Sony Pictures could stop releasing movies on the 480i DVD format to save money

[HDTV1080P]

Sony Pictures could stop releasing movies on the 480i DVD format to save money on DVD authoring and pre-mastering cost

The Blu-ray format within a few months will be 6 years old. There are several Blu-ray devices on the market. Consumers can purchase standalone Blu-ray players, portable Blu-ray players, and Notebook computers with Blu-ray drives in them. Standalone Blu-ray players can be purchased for as low as $49.99 when they are placed on sale. In addition, every single Blu-ray device currently in production will play DVD and audio CD’s also.

Video streaming services like VUDU have become a standard feature offered on all new standalone Blu-ray players and almost all new HDTV’s. VUDU allows customers to rent or purchase streaming movies at 1080P quality with 5.1-7.1 lossy surround sound (possible in the future lossless audio as Internet bandwidth increases).

If Sony stopped releasing movies on the 480i DVD format the following would occur

1. Sony Pictures would save money by only needing to author and pre-master Blu-ray optical discs. In addition, Sony could save money by stopping Sony DVD player production and only release new Blu-ray players (consumers would play their DVD’s on Blu-ray players).

2. Consumers that wanted to purchase the new Sony Pictures movies would either purchase it on the Blu-ray format or purchase it from VUDU as a lifetime streaming option (or other streaming provider like Amazon).

3. Consumers that wanted to rent the movie would have several choices:

a. Blu-ray disc rental.
b. Cable and Satellite video on demand rental.
c. VUDU streaming rental option (or other streaming provider).

4. Demand for standalone Blu-ray players, portable Blu-ray players, and Notebook computers with BD-ROM drives would greatly increase.

5. The Blu-ray new release movie titles would be around $5 cheaper since the Blu-ray/DVD combo packs would no longer exist. Some people boycott some combo packs that contain a Blu-ray and DVD in every package.

6. Every Sony Pictures new release would be available on Blu-ray for the very first time: Currently some low budget Sony Pictures movies are only released on 480i DVD format and 1080P VUDU streaming (the Blu-ray format is completely skipped).

Other cost cutting methods could also be done by Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures should look at how many millions of dollars it is spending on BD-LIVE and how many consumers have had Blu-ray disc loading problems because of BD-LIVE. It might be in Sony’s best interest to discontinue the BD-LIVE feature on all new Blu-ray discs. I have used BD-LIVE several times and it is a neat feature but I could live without it.

Sony Pictures could start offering a video streaming movie rental service with BD-LIVE to generate some revenue.

[Batman1980]

I think it would take quite a bit of gumption and courage to be the first studio to stop releasing DVDs, I wonder how the general public would react.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Darth Anakin

I think it would take quite a bit of gumption and courage to be the first studio to stop releasing DVDs, I wonder how the general public would react.

I think they would react by taking a serious look at the other options for Sony titles... a.k.a. Blu-ray.

[HDTV1080P]

To clarify my Sony ideas post:

I recently was reading an article about Sony going from a value of $200 billion to $20 billion and predicting a loss of another 2.7 billion dollars.They are reorganizing and cutting 10,000 more jobs.
http://www.twice.com/article/482895-Sony_To_Cut_10_000_More_Jobs.php

If Sony stopped DVD production and did only Blu-ray production they could save more money. Also getting rid of BD-LIVE would improve Blu-ray disc-loading issues while at the same time save money.

[MikeCL]

I think some will complain at first but then move on.. I mean really I remember when I spent $400 on my first DVD player before (still have it) prices went down.. no reason not to get one now.. DVDs look bad on a 40" screen up-scaling is no replacement

[ZoetMB]

DVDs have a 76.3% (by revenue) share of the U.S. physical market. Year to date, it's $2.28 billion in the U.S. alone. No one is discontinuing DVDs before its share gets down to below 20%.

The unit share of DVDs is even higher (because they're priced less than BDs).

DVDs serve a market that isn't technically sophisticated (so they're not downloading) and doesn't want to invest as yet in BD. Especially on catalog titles, it's remarkably cheap entertainment.

The first BD titles were introduced in June 2006, so we're six years into the format. Six years after the introduction of the CD, CDs had a 30% long-form unit share (vinyl was down to 5% and cassettes had a 65% share). BD isn't doing all that much worse than CD was doing in year six. The real test will be in 2016. Ten years after the introduction of the CD it had a 59% long-form unit share. (Cassettes still had a 41% share and vinyl was almost nothing at 0.14%.) Of course technology moves at a far faster pace these days so one could argue that BD should be doing better by now, but the poor economy and the lack of physical retail is probably holding it back.

[rewak]

I don't think it's quite time to phase out DVD production yet, but losing BD-Live would probably be a good idea if it's that costly. It's not an impressive feature, the vast majority just have some trailers up, and at best it has a couple of featurettes that probably should just be on-disc anyway.

[steve1971]

I think it would be a good move by Sony, alot of gumption but a good move. And yes they should get rid of BD-Live as well.

[HDTV1080P]

My exclusive comments on this website with a long discussion about this topic were lost in the database outage. I do not have time to repost my detail thoughts on this subject.


Blu-ray.com had a database lost where around 7 weeks of forum posts were completely lost.


In summary it looks like both 480i DVD and the HD quality Blu-ray format will coexist together for another 10+ years since the DVD format is very strong. Most likely around the year 2016 we might see a new 4K optical format to compete with the 1080P Blu-ray format. Who knows perhaps maybe a 4K DVD format that has a 480i DVD dual layer (8.5GB) and 4K 100GB-500GB layers. Many consumers would be interested in a 4K DVD format if it was backwards compatible with 480i SD DVD players. Then stores could stock one inventory title. A 4K Blu-ray disc that uses 100GB-500GB is also a possibility. I just would not want to have a combo pack that included 6 different formats in one package: 4K 3-D, 4K 2-D, Blu-ray 3-D, Blu-ray 2-D, DVD, digital copy (of course currently all 3-D movies are native 2K quality and 4K 3-D is something we should see in the future).

Both 4K and 8K displays for consumers are in the works. 4K projectors are available now and 8K perhaps in 5-10 years from now.

[segagamer12]

Actually I hate to say this but if cost is an issue they could go the opposite extreme and cut back on Blu Ray releases. I know that is not popular but consider this, if you look for a laptop for sale with a Blu Ray built in you have fewer choices now than a year ago. In January 2011 I purchased a new laptop with a Blu Ray built in, an accident less than a year latter caused it to die on me and the warranty company could not replace it. A year latter I went shopping for a replacement and all the stores I went to that one year prier had a couple different models to choose form, this year had not one single laptop that had Blu Ray built in, not even the high end Sony models! Also several stores in our area stopped selling the recordable discs and drives where as a year ago they were all selling them now only Target and Office Max still do and they both cut back shelf space.

Also as far as releases go, I don't keep up with as a whole or nationwide but in our area some stores have cut back on shelf space devoted to new blu ray discs and movies are getting harder to find. Our Blockbuster threw in the towel this past winter so that is one less option for rental and used movies and other stores have cut back too.


I hate to say it but I think Blu Ray could be slowing down not picking up and some studios could drop blu ray support in stead of DVD as Blu Ray is the one that costs the studios more. I hope it does not come to that but you never know.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by morriscroy

There's one category where bluray has been largely absent (if not almost a failure): older catalog tv shows.

.....
If these amazon "Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available" listings of unreleased bluray tv season sets are reliable, then it appears the movie companies may have been originally planning to go the whole hog on releasing tv shows on bluray back in the 2007 to 2009 time frame.

Somehow reality set in sometime around 2009 or 2010, and they decided to cut back significantly on further bluray tv season set releases.

no, it would be the opposite. Amazon does not create sign up sheets because companies (studios in this case) are interested in gathering data. It is when Amazon sees (or assumes there will be) a lot of demand for something, that way it is easier for them to track and inform their clients (i.e. XXXX is out now, so come and buy it).

The biggest issues especially with some of the shows you mention, is that TV tends to go with cheaper crappier equipment. Some of these shows where filmed in SD digital and it is most likely that studios are questioning if people would be willing to spend big bucks (since from the studios perspective a series is many hours and so the consumer should pay for it but from the consumer perspective it is much easier to put down 20$ for a film than 200$ for several seasons in a box set. But let's face it, this summer we will be getting ST:TNG so they are showing up, it is just that studios are going with sure things (shows with big, usually slightly wealthier and crazier fan base that might need less work) instead of shows that are riskier.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by morriscroy

How do you know this is the case?

Do you have insider information either at amazon or a movie company/distributor? Is there an article which outlines amazon's methods at how they do this?

don't know if it is still there, but it used to be in the disclaimer on the page. Back in the early days of BD you would always have people saying "..... is coming soon, see it is on Amazon" and so then when you would click you would see that it meant nothing but just an alert if one day it would be released that you would get an e-mail.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by morriscroy

These alert listings still exist. For example, here's the one for the (unreleased) CSI:Miami season 6 bluray set.

http://www.amazon.com/C-S-I-Miami-Se.../dp/B0015QWZ8I


Though this does not tell us who exactly initiated these "alert" listings, whether amazon, movies companies, or some agreement/cooperation between the parties involved. Without an insider spilling the beans, we'll never know for sure.

Sorry if I was not clear. I know alerts still exist. I was just not sure if it is still spelled out like they used to. And from the looks of it, they don't bother with it on the product page any more. The thing is I don't go there (or ever went there) to see what might be comming down the pipe in the distant future. If I go there it is either for a sale or a specific title that I know is on the way, so I don't see those place fillers as often anymore since people don't post on here or other forums "look that title will be out soon because it is on Amazon".


You could always try talking to a CSR, I doubt it is a big secret that they are just meaningless place holders.

As for why you would assume it has anything to do with studios, I am not sure. Why would you think the studio would be more interested in people that frequent Amazon than all the other places including BB and WM were they tend to sell more copies and also more often have exclusives?

[tigertron]

Well, its a step to making Blu-ray the most dominant format.

Consumers didn't take it well when shops decided to stop selling VHS players and when distributors stopped producing VHS films, but they had to accept it.

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Good who watches DVDs anymore anyways...

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by morriscroy

Does BB and WM indeed sell more copies than amazon? Is this publicly documented anywhere?

a bit old but http://www.afterdawn.com/news/articl...y_market_share

[BZN4LC4PON3]

IMO i think putting a DVD with a blu-ray is stupid and to me personally is wasteful. I dont even watch regular DVD's so I have no use for them. Id rather just save alittle money and buy a blu-ray instead

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by morriscroy

Thanks.

It would be great if there's something more recent. This type of data doesn't seem to appear often.

I am sure if you scower google enough you will find more recent numbers. the issue is if something is brand new it tends to be easy to fing, but if it is several month old it tends to be much harder and you need to luck out on it.

[budious]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Sony Pictures could stop releasing movies on the 480i DVD format to save money on DVD authoring and pre-mastering cost

How do you know it would save them any money? How do you know they would not make less money? Do you even know what their percentage of sales are between DVD and BD? You don't cite a single source or hard fact. This thread appears to be nothing more than wishful propaganda by another BD OCDer. There is still much value and content on DVD that will not be on BD anytime soon.

[Tony208]

The only reason people buy DVD over blu-ray is because it's cheaper or they don't have a blu-ray player. If they can force customers to go blu-ray and then cut down on costs of Blu-ray to near dvd prices, that can only be good.

Like the analog to digital tv transition

but who knows how many years to go for such a thing to happen