Sony says: cheaper Blu-ray player on the way!
by Nick Doerr 
{ Feb 27th 2007 at 4:45PM }
It's about time this was announced! For all of you who thought that selling a standalone Blu-ray player for a thousand smackeroo's was a bit much in the United States, worry not. Sony has announced a new model will be released early this summer -- costing a mere $599 (relatively speaking). Dubbed the BDP-S300, the unit has all the same functions of the older models but is a lot smaller -- about the size of modern day DVD players. That's pretty swanky if you're trying to make a really fancy "theater room" or whatever.Along with this announcement, Sony has reiterated how well Blu-ray is doing as far as high definition movie formats are concerned, outselling the competiton 3:1 this year. With that in mind, Sony estimated that Blu-ray players will drop beneath $500 by this year's holiday season. That's really good, since by then there might be a more concrete end to the format war. Maybe not. But I know that I can't watch DVD's anymore. The difference is pretty substantial, no matter the format.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dsr7997 @ Feb 27th 2007 5:18PM
Why is there a post that is about Sony but not the PS3 on PS3fanboy.com? You know Nick, I come here hoping that someday there will be positive PS3 news and yet it is never there. There is plenty of good things to report about the PS3 without posts like this or the ones that bash the 360. You could have easily taken this story and commented that it would be pointless to by a stand alone player when you can get the cutting edge technology of the PS3 for the same price. I get the feeling that your heart just isn't in it.
Chris Putnam @ Feb 27th 2007 5:53PM
Wait... why WOULD anybody buy one of these players when you can get a PS3 for the same price?
Joop @ Feb 27th 2007 6:21PM
HD-DVD players are already $499.99 and have been for quite some time.
jay @ Feb 27th 2007 6:24PM
the article does relate to the PS3 sorta. the fact that bluray prices are dropping show that manuafacturing costs are going down pretty quickly. this is good news for lowering the cost to manufacture the PS3. with the move to software emulation, smaller CELL chip design, and this news, sony looks to be in good shape for actually breaking even on PS3 sales soon. i think Sony'll be able to drop the price just about a year from now.
Stef Geiger @ Feb 27th 2007 6:48PM
Maybe if you'd thought about it for a few seconds, you'd see why this was posted, dsr7997.
First, this piece suggests that more people are going to buy blu-ray discs now, since there will be cheap players. This makes it more likely that blu-ray will really take off, making the PS3 seem like a more attractive platform. The more people that buy it, the more games get made for it.
2. A lot of the people who visit this site are also interested in the blu-ray aspect of things, so this is very relevant.
Andrew Baisden @ Feb 27th 2007 8:01PM
why would any one want this whrn they can get a ps3
Shon @ Feb 27th 2007 8:23PM
Yeah i dont understand why people would want a standalone BD player with less functionality than a PS3 at this price point. I could see why if this sucker was $200, but at $600, theres no arguement.
Shon @ Feb 27th 2007 8:24PM
plus, its uglier than a ps3.
Roofus @ Feb 28th 2007 5:10AM
Considering the other BR manufacturers out there have been making $600-$800 players for the last six months, I think the real good news here is that if Sony is droping its price by $400 by the summer, then maybe we will see some $300 players from the other manufacturers this summer.
dsr7997 @ Feb 27th 2007 9:02PM
@Stef Geiger
I did think about it and I stand by my comment. My point was and remains that when an article is thrown in such as this one it looks less like news and more of an attempt to tell people, "See, Sony is good". Maybe the Blu-Ray people should start blurayfanboy.com.
Richard @ Feb 27th 2007 10:40PM
Seriously HDDVD stand alone players sell for about 499.99, but it is a low end modal and performs sluggishly. I'm sure Sonys stand alone player will be a 100 times better than the RCA hddvd player. Hddvd needs to pick up the slack soon, or the world will be forced to use the lesser of two products. Think VHS and Beta Max all over again. But who knows this whole thing could just be another Laser Disc. Hard Drives are getting bigger and Cheaper, and Fiber optics will make download movies like downloading music today.
Azorean @ Feb 27th 2007 11:17PM
I'll just wait until These formats become relevant(about 3-5 years from now) and then buy a HD DVD-Blu-Ray combo drive for $100 instead of wasting my money on either a standalone or the PS3.
Mp3 @ Feb 28th 2007 3:50AM
Yeah good luck with that Azorean. I'm going to be enjoying 3-5 years of incredible HD gaming and movie playback in the meantime - for $200 or less per year if you average it out.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Feb 28th 2007 5:47AM
So, uh... is there a Cell in these players, or are they still using PC parts?
shekki @ Feb 28th 2007 10:45AM
why wouldnt anyone want to buy the BD Player... its just another piece of hardware. its just like asking why did people buy dedicated DVD players 6 years ago when the PS2 came out? WHy didnt they just go out an buy ps2s? I mean thats what i did, but i also eventually got a dedicated dvd player as well.
additionally this could also just a be a marketing scheme to push ps3 sales.
Geoff Gibson @ Feb 28th 2007 6:32PM
To be honest, and for the love of god do not flame me for this, HD DvD has better movies. I have looked at each of their pretty expansive collections and HD DvD just has more movies that I'd love to see in HD, mostly action titles like Constantine, Troy, and the soon to be released Matrix and LOTR trilogies.
Does this account to which one looks better? No, I can't tell which one looks better as they have both looked stunning when I saw them, but HD DvD has the movies I want therefor they get my business.
Stop pledging blind loyalty to a company. If a company is offering something you want then take it even if your a 360 fanboy who finds he likes Blu-ray movies better or a PS3 fanboy who likes HD DvD movies better.
I'll be hopping on the HD DvD train within the next couple of weeks and NOT because I have some love affair with Microsoft, or some bitter hatred for Sony.