Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[crunchywyte]

I read a thread earlier about a guy at best buy who was looking for Ratatouille on HDDUD....I can't help but think he was one of the poor helpless soles that fell for the firesale.

[lch]

wait tilll industry expert chop their reported 'sales' number.
and i think most people bought it thinking that it a dvd player capable of playing their dvd on their regular tv clearer.

[jling84]

Er if you guys read that entire article it says that the figure does not include Walmart, Best Buy and Circuit City sales volumes for the A2. I really doubt they only sold 90,000 nationwide.

I definitely agree though, I bet there will be a lot of returns. Just from the big Pixar release day today, there have been way too many instances of people realizing that Ratatouille would not be playable on their new HD-DVD players.

[Vonscoot]

I admit, I picked one up as an impulse purchase. Did the same thing with the Wii, ended up returning it 3 days later. I have no plans to purchase any HD-DVD's unless at some distant point in the future the BDA disbands and Blu-ray is lost. Since I do not see that happening, this will make for a decent upconversion player for my other HDTV. Plus 5 free movies (most of which will be ones I have not seen yet) doesn't hurt either.

[Vonscoot]

Originally Posted by powersfoss

I was never a big movie collector. My DVD collection is probably 50 titles. But just because I have a passion to see the best format succeed and to see all my favorite movies on our format, I have now begun to avidly collect movies on blu-ray. Granted, some here have WAY more than I do, but my collection of BDs is now up to 38. What with all the BOGOs and I've bought just about every Warner title that interested me to help WB decide to go blu exclusively. I hope to help end this war as soon as possible.

The only way for 1 person to have any real affect on its outcome? Buy as many BDs as you can! And enjoy them and spread the word!

+1

I swear this is exactly what I was about to write (although I have 37 BD's to your 38!).

[thegland]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

EDIT:
The 50k was the Wal-Mart stock, with the other stores demanding a similar clearance 90k I guess is a possibility
There were a hell of a lot of unsold decks out there.

I doubt there are hardly any unsold decks out there,maybe in Podunk,South Carolina.I bet they could have sold twice as many if they had them.I know I would have bought one for the bedroom.I would buy another BD player at $99 too.

[ScopeAspect]

I put the blame squarley on Universal. I have a strong suspision that it was they alone that kept Blu-Ray from being adopted by the DVD Forum. And the only logical reason I can see for this is their stake in iHD or whatever they are calling it these days.

MCA put up the money for LaserDisc in an attempt to corner the market then sold the patent to Pioneer. This has been MCA's businees model since the company was created. Monopoly. Maybe that's why they get along with Microsoft so well.

This war has me very tired.

Scope

[soniqstylz]

Saw a full-page ad in USA Today from Panasonic regarding the new player, and also cross-promoting Cars and Rat.

[tqlla]

how do you think these buyers will feel when they head over to best buy and finds that the discs cost 25-35% the cost of the player.

I spent $540 on the PS3... and still I pause at $25 discs. I cant imagine how someone who decided to wait for a $100 player will feel, when they see $25-35 discs

[tqlla]

Originally Posted by thegland

I doubt there are hardly any unsold decks out there,maybe in Podunk,South Carolina.I bet they could have sold twice as many if they had them.I know I would have bought one for the bedroom.I would buy another BD player at $99 too.

I think he was saying that the 90K was old "unsold" stock.

[Blu-Light]

Originally Posted by jling84

Er if you guys read that entire article it says that the figure does not include Walmart, Best Buy and Circuit City sales volumes for the A2. I really doubt they only sold 90,000 nationwide.

I definitely agree though, I bet there will be a lot of returns. Just from the big Pixar release day today, there have been way too many instances of people realizing that Ratatouille would not be playable on their new HD-DVD players.

W R O N G

From the article.

In fact, the 90,000 figure for HD-A2 sales could be even higher, as it doesn’t appear to include all retailer information. The figure does span consumer activity on HD-A2s at Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City, among others.

[Whyser]

Originally Posted by Blu-Light

W R O N G

From the article.

The figure does span consumer activity on HD-A2s at Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City, among others.

You know something sounds pretty fishy.

Walmart and Bestbuy were the only two stores that we know of that had the $99 pricepoint. How is it that they sold THAT MUCH inventory in other stores when there was apparently not as good as a deal as Walmart and Bestbuy? Unless the $99 price for the unit was everywhere???

[yakman]

Originally Posted by Whyser

You know something sounds pretty fishy.

Walmart and Bestbuy were the only two stores that we know of that had the $99 pricepoint. How is it that they sold THAT MUCH inventory in other stores when there was apparently not as good as a deal as Walmart and Bestbuy? Unless the $99 price for the unit was everywhere???

There was a whole lot of price matching going on at Frys, CC, and Amazon.

[Maxell]

I highly doubt it's 90,000, just like Transformers were early estimates at 190,000, which wind up being alot less.

And I know for a fact that Best Buy did not have many of these in stock, especially compared to Wal-mart. Wal-mart layed-away thousands of A2's for this sale, where as Best Buy basically price matched to clear out any remaining players in their stores. I work at Best Buy and our last A2 sold over a month ago. We now have the A3's.

[Ispoke]

Don't matter if they sell bucket loads. If those buying choose not to buy any HD content now or in the future then the studios will not care one bit.

[jayd]

Can't wait for the scenario, when a mummy or daddy, buys Cars or Rat to put in thier crappy cheap HD-DVD player for the kids , and finds it won't play, what will happen then, back to the shop.

[Maxell]

Originally Posted by jayd

Can't wait for the scenario, when a mummy or daddy, buys Cars or Rat to put in thier crappy cheap HD-DVD player for the kids , and finds it won't play, what will happen then, back to the shop.

Most stores dont even allow returns for opened movies and games. I wonder how those conversations go though. I need to ask around

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by Maxell

Most stores dont even allow returns for opened movies and games. I wonder how those conversations go though. I need to ask around

I think the OP meant the players are going back.

Most stores will allow returns of opened players. $98 closeout items might be exceptions though.

I just feel really bad for those moms and dads who have to explain to their kids why they can't watch Rat or Cars on their shiny new player. They are the real victims of this pointless war.

enjoy
gandalf

[Grubert]

From Betanews

BetaNews' own estimates placed sales at around 40,000 to 70,000 within Wal-Mart alone based on information compiled about stocks at the discount retailer's various locations around the country.

Wal-Mart's move spurred a retailer war over prices of the players, even bringing down the cost of other models as a result when HD-A2 stocks depleted. It's fairly likely that total sales of all HD DVD players eclipsed the 100,000 mark during just the past week.

[...]

BetaNews has a request in with Toshiba for full sales numbers, but the company thus far has not provided specific figures.

[Trebar]

Between the A-2 and A-3 more than likely it was over 100k. I had guessed around 90k just estimating Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Still though, they have severely damaged the ability for Toshiba to sell any of thier players for over $200 in the near future. They will have to lower prices for A-20s and 30s to get them to move this Christmas or they will remain as dust collectors as well.