Archived: Insiders Thread

[WickyWoo]

What Toshiba is doing is simply suicide if you don't have a big sugar daddy watching your back

[sj001]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

I will absolutely not support HD DVD throughout 2008 either, barring some massive reversal of studio support.

I have over 75 Blu-ray discs now and will continue to buy the titles I want. I just wish I saw the hardware companies being as aggressive as Fox, Sony and Disney are with software.

Yes, I agree, these CE's need to step it up a bit. I am curious as to when Sharp said that they were going to have the MOST players out of any Blu-ray manufacturers, but I think they only have one now, I hope this changes. I also hope that these Funai players that are coming Q1 show up sooner rather than later.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by atomik kinder

I don't think any CE companies are willing to take a hit for BD. They will end up in the same boat as Toshiba, with them never making money on their players, which is why they chose to make BD players and not HD DVD players in the first place. Then in turn, they would end up screwing all the other BD player manufacturers too. They may cut their prices a bit, but don't expect them to take a loss.

At this point they've pretty much made all their going to make on those 1st gen players.

They are grace period players, it's time to clear them out and get on with the real players.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Grubert

I have a question for the insiders (especially Penton-Man):

Is the upcoming High-def 2.0 conference, next December 4, likely to produce a palpable outcome or will just be used for round tables and other PR?

Grubert, you never miss a beat.

Strategy is currently being discussed for that event. Something palpable may be forthcoming if it is felt that the CES event shortly thereafter will have information overload.

Check that site later this month.
HMM should be putting up a list of the speakers expected in attendance and perhaps that will give a hint as to any potential goodies being revealed.

[Frode]

Originally Posted by HDJK

And this is where I'm not as happy as Seretur yet: at 120Hz this results in a perfekt 5:5 pulldown. But on 100Hz sets Samsung for example uses some sort of interpolation. Doesn't that affect the PQ in a way that leads to lesser PQ than with no interpolation on 120Hz?

Samsung doesn't do that. The 100hz function is disabled (as it should be) when you're using 24P over HDMI. I have the 40" M87 for reference.

P.S. Mods, feel free to move these to their own thread - it's taking up quite a bit of space at this point.

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by Seretur

Jaguar, even if the talking points in your quote were correct, you don't seriously think that any insider would spill the beans on how they plan to handle this, do you?

They handled the Transformers release, I'm sure they can handle the firesale. And the firesale was primarily a preemptive strike on the part of Toshiba because of the Pixar week, anyway.

Prices wouldn't be a serious issue if Blu-ray had held onto Paramount, they lost them, we are still suffering high prices compared to the DIRECT competition, and for all we know Warner could be swayed by this sale, so we would have to go dual format anyhow!

Blu-rays studio support isn't rock solid, it's on decidely shakey ground, so to expect us to sit tight and pass up these HD-DVD deals is ludicrous when 3 months down the line studio support could very well be equally split.

Until I see the BDA shake up this format war and deliver a nuke like the Paramount and $99 players were, it appears the BDA are playing for a draw, while HD-DVD, desperate or not, are throwing the big punches.

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Relax guys. The fact that Toshiba could only sell about 70,000 of their junk players (most to second time buyers) at $99 is very telling

Maybe that's all they had, it's worrying some stores continued to take orders and will use A3's to fullfill them.

Once the sales are over they still have plentiful supplies of $199 players, do the BDA expect the average consumer, like me, who has spent a small fortune on equipment and new releases, to spend another $500+ on a standalone for Christmas presents for family who've been impressed by Blu-ray?

We need some hardware options, even if they are $199-$299 bare bone's 1.0 players that will play Ratatouille and Cars for my sister and her daughter this Christmas.

Right now $99 and Shrek 3 looks mighty tempting.

[monkyman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/...l7aD8U5Oms0NUE

There is an interesting article today about Warners losses this quarter, and a question for the insiders to speculate.

Investors are hopeful that incoming Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, who takes over Jan. 1, will move aggressively to boost the company's stock price, which is stuck at about the same level it was at five years ago. The company announced Bewkes' long-anticipated appointment on Monday, succeeding Dick Parsons, who is staying on as chairman.

I know that Hi-Def is a very small market, but staying neutral or going to the HD DVD side would help stagnate sales correct? I would think an aggressive move would be to try to end this war and help escalate sales in a single format.

Again Hi-Def is a small fish right now, but is this the kind of decision that Jeff Bewkes could make?

[L or S of Perfect?]

Apologies if discussed, but why is the entire hd/blu section at avsforum locked down?

[fingersdlp]

See the announcement in big bold red letters at the top of the HDTV Software Media Discussion area on AVS. That is their explanation anyway.

[L or S of Perfect?]

Thanks. Cant believe I missed that.

[plee]

Originally Posted by L or S of Perfect?

Thanks. Cant believe I missed that.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=22817

[shamus]

Any sales info on Spidey and the PS3 price drop?

[dobyblue]

The YTD ratio has dropped one point each of the last two weeks.

That concerns me, it really does.

I was expecting a 75:25 YTD ratio by the end of the year, not one heading down towards 60:40.

I hope Spider-man 3 and Ratatouille will cause that YTD to go back up AT LEAST one point each of the next two weeks in the Nielsen numbers.

Between Spider-man 3 and the copy in the trilogy Sony MUST have moved well over 100,000 units, but I'm hoping for 200,000.

[Luis_A51]

Paidgeek:

I know we have already seen the occasional BD player give-away with certain HDTVs, but I strongly believe this should be expanded greatly.

While many companies will likely have sales on their tvs in the comming months, I believe they should instead include BD players.

Example: Regular price of tv A is $2500 and BD player B is $500
1) Tv on sale for $2000, BD player same price = $2500 for both
2) Tv regular price and BD player "free" = $2500 for both
3) Tv $400 off, BD player $100 off, unrelated sales = $2500 for both

That is assuming that a consumer in case 1 would actually go and spend his $500 savings on a BD player, which is highly unlikely. In case two its included so he will automatically have a BD player.

Psycologically I believe that getting a $500 electronics item for "free" is huge motivation, but also allows them to maintain the regular price of standalones at reasonably high levels as upposed to case 3.

Case 1 would probably sell more tvs overall, but case two would move more merchandise (especially when you factor more cables and extended warranties sold) which is good for both store and manufacturer.

Also maybe they could do these sales instead of "stand included" type sales. I bought my KDS-60a2000 for $2500 stand included a few months ago. Now I see the KDS-60a2020 advertised for $2500 with a free bd player "$500 value!" (stand not included).

Its better to "give away" the item the ISNT required as upposed to something that is required. A stand IS required, so the consumer will buy one anyways. A BD player ISNT required, so theres no guarantee that a consumer will use the money saved to buy one. Also items that arent a necessity tend to have a higher perceived value, since they're more exciting.

Anyways, I believe that Sony, Samsung, Pioneer, and ESPECIALLY PANASONIC need to put more emphasis on this strategy.

[JAGUAR1977]

Let's hope insiders being so quiet means somethings in the works (maybe wishfull thinking )

It looks to me that the BD camp have been shocked at the success of the A2 sale, which being early November, may not be such a bad thing.

There's plenty of time to counter it.

[L or S of Perfect?]

^^

To me, it seemed like that sale was the counter to SM3 & Rat, similar to how BOGO was the counter to T.

So you're saying we need a counter to the counter.

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by L or S of Perfect?

^^

To me, it seemed like that sale was the counter to SM3 & Rat, similar to how BOGO was the counter to T.

So you're saying we need a counter to the counter.

Folks, if you don't have a question to the Insiders and want to post, go to another thread and post or start your own thread. I'm tired of coming here for new posts to see they're not insider posts or questions to insiders.

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey everyone,

who is this guy "Lotus" over at AVrev forum? This guy really sounds like a Toshiba "plant". Not because he's pro-HD DVD, but just read the way he twists certain facts in the strangest of ways (note, not all his points are false, but some of his assertions seems pretty misconstrued... and very "pro Toshiba"):

http://www.avrevforum.com/showthread.php?p=5734

[JonasK]

Deleted.

[horseflesh]

Paid/P-Man/Max/Anyone....

What's the relationship (generally speaking) between Warner and pro-Blu studios compared to their relationship with pro-HD studios.

I know at the end of the day Warner will make their own decision, but which side would be likely to have more "influence" on them?