BD Hardware Sales Are Fast Overtaking DVD's

[Blu Titan]

A nice little read from HMM. It is obvious that Blu-ray is the current and future king of optical home entertainment media. However, Blu-ray's emergence into the homes of everyday people is happening sooner rather than later. I see evidence of this every time I go into Blockbuster or Best Buy. Do you guys thing that FINALLY those very few remaining Trolls will be silenced? No, don't think so. What else would they write about then? Anyways, here's part of the article that deals with the emergence of 3D in the HT. Basically consumers are not willing to pay a premium for the feature.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Consumers may love new 3D content, but they sure don’t want to pay much more to watch it at home.

That’s according to consumer research presented by In-Stat Digital Sept. 18 at the 3D Entertainment Summit, which featured studio and consumer electronic company executives, research firms and 3D technology experts.

Michelle Abrahams, principal analyst with In-Stat, shared research that showed 64% of consumers surveyed expressed at least some interest in 3D content, but 25% of consumers said they wouldn’t pay any premium for a 3D-enabled TV. On the software side, 33% of respondents said they wouldn’t spend more money for a 3D disc over its 2D counterpart.

Blu-ray Disc player owners, however were a different story.

“Those who already own a Blu-ray player were more likely than other respondents to spend more,” Abrahams said.

Here's the part about Blu-ray hardware sales overtaking DVD.

...He said the fact that Blu-ray hardware sales are fast overtaking DVD hardware sales (with DVD projected at 53% and Blu-ray at 47% for 2009) is good news for future 3D-on-Blu-ray ventures, especially because “at the moment consumers can only get the full benefit [of 3D] in the theater.”

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/3-d...-3d-home-17088

[Glee7007]

Personally not very interested in 3D though I would love for the technology to get to a point where it's really impressive. Right now it still seems like a gimmick, but who knows until it's really developed. I'm just happy if we can start getting consistently great HD picture and sound.

[owa]

Good news on the blu-ray hardware front. Thanks for the link.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by owa

Good news on the blu-ray hardware front. Thanks for the link.

Yep, but that's sad news on the software front. If hardware is selling at almost 1:1 with DVD hardware, software should be equal or greater than that.

People with BD players are still buying DVDs. That's messed up.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

Yep, but that's sad news on the software front. If hardware is selling at almost 1:1 with DVD hardware, software should be equal or greater than that.

People with BD players are still buying DVDs. That's messed up.

I honestly think that BR has been doing better than people would think against DVD. But on the software front, there is a phenomenon that is the cushion of DVD sales, and that will be super hard to overtake, until we have a similar cushion (that I estimate between $50M & $80M for the DVD) for BR sales:
The $5-$10 Supermarket bargain bin sales.
Thsi is why even when we will have the top 3/4 best sellers of the week close to the 1:1 ratio (I think by the end of 2010/ early 2011), the overall market share will still be off by $50-$80M in favor of DVD imo.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

I honestly think that BR has been doing better than people would think against DVD. But on the software front, there is a phenomenon that is the cushion of DVD sales, and that will be super hard to overtake, until we have a similar cushion (that I estimate between $50M & $80M for the DVD) for BR sales:
The $5-$10 Supermarket bargain bin sales.
Thsi is why even when we will have the top 3/4 best sellers of the week close to the 1:1 ratio (I think by the end of 2010/ early 2011), the overall market share will still be off by $50-$80M in favor of DVD imo.

You clearly have no idea.

The best sellers are typically about 20% software market share for BD (or less even!). Best we've had was opening week of Watchmen at 37%. That's barely close at all to 1:1 sales.

You're right to note that DVD outsells BD by a large margin because of it's available library, but even comparing a single title, BD is still lagging far behind 50% in most cases. Only older catalog titles have broken 50%, and of them, it's not uncommon to see 80+%. Braveheart and Gladiator recently hit with a 96/97% I believe it was.

[hanser]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

Yep, but that's sad news on the software front. If hardware is selling at almost 1:1 with DVD hardware, software should be equal or greater than that.

People with BD players are still buying DVDs. That's messed up.

Not necessarily. You forget there are hundreds of million of people out there that have already a DVD player. To compare software sales you must compare it to the total number of players in the homes, not the new acquisitions.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by hanser

Not necessarily. You forget there are hundreds of million of people out there that have already a DVD player. To compare software sales you must compare it to the total number of players in the homes, not the new acquisitions.

Touche! How silly of me to not realize this.

But my point still stands even if it's made to be not directly relevant. There are far too many owners of BD players who are refusing to buy movies on BD. Even if DVD players were discontinued completely and BD players were 100% of the hardware market, it wouldn't mean a thing if DVDs were still outselling BDs 9:1.

[koontz1973]

Owners of BD players will buy DVD's as long as they are produced. Most of us only have one BD player in the house where as most people have at least 2 or more DVD players. I for one will carry on buying DVD as most things are not out on BD yet. Why should I wait in the vain hope that within the next ten years, a film or TV show will be put out on Blu if I want to watch it now.

If you give me a choice of DVD or BD then I will buy BD.

[progers13]

Originally Posted by koontz1973

Owners of BD players will buy DVD's as long as they are produced. Most of us only have one BD player in the house where as most people have at least 2 or more DVD players. I for one will carry on buying DVD as most things are not out on BD yet. Why should I wait in the vain hope that within the next ten years, a film or TV show will be put out on Blu if I want to watch it now.

If you give me a choice of DVD or BD then I will buy BD.

I will respectfully disagree. Can anyone weigh in on the percentage of new releases that are available both in BD and DVD? While it may not be 100% of all new releases available on Blu, I contend it's pretty close. As such, if something is being released for home consumption for the first time, then it stands to reason it is being made available on BD as well as DVD. Have there been any recent new releases available solely on DVD? So it seems to me what you're saying is if you want to watch an older catalog title that is not currently available on BD, and I can understand your point because there are many that are the case. However, if those movies / shows were so important to you, shouldn't you already own them on DVD? Ergo, why would you feel the need to purchase them on DVD now rather than when they were first released?

I've long since stopped buying on DVD because I already own all I care to own on the format. And I'll stick with them until the chance to upgrade them all to BD is available. But I'm of the belief that if I wanted it so bad I would have bought it on DVD years ago.

[boxterduke]

Originally Posted by Afrobean

People with BD players are still buying DVDs. That's messed up.

Price determines a lot of buying decisions. For the average person, going to a store to pick up a movie is the only way to get a movie, and when seeing the difference of prices between DVDs and BDs, that determines what people would buy.

I myself have stopped buying DVDs, I still watch then and rent them since the collection at my local Blockbuster is more than BDs but I don't buy them anymore.

If I really want a movie and the price on the DVD is way cheaper then I wait for the BD to drop in price.

[koontz1973]

Originally Posted by progers13

I will respectfully disagree. Can anyone weigh in on the percentage of new releases that are available both in BD and DVD? While it may not be 100% of all new releases available on Blu, I contend it's pretty close.

You missed my point. All or most new things are coming out on both formats and for that I do buy BD and BD will become the dominant force in this way over time, but if I see a film in the shops that is not out yet and I fancy watching it, then I will buy it. Most of the older TV shows and obscure foreign language films will probably never see a BD release.

[progers13]

Originally Posted by koontz1973

You missed my point. All or most new things are coming out on both formats and for that I do buy BD and BD will become the dominant force in this way over time, but if I see a film in the shops that is not out yet and I fancy watching it, then I will buy it. Most of the older TV shows and obscure foreign language films will probably never see a BD release.

I got your point, which is why I said if it is currently available on DVD and you have a fancy for it, why didn't you buy it previously? If it is a one-time itch to scratch, why not rent the DVD instead of buy?

[koontz1973]

Originally Posted by progers13

I got your point, which is why I said if it is currently available on DVD and you have a fancy for it, why didn't you buy it previously? If it is a one-time itch to scratch, why not rent the DVD instead of buy?

Because I do not rent. I normally watch films multiply times and renting is a waste of money. And buying films is a hobby that with well over a thousand films made each year I will never run out of gems to buy.

[AllenA]

Just want to throw in my thoughts here, I admit to still buying DVD's. I go to Walmart and see a bin where I can buy decent movies for $5, in that situation I jump on the oppertunity. If I'm buying a new movie, I'll go the blu-ray route.

[Jimbo976]

If they have a technology where I don't have to wear cheap paper glasses and that I can use with my prescription glasses and not lose any PQ (like the colors that we do now with the existing 3D Blu-rays) then I'm all for it.

[owa]

Originally Posted by Jimbo976

and not lose any PQ (like the colors that we do now with the existing 3D Blu-rays) then I'm all for it.

Yeah, I think that's really important for hi-def. It seems kind of pointless to have 3D if the PQ is going to be significantly worsened by it. Hopefully they iron out all those issues.