Who wants one until blanks become affordable?

I sure don't.

This isn't a BD burner.

At least you can watch and save Blu-ray(to your HD until blanks become reasonable, currently around $2) and still burn DVD. OR You could buy a separate DVD burner and also a BD-ROM (read only drive) for less money, but then you have 2 separate drives. Hard to say which is the better way to go. Separate drives might be nice, OTOH maybe you only have room for a single drive in your HTPC rig.

1,2,3,4. I agree with all of you.. Too expencive to switch from dvds to BR. currently I watch everything on PowerDvd 9.0 everthing I see turn into HD content, close enought for me.

I might upgrade to PowerDvd 10 3D image.. 3D is the next big thing..

You can rip the BD's to HD and then Burn to dual layer DVD's correct?

You can rip the BD's to HD and then Burn to dual layer DVD's correct?

If you all want the price of these to drop, just wait a month after I buy one...history shows that is when the prices drop.

#8 Kyser_Soze,

>> just wait a month after I buy one...history shows that is when the prices drop.
-- Isn't that the truth. LOL. As soon as you buy something the prices drop.
-- It's a wonder to me how we can have an economic downturn in our country when EVERTHING gets cheaper with time.
-- I personally don't see how things start high in cost in the first place. Remember when CF CompactFlash cards were a deal when a 512MB one could be had for $139. Now a 16GB one can be had for just $36. It's the same darn material used to make them. Plastic & metal prices haven't dropped. It's about foolish and greedy mftrs.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. I agree with all of you.

#10 is kind of dumb. Just kidding. #9, to answer your question, what drives the economy is when people buy things; then money changes hands, and goes from sitting around to being put to fund either making more of the goods, or to research how to make better quality/performing goods. Money doesn't change hands if people sit around waiting for the price to drop. Then, the people who make the goods can't sell them. There's then no use in paying people to keep making the goods that aren't selling. So, then people start losing their jobs, and the economy goes down.
As for why goods start off at a high price: it may have taken years of paying large amounts of money to accomplish the research that went into making the goods. This money wasn't ever made up until the goods actually materialize. Therefore, initially, when goods begin to be sold, a heavy premium is placed on them in order to make up the development cost. As time goes on, and this money has been made up, then the price gradually adjusts itself to more closely match the cost it takes just to keep making them (as in the cost of the materials and labor for assembly).

Of course, there are a number of other factors that come into play, such as competition and barriers to entry which could mess around with what we actually see in the real world. But, what I have described is a simple model of how things are priced, theoretically. If you didn't want a whole economics lesson, sorry.

#6...YES