Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Bill Hunt]

Originally Posted by martinstraka8282

Do you think he truly believes what he said in that ninterview, or is he just giving the company line cuz he has to until they give up on HD DVD? I have a hard time believing that ANYONE at this point can believe that HD can win the format war no matter how biased they may be.

Obviously, I can't speak for what Ken truly believes or disbelieves.

[Sporty]

I know you can't speak on when studios plan to move as they might not know themselves.

You current post on bits shows a large shift in percentage on the sales of both formats. One thing I've always been interested is the actual numbers.

Was this last week a major drop in HD-DVD or a small drop and a spike or just a large spike in BD sales. I'm just curious as to if BD sales are breaking into the mainstream yet. Also wanted to ask if you know if BDA plan a major media push to get awareness out this year.

I just hope BD momentum picks up enough so it forces Paramount and Universals hands sooner rather then later.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

I was just saying this elsewhere, so it bears repeating here: I have nothing but respect for Ken. We disagree on the format war, obviously, but it's nothing personal. Ken's just doing his job, and it's not an easy one these days, given recent events. We all just have to remember not to take any of this stuff personally. No puppies and kittens will be harmed, regardless of how this turns out.

Which job? It would seem to me that right now he has a potential conflict of interest between his Universal and HD DVD PRG positions.

Gary

[thebluemax]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Which job? It would seem to me that right now he has a potential conflict of interest between his Universal and HD DVD PRG positions.

Gary

Excellent point! Bill, Thanks for answering my question.

[msetten]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your participation here, I watch it daily just like your two cents. Now to my question: I just read your post on The Digital Bits regarding the data for standalone players sales. I was wondering are returns deducted from the number of sold units in the graphs or are they still included as sales?

As there have been many reports about returned HD-DVD players, if the graphs you posted do not have the returns deducted, it could actually be even worse for HD-DVD.

[Grubert]

Bill,

Thanks for posting the NPD hardware sales information. It is highly appreciated.

I have often complained about the lack of periodical hardware information (like we got with software on Home Media Magazine).

For example, we didn't know that BD standalones had been outselling HD DVD standalones in December until we read the Warner press release and additional information last January.

As I said then (paraphrasing a gaming article): With no reliable HD DVD and Blu-ray player sales periodical information released, we are reduced to leaked information, which is guaranteed to produce poorer independent community discussion and a less informed hidef disc consumer. The broad contours of the industry might be visible, but a deeper understanding of smaller but essential trends – like the impact of pricing strategies and how software drives hardware sales – is lost.


My question is:

Is the posting of hardware sales ratios a one-off occasion, or can you offer such information regularly in the future?



Thanks!

[RacerX]

Bill, Perhaps you've heard that Time-Warner will be trying out a new pricing policy for their cable internet service. Basically, it will be a pay per kb (mb?) downloaded. In my paranoid mind (I'm a TW cable subscriber), this would seem to be guided towards pushing people away from downloading movies. Do you think this is in good part because Warner Bros. went Blu and want to prod internet downloaders to go blu also?

[DaViD Boulet]

OMG.

Mr. Hunt, here is a listing of Warner titles for Germany on Blu-ray this quarter (actually, up until June). Do you know about any of these titles, esp. V for Vendetta and Batman Begins, in the U.S. of A.?

Can you guys not even read?

Bill said:

But let's try to keep it away from "Is this movie coming?," or "Is that movie coming?" That's what the Bits is for, and also there are plenty of other such threads here at Blu-ray.com. Thanks.

and the mods have already said:

As it says at the beginning of every insider thread. These are not 'When is title X coming to Blu" threads. This is the second time this has been stated in this thread. Further violations will result in infractions.

[nhaase]

I was just wondering of the legitimacy of that report (esp. since WB had recently said profile 1.1 titles were being "prepped," whatever that means), though now I see my original post did not give that effect, sorry for that.

[Ben]

NO MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT TITLE RELEASE DATES. WE'VE WARNED EVERYONE ALREADY AND MR. HUNT HAS ALSO ASKED NICELY THAT THIS STOP.

WE WILL HAVE TO START HANDING OUT SUSPENSIONS IF THIS CONTINUES.

[nhaase]

Originally Posted by Grubert

Bill,

Thanks for posting the NPD hardware sales information. It is highly appreciated.

I have often complained about the lack of periodical hardware information (like we got with software on Home Media Magazine).

For example, we didn't know that BD standalones had been outselling HD DVD standalones in December until we read the Warner press release and additional information last January.

As I said then (paraphrasing a gaming article): With no reliable HD DVD and Blu-ray player sales periodical information released, we are reduced to leaked information, which is guaranteed to produce poorer independent community discussion and a less informed hidef disc consumer. The broad contours of the industry might be visible, but a deeper understanding of smaller but essential trends – like the impact of pricing strategies and how software drives hardware sales – is lost.


My question is:

Is the posting of hardware sales ratios a one-off occasion, or can you offer such information regularly in the future?



Thanks!

Also, since you did get the actual numbers this time, is that a rare event? Normally all we see (even from Toshiba at CES) is market shares and ratios. I know that is probably the best spin.

[WickyWoo]

In my paranoid mind (I'm a TW cable subscriber), this would seem to be guided towards pushing people away from downloading movies. Do you think this is in good part because Warner Bros. went Blu and want to prod internet downloaders to go blu also?

Cable modem's bandwidth is totally clogged, and apparently there's about 5% of users running full tilt 24 hours a day on torrent and such. That's the entire motivation behind it

It's not going to fly, Internet has been unlimited for over a decade now. More likely a discount on your bill for voluntarily entering into a capped scenario is far more palatable

[FourToedStatue]

Bill do you think the studios are releasing too many titles, too little or in a perfect pace?

I feel studios like Disney could do a little better in the catalog department.

[ClaytonMG]

Hey Bill! I have kind of an odd question for you. I had a friend tell me that there was an article on The Bits about how much stores make off of selling these HD players. He said that on average, if 1 Blu-Ray player is sold, the company that sold it (like Best Buy) would make around $130, but you'd need to sell 5 HD DVD players to make even $30. Is that right and is that still true today after Toshiba's price cuts? These stores have to be taking quite a loss on HD DVD as well as Toshiba.

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

Hey Bill! I have kind of an odd question for you. I had a friend tell me that there was an article on The Bits about how much stores make off of selling these HD players. He said that on average, if 1 Blu-Ray player is sold, the company that sold it (like Best Buy) would make around $130, but you'd need to sell 5 HD DVD players to make even $30. Is that right and is that still true today after Toshiba's price cuts? These stores have to be taking quite a loss on HD DVD as well as Toshiba.

Poor Bill Hunt. He comes here to be an insider then has people ask him to look up articles on his own site as if it's some secret archive instead of a site publicly available and searchable by Google.

Don't worry, Bill. I got this one.

Did a simple search, and here's the first hit that comes up:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...ial010108.html

Any retailer worth his salt right now would rather move 1 Blu-ray player a week with a $150 profit margin (35% is standard markup at retail), than 5 HD-DVD players that they make a reported $30-50 margin on (a number that's reportedly been maintained even with the recent fire sales).

Your friend didn't have it quite right, but, yes, there is more profit selling Blu-ray players.

[BillCable]

Welcome to the forum, Bill! I have sort of an off-the-wall question, which I hope is appropriate. Would you be willing to share some of the more outrageous hate mail you've received in response to some of your pro-Blu articles? I think that stuff would be a blast to read.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Cable modem's bandwidth is totally clogged, and apparently there's about 5% of users running full tilt 24 hours a day on torrent and such. That's the entire motivation behind it

It's not going to fly, Internet has been unlimited for over a decade now. More likely a discount on your bill for voluntarily entering into a capped scenario is far more palatable

In Canada we've faced these bandwidth caps off an on for years for the same reason. The ISPs discovered that 5% of users made up 50% (or more) of the bandwidth used. Why should everyone pay for the infrastructure used (misused?) by so few?

Without the ISPs getting a piece of the action, there is absolutely no reason for them to invest in the major bandwidth upgrades needed to deliver a serious movie download scenario. Not to mention that the cableco and telco do or will have their own PPV offerings that compete against general IP downloads.

Gary

[martinstraka8282]

Hi Bill,

I was wondering if you have heard anything about what the price will be for the new BD50 player from Panasonic? I know you prolly cant tell me anywyas but even a ballpark figure would be nice (or even your estimation). I am holding out for this player to reduce the workload of my PS3, but would prolly balk at the idea of it costing close to a grand. Im hoping in the 600 range.

[Flux88MPH]

Originally Posted by Ben

NO MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT TITLE RELEASE DATES. WE'VE WARNED EVERYONE ALREADY AND MR. HUNT HAS ALSO ASKED NICELY THAT THIS STOP.

WE WILL HAVE TO START HANDING OUT SUSPENSIONS IF THIS CONTINUES.

Seriously! Why bother Bill with these kinds of questions when he already addresses all release info that he can talk about on his very own website THE DIGITAL BITS. It’s only the #1 credible source of DVD & HD media information, news, and commentary. They’ve put a lot into that site in the 10+ years of its existence. So do yourself a favor, bookmark it in your favorite browser of choice and check it daily…you’ll thank me for the advice.

[elwaylite]

I agree, I think people are really asking Bill and PM some wasteful questions right now.