Panasonic BD50 tomorrow???

[littlesaint]

Anyone know if this is really going into production tomorrow or has it been pushed back? I know its looking like fall before Sony's new players come out, but this one was supposed to be out in April, pushed to May 01.

[wettou]

I just spoke with a Panasonic employee and he told me it had been pushed again until the end of May but taht it should be released no later than June1 2008! This date is supposed to be firm!

Panasonic will have a press release in the coming weeks with pricing information! :T

[Z Man]

That would be great but I doubt, I heard it was going to be released may be in June or July!!

Yeah that wouldn't surprise me at all. I know a lot of people are anxiously waiting for the BD50, with it being the first profile 2.0 player. But if they push its release back too much more, I suspect many will grow tired of waiting and instead spring for the BD30. I initially was going to wait it out and go with a BD50, but I wanted to start enjoying all the lossless audio codecs right now, so I went with a Denon 2500BTCI. I haven't regretted it one bit.

[hifiguymi]

The last word from my rep was mid June. That usually means July. I hope it's sooner than latter because I need BD players to sell.

Eric

[wettou]

Interesting I spoke with some one i corporate, sometime reps don't have all the latest info but who knows!

It will probably be July or August before it hits the shelves!

[littlesaint]

Yeah that wouldn't surprise me at all. I know a lot of people are anxiously waiting for the BD50, with it being the first profile 2.0 player. But if they push its release back too much more, I suspect many will grow tired of waiting and instead spring for the BD30. I initially was going to wait it out and go with a BD50, but I wanted to start enjoying all the lossless audio codecs right now, so I went with a Denon 2500BTCI. I haven't regretted it one bit.

Technically the PS3 is a profile 2.0 player.

I don't have a problem waiting since I have a PS3, but I want a full-featured, standalone player and "financing" the BD50 is holding up other purchases.

[Ovation]

If Panasonic waits too long, it will have little lead time over the Sony S550 (my two finalists for my first BD player).

[littlesaint]

Well I guess I can cross it off the "buy" list. Here's hoping the new Sony players are more reasonable.

Panasonic Prices First BD-Live Blu-ray Player DMP-BD50 at $700

[George Bellefontaine]

A little overpriced, I'd say... :roll:

[Ovation]

Ouch. I hope the Sony S550 is not equally priced or I may be forced back to my fall back position of a PS3 (no knock on the PS3 but I don't want to have to upgrade my receiver to get the advanced audio codecs--though I've been limping along with toslink output for HD DVD and I've really had no complaints about the sound to speak of, so perhaps I can live without the audio codecs for a while).

[littlesaint]

I keep getting the impression that anyone in the Blu-ray market outside of Sony Gaming is looking to maximize profits as much as possible. A bit of a catch-22 scenario though as it's difficult to gain marketshare without some concessions on pricing. Especially when your competition is close to 50% retail cost.

[wettou]

Forget Panasonic greedy ....., too bad I guess I will wait for the Sony as well.

It seems that these guys don't learn may be they need Apple and Vudu to eat their lunch even more!

[impala454]

Of course they're going to maximize profits. If they didn't they wouldn't be in business. I'm sure this is just the "initial high price makes the real price later look like a good deal" kind of thing. I.e. debut it at $700, then 3-4 months later Joe six pack thinks the reduction to $400 is an awesome deal .

[wettou]

Exactly managing expectations! Ha don't you love marketing

[littlesaint]

Of course they're going to maximize profits. If they didn't they wouldn't be in business. I'm sure this is just the "initial high price makes the real price later look like a good deal" kind of thing. I.e. debut it at $700, then 3-4 months later Joe six pack thinks the reduction to $400 is an awesome deal .

OK, then why are the soon-to-be-old-gen players, that have been out for a while now, still at their original MSRPs? In fact, some have gone up in price since HD-DVD gave up. Sure its good business, but when you're trying establish marketshare, you don't price yourself out of the competition.

[wettou]

Stupidity and greed that is why! Oppo will be very happy with that decision

[hifiguymi]

Well I guess I can cross it off the "buy" list. Here's hoping the new Sony players are more reasonable.

Panasonic Prices First BD-Live Blu-ray Player DMP-BD50 at $700

The Sony BDP-S550 will be $499.00 and is scheduled to ship in September.

Eric

[wettou]

The Sony BDP-S550 will be $499.00 and is scheduled to ship in September. Eric

We will see if Sony keeps it's promises?

[hifiguymi]

A little overpriced, I'd say... :roll:

Why do you say it's overpriced? The DMP-BD30 is $499.00 US and the DMP-BD50 is $699.00 US. The DMP-BD50 adds internal decoding of all audio formats, is Profile 2.0, and will have faster load times (according to Panasonic). The DMP-BD30 is going to stay in Panasonics line for a while so it sounds like a logical step to me. With all that said, it wouldn't surprise me if the price drops before the winter sales season.

Eric

[hifiguymi]

We will see if Sony keeps it's promises?

About what? I've never seen a Sony product go up in price from product announcement to when it ships. The only thing that could change that is the weakening dollar. The ship date could change but Sony has been much better at hitting their shipping targets the last few years.

Eric

[wettou]

About what? I've never seen a Sony product go up in price from product announcement to when it ships. Eric

Ok if you say so! I still say we will see Panasonic was supposed to be $500!

[Ovation]

The Sony BDP-S550 will be $499.00 and is scheduled to ship in September.

Eric

At that price, I'm sold (I'm willing to pay an extra 100$ for the audio codecs but not 300$).

[hifiguymi]

Ok if you say so! I still say we will see Panasonic was supposed to be $500!

Where did you see that price? :E I heard $599.00 for a little while but never $499.00. Remember with the dollar doing what it's doing (sinking) some things are going up. It sucks but that's reality right now. We just got a notice from Denon that the AVR-3808CI, AVR-4308CI, AVR-4308CI, AVP-A1HDCI, and POA-A1HDCI are going up in price July 1st. It's happening all over.

Eric

[wettou]

Where did you see that price? :E I heard $599.00 for a little while but never $499.00. Remember with the dollar doing what it's doing (sinking) some things are going up. It sucks but that's reality right now. We just got a notice from Denon that the AVR-3808CI, AVR-4308CI, AVR-4308CI, AVP-A1HDCI, and POA-A1HDCI are going up in price July 1st. It's happening all over. Eric

Whoa! Thanks I guess since we are having an economic downturn electronics will be last thing on people' s list of stuff to buy. Except for the few die hards gear heads :T

[whoaru99]

For those prices, you guys can have mine.

Don't need/want one that bad...

[maseline_98]

Stupidity and greed that is why! Oppo will be very happy with that decision

Any word on when OPPO is getting into the game?

[georgev]

Any word on when OPPO is getting into the game?

I am just ordering a 983 from them and asked about the Blu Ray, they say it is in development and will be here............wait for it......... Next year!

[Azeke]

I will continue use the PS3, and see how well the Oppo Blu-Ray benchmarks against the other BR players.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[littlesaint]

If the Sony comes in at $499 as spec'ed, that will work. I can sell my PS3 and re-coup at least half of that. Perhaps the Panny will drop to that level. Otherwise, I'll wait to see were Oppo comes in.

[George Bellefontaine]

Why do you say it's overpriced? The DMP-BD30 is $499.00 US and the DMP-BD50 is $699.00 US.

Eric

And you don't think both are overpriced ? Even if both were $100 less, they'd still be overpriced in my book.

[hifiguymi]

My guess is the Sony players are going to be the hot ones this winter. The feature set and price will be tough to beat. Especially the BDP-S550. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Panasonic DMP-BD50 drop in price in the fourth quarter to close the gap to the BDP-S550.

Eric

[hifiguymi]

And you don't think both are overpriced ? Even if both were $100 less, they'd still be overpriced in my book.

Looking at the rest of the market right now (meaning other BD players), no I don't think it's overpriced. Since Toshiba tried the game console approach with HD-DVD, with losing money on every player to gain market share, I think it has skewed the perception of pricing a little bit. As a whole, BD is not tracking that different than DVD did price wise at the same time into its history. It's a little bit of the chicken and egg thing as well. There aren't as many BD players being built as DVD players to the cost per unit is higher. As production ramps up, the price will come down. It's part of the growing pains of a new format.

With all of that said, when fourth quarter rolls around we'll see what happens with this player and the rest of the market.

Eric

[H.T.C]

Forget Panasonic greedy ....., too bad I guess I will wait for the Sony as well.

It seems that these guys don't learn may be they need Apple and Vudu to eat their lunch even more!

I remember when panasonic and others first produced vhs and the price was $1,200.00 to 1,500.00 unless bought mailorder then 700.00 to 1000.00

Always expensive at first and then the price comes down.

[wettou]

I remember when panasonic and others first produced vhs and the price was $1,200.00 to 1,500.00 unless bought mailorder then 700.00 to 1000.00 Always expensive at first and then the price comes down.

Electronics are always expensive at first and then go down in price. Tell me about it I bought the first generation Plasma from Pioneer Elite 50 inch $20,000 fortunately I got the dealer price on it 45% off.

Still, five years later I got a better one at Cosco for $2,000.

So now I am more patient

[cxc21]

Build price for a BD player maybe $85, but now they have to recover all the bribes and incentives they put out to win the battle. One could go through the parts list once it is out and determine how much it is to build. I'll wait for sure. Most of the movies out there on BD I have seen already on DVD anyway.

[georgev]

I believe there is a new Pioneer on the block? Retail about $400? Any news on that?
Definitely prices will continue to drop on the hardware, but what about the software? When will the prices of the discs start to come down?

[georgev]

[QUOTE=Azeke]I will continue use the PS3, and see how well the Oppo Blu-Ray benchmarks against the other BR players.

The PS3 still remains(IMHO) a stunning BD player(even on Sd).

[Ovation]

The Pioneer is MSRP at 500$ and is profile 1.1. The Elite version is 700$ and also profile 1.1.

[David Meek]

If I wasn't looking hard at a BD player this would be amusing. We're (including me) griping about the cost of a $5-600 player? Remember what we paid for DVD players for the first few years? Look at what we still can pay for DVD players today...

[Ovation]

I remember (I paid a lot of money for my first two players and a fair change for the third one--more than I paid, by a lot, for either HD DVD player I have).

There is one factor to consider, though--DVD was, to EVERYONE, a clear and HUGE leap in quality above VHS. The same view is NOT universally shared in the case of BD vs SD DVD. Absent that indisputable (to the general public) improvement, the willingness to support such relatively high prices becomes rarer. Add to that the falling US dollar (plummeting, really, in the last 18 months especially) coupled with either cognitive dissonance or, more likely, ignorance of the effects of currency fluctuations on imported goods along with a sense of "my computer today cost a lot less than my last one and it's 12x better--so why shouldn't a BD player be as cheap as my old DVD player?" and you get complaints.

The specific complaint about Panasonic's price for the BD50, though, is not altogether unreasonable as Sony appears to be offering the same (if not slightly more) for a lot less money (and I'm not referring to the PS3). A 400-500$ price point is not unreasonable, but 700$ seems a bit much.

[impala454]

I don't think the jump from VHS -> DVD had as much to do with quality as some on here believe. Heck, the first what, 5-8 years of DVD were letterboxed or pan & scan? I think what sold DVD was no more rewinding or tapes that get worn out, being able to skip to wherever you want on the disc, less bulky, etc.

[littlesaint]

Don't make the mistake of comparing product lifecycles directly. Technology moves much, much faster today then it did when DVD came out. A couple of years back then is around 6 months today. Blu-ray is going into its 3rd year.

[impala454]

If that's true though, where is Blu-ray's successor after 3 years so far?

[littlesaint]

If that's true though, where is Blu-ray's successor after 3 years so far?

Blu-ray has yet to establish itself as a format anyone cares about succeeding. DVD is still the benchmark.

My point was the time frame for DVD players to come down in price cannot be directly correlated to Blu-ray players. The technology and markets are completely different. The fact that a game console is the best selling player by an 8 to 1 margin should make that fairly obvious.

[impala454]

I can agree w/that