Amazon Blu-ray vs. HD DVD wars

[phloyd]

Gary - track these numbers over some days and chart them - could be interesting

[dialog_gvf]

I'm dumping hourly numbers now.

Latest:

Blu-ray: 2692.8
HD DVD: 868.5

Gary

[Dave]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

It looks to me like thedvdwars takes one snapshot in the morning, and that's it.

Amazon updates their numbers once an hour. So, while the TREND (long term) should be accurate, any given day isn't because they aren't averaging.

Now, me being a total geek programmer, I created a little utility for myself to calculate the top ten.

So, according to dvdwars the numbers are:

HD DVD: 682
Blu-ray: 3091

As of 4:23pm EST my calculations are:

HD DVD: 795.3
Blu-ray: 2736.7

EDITs:

5:08pm EDT

HD DVD: 843.0
Blu-ray: 2758.5

Gary

Gahahah! I told you! This site is liar!
I did not knew that the HD DVD fanboys are so desperate and can go so low!

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Dave

Gahahah! I told you! This site is liar!
I did not knew that the HD DVD fanboys are so desperate and can go so low!

I did.

[dialog_gvf]

There is a great saying: "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity."

Words to live by. And when you do, the conspiracies tend to evaporate.

It is possible they use the average of the yesterday for the values posted today. I'm capturing the data, so I'll be able to tell what is happening by tomorrow.

That said (from their site):

This is about driving closure to the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format wars. Everyone realizes that the thing people care most about in making the HD vs. Blu-ray decision, is not the tech specs and bells and whistles that no one will ever use. It's about making sure your $500 investment in a new player and $100s in new DVDs doesn't become a set of very expensive paperweights.

Hey, isn't it only HD DVD people that had (up to now) made "$500" investments?

So, the site is about making sure HD DVD survives?

So which do I buy? HD-DVD or Blu-Ray

We don't know and we don't care, but we'd recommend going with the current winner, and you can find that out here. If everyone buys into the current winner, the winner's lead will grow stronger, and the loser will fade away quicker, and the corporations that support the loser will have to play nice and give in - making all consumers a lot better off in the long run.

The trend is toward Blu-ray catching up, and perhaps passing. If/when that happens, see if that recommendation changes.

Gary

Latest stuff:

Blu-ray: 2401.9
HD DVD: 743.7

Four Blu-ray titles have rankings that would put them in the top 10 of HD DVD.

Latest, latest:

Blu-ray: 2120.9
HD DVD: 770.2

Top four all in top 1000 (all time high for BD, I think)
#10 - Fantastic Four at 3702

[dialog_gvf]

Today Superman Returns (HD DVD) spent a good amount of time in the top 100 DVDs on Amazon. Although, the DVDs up at that level are not key titles.

The Blu-ray version had a range of about 380-600.

Both HD DVD and BD are sticking to a range for the top-10 averages. 700-900 for HD DVD and 2400-3400 for BD.

HD DVD has come down to this range in the last week. BD has stayed in this approx. range after peaking below 2000 on PS/3 day.

There is no obvious blip from either the add-on or the PS/3.

Gary

[Chris Beveridge]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

There is no obvious blip from either the add-on or the PS/3.

I don't know why people are really expecting one. As has been said, it seems like HD DVD owners, vocal ones, favor amazon. PS3 owners, most of whom bought via retail since hardly anyplace really had them for sale online, are likely predominantly B&M buyers. Even worse, they're likely to not buy a lot of movies right at launch because it was a week before Black Friday. They likely waited to see if they could score some discounted at the big box retailers this weekend.

I buy almost exclusively online, especially for my media. But even I've held off on purchases to see what kind of local deals I could get this weekend.

And honestly, B&M buying is where BOTH formats really need to happen right now. Amazon is fine and dandy, but unless retailers across the board start to see sales, it's going to affect things. One way or the other. If the majority of HD DVD buyers go via amazon, then there's no incentive for other retailers to carry product. Which keeps it out of the public eye, which keeps places from stocking hardware. Double edged sword.

[Blackraven]

HD-DVD IS DEAD IN JAPAN THOUGH (all caps fire :P)

I do remember when Chris posted a list before stating that Blu-ray titles have made it to the top 10, top 20 and top 100 charts.

Whereas HD-DVD titles only stayed on the 200s list with some going as far as 300 on the list.

[Chris Beveridge]

Originally Posted by Blackraven

HD-DVD IS DEAD IN JAPAN THOUGH (all caps fire :P)

I do remember when Chris posted a list before stating that Blu-ray titles have made it to the top 10, top 20 and top 100 charts.

Whereas HD-DVD titles only stayed on the 200s list with some going as far as 300 on the list.

It's not exactly dead, Warner continues to try and prime the pump. The BD list is growing slowly but the HD DVD list is shrinking. There are things announced, but retailers don't really put too much into their systems until things are close to shipping or preorder cutoffs come up. I look at the BD and HD sides daily to see if new things have come in at CD Japan. But beyond warner and a couple of other titles, it's very small.

CD Japan BD Search Results

CD Japan HD DVD Search Results

Look at how little is due out after the Warner material from this week. There are more things announced, but those announcements have NOT turned into formal solicitations for the most part yet.

[Chris Beveridge]

Back to the Amazon side of things;

I'm not ordering BD's from them anymore. I made my first order in years for video from them and was reminded why I stopped. I put in for the 3 superman flicks. They still haven't shipped. If I order from DVD empire like I usually do, they would have arrived today since they ship on Friday's. Amazon says I should have it by the fourth.

No thank you amazon.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

Back to the Amazon side of things;

I'm not ordering BD's from them anymore. I made my first order in years for video from them and was reminded why I stopped. I put in for the 3 superman flicks. They still haven't shipped. If I order from DVD empire like I usually do, they would have arrived today since they ship on Friday's. Amazon says I should have it by the fourth.

No thank you amazon.

Odd. I've had mostly good luck with Amazon myself, but it can't hurt to mix it up.

Whatever works.

[hyperdine]

Originally Posted by Chris Beveridge

Back to the Amazon side of things;

I'm not ordering BD's from them anymore. I made my first order in years for video from them and was reminded why I stopped. I put in for the 3 superman flicks. They still haven't shipped. If I order from DVD empire like I usually do, they would have arrived today since they ship on Friday's. Amazon says I should have it by the fourth.

No thank you amazon.

I've had the same exact experience. My Superman BD's still haven't shipped either. I've started to switch over to BB's (I picked up Enemy of the State and Ice Age there this weekend). The only thing that keeps me going back to Amazon is the 10% discount.

Regarding the dvdwars website: there's one other thing that this website clearly misses in terms of giving an indication of sales, etc. The fact that a large number of PS3's, Panasonics, etc. come packed with a Blu-Ray disc. The same would apply to the 360 add-on which includes King Kong. Since these wouldn't count as separate software sales, this skews the overall picture a bit in terms of how much software is going out the door.

For example, when Talledega Nights becomes available for purchase, I would anticipate that sales aren't going to be as large as they could've been because a large part of the Blu-Ray install base is already going to own this title!

I'm not implying that the site is 100% unreliable, I would just caution folks from putting too much stock in it (I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here). What we really need are actual sales figures in units sold. Even with that though, it's still way too early to tell. In fact, there's an article out now that's even saying that Holiday sales may not be a good indicator and that January might be the big month...

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6394173.html

(Scroll Down to "January Big Test")

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by hyperdine

I've had the same exact experience. My Superman BD's still haven't shipped either. I've started to switch over to BB's (I picked up Enemy of the State and Ice Age there this weekend). The only thing that keeps me going back to Amazon is the 10% discount.

Same for me. I don't order much from Amazon anymore these days. I have only been ordering my Blu-ray titles there because of the 10% discount, but I've still been looking out for better prices elsewhere, just in case. Usually, I order my music and DVDs from CD Universe, CD Wow, and places like that. I do, OTOH, order a lot of import SACDs and DVD-As from Amazon UK (or Amazon France, etc.), if not from CD Wow, depending on which has it for less

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6394173.html

(Scroll Down to "January Big Test")

Thanks for the link.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

I do, OTOH, order a lot of import SACDs and DVD-As from Amazon UK (or Amazon France, etc.), if not from CD Wow, depending on which has it for less

Thanks for the link.

If you are importing from the UK (can't see why as we have ridiculous pricing on just about everything) this would be your best bet for any DVD-A/SACD purchases the site for some reason is alot better that playusa, much better lay-out/design. Amazon are really very very bad with their delivery targets, I just don't understand what possesses them to quote something close and then not make it, I would much rather they told me the exact date, even if it was a couple of weeks away.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

If you are importing from the UK (can't see why as we have ridiculous pricing on just about everything) this would be your best bet for any DVD-A/SACD purchases the site for some reason is alot better that playusa, much better lay-out/design. Amazon are really very very bad with their delivery targets, I just don't understand what possesses them to quote something close and then not make it, I would much rather they told me the exact date, even if it was a couple of weeks away.

Play doesn't ship to the U.S. Normally, I'll import form CD Wow as their prices are usually lowest, but they tend to have a very limited catalogue. Otherwise, I'll import from Amazon UK.

The reason I import SACDs and DVD-As from the UK, since you were wondering, is that they are often not available in the U.S., especially SACDs. These days, a lot of SACD releases, such as the Depeche Mode SACD+DVD reissues are E.U. only - the N. American release is CD+DVD only. In the case of the Talking Heads high-res releases, in North America they were available only as DualDiscs (which I refuse to buy), whereas in the UK they were CD+DVD-A releases, so imported them.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

Play doesn't ship to the U.S. Normally, I'll import form CD Wow as their prices are usually lowest, but they tend to have a very limited catalogue. Otherwise, I'll import from Amazon UK.

The reason I import SACDs and DVD-As from the UK, since you were wondering, is that they are often not available in the U.S., especially SACDs. These days, a lot of SACD releases, such as the Depeche Mode SACD+DVD reissues are E.U. only - the N. American release is CD+DVD only. In the case of the Talking Heads high-res releases, in North America they were available only as DualDiscs (which I refuse to buy), whereas in the UK they were CD+DVD-A releases, so imported them.

I suppose this must be one of the only things that the UK has going for it in that context, just having thought about it, I'm not surprised that play.com don't export, playusa is the website that is used for exports.

[WriteSimply]

Buy.com doesn't have as much or update their BD catalog as often, but I'm planning on using them in the future until the Google Checkout deal is off.


fuad

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

I suppose this must be one of the only things that the UK has going for it in that context, just having thought about it, I'm not surprised that play.com don't export, playusa is the website that is used for exports.

Yes, but Playusa seems to only sell Region 1 DVDs.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

I do order a lot of import SACDs and DVD-As from Amazon UK (or Amazon France, etc.), if not from CD Wow, depending on which has it for less

I order a lot of my SACDs from amazon.uk, but from the used sellers. There are some like "caimanusa" and "cheapdvds" that have good shipping prices and their items are new and way less than the amazon list price. I've always gotten mint new items from caimanusa with excellent speedy shipping.

[spiff-o-matic]

All these geeky statistics don't sell discs!

The bottom line is that the hundreds of Blu-ray movies available are JUNK! There's hardly a seriously good film in the lot!

Where is the Disney vault? Sony owns one of the best vaults in the business! How is it that I can find 5 times as many movies I would buy on HD DVD than on Blu-ray?

I have to take these stats seriously!
http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm#1
And it really worries me!

Come on Sony! Let's don't do another Betamax! PLEASE!