player constantly, or even ever, hooked up to the internet. The fact that the unit has to be updated at all in order to play lawfully purchased discs is absolutely absurd.
Major motion picture studios need to take into account the lost revenue.