Audio Video News

Poll: Pricing and Content Key for Ultra HD Blu-ray

SV Staff  |  Dec 15, 2015

Panasonic’s DMR-UBZ1 Ultra HD Blu-ray player went on sale in Japan last month.

Will you buy an Ultra HD Blu-ray player? That’s the question we posed in last week’s poll—a question inspired by John Sciacca’s Connected Life blog, Ultra HD Blu-ray Is Coming…but Do you Care?”

It turns out interest in the new format is high but so are concerns about pricing—for both players and discs—and the availability content.

Close to a third (29 percent of the poll’s more than 2,000 respondents) said they will buy a player but plan to wait until prices drop and more content is available. At the other end of the spectrum, 18 percent said they either “don’t care” about 4K/Ultra High Def (11 percent) or are “done buying discs and will wait until streaming takes off” (7 percent).

Player pricing was a hot-button for poll takers with 27 percent reporting they will buy a player only if it can be had for less than $500; 10 percent said the price would have to be less than $250. Another 12 percent said they will buy a player only if discs are priced the same as current Blu-ray movies. Only 8 percent expressed an interested in paying more than $500 for a player.

Here are the full results of the poll...

Will You Buy an Ultra HD Blu-ray Player?

29% – I will…but I’m going to wait until there is more content available and the price drops

17% – I will…but only if the players are between $250 and $499

12% – I will only buy if the Ultra HD movies sell for the same or less than current Blu-rays

11% – I don’t care about Ultra High Def or 4K

10% – I will…but only if the players are less than $250

8% – I will…but only if the players are between $500 and $1,000

7% – I’m done buying discs and will wait until streaming takes off

6% – Yes! I’m an early adopter! I buy all of the newest technologies!

COMMENTS
jnemesh's picture
Submitted by jnemesh on December 15, 2015 - 9:14am

Samsung announced at the IFA show that their UHD player would be "Around $500" and available "early 2016". So, assuming that this is accurate, according to your poll, at least 25% of those polled will be buying one.

jnemesh's picture
Submitted by jnemesh on December 15, 2015 - 9:15am

forgot to add in the ones who said they are buying regardless of price.

Deus02's picture
Submitted by Deus02 on December 15, 2015 - 9:44am

Invariably, whenever a new format comes in to existence the same questions are asked and the responses are very similar. The question always comes back to the availability of content, players and in both cases, cost, since, in order to make it all worthwhile ultimately, the "masses" must buy in to the whole concept.

I believe though there could be a difference here since, in my opinion, there just isn't that startling a difference between 1080p and 4K UHD especially when looking thru a UHD set that does upscaling of 1080p material. I recently purchased a 65" LG UHD set that does as such and in my case properly calibrated through a Lumagen VP and a Darbee add-on and watching Blu-Ray discs through an Oppo 105, comparing it to the small amount of 4K source material I have seen so far, I must admit, the differences are miniscule. Before I, personally decide what to do(if I do anything) about a new UHD player, with the positive experience that I have had with Oppo products, I will wait till probably the new year to see what they have in the works for their next generation players.

Perhaps the OLED format will ultimately up the ante, but pricing and limited sizes so far along with the usual conditions as listed above, make it all, for the time being anyway, in the case of OLED, a limited market.

Traveler's picture
Submitted by Traveler on December 15, 2015 - 1:05pm

only around 41% strong support on a site that mostly attracts early adapters and vid freaks. I wouldn't exactly call that strong support.

hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on December 15, 2015 - 9:44pm

I think you're missing the whole point when you talk of technology and ignore the content! Who cares how clearly you can reproduce a picture. Technology can get to the point of reproducing a video to a point of being indistinguishable from the actual REAL sight of whatever it is the picture happens to be, but if it is an actual pile of crap being pictured, I still wouldn't want to see it. As long as Hollywood is pumping out trash as they've been doing for the past decade or so, it won't matter! I still prefer the old stuff- even in SD over any thing new being made in UHD or otherwise.

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