Blu-ray players outpacing supply

[HDTV1080P]

Retailers report sales gap closing between two formats

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6467868.html

[nhaase]

Graffeo and Kornblau: But blu-ray can't match HD DVD's interactivity (as of now). And that is what consumers want in hi-def, interactivity, not so much hi-def, but interactivity, that's what high-def optical discs are supposed to be all about, not hi-def.

Good news, though, as hopefully this continues to take away yet another argument they have.

[CAB]

The consumer must be buying standalone players to play PS3 games. There's no other explaination! Oh wait! Sony is buying them all using a 3rd party.

-CB

[MrBogey]

Personally I've been advising friends to get the PS3 and not get a standalone till next year.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by MrBogey

Personally I've been advising friends to get the PS3 and not get a standalone till next year.

Too late, we even have people on this forum who were apparently suckered by the "Buy a pre-mandate player before September 30, and get five free copies of Resident Evil!" promotion last June to clear out the faulty stock...

(Fortunately, I'd bought my first DVD player relatively late before the death of DiVX, and was thankfully able to avoid being stuck with copies of Twister, Lost in Space and Lethal Weapon 3.)

[Petra]

how are the AVS-ers gonna spin this one?

[dialog_gvf]

Well, sure BD players are selling more. Because they have such a staggering selection of choice and solid reliability.

But, HD DVD is selling the most of any single model.

And that's what studios look at.

Oh, and look how crappy the BD standalones sales are compared to the PS/3.

[Petra]

Why isn't this story at AVS yet? c'mon people, someone needs to put it up there

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Too late, we even have people on this forum who were apparently suckered by the "Buy a pre-mandate player before September 30, and get five free copies of Resident Evil!" promotion last June to clear out the faulty stock...

The five free applies to the PS/3 too. And every of these "faulty" players will play whatever title w/secondary comes out. They just won't be able to show a PiP. I expect they'll likely be able to show the secondary full screen.

And all those A1/A2 that can't (and A3 that won't) output 1080p? Are they faulty too?

[dakota81]

Originally Posted by Petra

how are the AVS-ers gonna spin this one?

They'll just go on with the usual talking points, over-priced, obsolete, drm, Sony's debt, competition. They're broken records over there.

The real question is, does anyone care anymore how the AVS-ers are going to spin this one?

[Petra]

Originally Posted by dakota81

They'll just go on with the usual talking points, over-priced, obsolete, drm, Sony's debt, competition. They're broken records over there.

The real question is, does anyone care anymore how the AVS-ers are going to spin this one?

it's fun to see them spinning round'n round

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by Petra

Why isn't this story at AVS yet? c'mon people, someone needs to put it up there

OK Petra, it's done. Posted in the Blu-ray Players section.

[dakota81]

Originally Posted by Petra

it's fun to see them spinning round'n round

I guess. It got old very quickly.

[richard lichtenfelt]

R u really inferring that people are more interested in the menus and extras than the quality of the picture and sound? I could really care less about the interactivity with a movie. If I want interactivity I fire up a video game. When I watch a movie I want the colors to pop and the sounds to explode. Did you really just say that hi-def discs are not about hi-definition. You're not smoking you're old dvd's r u?

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by nhaase

Graffeo and Kornblau: But blu-ray can't match HD DVD's interactivity (as of now). And that is what consumers want in hi-def, interactivity, not so much hi-def, but interactivity, that's what high-def optical discs are supposed to be all about, not hi-def.

One would wonder why these brainiacs didn't demand a backward compatible DVD extension that pushes interactivity, instead of getting onboard with HD DVD.

HD is expensive, difficult to achieve well, and brings out piles of perfectionists that whine about every little flaw in the feature, when all that matters is the other stuff.

Pretty amazingly stupid of them to get trapped in an HD disc war, wouldn't you say?

[HeavyHitter]

To say consumers are buying Hi def formats because of interactivity and not because of HD video and advanced audio is moronic. Seriously. It's amazing how out of touch with reality and the marketplace these Universal jackoffs really are.

[LeoneFan]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

To say consumers are buying Hi def formats because of interactivity and not because of HD video and advanced audio is moronic. Seriously. It's amazing how out of touch with reality and the marketplace these Universal jackoffs really are.

A bunch of farm animals could do a better job running that studio that the people who are currently in charge.

[warhawk21114]

Originally Posted by LeoneFan

A bunch of farm animals could do a better job running that studio that the people who are currently in charge.

alright then I'll send the cat right over and she will clean up this mess.

[ArkGuy]

Though the article doesn't mention console sales or movie titles at all, it does bring up something not mentioned much in these forums - the supply problems BD player manufacturers have had this summer.

For example, despite all the whining heard around here from the resident early adaptors-technonistas about java capatibility, slow load times, and lack of an ethernet port, not to mention 1.this and 1.that, a lot of retailers can't seem to keep the Sony S300 in stock. Wal-Mart.com is out of them (though they have plenty of Toshiba A2's) as is techdepot.com, the tech wing of Office Depot. I've never seen more than 2-3 at my local Best Buy - sometimes none, and the manager of a local audio store told me the reason he didn't have one set up as a display model is he can't even have time to pull one out of the box when a new shipment arrives before someone comes in and buys it. I've noticed similar problems with the Samsung 1200.

If you are going to put a fork in the other guys in the player war, you had better have a player to sell someone when you finally convince them to buy your product. If the Big THree BD manufacturers - Sony, Panny, and Samsung - have plenty of third generation players out on the shelves in time for Thanksgiving with good prices, that will be the key to giving HD-DVD a quick KO, not getting such-and-such movie title out there for Christmas. The titles will come in torrents in '08 and there are plenty of goods out there already to tempt people. But you have to have hardware to sell them at a good price.

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by ArkGuy

Though the article doesn't mention console sales or movie titles at all, it does bring up something not mentioned much in these forums - the supply problems BD player manufacturers have had this summer.

You're right. Outside of Costco (S301), I've seen S300 very few times around here. The Fry's I frequent seem to only have the display model most of the time (and they remove the price tag if they don't intend to sell the display model so most people don't even know what it is).

As for HD DVD (can't someone come up with a shorter acronym???) spin, I can think of one -- "We have many more potential owners, since there are over 10 million X360s vs. only 4 million PS3s". Of course, that will destroy their precious attach rate argument, but they're never afraid of contradicting themselves anyway....

enjoy
gandalf