More Star Trek DVD/Blu-Ray News

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Oh this is really unfair to my wallet, I love Blue-Ray stuff, this is just killing me not to go and get this stuff.  Darn you marketing people!!!

King

[batmite]

I'm actually more interested in the new features and commentaries than I am the high def transfers of the films.

A good option for those interested in just the "new" special features and are on a budget is to pick up the DVD versions as the "Blu-ray Content" is just the "2 Disk DVD Special Edition" features ported on to the Blu-ray disk.

And you know that sooner rather than later there will be a 10 movie Blu-Ray set

[Ktrek]

Kevin - it depends a lot on whether you buy things on sale and so forth.  A Blu-Ray title on sale vs. a full price DVD, yeah about a $5 difference - sometimes.  However, again on average I still see about a $10 price difference.  Here are some example prices from Best Buy.com:

"The Dark Knight"  Blu-Ray = $29.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9124743&st=the+dark+knight&type=product&id=1919817

"The Dark Knight" DVD = $19.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9124583&st=the+dark+knight&type=product&id=1919817

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Blu-Ray = $24.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9374535&st=harry+potter&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1780496

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" DVD = $14.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8579683&st=harry+potter&lp=11&type=product&cp=1&id=1780496

"Transformers" Blu-Ray = $29.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8936896&st=transformers&type=product&id=1754542

"Transformers" DVD = $14.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=17865883&st=transformers&type=product&id=1754542


The only time I see Blu-Ray titles get within maybe a $5 difference is either during their first week of release when they are on sale, or some special online pricing at times.  Again, the average difference I see is typically $10 for most titles.  And this is too much and continues to hurt penetration for this format.  Many, many people have still not adopted it.  Not just based on the price difference but on the very thing Meds mentioned above.  To many, the visual difference just isn't great enough to justify the costs for many people - especially these days.

Keep in mind, I'm not knocking the format at all just stating some simple facts.  I also think streaming media these days is also making a dent in this adoption rate.  Higher visual quality is not that big a deal to many people.  Most people watch a film or TV show once and are done with it.  They are satisfied much of the time with media streaming via Netflix or other places like hulu.com  These are not of Blu-Ray quality, but still impact overall sales.  When the data lines are in place to stream true full 1080p content over the net I would see sales of traditional media to drop even more.

- sorry for the long divergence from the post topic - ;)

Hmmm...intersesting Rico!

I do buy most of my titles when they are first releases and so I am sure that I am purchasing a discount price in most instances. Just out of curiosity I looked at Amazon.com to compare pricing and the here is what I found:

Dark Knight DVD (2 disc version because that's equivalent to the Blu-Ray - $19.49

Dark Knight Blu-Ray - $21.49

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix 2 disc DVD - $18.49
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix Blu Ray -  $19.99

Transformers two disc DVD - $19.99
Transformers Blu Ray - $16.49

Since I do most of my purchasing via Amazon these days I guess I am just unaware of such a big difference. I actually got my Transformers Blu-Ray on sale for $9.99! Anyway, depending on where you shop we are both right. Perhaps you should consider Amazon or Deep Discount (who btw is having their 25% off sale again!).

Kevin

[Rico]

Oh, I buy from Amazon.com all the time and Deep Discount.  Trust me, I know pricing and where to shop.  I was not basing my figures on discounts or sale pricing.  I've had a DVD player since they first came out and know how that went.  But again, like I said average pricing still is significantly different between the discs when you walk in the store - where many still shop and when not on sale.  That plus digital distribution and the fact that market penetration percentage of Blu-Ray vs. DVD still hasn't changed much since it became the only hi-def media format has the industry slightly concerned.  One of the reasons you see some of the dramatic drops in Blu-Ray player prices the last several months.  Also, the DVD format had the same issue with even a bigger leap in quality from VHS.  That issue being the early pricing of the discs.  Until that price dropped, consumers were still shy in adopting the format.  And that example is happening again coupled with poor consumer spending at the present time.

[Jobydrone]

A good option for those interested in just the "new" special features and are on a budget is to pick up the DVD versions as the "Blu-ray Content" is just the "2 Disk DVD Special Edition" features ported on to the Blu-ray disk.

And you know that sooner rather than later there will be a 10 movie Blu-Ray set

Interesting, I was under the impression that there were new commentaries and interactive features on these Bluray releases.  If what you say is true then there is no chance that I will be buying these, since I already have all of the 2 disc DVD special editions, purchased day one at the time of release.

[Ktrek]

Interesting, I was under the impression that there were new commentaries and interactive features on these Bluray releases.  If what you say is true then there is no chance that I will be buying these, since I already have all of the 2 disc DVD special editions, purchased day one at the time of release.

Actually it's kind of a mix. The TOS movie set is the original "theatrical" releases only and non of the director cuts are on them. Most of the special features from the sets you have are in the Blu-Rays and they do have some additional material (the round table discussion being one). There was a thread on the internet that told exactly what movies you would need to keep if you upgraded to Blu-Ray. Personally I would have preferred that they had used the director cut editions but from what I understand the sfx used in TMP are only in 480p and were not suitable for transfer. They would have to be redone. Kind of shows that Paramount is not very forward thinking.

Kevin