Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[greekjgg]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/07/9...n-one-weekend/

Here's the link from Engadget.

I don't think its anything to be alarmed about YET. Software sales are the true guage.

[Farscape1]

Originally Posted by DAMNSAM77

I hope you guys know something I don't....cuz you can call it a firesale all you want...until I hear some AWESOME bluray news (studios going blu, Toshiba throwing the towel...etc), I expect these 100,000+ HDDVD players to tilt the HDM sales scale....

I am a huge bluray supporter, but I am not blind...

It could tip the scale for awhile, but a lot of those people buying the players already had ones. What Toshiba needs to do is increase there software sales and keep on having BOGO free, and Blu-Ray should counter. Also Sony should drop there S-300 to about 199.99 for a few days to make up some ground.

[jedisinclair]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/07/9...n-one-weekend/

Here's the link from Engadget.

I don't think its anything to be alarmed about YET. Software sales are the true guage.

EXACTLY! You can buy a dud player for a dollar, but you're STILL NOT gonna be able to watch Spidey movies or Cars or Pirates, Die Hard etc in High Def.

[BLackie]

Well, this diffently isnt good news for us but it could be worse. I wouldn't be suprised if we started to see a software trend in the next weeks. With the amount of people that buy pS3's actually using them for movies or knowing about it at all, i would have to say we need to sell around 300,000 ps3's to match up, becase anyone who buys a HD DVD player uses them for one reason...movies. No biggy, we are still ahead in sales.

[Ispoke]

Let's take a deep breath people, that's better Now have the PS3's suddenly stopped selling? Have the Blu standalones stopped selling? And don't forget HD DVD has a looooong way to go to catch the existing sales of Blu players, even if you suggest not everyone uses a PS3 for movies.

[DAMNSAM77]

Originally Posted by Ispoke

Let's take a deep breath people, that's better Now have the PS3's suddenly stopped selling? Have the Blu standalones stopped selling? And don't forget HD DVD has a looooong way to go to catch the existing sales of Blu players, even if you suggest not everyone uses a PS3 for movies.

I know that dude, but wouldn't studios look at any sudden spike in HDDVD sales going forward (after over 100,000 units sold in 2-3 days). They are not gonna punish HDDVD's year to date crappy sales, they are gonna look at how well they will do going forward and up to 6-8 months from now when these new standalone HDDVD player sales translate into higher HDDVD movie sales.

I do hope more than 50% of those players are for existing HDDVD owners, but again the $199 price tag ain't going anywhere, it will stay here forever, all stores are selling the A3 model now for $199, with probably a couple days in November and December where they will have the A3 and remaining A2's for $99 again...I dont have a doubt that Toshiba will push close to a half a million units by year end.

I just hope the BDA is VERY MUCH aware of that possibility and try to do something to counteract....better lose some of your money now that all of your 3 years of investments....

[rjg]

I wouldnt worry to much, most of those players were probably sold to already existing HD-DVD people, their second unit maybe.
As for those newbies that got it, i see them returning it to the store when they cant watch all the disney movies or spiderman movies.

[Bigdog]

Some people here must not live within the real world were it seems like money is no object to them, and it's only about a couple more pixels that most common people will not give two craps about! It always comes down to cost, and having the stand alone players priced out at 3 to 4 times the cost is not a smart move on Sonys part!

Plain and simple if it was not for the ps3 having blu playback capabilities not a chance in hell would i ever throw down 400 dollars for a stand alone blu-player, on the other hand a 99 dollar unit that does not have all the features but still will display a hd picture i would take a look at! This is why you just seen close to a 100,000 thousand units move within a week, because they know this is going to be a hot gift and along with the sales of these units will most definitely increase the software sales ten fold which is were the money will be made back.

I don't care what it cost Sony but the bottom line blu-player should be on the market for 199.00 at the maximum, i don't care what they lose per unit because they would make it back with software sales, and what good is having a warehouse full of unsold units sitting there doing nothing?

Toshiba was very smart for acting on this and doing this at a time when most people are looking for gifts to give out and beat the holiday rush. Sony was smart for dropping the price of the ps3 but the stand alone players are a complete rip off and only high end home a/v equipment junkies will be there to give these over priced players a look, the common person will have 0 interest in spending on avg of 300 bucks more for a player that might give you a slightly better picture.

Hd dvd still no matter what any complete haters here want to think look better then a standard def dvd and the entry level price for these players are under even most regular dvd players.

[Ispoke]

Originally Posted by DAMNSAM77

I know that dude, but wouldn't studios look at any sudden spike in HDDVD sales going forward (after over 100,000 units sold in 2-3 days). ....

Your correct of course, but we need to wait and see the impact on actual media sales because we know that is what the studios will go by in the end.

Again I agree that it would be 'good' to see the BDA be more pro-active to install a bit more confidence in their supporters.

[atomik kinder]

So, with this low sale price, nobody is going to want to spend more thatn $100 on a new player. The 360 add on is no longer the "cheapest" way to get HD DVD movies now. Why buy the add on when you can buy a stand alone for $75 less. So, now what are they going to do? drop the add on to $50 because no one is going to want to buy one of those anymore. Will they discontinue them? What happens to the Venturer now? Are they going to have to lower their price too? If they take a loss on those don't expect them to keep in the HD DVD business. Its no wonder that Universal and Paramount kept saying there would be cheap players this Christmas and were so confident about it. I am sure Toshiba had been planning this for 6 months or more, probably not the $99 but more likely the $199, but then decided they needed a little revenge for Transformers. I don't think their sale is going to do anything for their weekly sales stats. Hopefully this will backfire and blow up in their faces and Warner goes Blu-Ray exclusive next year when their sales for HD DVD don't increase as much as they expected.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by BLackie

Well, this diffently isnt good news for us but it could be worse. I wouldn't be suprised if we started to see a software trend in the next weeks. With the amount of people that buy pS3's actually using them for movies or knowing about it at all, i would have to say we need to sell around 300,000 ps3's to match up, becase anyone who buys a HD DVD player uses them for one reason...movies. No biggy, we are still ahead in sales.

Well, if a majority of them are gifts, you may not see a software bump until the day after xmas. That could also be when they return them because they can't get CERTAIN movies.

[Bigdog]

Originally Posted by Ispoke

Your correct of course, but we need to wait and see the impact on actual media sales because we know that is what the studios will go by in the end.

Again I agree that it would be 'good' to see the BDA be more pro-active to install a bit more confidence in their supporters.

Wait and see what, this increase in players will 100% increase the sales of hd-dvd media. What do you think people are going to buy these players as a gift then not pick up a couple shiney new hd titles to show off the new machine. Sony is playing their hand completely wrong with not dropping the price of a blu player within atleast 50 bucks of what the a20 is going for.

[Steverhcp02]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

Well, if a majority of them are gifts, you may not see a software bump until the day after xmas. That could also be when they return them because they can't get CERTAIN movies.

I think there will be more of the following items that will help BD on xmas morning:

1. HD TV's to existing PS3 owners.
2. HD TV's with PS3's
3. HD TV's with BD players.
4. PS3's alone as gifts to folks with HD TV's
5. BD Players as gifts

That influx last year at xmas with LESS awareness for BD and LESS quality software let alone blockbusters......yeah, its going to be HUGE!!!

[Terjyn]

This is a blip on the radar. For one month HD-DVD players will truly outsell Blu-Ray players. A one month that cannot continue even if they want it to, because they don't have another set of old players to firesale.

And that's assuming that Toshiba's "20% of PS3 owners play Blu-Ray" number is remotely accurate. If the number is 40% or more, they might not even win the month.

[Living Near Shamu]

Dont' forget that the numbers will be inflated too because Toshiba is giving away 10 movies with their players.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by BLackie

Well, this diffently isnt good news for us but it could be worse. I wouldn't be suprised if we started to see a software trend in the next weeks. With the amount of people that buy pS3's actually using them for movies or knowing about it at all, i would have to say we need to sell around 300,000 ps3's to match up, becase anyone who buys a HD DVD player uses them for one reason...movies. No biggy, we are still ahead in sales.

ps3 is selling about 125k a week. people do use hd dvd players for other things. in fact toshiba promotes these players as "making you dvds look better" so a lot of that 90k most likely bought it for upscaling, also a lot of people bought them as gifts, so if things go sour for hd dvd, we could be seeing a lot of 12/26 returns, one more thing is a lot of people bought a 98 dollar a2 as a second player. maybe about 15k new customers bought a a2 to use now as a normal hd dvd player, so really no big lose. look at amazon, hd dvd hasn't done sh!t.

[Ispoke]

Originally Posted by Bigdog

Wait and see what, this increase in players will 100% increase the sales of hd-dvd media. What do you think people are going to buy these players as a gift then not pick up a couple shiney new hd titles to show off the new machine. Sony is playing their hand completely wrong with not dropping the price of a blu player within atleast 50 bucks of what the a20 is going for.

Whaooo there Bigdog 100%? Now some people here are saying a lot are being purchased for the bedroom, second player. A lot more are being purchased by J6P who won't pay the cost of HD media and more by blu guys who will probably buy 1 HD DVD only.

Now I know its all conjecture, but maybe 100% increase is not correct. All I am saying is we need to wait for the real numbers.

[johnnyd1]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/07/9...n-one-weekend/

Here's the link from Engadget.

I don't think its anything to be alarmed about YET. Software sales are the true guage.

According to a insider here, the 90000 number may be another fabrication !

Either way, hddvd in my opinion is preparing for a GIANT firesale...eg closeout

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by Bigdog

Wait and see what, this increase in players will 100% increase the sales of hd-dvd media. What do you think people are going to buy these players as a gift then not pick up a couple shiney new hd titles to show off the new machine. Sony is playing their hand completely wrong with not dropping the price of a blu player within atleast 50 bucks of what the a20 is going for.

I agree that a fair proportion of these players were early holiday gifts. I am willing to bet a few of these gifts a wrapped up with some shiny new discs in blue packages, out of ignorance.

[Bigdog]

Originally Posted by Ispoke

Whaooo there Bigdog 100%? Now some people here are saying a lot are being purchased for the bedroom, second player. A lot more are being purchased by J6P who won't pay the cost of HD media and more by blu guys who will probably buy 1 HD DVD only.

Now I know its all conjecture, but maybe 100% increase is not correct. All I am saying is we need to wait for the real numbers.

I'm not saying a 100% increase in sales of media, I'm saying 100% this will raise there media sales as in without question this is going to do them more good then bad for them! Really if you take away ps3 sales, the sales of stand alone blu-players is weak at best and the reason is they cost way to much period! Sure someone who makes six figures is not going to mind picking one up just to say they have it but in the real world were not everyone has over paying desk jobs, the common person is not going to throw out that kind of money for something not a whole hell of alot better then the cheaper priced hd unit selling for under the cost of regular dvd players.