Why Blu-ray could be doing better...rentailers point of view

[BluOgre]

I see a lot of people ask why are DVD owners not making the transition from DVD to hidef Blu-ray. Yes I think part of it is increasing the number of people with a hidef TV as well as reducing the cost to buy a player/software BUT there is also a distrubing trend that has not worked itself out. This issue has plagued even the stuidos that have released on Blu-ray last year. Here is my April prebook for sale thru (I purchase for franchise Blockbuster locations):

Blu-ray New Releases in April (that I'm buying for stores....I'm not including catalog):

Alvin & the Chipmunks (4/1)
Water Hourse (4/8)
Walk Hard (4/8)
Alien Vs Predator (4/15)
Juno (4/15)
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (4/15)
One Missed Call (4/22)
Orphanage (4/22)
Golden Compass (4/29)
27 Dresses (4/29)

DVD New Releases in April (that I'm buying for stores...I'm not including catalog):

Alvin & the Chipmunk (4/1)
Sweeney Todd (4/1)
Walk Hard (4/8)
There Will Be Blood (4/8)
Water Horse (4/8)
Resurrecting The Champ (4/8)
Lions For Lambs (4/8)
Reservation Road (4/8)
P2 (4/8)
Alien Vs Predator Req (4/15)
Juno (4/15)
In The Name Of The King (4/15)
Lars And The Real Girl (4/15)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (4/15)
Cloverfield (4/22)
Charlie Wilson's War (4/22)
One Missed Call (4/22)
Orphanage (4/22)
Savages (4/22)
Golden Compass (4/29)
27 Dresses (4/29)
Great Debaters (4/29)
How She Move (4/29)

Even if you discount the Parmount/Universal titles that *should* be coming to Blu-ray soon after those dates listed, you still have 9 titles that are not available on Blu-ray but are on DVD. If stuidos, retailers, analysts want a legit reason why someone might not even consider Blu-ray.....maybe it's the fact you are not giving the format all the content. To grow the base of Blu-ray customers means you have to eat the costs to put out all your boxoffice movies day/date with the DVD. Until then I honestly can't see how this format is going to grow signficantly.

Let's see 23 DVD releases to 10 Blu-ray releases for the month of April.......studios don't think that is a serious problem? I would discuss this point with my studio reps if I felt it made any difference. Right now the window is closing and stuidos are still playing it safe with releasing titles. How does that old saying go...**** or get off the pot.

[krazeyeyez]

i don't think thats as much of a problem as stuff thats already available on blu is not being carried by local retailers, until i found this site and started using amazon i only thought about 60-90 titles were out and most didn't interest me at all. hopefully once hddvd is cleared from the shelves local retailers will opt to pick up more of the blu titles already out there. my local wallmart has all their blu's on one end cap. i think there are like 12 different titles. this does not scream "buy me" to a consumer.

[Blu Titan]

You make some very important points. However, the elimination of the HD DVD brand and the introduction of new Blu-ray players will contribute to the adoption of Blu-ray by eliminating confusion and reducing player prices (of existing models).

[BluOgre]

Just as Toshiba finally admitted, content is King and is the probably the single reason why they threw in the towel........Warner leaving them left them with almost no content.

Here is a case where you can give people ALL the content but because some bean counter is running a cost benefit analysis......they don't release it. Stuidos are skiddish about losing money but what about all these early adopters? They are risking exactly what happened to the HD-DVD format.....it dying and becoming a niche format. You want to prove to everyone that Blu-ray is the successor to DVD, stuidos need to release ALL boxoffice movies day/date with DVD. Even if it has no bonus material.....just release the movie to Blu-ray. Not doing so is an indication they still don't think Blu-ray has a legit chance to overcome DVD.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by BlueNeon

You make some very important points. However, the elimination of the HD DVD brand and the introduction of new Blu-ray players will contribute to the adoption of Blu-ray by eliminating confusion and reducing player prices (of existing models).

I'm sure that will help but what about the people that don't have HDTV's or the people that think DVD is good enough?

Out of my circle of friends with HDTV's I'm the only one with a blu-ray player...

These friends never said, "I'm going to wait until the war is decided" These friends didn't even care.

[rbd3000]

Hopefully by the fall, we will studios putting all new release movies out on Blu-ray. It seems as though Warner is trying to do that, so hopefully the other studios will follow. But I do agree, that for someone to make the switch, it has to appear that they have the same amount of choices.

[desmond]

that is a big problem. release schedule is way too light. br needs 10+ releases per week...

[Alan Gordon]

As an early adopter of DVD, I remember when it had the same issue.

I recently posted some questions regarding this to Maxpower1987 (I just watched the "Power To The Max" episode of "The Simpsons" earlier) and Paidgeek. Max didn't reply, but Paid and WickyWoo did, though I think my question kind of got lost in the rest of what I said, so I replied back to Paid and flat out asked if the end of the war would result in studios releasing their lesser known Day & Date titles on Blu-ray. He either missed that post or didn't feel like responding to it because I never saw a reply to that one.

I have read statements in articles (and I think Bill Hunt also made a similar statement) that the end of the war would cause studios to release more titles to Blu-ray... and from the way they were talking, I don't believe they were referring to Universal or Paramount/DreamWorks.

~Alan

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by york weir

Out of my circle of friends with HDTV's I'm the only one with a blu-ray player...

These friends never said, "I'm going to wait until the war is decided" These friends didn't even care.

I recently sold my Uncle and Aunt on Blu-ray... though they're planning on waiting until the Fall before buying a player.

However, as far as the friends who didn't care, I had the same problem with DVD... yet all of them now own a DVD player...

~Alan

[Sonny]

We really do need every movie released on BD (day & date) that gets released on DVD . That will help for sure, but will the studios do it to late...?

[BluOgre]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

As an early adopter of DVD, I remember when it had the same issue.

I recently posted some questions regarding this to Maxpower1987 (I just watched the "Power To The Max" episode of "The Simpsons" earlier) and Paidgeek. Max didn't reply, but Paid and WickyWoo did, though I think my question kind of got lost in the rest of what I said, so I replied back to Paid and flat out asked if the end of the war would result in studios releasing their lesser known Day & Date titles on Blu-ray. He either missed that post or didn't feel like responding to it because I never saw a reply to that one.

I have read statements in articles (and I think Bill Hunt also made a similar statement) that the end of the war would cause studios to release more titles to Blu-ray... and from the way they were talking, I don't believe they were referring to Universal or Paramount/DreamWorks.

~Alan

The impression I get from my stuido reps is this isn't going to happen quick. It's funny how cost is always the issue but then they complain about how slow the growth of this format has been. Seriously someone needs to put a foot up their arse because any reasonable person who buys/rents will notice the title disparity between DVD/Blu-ray. They should fix that before anything but at the moment it's doesn't appear to even be a concern to them.

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by BluOgre

The impression I get from my stuido reps is this isn't going to happen quick. It's funny how cost is always the issue but then they complain about how slow the growth of this format has been. Seriously someone needs to put a foot up their arse because any reasonable person who buys/rents will notice the title disparity between DVD/Blu-ray. They should fix that before anything but at the moment it's doesn't appear to even be a concern to them.

While there have been titles released on DVD in the last two months that I would have purchased on Blu-ray but chose not to buy on DVD, and the same thing happening in the next few months, I'm not too worried about it.

What I WOULD LIKE to see is a concentrated effort to get better at this by the 3rd quarter... when I expect the BDA (and retailers) to really start pushing Blu-ray.

BTW, while I don't watch this show, who here thinks the reason why Season Five of "Nip/Tuck" was delayed on DVD was due to them wanting to wait until they were free to release it on DVD and Blu-ray, and not have to go the extra expense of making a HD DVD version?

~Alan

[plee]

Originally Posted by Alan Gordon

I recently sold my Uncle and Aunt on Blu-ray... though they're planning on waiting until the Fall before buying a player.

However, as far as the friends who didn't care, I had the same problem with DVD... yet all of them now own a DVD player...

~Alan

It takes time for people to switch to new technology and most people really are still uneducated about Bluray. We have to be patient with retailers and studios as we now have one format so we can see better direction and more acceptance going forward.

I do think that catalog/older titles will not necessarily come out on Blu if they didn't do well on DVD. And some may have to be re-mastered which adds more cost, etc...