UK Blu-ray market data

[sjy1969]

Hello,

Can anyone point me in the direction of any 2014 market data for blu-ray in the UK? There's nothing that I can see on the BVA website and I've not been able find anything elsewhere online. Official charts say nothing about sales figures unless a given title did particularly well. 7th and 8th last week were a couple of titles released as a limited edition of 2500 so that doesn't look great in terms of sales.

Just curious to see the overall trends. Growth last year was pretty good, about 12%

Thanks in advance.

[Vashetti]

I'd be interested in this too.

I know my local Tesco stores have increased their Blu-ray coverage, but nobody I know seems to buy Blu-rays, just DVDs.

[mredman]

Originally Posted by Vashetti

I'd be interested in this too.

I know my local Tesco stores have increased their Blu-ray coverage, but nobody I know seems to buy Blu-rays, just DVDs.

tell me are they stupid or do they not have a HD tv ?
most of my friends has stopped buying DVD's and like me switched to blu ray

[partridge]

It is a myth that peoply buy HD tv's to enjoy HD content. They don't. They buy them because:

A: flatscreen HD telly's are all there are now!

B: They are big and flat

HD content is the last thing on their minds

Shops tend to sell DVD because they are cheaper. Blu-ray is still far too expensive and these days everyone is watching their pennies. Why buy BR when DVD is good enough and a third cheaper.

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by partridge

It is a myth that peoply buy HD tv's to enjoy HD content. They don't. They buy them because:

A: flatscreen HD telly's are all there are now!

B: They are big and flat

HD content is the last thing on their minds

Shops tend to sell DVD because they are cheaper. Blu-ray is still far too expensive and these days everyone is watching their pennies. Why buy BR when DVD is good enough and a third cheaper.

It doesn't hurt that DVDs look much improved upscaled and given the average distance they view it from is 9 feet, they tend to be satisfied with the PQ.

However that said I personally notice a huge difference between SD and HD cable channels, much more so than between DVD and Blu-ray. I guess a lot of it is having the screen filled up rather than having the black bars on the side, but their also seems to be a larger bump in clarity. So a consumer would definitely be wise to at least get an HD DVR, since DVDs are now pretty much all widescreen.

[slick1ru2]

There definitely are people, like my wife, could care less about HD. They just want to see the content, they don't care if they can see the age spots on the actor's hand.

[partridge]

I love HD, I just wish BR's were the same price as DVD, or just put them both in one box and be done with it.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

There definitely are people, like my wife, could care less about HD. They just want to see the content, they don't care if they can see the age spots on the actor's hand.

The natural progression if SD persists as the 'people's choice will be catastrophic for home cinema. After all, its pointless to have a large screen if SD is all people are happy with. I actually think films on smartphones is the death knell for hone cinema. That's why I hate the concept of streaming. To me it represents pokey little screens and tablets much like mp3 represents low quality music on pokey little devices. Hopefully the big screen will survive my lifetime otherwise things are going to be dull.

[bailey1987]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

The natural progression if SD persists as the 'people's choice will be catastrophic for home cinema. After all, its pointless to have a large screen if SD is all people are happy with. I actually think films on smartphones is the death knell for hone cinema. That's why I hate the concept of streaming. To me it represents pokey little screens and tablets much like mp3 represents low quality music on pokey little devices. Hopefully the big screen will survive my lifetime otherwise things are going to be dull.

I Agree. It depresses me a lot the thought that everything will just go streaming. Physical media is one of my toys. Don't take my toys from me.

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

The natural progression if SD persists as the 'people's choice will be catastrophic for home cinema. After all, its pointless to have a large screen if SD is all people are happy with. I actually think films on smartphones is the death knell for hone cinema. That's why I hate the concept of streaming. To me it represents pokey little screens and tablets much like mp3 represents low quality music on pokey little devices. Hopefully the big screen will survive my lifetime otherwise things are going to be dull.

Come on, we've been here before, you spend too much thought thinking about stuff that's not going to happen. Home Cinema is not going anywhere. People with them aren't going to think 'well, I have this 15 foot screen, projector and sound system, but now I can stream stuff, I'd be better off waiting until I can watch Lawrence of Arabia on the way to work on my 5" screen with headphones'. It's a daft concept. Like people who worried the cassette tape would kill vinyl because it was way more convenient and portable. Didn't happen. I remember when DVD launched, there were people who seriously thought it would never replace laserdisc as that was too entrenched as the collectors format. I remember letters in magazines where the arguments raged. There were also people convinced it would never kill VHS because it was too popular with the mainstream. People basically worry over nothing and here we are, 20 years on, with people worrying about bluray despite it being way more popular than I ever thought it would be with amazing releases all the time.