We can make Blu-ray catch like a wildfire.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Through August 18th in the United States, sales of BD have been about $1.06 billion and sales of DVD have been $3.4 billion.

Originally Posted by Neild

That is fascinating... are those numbers from home media magazine or something?

My own impression from walking around stores doesn't match. It seems like they have more blu-ray product and substantially more blu-ray going through the cash register. And that even if unit sales are similar, the higher unit price for blu-ray should show a much closer race than $3.40 billion versus $1.06 billion would suggest.

I decided to do a mini survey myself from Rentrak sales week of Sep 23, picking a bundle of 4 newer 'top 10' releases from both formats:

Blu-ray sales ($13.6 million)
---------------
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 $2,072,805
The Cabin in the Woods $4,534,824
The Hunger Games$1,321,677
Snow White and the Huntsman $5,664,830

DVD sales ($15 million)
----------------------
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3 $4,956,459
The Cabin in the Woods $2,914,800
The Hunger Games $2,363,710
Snow White and the Huntsman $4,835,330

Looks like they are close right? But when you also include the many catalog re-releases where blu-ray sales are more compelling than DVD, there's no comparison.

My numbers are from Home Media magazine. While I accept that someone might want to challenge their numbers or survey techniques, they should be relatively correct. Of course, the only true survey would be one that's conducted at the cash register the way that SoundScan works for audio. And you can't compare a mini-survey of a few titles with the entire business. As for catalog titles, compelling has nothing to do with it. The mass market is filled with people who aren't doing well economically who are looking for cheap entertainment. Most of them never cared about PQ or AQ. Cheap DVDs fill their needs quite well. I do wish HMM broke out their numbers comparing titles released within 12 months and titles released >12 months ago and/or compared BD/DVD numbers for the same titles and then separate numbers for the unique titles in each format. Maybe for the same titles, especially for new releases (not necessarily new movies), BD does do better. I don't know. But the fact remains that overall, DVD is still a much bigger business in dollars, which makes it an even bigger business in units.

Originally Posted by Anthony P

exactly I don't understand why it is so hard to understand, luxury sport cars and million dollar homes exist even though the sheep can't afford them, LD lasted until DVD even though the sheep were OK with VHS...... Why can't people grasp the simple notion that a market for quality can exist without the masses. The masses can support and help a bad technology but they can't kill a good one. BD will exist at least until the day when the people that want high quality decide there is something that offers higher quality.

I agree with the concept, but not with the application. Esoteric audio, for example, can exist without the masses because they charge ludicrous prices for the equipment and there's apparently enough crazy people to buy it. Just as in Manhattan, there's apparently enough CEOs and Wall Street bonus babies to afford small apartments with a median price of $1.6 million.

However, most BD players and the associated BD content software are not marketed as high-end esoteric products. While they cost more than DVD, they don't cost that much more. And from both the studio and electronic manufacturers perspective, these are indeed mass-market products. Prices have dropped enough that "the cat is out of the bag" - these products will not survive if they're only supported by high end users.

In addition, Wal-Mart is the #1 physical retail marketer of media in this country. Think about what the average Wal-Mart buyer is like. And Amazon is by far the #1 online retailer of physical media in this country. And the Amazon buyer is looking for the lowest possible price.

Your analogy doesn't hold up because multi-million dollar homes still cost multi-millions of dollars and high-end sports cars are still very expensive. If BD players were still $1000 and all BDs, including catalog titles were still priced across the board at $50 and up, then yes, it probably wouldn't need the mass market to survive. But we're way past that point.