Did you think your new DVDs were getting cheaper? Not really. NPD’s research shows the prices for new DVDs have been stable since 2004. The average price dropped just 6 cent, from $17.27 in 2004 to $17.21 in 2007.

Retailers don’t want to take a loss to get buyers into their store, like they used to. “There was a time when you’d see $13.99 across the board [for a new release], but now it’s more like $17.99. I think they are finding they just aren’t the draw anymore, when people would come in for DVDs and you could drive them to other areas of your business. But if you maintain the higher price, and sell less, then you’ll do OK,” one retailer said.

Consumers don’t mind the pricing either. In a survey by the NPD, 62% said DVD prices were good to excellent. Just 2% said the value was poor. $15.50 was considered the optimal price for a new DVD, while $19.61 was the highest consumers would still pay.

In February, Toshiba’s HD-DVD was defeated by Blu-ray and its supporters. The same month however, Blu-ray player sales were down 40% from January. No sudden burst of people who finally took the plunge. Quite the opposite. NPD’s consumer research shared the same sentiments we were shown yesterday. The current Blu-ray equipment is too expensive and people are satisfied with their DVD players. In March sales were up 2% from February, which means they were still down 38% from January.

Blu-ray seems to be a hard sell. The average Joe doesn’t see the difference between High Definition and Standard Definition (SD) unless he’s up close. For example, after the launch of the PlayStation 3, a lot of people didn’t even notice how they had connected their system in SD. It meant they weren’t getting the HD picture, which was the main advantage of the system. And you can’t compare it to the VHS to DVD transformation. Going from tape to disc was a major step. This is just updating the picture a little. With an average distance to your 32″ TV, it would be tough to see the difference between HD and an upscaled DVD.

I regress, before I turn this into a rant.

While last quarter’s media sales were still up, the NPD Group is expecting US consumers to spend less on entertainment this year compared to 2007, mainly because of the recession. Although the recession in 2001 didn’t cause any decrease in revenue, it was in the time of the relatively new DVD format and new gaming systems like the PlayStation 2.

This year doesn’t have high flyers like these, although the HD-DVD failure may help the overall HD disc sales. Afterall, consumers don’t like two formats and are now sure they’re not buying something that will be useless in a year or two.

The NPD research shows 37% was anticipating to spent less on entertainment, while only 18% expected to spent more. It is however, just based on a survey. People don’t do the same things as they say or even think. You may even question how much they really know about what they spent. I could answer a question about my spending on DVDs last year and what I’m expecting this year, but you won’t get any scientific conclusions from it.

So far for my little rant.