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Amazon offers "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" sale on Blu-ray titles

12 May 2008 1:38 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 14 comments

For those interested Amazon has begun offering a new "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" sale on hit Blu-ray titles effectively dropping the price of each title (when buying 3) from about $28 USD to $18 USD, a very good price for Blu-ray titles.

There are 34 titles available including "X-men: The Last Stand", "I, Robot", "28 Weeks Later", and all the "Die Hard" movies.

Amazon has been sending out emails to customers informing them of the sale and all you have to do is add 3 titles to your cart and Amazon will automatically deduct the price of the lowest priced title.

The whole list of movies available can be found here, and there are a few good movies available for those looking.

Permalink to this article | Topic: Blu-ray

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Discuss this article!
iluvendo (AfterDawn Addict) 12 May 2008 1:51
Not the newest releases, but still ok. [ + quote]
PantherM (Newbie) 12 May 2008 7:56
I would still prefer a BOGO....or just an actual price cut. The economy sucks right now, so the price is still too high. [ + quote]
rob0t3ch (Inactive) 12 May 2008 12:10
WHO CARES! Blu-ray is a lame, interim technology biding it's time until something NOT antiquated like ANYTHING OTHER THAN 'SPINNING DISCS' comes out. HD on Flash will be the future, or hologram flash. You buy into Blu-ray then you got money to burn or 'smart shopping' isn't really your thing. Wake up! [ + quote]
Tecbot (Newbie) 12 May 2008 22:34
Wow hologram flash come back to earth there treky... but I agree with you rob0t3ch $399 or whatever it is is way to much for a new winning format especially when you buy a $2500 tv and $1000 surround sound... I see bogo sales all the time at stores for blu-ray(futureshop has bogo racks everytime I go in there) the only ones that really complain about price are kids who depend on allowance or people that have better things to spend there money on like $500 iphones for there 6 year old and stuff like that. [ + quote]
mspurloc (Junior Member) 12 May 2008 23:30
No. I'm not paying $30, or even $20 for a title that it costs them exactly the same amount to produce and distribute as a regular resolution DVD. A five hundred percent profit margin was bad enough. It's ridiculous. [ + quote]
juankerr (Member) 13 May 2008 1:16
*Originally posted by mspurloc:* No. I'm not paying $30, or even $20 for a title that it costs them exactly the same amount to produce and distribute as a regular resolution DVD. Agreed but the problem with your reasoning is this: *it is more expensive to produce a BluRay disc than a regular DVD. First, they use a more advanced encoding than regular DVD. Most releases now are either AVC or VC-1. The encoding process is more expensive and the royalties are higher than the older MPEG-2 used in regular DVD. Secondly, the titles that use lossless sound (Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio) will also cost more to encode. Thirdly, the replication process is also more expensive especially if you're talking about the dual layer BD50 discs. The BluRay replicators are entirely new machines since you can't just refit the existing DVD replication lines for BluRay. Commercial replicators such as CINRAM and Sony's DADC facilities have to add new, and more expensive, BluRay machines. BD50 yields are improving to above 80% but they're still more expensive to replicate than DVD's. In addition, some studios are remastering some of their catalog to 4K resolution to be able to get the best results for BluRay. This is an expensive process and adds to the higher cost of production. (See the link on the 4K remastering of Blade Runner.) http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/feature...ml?print_page=y Quote:* For those interested Amazon has begun offering a new "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" sale on hit Blu-ray titles effectively dropping the price of each title (when buying 3) from about $28 USD to $18 USD, a very good price for Blu-ray titles. I agree with DVDBack23 on this one. $18 for a recent release is a very good price for BluRay. There's no need to pay $30 if you know where to look for deals and sales. [ + quote]
error5 (Senior Member) 13 May 2008 8:47
juankerr: You forgot the extra expenses for >BD-J programming on all titles >1.1 PiP content when available >2.0 BD-Live web content when available >hard coating on all discs Once more replication lines get up and running, especially those that are BD50 capable, then we could see competition for orders. Only then will we see lower replication costs. *Quote:* Blu-ray is a lame, interim technology biding it's time until something NOT antiquated like ANYTHING OTHER THAN 'SPINNING DISCS' comes out. HD on Flash will be the future, or hologram flash. BluRay is what's available now. You may have the luxury of waiting for the next best thing but HD on flash is still years away. I, on the other hand, want to enjoy my hard earned money now. I'm not that old (mid 30's) but I could very well die tomorrow for whatever reason. I want to enjoy what's available now so I buy the spinning discs. If I'm still alive when HD flash comes out then you can be sure I'll be first in line at Best Buy or my local A/V dealer. Pioneer Kuro 50" PDP-5010FD 1080p Plasma With 24fps input and 3:3 72Hz Playback - ISF Calibrated Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD Player// Sony PS3 60GB - soon to be replaced by the Panasonic DMP-BD50 Marantz SR6001 Surround Sound Receiver With HDMI// B&W604/602/LCR600 // Hsu Research VTF3 Subwoofer HD DVD Titles - 85 // BluRay Titles - 63 (and counting) [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 13 May 2008 8:49
drach (Newbie) 13 May 2008 13:06
If you think blu-ray discs are expensive, imagine how much more expensive HD on flash or holograms (which are still a LONG way from commercial production) will be. [ + quote]
emugamer (Junior Member) 14 May 2008 12:05
*Originally posted by drach:* If you think blu-ray discs are expensive, imagine how much more expensive HD on flash or holograms (which are still a LONG way from commercial production) will be. Forget holograms dude. I'm saving my $$$ for a teleporter :P [ + quote]
mspurloc (Junior Member) 14 May 2008 13:02
*Originally posted by juankerr:* *Originally posted by mspurloc:* No. I'm not paying $30, or even $20 for a title that it costs them exactly the same amount to produce and distribute as a regular resolution DVD. Agreed but the problem with your reasoning is this: *it is more expensive to produce a BluRay disc than a regular DVD*. Nope, sorry. That was true four years ago. The minute they went into production and economy of scale kicked in, the costs were: stepper motors and eyes. A difference of about a dollar per unit and have nothing to do with the discs whatsoever. There is no excuse for the current costs of discs, blanks, players and burners except greed. Evidence: when HD-DVD was still around, the prices were going down. Now that they have a monopoly, they're gouging. [ + quote]
juankerr (Member) 14 May 2008 13:24
*Originally posted by mspurloc:* Nope, sorry. That was true four years ago. BluRay (and HD DVD for that matter) wasn't around 4 years ago. *Quote:* The minute they went into production and economy of scale kicked in, the costs were: stepper motors and eyes. "stepper motors and eyes" Sorry but I don't get this. *Quote:* A difference of about a dollar per unit and have nothing to do with the discs whatsoever. There is no excuse for the current costs of discs, blanks, players and burners except greed. So can you give actual numbers with links on how much it takes to encode, author and replicate a BD25 or BD50 movie compared to DVD? Give us actual proof that a DVD movie costs the same to produce as a Bluray movie, since this is basically your point. *Quote:* Evidence: when HD-DVD was still around, the prices were going down. Now that they have a monopoly, they're gouging. Incorrect. The prices of HD DVD and BluRay media were practically the same when both formats were competing. Actually the HD DVD combos were consistently more expensive than their Bluray non-combo counterparts. It was only when HD DVD decided to quit that the discs were sold at firesale rates. Only the prices for players were going down. The prices for the discs remained the same. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14 May 2008 13:30
eatsushi (Senior Member) 14 May 2008 14:35
juankerr: pacificdisc.com lists what is probably the norm for DVD and BD replication. http://www.pacificdisc.com/PricingBluRay.html Let's say for a batch of 10K units the costs are as follows: DVD5 - $0.81 per disc DVD9 - $0.98 per disc BD25 - $2.69 per disc BD50 - $3.59 per disc But like you and error5 have pointed out, a lot more goes into the production process of BD titles before the order even goes out to the replicators: Mastering (ie 4K) Encoding to AVC or VC1 Encoding advanced audio Dolby True HD, DTS-HD HR or MA BD-J programming 1.1 and 2.0 content creation Hard-coating etc. It's simply improssible to make the claim that BluRay production and replication should cost the same as DVD. [ + quote]
Dansay (Newbie) 30 June 2008 14:36
Well, facilities for blu ray are in the millions not to mention the AACS Media Key, AACS Content Certification. Pacificdisc inst probably the only one that can replicate Blu-ray. http://www.usadubs.com also handles Blu-ray work and author for blu-ray replication, which a lot of companies cant do. [ + quote]
mspurloc (Junior Member) 30 June 2008 16:23
*Originally posted by eatsushi:* juankerr: pacificdisc.com lists what is probably the norm for DVD and BD replication. http://www.pacificdisc.com/PricingBluRay.html Let's say for a batch of 10K units the costs are as follows: DVD5 - $0.81 per disc DVD9 - $0.98 per disc BD25 - $2.69 per disc BD50 - $3.59 per disc But like you and error5 have pointed out, a lot more goes into the production process of BD titles before the order even goes out to the replicators: Mastering (ie 4K) Encoding to AVC or VC1 Encoding advanced audio Dolby True HD, DTS-HD HR or MA BD-J programming 1.1 and 2.0 content creation Hard-coating etc. It's simply improssible to make the claim that BluRay production and replication should cost the same as DVD. ---Sorry, but these industry-backed arguments are all predicated on phallacies. Some blank distributor isn't going to quote you the same price a studio gets. Also, the studios don't encode more than once, unless they're stupid. They encode at highest quality and the media scales itself. Mastering is no longer an expensive process, nor does it require constant human supervision as it would when you're using film. As for audio, if you think somebody's sitting there riding the board as it's done, you haven't worked for a duplicating operation. [ + quote]