Quoting Battling Butler:

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Quoting Mark Harrison:

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I can't argue with anyone who prefers to pay less at this point.  But I've taken the other approach.  Instead of spending less on my movies, I go for the Blu-rays (or HD DVDs), but buy fewer of them.

Excellent approach, I agree! 

I do exactly the same thing

Quoting northbloke:

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Like Stephan, I have my doubts that bluray will be able to get a big enough foothold in the market to oust DVD.
The general public just don't seem that interested in the increase in quality as it's just not as extreme a jump as it was from VHS to DVD. The only way bluray is going to take off is to compete with the pricing of DVD hardware - and that's going to be a very difficult task!
Personally I think DVD was just too good of a success in terms of market penetration and public acceptance - any format that followed it was going to have a really hard time.
Here in the UK most people don't have HDTVs or high-end amps with 8 speakers, they look at the differences between DVD and bluray and they shrug. If this indifference isn't tackled soon, I think bluray will remain a niche format.

I have to disagree with you. The jump in quality is as high as it was from VHS to DVD. If you have a Full HD TV. I think they just aren't marketing it right

Quoting Unicus69:

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Quoting NewEnglander:

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Like I said, I bought Vantage Point at Amazon for $17.95. $1.00 more than they sell the single DVD edition for. It all depends on when you order. Amazon seems to be the lowest on everything the day before they will ship. Using their pre and post order guarantees will always save you money as well.

Best investment I ever made was Amazon Prime!

Now, see, I would buy the Blu-ray version for $18.  How did Amazon Prime help you get the better price?  I have looked at it and all they seem to offer is free two-day shipping. 

It got me free two day shipping which meant I get most of the movies on Monday, day before release date, since they have a warehouse in Delaware and a warehouse in New Hampshire. When something ships from their Philladelphia warehouse, it comes on Tuesday mornings.

What got me the flick for $18 was their pre-order price guarantee. I put every new release in my cart at amazon, I check the cart (saved for later) two to three times a day to watch the price go up and down (it's actually amazing how many times they drop and raise prices).

When a movie hits a price point I am willing to pay, I move the item back into the cart and place the pre-order. Now, the pre-order guarantee comes in, because as the titles continue to drop, the price updates to the lowest price in 24 hours.

The real fin comes when they actually ship the item and the price drops a few more dollars and you email them for a refund! There are two very good sites that will track purchases you've made at amazon, one actually tracks other e-tailers as well. They then e-mail you about the price drop, very nice.

Here are the two sites:

Price Protectr -- Protects prices at Amazon, Apple Store, Best Buy and Sears among 100+ others.

Refund Please -- Only covers Amazon, but has been promoising more forver now.

Both are very nice sites, and I use both just in case one forgets

Quoting tweeter:

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Quoting ya_shin:

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Pricing of Blu Ray is slightly better than laserdisc (is it not). Anyway, now that the war is over, prices seem to come down and I have the feeling some retailers (like Amazon) strongly support the new product.

Looking at the 150 or so LD i still have in LDProfiler (an Access DB) the average price i paid was $28 and change for stuff bought between 1987 and 1998.  I bought from a few mail order houses primarily but there wasn't near the competition there is today for DVD/BD.

A better price comparison would be LD vs. VHS.  When i started buying LD most VHS was still priced much higher because they were being sold to rental houses and not direct to consumers.  LD should have won on price but could never really break thru and eventually they started selling the VHS direct to consumers at much lower prices (and most of them had VCRs) and LD never had a chance.

BD will probably make it but it won't be till prices of discs and equipment drop.  You need a player and a TV to appreciate the improvement unlike DVD which was just so obviously better than VHS (and LD) and only required a player to get much of that improvement.

Over here we had to import Laserdiscs, as there were no good european releases. A typical Laserdisc cost about $50-$70. VHS Tapes were sold from $11.99 on..

Quoting NewEnglander:

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What got me the flick for $18 was their pre-order price guarantee. I put every new release in my cart at amazon, I check the cart (saved for later) two to three times a day to watch the price go up and down (it's actually amazing how many times they drop and raise prices).

I'd rather pay an extra $5-$10 then spend my time constantly checking Amazon for price fluctuations.  That's an interesting method, but it would drive me bonkers.

Quoting Stephan.klose:

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I have to disagree with you. The jump in quality is as high as it was from VHS to DVD. If you have a Full HD TV. I think they just aren't marketing it right

I would disagree with that. Comparing VHS and DVD side by side shows an extreme difference in terms of image quality and sound quality.
Comparing DVD and any HD disc side by side just doesn't show such a leap in quality - I still see compression in the image. The only HD image that has impressed me so far is Cars, and that looks damned good on normal DVD anyway.

Quoting NewEnglander:

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What got me the flick for $18 was their pre-order price guarantee. I put every new release in my cart at amazon, I check the cart (saved for later) two to three times a day to watch the price go up and down (it's actually amazing how many times they drop and raise prices).

You are more hardcore than I am.  I get my new release information from the Sunday ads the week of release.

My issue with Blu-ray pricing is that they don't treat it the same as DVDs.  Every retailer has a reduced price for DVDs the first week they are released.  That price goes back to full retail at the end of the week.  Blu-ray, on the other hand, is full retail from the moment it is released.

That just doesn't work for me.

Here's an interesting one....

Amazon exclusive

Kiss of the Spider Woman .. 27.95 .. Blu
Kiss of the Spider Woman .. 25.95 .. DVD

I have not esen anything that close before, and I say they're both overpriced!