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I don't buy into the reason of more mass market then prices come down scenario. I also don't buy the idea of HD discs cost more to produce. A bit more maybe, but not significantly more that we see in the difference of pricing.
Do you recall what happened with CD pricing. For years the studio's got together and had basically an across the board pricing first at $15.99 and then it went up to $17.99. Why, because they could. There was a huge mass market for CD's, but we did not see prices come down. In fact they went up. This was a period in my life I never bought new. I always sought out used. I just could not justify the price of a new CD.
Then the market changed. File sharing, then file distribution, the album concept was slowly fading and the singles market was taking off. It was a whirl wind of new strategies. In a nutshell, the consumer got wise, realized the price of a CD was ridiculous, thus the studio's changed their pricing and tada! the $9.99 CD was born. Same exact CD that produced the week before.
So no, I don't believe the studio's are waiting to see mass market pick-up. They know exactly what they want to charge now and I think they could price it much less. I understand and kinda agree with Astrakan strategy ideas.
I believe a lot of people are like me. Yes, a better quality product, but it's not enough to spend more, replace old. The satisfaction is just not there. Regular DVD's deliver fine for me. I have HD satellite and know what it can deliver. I'm just not willing to fork over more money.
Listen up studio's. If you priced your HD like what I'm used to, then yes, I would definitely buy HD, invest in a player and you've got my attention. Right now, I can't hear you. La-La-La-La
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