Blu XMas

[djheadd]

It was kind of interesting, I think this XMas will be a huge improvement for the Blu Ray era. Yesteday I spent the whole day in the stores. I went to a Sony Style one and it was interesting watching lots, but I mean lots of people buying Blu Ray players, no the fancy 3D ones. There was a pile of S360s ($70) and another with S370s ($99) and people were buying them like hot bread. In the 30 minutes I was there everyone in the cashier line had a Blu Ray player to pay.
Later I went to Best Buy and, with the HBO 50% off, there was a lot o people with Blus in their hands too. This is great, so I consider this will be a real Blu XMas and maybe the beginning of the end for the DVD.
Best to all, have a nice holidays!

[neos_peace]

That is great for Blu, but as much as I hate to say it I don't think DVD is going anywhere any time soon. yes we are seeing higher Blu sales (inception 65%) then DVD but end of DVD..... no

[Lucy Diamond]

There's a TON of Blu under my tree this year.

I have been a big supporter since late 2006 and I definitely consider myself a veteran of the HD War.

I once said "The only way I'd ever buy an HD-DVD would be to use it as a drink coaster."

Well...a couple of weeks ago, a vendor on amazon made that little wish come true...for just 90 cents.

Best drink coaster ever.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by Lucy Diamond

There's a TON of Blu under my tree this year.

I have been a big supporter since late 2006 and I definitely consider myself a veteran of the HD War.

I once said "The only way I'd ever buy an HD-DVD would be to use it as a drink coaster."

Well...a couple of weeks ago, a vendor on amazon made that little wish come true...for just 90 cents.

Best drink coaster ever.

I have a copy of The Departed on HD DVD hanging on my wall.

I've been out shopping a couple days last week and this weekend. Walmart's Blu-ray section looked like it was hit by a tornado. Those Christmas present BD's appeared to be selling pretty well. I hit Best Buy Sunday morning and the HBO sale looked to be doing pretty well. Also noticed a few 3D HDTV/Blu-ray player bundles going out the door. Looks like the pricepoints on players needed to interest the masses are getting hit now, so it'll be interesting to see what that does for Jan./Feb. sales.

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by Lucy Diamond

There's a TON of Blu under my tree this year.

I have been a big supporter since late 2006 and I definitely consider myself a veteran of the HD War.

I once said "The only way I'd ever buy an HD-DVD would be to use it as a drink coaster."

Well...a couple of weeks ago, a vendor on amazon made that little wish come true...for just 90 cents.

Best drink coaster ever.

Hey don't mock hd-dvd, they make affordable great gifts for HD-DVD player owners (came with my brother's laptop). Picked up Planet Earth on hd-dvd for $15 new for my brother's birthday.

I might get a surprise blu this year but I doubt it. We keep christmas small and I blew my asking budget so to speak on vinyl records.

[FinalEvangelion]

I was noticing someone definitely outside the young male category buying a Blu-ray player the other day at Best Buy. The format is slowly taking hold, but I think the studios are going to have to speed it up a bit by not selling the DVD version by itself / delay the DVD only version of a film. Some are doing that, but I think more will need to follow suit.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by FinalEvangelion

I was noticing someone definitely outside the young male category buying a Blu-ray player the other day at Best Buy. The format is slowly taking hold, but I think the studios are going to have to speed it up a bit by not selling the DVD version by itself / delay the DVD only version of a film. Some are doing that, but I think more will need to follow suit.

Having a few more titles hit 65% release week might make that a reality.

[Atreyu]

I already used up some Christmas money on some blus and my boyfriend has gotten me one but I won't be opening it till January 1st as he will be away till then and that is when we are celebrating Christmas. I think it's either Fantasia, Lord Of The Rings or Back To The Future. Regardless, I want all three, so I will be happy no matter what one is under the tree.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by neos_peace

That is great for Blu, but as much as I hate to say it I don't think DVD is going anywhere any time soon. yes we are seeing higher Blu sales (inception 65%) then DVD but end of DVD..... no

65% is not just higher, but roughly 2x as many BDs as DVDs (66.667 would be 2x and that would be rounded to 66% in the charts since they round down the bigger number). Obviously soon the % will start to grow slower (75%~3x, 80%~4x, 83%~5x...90%~9x) but it means more
.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by FinalEvangelion

I was noticing someone definitely outside the young male category buying a Blu-ray player the other day at Best Buy. The format is slowly taking hold, but I think the studios are going to have to speed it up a bit by not selling the DVD version by itself / delay the DVD only version of a film. Some are doing that, but I think more will need to follow suit.

You "noticed someone..." buying a Blu-ray player? Great research.

Why would the studios delay a DVD release in favor of Blu-ray? That makes no business sense whatsoever. You can't take a fanboy approach to business strategy. The studios want to generate revenue by any means possible as quickly as possible (which is why theatrical windows are getting shorter and shorter). In the U.S., by dollars, through 12/12, Blu-ray has only 14.5% market share of physical video media. It's grown 29.26% over 2009, but it's still an overall small piece of the pie. The only reason the studios are paying attention to Blu-ray is because DVD was starting to die (down 10.66% this year in dollars) even before Blu-ray started to see some meaningful market penetration.

Blu-ray is a victim of DVD's success. Even though there are many Blu-ray players being sold now at an amazing $99 price point, there are millions of working DVD players in homes and most people don't care enough or aren't aware enough of the difference in PQ to make the investment in Blu-ray, especially in a poor economy. Also, recent stats show that big screen TVs, especially 3D TVs, haven't done well during this holiday selling season.

As people replace their DVD players, they will replace them with BD players. And as BD software prices fall, as they have been, especially for many catalog titles, people will start to phase out buying DVDs in favor of BDs.

But you don't force the market by discontinuing access to DVDs. All that will do is drive consumers to digital downloads. Meanwhile, for the average Joe who doesn't care all that much about PQ (the kind of person who thought their projection TV was great quality and hated it when widescreen movies played back letterbox on their 1.33 analog TV) and plays audio back through the TV, Blu-ray provides no benefit to them and why would they start paying $20 for Blu-ray titles they could buy on DVD for $9?

And all that doesn't include the impact of online and on-demand access to video. In spite of its benefits, Blu-ray has a hard road in front of it. There are many alternatives and as we've seen with audio, for better or worse, people are moving away from physical media. Even though I still have very large collections of physical media (books, journals, LPs, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, even still some reel-to-reel prerecorded tapes), the fact is that a) "I'm old" and b)if everything is always available online, one really doesn't have to own personal collections of physical media anymore.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

You "noticed someone..." buying a Blu-ray player? Great research.

Why would the studios delay a DVD release in favor of Blu-ray? That makes no business sense whatsoever. You can't take a fanboy approach to business strategy.

Umm. Talk to Disney.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Why would the studios delay a DVD release in favor of Blu-ray? That makes no business sense whatsoever.

so how many multi-million (billion) dollar buisnesses did you manage?

It's grown 29.26% over 2009

no, it has grown over 80% where do you get your deranged numbers from?

Also, recent stats show that big screen TVs, especially 3D TVs, haven't done well during this holiday selling season.

can you link to those stats (or at least tell us what they are)? everything I read says the opposite. Especialy since I know the previous line I quoted is as far off from reality as it could be (maynbe you are thinking of the pathetic growth of DL which was around 30%)

[Atreyu]

The studios are starting to discontinue dvds to push the sales of blu rays. I used to work in a record store many moons ago and the recording industry did the same thing then. They stopped making records or made very few of them. Or in the case of a George Miichael album I rememder CBS records saying that we could order as many as we liked but they would not accept any returns on LPs whatsoever. All they did was push cds and nothing but cds. Granted cds and LPs area lot more different than dvs and blus but it's the same principal in action.

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by neos_peace

That is great for Blu, but as much as I hate to say it I don't think DVD is going anywhere any time soon. yes we are seeing higher Blu sales (inception 65%) then DVD but end of DVD..... no

When you get a large enough majority selling in BD, it's not hard to drop the DVD-only SKU. They would lose few sales because of it, and they would gain many more sales at a higher pricepoint, offsetting the revenue lost from the few who would refuse to buy a BD/DVD combo for a few dollars more than a DVD-only edition would be when they really only want a DVD.

Basically, many new releases will soon be only released on BD/DVD combos or BD-only editions. People who vehemently hate Blu-ray for whatever reason will be forced to buy it if they want to own the movie.

Previously, I would have expected them to go with timed exclusives. It really helped DVD beat out VHS, but it looks like that's not how they're doing it this time. Many studios are already pushing the combo packs hard, and next month, Lionsgate will be releasing Buried in a BD/DVD combo ONLY with no DVD-only option available.

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Why would the studios delay a DVD release in favor of Blu-ray? That makes no business sense whatsoever.

No...

Disney does it with their Animated Canon and they still sell like HOTCAKES even though only BDs are available for the first month or so. How do they do it? They get the DVD buyers to buy the BD... by packaging in a DVD along with the BD... and by putting it inside a DVD case so that the buyer doesn't realize they're actually buying a BD.

In the U.S., by dollars, through 12/12, Blu-ray has only 14.5% market share of physical video media.

That's the TOTAL market. New releases are where the most per-title money is made, and the ratio skews WAY higher for the highest selling individual titles. Someone should sit down and do a weighted ratio each week that accounts for the fact that the top selling title sells at a MUCH higher rate than even the 10th highest selling title of that week, let alone the thousands upon thousands of other titles which have been sitting on shelves for weeks, months or years.

All that will do is drive consumers to digital downloads.

No it won't. Most people are not technologically inclined enough to have a system that can SUPPORT that, let alone the technical know-how on how to even download in the first place. Those who DO have the technical know-how to purchase downloaded movies are likely to still not have a system anyway, so you're suggesting cutting DVD support would lead to people watching movies exclusively on computers or ipods?

And all that doesn't include the impact of online and on-demand access to video.

That's a rental avenue. If you're going to make the argument that a person is going to skip buying in favor of going for only rental, that's a whole other argument. Yeah, the purchase market has some strong competition from other areas, but it's always had competition from those same areas. The difference: streaming is a little more convenient for SOME people when compared to the PPV options of the past, and compounding this, people have less money to spare and are likely to go for 10 bucks a month through Netflix rather than buying every movie they would like to own.

[brps3]

When I was in Wal-Mart a while back I made a comment about how many Blurays there were. And one of the employees said that "this time next year we will have more Blu-rays than DVD's."

[thewildbunch]

I know I finally converted this holiday season! It'll be interesting to see the sales statistics for the Format for this year..

[steve1971]

From what I have read so far 3D HDTV sales werent as hot as they thought they were going to be BUT Blu ray disc sales, Blu ray player sales and PS3 sales were strong so thats a plus. DVD sales were also good as well which means the death of DVD is not coming anytime soon, at least not yet. I was at Target, Walmart and BB and saw alot of Blu's and dvd's in peoples hands as well as Blu ray players and add to that Dynex HDTV's!

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by brps3

When I was in Wal-Mart a while back I made a comment about how many Blurays there were. And one of the employees said that "this time next year we will have more Blu-rays than DVD's."

Like a minimum wage WalMart store employee would actually have any insight into that.

[UFAlien]

Well, I didn't get any Blu-ray movies, but I did get a new TV that has the option to disable overscan, and I'm planning on picking up The Last Airbender pretty soon with some of the money I got.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

so how many multi-million (billion) dollar buisnesses did you manage?

Billion dollar businesses? None. Multi-million dollar businesses? Four. How many have you run?

Originally Posted by Anthony P

no, it has grown over 80% where do you get your deranged numbers from?

Home Media Magazine. BR U.S. 2010 to 12/12/2010: $1.37972 billion. 2009 to 12/12/2009: $1.06742 billion. That's 29.26% growth ($1.37972-1.06742)/1.06742.

Originally Posted by Anthony P

can you link to those stats (or at least tell us what they are)? everything I read says the opposite. Especialy since I know the previous line I quoted is as far off from reality as it could be (maynbe you are thinking of the pathetic growth of DL which was around 30%)

Don't remember - it was probably WSJ or NY Times, but here's another one published 12/22 on the failure of 3D TV so far. Link to full article is below it.

Remember the good ol’ days of last March when 3D TVs were the next big thing? Fast forward several months and one iPad later, and it looks a little like they may be the next big flop.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, manufacturers are already pulling the trigger on price cuts in order to prop up weak sales on 3D sets (40 percent to 50 percent since the first ones went on sale). Market research firm Display Search has already adjusted its projections that 5 percent of TVs sold this year would be 3D models, slashing that number to 2 percent.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/home-theat...e_skin;content