81:19 Nielsen/VideoScan Weekly Sales Numbers

[Blubaru]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Wow.

Thank you Europe and Japan. It's over.

Europe and Japan may and probably will not have an effect on who will win in North America. We have seen this with Laserdisc, MiniDisc and VCDs.

Japan may have the consumer electronic industry but we have Hollywood. Hollywood doesn’t seem to care what’s going on in the rest of the world. What good will all of those Blue-ray players do if Hollywood has gone HD-DVD only?

Not saying that it will happen but right now the biggest/most important part of the world that counts is North America. If we don't win here it simply won’t matter. People put way to much emphasis on Europe and Asia.

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by sjy1969

66:34 for Shrek week not great for blu-ray?
I've got to get me some of what you're smoking

Dude, he's smoking that red weed. You definitely don't want to smoke that since it kills brain cells and renders the red inhalers incapable of recognizing reality.

[sj001]

Originally Posted by Iceman

I think you are definitely right about this. From what I've seen HD-DVD EU consumers import a lot more from amazon.com and other places than Blu-ray EU consumers, who tend to buy more locally/domestic. I also think EU is more influenced by the "PS3 effect".

As far as importing, I wonder how many are taking advantage of the low US dollar as well to import them?

[Steverhcp02]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Europe and Japan may and probably will not have an effect on who will win in North America. We have seen this with Laserdisc, MiniDisc and VCDs.

Japan may have the consumer electronic industry but we have Hollywood. Hollywood doesn’t seem to care what’s going on in the rest of the world. What good will all of those Blue-ray players do if Hollywood has gone HD-DVD only?

Not saying that it will happen but right now the biggest/most important part of the world that counts is North America. If we don't win here it simply won’t matter. People put way to much emphasis on Europe and Asia.

The only thing i think you arent considering is that BD is already at an advantage in america. Sure, if BD were losing in america we could argue that Japan and Euro wont help since hollywood wouldnt care. But, if Japan is excelerating like th egraphs indicate and Euro falls in line with the PS3 taking off......now, throw in a 2:1 YTD and 60:SI and 52/52 week so fsales, studio support already in BD favors to go along with CE support and more retail space already......globally, it just doesnt make sense....Japan and Euro may play a bigger role than we think

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Europe and Japan may and probably will not have an effect on who will win in North America. We have seen this with Laserdisc, MiniDisc and VCDs.

I believe you're saying that something popular elsewhere doesn't affect what becomes popular in North America. Quite true.

But, that's completely different to whether something without much of a presence elsewhere can overtake the leader here.

Would Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and European CEs put much effort into a North America only format?

Gary

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Would Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and European CEs put much effort into a North America only format?

Not wishing to be negative but the answer is clearly yes based on historical data.

There are many CE products that are made purely for the North American market by the Asian CE companies - it is easily big enough to warrant preferential treatment.

[quexos]

Originally Posted by jayd

I think that goes for both since alot of Blu-rays are region free. I am a regular on Amazon.com, because they are a hell of alot cheaper than .co.uk.

Say friend, this may be a stupid question but when u get your discs from amazon.com, do they come new as in under the original plastic wrapping ?
I may have a chance to try but i'd like to know beforehand

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Europe and Japan may and probably will not have an effect on who will win in North America. We have seen this with Laserdisc, MiniDisc and VCDs.

Japan may have the consumer electronic industry but we have Hollywood. Hollywood doesn’t seem to care what’s going on in the rest of the world. What good will all of those Blue-ray players do if Hollywood has gone HD-DVD only?

Not saying that it will happen but right now the biggest/most important part of the world that counts is North America. If we don't win here it simply won’t matter. People put way to much emphasis on Europe and Asia.

So Hollywood will ignore 50% of the world market?

HD-DVD simply isn't going to take off in Europe or Japan, so at worst we'd have HD-DVD in the US, Blu-ray in the rest of the world.

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

That is accurate. Euro numbers are very strong for Blu. GfK will be putting out numbers soon for Europe, they should be in the region of 7-1 in favour for Blu.

Japan is even more of a joke. In all regions other than the USA, HD DVD is basically dead. The war is all but over and should any studios change their stance in favour of Blu, HD DVD won't even stand a chance in the land of the free.

Can you say whether Warner is paying attention to this? And whether Time Warner is? I would hope that Time Warner at the least would keep track of what is happening in Japan, so that if Warner decided to drop Blu-ray worldwide Time Warner would ask them why they felt it was a good business decision to pretty much give up the Japanese market for high definition on discs (where HD DVD would be unlikely to win even if Warner did drop Blu-ray). Good executives care about bringing in money, whether that is from disc sales overseas, or at home. My hope is that Warner wants one HD on disc format for at least the major parts of the world for movie disc sales (with Japan being one of them) and realizes that the only realistic way of achieving that is to go with Blu-ray. On the other hand, I hope the Blu-ray companies realize how important Warner is and do what it takes to get them over exclusively (even if that requires doing what it takes to keep them neutral for a while).

With the release of the latest Harry Potter movie at least they should see how many sales are on each side in each area. On Amazon's Japanese site the 2 versions aren't even close (#47 for Blu-ray and #866 for HD DVD).

--Darin

[BillCable]

The international market is becoming more and more important for Hollywood films. Many films gross more overseas these days than they do in the USA. You can't tell me that Universal and Paramount are going to completely abandon those markets for HD media. They'll have no choice but to go neutral. And the prospect of Warner switching the HD DVD exclusive in the current environment looks laughable given these numbers.

[RedIsNotBlue]

Originally Posted by BillCable

The international market is becoming more and more important for Hollywood films. Many films gross more overseas these days than they do in the USA. You can't tell me that Universal and Paramount are going to completely abandon those markets for HD media. They'll have no choice but to go neutral. And the prospect of Warner switching the HD DVD exclusive in the current environment looks laughable given these numbers.

I think a major thing is going to be the Harry Potter movies. If the Blu-ray versions outsell the HD DVD versions 2:1 then game over.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by Blubaru

Europe and Japan may and probably will not have an effect on who will win in North America. We have seen this with Laserdisc, MiniDisc and VCDs.

I respectfully disagree.
LaserDisc beat both CED and VMD handidly.
MiniDisc did the same against DAT.
VCDs are playable in nearly every DVD ever made.

None became mainstream hits in America, but the international market played a huge part in determining the "winner" of the minor format wars and keeping the formats going regardless of the support of America.

Now, I do agree that the U.S. is single most important country in this "war," both due to the potential size of the marketplace and also because Hollywood is here, but all the HD DVD fans claiming that the entire rest of the world doesn't matter are kidding themselves.

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Not wishing to be negative but the answer is clearly yes based on historical data.

There are many CE products that are made purely for the North American market by the Asian CE companies - it is easily big enough to warrant preferential treatment.

Guys, if the content providers decide to pick blu-ray based on their world-wide sales figures none on that will matter.

The choice will be made for North America and historical data is irrelevant given the recent fall in the US dollar.

The US might have the content but studios care about sales overall. China is an emerging market which could easily end the format war globally if they went with blu-ray.

Cheap players without content is a dead end.

[Seretur]

Originally Posted by quexos

Say friend, this may be a stupid question but when u get your discs from amazon.com, do they come new as in under the original plastic wrapping ?
I may have a chance to try but i'd like to know beforehand

Yes, unequivocally.

I live where my sig says I live, and I've received dozens of Blu-ray discs from Amazon.com, all in original wrapping, with store labels and everything. Brand spanking new, looking like I just picked them up from Best Buy.

Also, more often than not they sneak through customs, and they usually arrive within a week.

So buy with confidence -- but check the region coding thread first, of course, and be a good sport and use the forum link (from the movie review section) before you order. That way, this site gets a small referral fee which supports its operation.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Not wishing to be negative but the answer is clearly yes based on historical data.

There are many CE products that are made purely for the North American market by the Asian CE companies - it is easily big enough to warrant preferential treatment.

Can you give a relevant example?

North America certainly can warrant unique VARIANTS of products. But, are there examples where an entire product concept is unique to North America but serviced by Asian CEs?

Gary

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by JadedRaverLA

Now, I do agree that the U.S. is single most important country in this "war," both due to the potential size of the marketplace and also because Hollywood is here, but all the HD DVD fans claiming that the entire rest of the world doesn't matter are kidding themselves.

In the past more than one HD DVD fan has claimed that Europe would help HD DVD win, but now that Blu-ray is doing so much better in many places outside the US it seems that many want to ignore that. Even Amir said a long time ago that Toshiba was going to go after Europe and Japan. Then when their strategies didn't seem to be working much at all in Japan, that changed to Europe and the US being the important ones. Now I don't know what he would say, but would probably downplay Europe given how poorly HD DVD seems to be doing there too. It isn't that these places stopped mattering, it is just that HD DVD doing poorly in these places caused some to try spinning things in a different direction so others might not see that this is a problem for HD DVD.

--Darin

[talbers23]

were there numbers this week? what were they? i was looking around on here but couldnt find them

[savage1984]

is it too early to make predictions for next week? Cause I'll go with a nice 70-30...

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Can you give a relevant example?

North America certainly can warrant unique VARIANTS of products. But, are there examples where an entire product concept is unique to North America but serviced by Asian CEs?

Cell phones are one example. NA had their own version of TDMA digital - it was a fairly recent thing for AT&T to adopt GSM (the one the whole rest of the world uses) and merge with Cingular.

Note also that Japan has unique cellular phone systems.

These markets are large enough to support these specialised products. The point is that the NA market could easily sustain an HD DVD hardware business, with two caveats:

1) Toshiba has already killed all profits for HD DVD hardware.

2) Content is key (see the sig! ) - I agree with aristotles that without the content, there is no hope for HD DVD. That said, they would have to lose Warner or Universal (or both) to have enough impact to actually kill the format - otherwise it could easily be on life support for years.

[The Guardian]

Yeah, the content providers are the same for most of the world and they wouldn't likely see the point of (needlessly) propping up two formats when they could cut costs by focussing on one.