More BLU-RAY standalone players sold to date compared to the HD-DVD format

[HDTV1080P]

Looks like there have now have been more BLU-RAY standalone players sold compared to HD-DVD players.

According to these two articles in 2006 100,000 to 125,000 BLU-RAY standalone players were sold not including the PS3. If those numbers are correct then most likely to date more BLU-RAY standalone players have sold compared to Toshiba HD-DVD players. This would make sense since there are several brands of BLU-RAY players to choose from.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/sonysold061407.htm

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6452048.html

[UltimateFighter]

Awesome news....Also looks like a whole heck of a lot more are coming!!

http://www.psu.com/node/11655

[dakota81]

It makes sense. By Christmas last year player sales were dominated by HD DVD, and the HD DVD promotions group just released a statement they have 60% of the market, should mean that Blu-ray is catching up very fast this year.

Hope it translates into higher percentages of movie sales this summer & fall, to sway Universal or Toshiba into ending the format war.

[MrBogey]

The numbers Toshiba uses is US only. They have jack in Japan and next to jack in Europe. In total I would expect Blu-ray to lead worldwide.

[jorg]

so around 115,000 stand alones sold and now with recent price redution on sony player lets see what happenes how much of a head start did hd dvd get?

[nhaase]

Hopefully Sony can keep pace with demand with the new $499 player in the next months.

I would like to see a wider format sales gap of "300" when it comes out, compared to those numbers for "The Departed." That would point to a greater adoption of Blu-ray. I think that these two such desirous titles would be a good gauge of how much has changed (if any, even though I suspect BD has gained, even w/ the Toshiba fire sale) since "The Departed" debuted.

[The Don]

I went to sears today and saw someone going through 'pick-up' to purchase the latest Sammy BD player...

I have never seen someone buy a BD player before...walking out of the store with one...

seeing things like this make me feel better about the side I chose...one more player = that many more movies sold and that much more BD owners by 'word of mouth'

[movies3]

awesome! and there is only more to come

[GasCat]

I don't believe it but I am skeptical by nature.

[blublublu]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Looks like there have now have been more BLU-RAY standalone players sold compared to HD-DVD players.

According to these two articles in 2006 100,000 to 125,000 BLU-RAY standalone players were sold not including the PS3. If those numbers are correct then most likely to date more BLU-RAY standalone players have sold compared to Toshiba HD-DVD players. This would make sense since there are several brands of BLU-RAY players to choose from.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/sonysold061407.htm

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6452048.html

To play devil's advocate:

Why aren't Blu Ray media sales much higher?

If standalone players are even (or Blu Ray is higher), and Sony has sold many more PS3s than XBOX addons, you'd think Blu Ray would be trashing HD DVD in sales, but it's not happening (most weeks its about 60:40 these days)

[KenThompson]

It must mean that some PS3 owners are not buying bd movies. Shame, because with the install base we should be wiping them out not just 2-1

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

According to these two articles in 2006 100,000 to 125,000 BLU-RAY standalone players were sold not including the PS3. If those numbers are correct then most likely to date more BLU-RAY standalone players have sold compared to Toshiba HD-DVD players. This would make sense since there are several brands of BLU-RAY players to choose from.

I have my doubts. We have to be careful between sold by manufacturers (stores buying them) and sold to consumers. Much like sold vs shipped for game systems. Also, as someone mentioned there is worldwide vs US or NA. I seem to recall something like 60k Blu-ray recorders selling in Japan during the holiday season at the end of 2006 and so maybe worldwide there were more Blu-ray players sold counting those and not counting game systems, but in the US I'm more inclined to believe that HD DVD outsold Blu-ray for standalones, but with the XBOX360 add-ons and PS3s included, we've seen what has happened with software sales so far in the US. With the recent deals on HD DVD standalones I think Sony's $499 MSRP for the BDP-S300 was smart, but also pretty necessary.

--Darin

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by darinp2

I have my doubts. We have to be careful between sold by manufacturers (stores buying them) and sold to consumers. Much like sold vs shipped for game systems. Also, as someone mentioned there is worldwide vs US or NA. I seem to recall something like 60k Blu-ray recorders selling in Japan during the holiday season at the end of 2006 and so maybe worldwide there were more Blu-ray players sold counting those and not counting game systems, but in the US I'm more inclined to believe that HD DVD outsold Blu-ray for standalones, but with the XBOX360 add-ons and PS3s included, we've seen what has happened with software sales so far in the US.

Keep in mind Toshiba is claiming there are 100K BD standalones in the region that there are 150K HD DVD ones (150K is 60% of 250K).

There are so many numbers flying around. All the current projections seem like nonsense to me (Warner, Toshiba, Sony, and Sigma Designs). And, we never seem to get a straight sold number from anyone. It's spinerama.

Gary

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by KenThompson

It must mean that some PS3 owners are not buying bd movies. Shame, because with the install base we should be wiping them out not just 2-1

Many to most I would think, at this point.

The key will be to transform those owners into users later on this year. Which, I would think is a heck of a lot easier than convincing someone to buy HD DVD.

Alas, it would be nice if the PS/3 picked it up a bit. The latest numbers (May) are:

PS3: 82,000
Xbox 360: 155,000
Wii: 338,000

Although, with the new lower pricing of BD players, I think the PS/3 could quickly transition from tactical (purchased for BD use) to stategic (getting BD into peoples' homes).

It could have another tactical spike at Xmas (purchases for the family).

Gary

[GasCat]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Many to most I would think, at this point.

The key will be to transform those owners into users later on this year. Which, I would think is a heck of a lot easier than convincing someone to buy HD DVD.

Alas, it would be nice if the PS/3 picked it up a bit. The latest numbers (May) are:

PS3: 82,000
Xbox 360: 155,000
Wii: 338,000

Although, with the new lower pricing of BD players, I think the PS/3 could quickly transition from tactical (purchased for BD use) to stategic (getting BD into peoples' homes).

It could have another tactical spike at Xmas (purchases for the family).

Gary

GTA is coming out shortly. That should raise the sales considerably. The main problems are:
Not everyone has a HDTV.
There are not that many games on the PS3. My last point will morph into there are not that many exclusive games on the PS3.

WTH is going on with the lack of games? People are more likely to buy the 360 and then go HD-DVD. Hopefully that will change soon.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by blublublu

To play devil's advocate:

Why aren't Blu Ray media sales much higher?

If standalone players are even (or Blu Ray is higher), and Sony has sold many more PS3s than XBOX addons, you'd think Blu Ray would be trashing HD DVD in sales, but it's not happening (most weeks its about 60:40 these days)

Its because part of the PS3 owners dont care about movies, on the other hand many hd-dud users are selling their houses and other property just to buy hd-dud and also many are buying hd-dud even though there is BD version too just to hurt Sony (insane sony haters).
When the HD formats become more mass spread hd-dud will get in its grave in a matter of seconds.

[Merrick]

The reason that Blu-ray isn't "killing" HD DVD in disc sales (although I think I'd argue that 2:1 is pretty darned close to it) is the lack of decent titles. When I bought my first DVD player (DVP-S7000, June 1997) I bought a stack of DVDs because I was all excited about the format - and they looked great. But of the 30 or so I bought in the first year I probably have watched 20 of them less then four times. Over time I've been able to pick up stuff with real lasting quality that I still watch a couple of times a year. So I (and I suspect a lot of others in the early adopter crowd) am being a lot more discerning in my BD purchases. I only own four discs, and when I look over what's available I just find it hard to plop down $20-$30 for most of it. And don't get me wrong, unlike in 1997 when I was finishing up graduate school, I can actually afford to purchase these discs a lot better now than I could then. There just isn't a whole lot of stuff out there now that I really think I'd be particularly interested in owning. There's a lot I'd buy in a heartbeat and at premium dollar if it was available. LOTR, Narnia, the first Star Wars trilogy if it was done *right* (are you listening Lucas?), Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Samurai, Patton, The Thing (darn, Universal), 1776, Guys and Dolls... that more than quadruples my library already and I'm just getting started and I'd pick them all up on the way home from work tonight if they were available.
With OSs it's the killer app. With VHS/Betamax the killer app was porn because there was no other convenient way to get it into the house and the pent-up demand was huge. With HD it's titles. In another year or so, when the SD transmissions are starting to be shut down and *everyone* has an HD source of some kind for their home, people are going to stick their DVDs into their players and start saying, "man, this looks like crap - why am I watching this?" At that point, if there isn't a backlog of good material (and an exhaustive list of pre/post-pubescent teeny-busters isn't going to cut it) the medium is going to sink or swim. If titles aren't there people will start turning to PPV, On-Demand, and streaming video via internet and HD discs WILL be history like Microsoft hopes.
If I'm right, then 2:1 *is* as significant a slaughter as could be imagined at this point - unless and until people actually start dumping their HD DVDs or at least stop buying them because the outcome has become undeniable.
I am just at a loss for a way to strongly influence what the studios do regarding title releases over the course of the next 18 months. Frankly, like Microsoft, they have a vested interest in online content delivery as well. That's their best opportunity to make multiple sales of the same content to the same person. That's a marketing model NO ONE can shake a stick at. I'm going to buy a bunch of BRs to replace DVDs I already own I suspect - but they had to redo the masters and retool the production lines to get a second purchase by me. There are a lot of people who are going to order of bunch of films online before they have the ability (or are allowed) to record them in HD and will end up then buying them on disc or ordering them again at some point down the line. That's the future we face as hardware owners. It's inevitable. But the trick to giving BLu-ray a real shot at life is to end this war fast and get titles out quickly. Those *might* be conflicting desires. But the most important by far is title availablity - and that's what we need from the studio - but how do we influence that?
Any ideas?

[babyBlu]

Originally Posted by GasCat

GTA is coming out shortly. That should raise the sales considerably. The main problems are:
Not everyone has a HDTV.
There are not that many games on the PS3. My last point will morph into there are not that many exclusive games on the PS3.

WTH is going on with the lack of games? People are more likely to buy the 360 and then go HD-DVD. Hopefully that will change soon.

When I first bought my PS3 I too did not have a HDTV . I know a few others with a PS3 and do not have an HDTV. Hopefully with cheaper HDTV prices, more PS3 owners will decide to get the most out of their gaming system and purchase one. As soon as that happens there is no reason to expect that Blu-ray disk sales won't increase. I think PS3 owners do care about movies, but they obviously aren't going to buy BD's w/o owning a HDTV.

It does look like better PS3 games are on the horizon, GTA4, Lair, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Madden 08(hopefully a big improvement on the anemic '07 version). I plan on purchasing all of these when available

[aaronwt]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Many to most I would think, at this point.

The key will be to transform those owners into users later on this year. Which, I would think is a heck of a lot easier than convincing someone to buy HD DVD.

Alas, it would be nice if the PS/3 picked it up a bit. The latest numbers (May) are:

PS3: 82,000
Xbox 360: 155,000
Wii: 338,000

Although, with the new lower pricing of BD players, I think the PS/3 could quickly transition from tactical (purchased for BD use) to stategic (getting BD into peoples' homes).

It could have another tactical spike at Xmas (purchases for the family).

Gary

WOW! Another month with under 100K in PS3 sales. At that rate it will be a long time before Sony goes through the 2 million players they had shipped but hadn't been sold yet. At that rate those systems won't be sold out until the holidays! And they are supposedly still producing the PS3 at a fast pace. Where are they storing all these systems?

[blublublu]

Originally Posted by aaronwt

WOW! Another month with under 100K in PS3 sales. At that rate it will be a long time before Sony goes through the 2 million players they had shipped but hadn't been sold yet. At that rate those systems won't be sold out until the holidays! And they are supposedly still producing the PS3 at a fast pace. Where are they storing all these systems?

That's bad business to have to warehouse all those units that they can't even ship to retailers. Sooner or later Sony will have to swallow their pride and cut PS3 prices.