Sony Announces Cheaper Blu-ray Player

Costs coming down in next-gen DVD

Sony Corp. is trying to make Blu-ray DVD more tempting. Sony has taken the capabilities and features of its top of the line BDP-S1 player that retails for US$999, and putting it into the new BDP-S300. The beauty of it is that the player will have an initial retail price of only US$599.

Sony is trying to step up efforts to maintain its lead in next-generation DVD. Although HD DVD was released into the market first, and Toshiba is selling a player for only US$499, movie sales are showing Blu-ray in the lead. A report from Nielsen Video Scan released earlier this month has shown Blu-ray movies outselling HD DVDs by three to one so far this year.

The new Sony player is mostly comparable to Sony’s older player. Both players have playback at the maximum resolution of 1080p. The players are also of similar size. The main difference is of course, the price and the fact that the new player can also play regular CDs, which the original player cannot do.

HD DVD’s advantage of having a lower cost DVD player has not panned out favorably. The US$499 player has not gained much ground against more expensive rivals coming out of Sony.

The cost battle between players has not been waged with new DVD players, but with Sony’s PlayStation 3. The PS3 has gotten a lot of flack for being the most expensive of the next generation video game consoles. However, Sony’s entry level PS3 is priced at US$499 and has full Blu-ray playback capabilities, so it is actually the same price as Toshiba’s HD DVD player and can play games on it as well. The entry level PS3 is actually cheaper than Sony’s new BDP-S300, which actually costs as much as the fully 60GB PlayStation 3. Reason for the price differential is that Sony is actually losing money on each PS3 sold.

The PlayStation 3 has been the secret element in Blu-ray’s success. Even though the PS3 has had disappointing sales early on in the product’s lifecycle, it is selling exceedingly well as a Blu-ray player. 1.8 million PS3 units were sold last year in the US, putting more Blu-ray players in the market than HD DVD players. According to Sony, 80% of people who bought PS3s in the US are also buying Blu-ray movies to go with it.

It prices for a Blu-ray player is still not to your liking, Sony expects the price of the players to drop below the US$500 mark by Christmas time this year.