Blu-ray takes five-to-one lead

[slinkywonka]

Recently we've all been hearing about Sony's resolution to ship more Blu-ray players in the US, and Blockbuster's decision to give it their full support, but we haven’t really seen the consequences of these actions...until now. According to the research firm Digital Entertainment Group, HD-DVD is unable to keep up with the Blu-ray sales figures, which currently hold a five to one lead.

Warner Bros. senior vice president Steve Nickerson stated that this year "will mirror the year 1999 or 2000 for DVD", believing that consumers are only just scratching the surface of the new high-def DVD category that is becoming more and more readily available.

While it is, as Nickerson suggests, too early to predict outcome of the competition between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, Blu-ray is certainly enjoying a massive head start that may very well be infallible. The report from DEG shows that 300,000 HD-DVD players have been sold through both stand alone drivers and Xbox 360 attachment drives, a figure which pales in comparison to the circulation of an astounding 1.5 million Blu-rays. Out of 55 million US dollars consumers spent on high-def DVD titles this year, 35 million were on Blu-ray titles, a success which appears to be primarily due to the PS3, as only 100,000 standalone Blu-ray players have been sold.

In light of this aggressive competition and regardless of its outcome, the home video industry is sure to do very well and hopes for growth in sales: "It's in the very, very early days of our forecasts, but we believe that High-Definition discs will help return consumer video spending to growth" said Helen Davis Jayalath from Screen Digest


http://www.psu.com/node/11763

[Pecker]

Firstly, wrong thread.

Secondly, utter tripe.

5:1 in what? PS3s that hardly anyone is using to play BDs on?

Steve W

[Nic Rhodes]

Fodder for the war thread, not the film forum. Do a calc on those number and you get my 65:35 numbers.

[Pecker]

Yes, 5:1 would be 83:17.

I don't think it was even that on 'Casino Royale' week.

Steve W

[featherhall]

I have been keeping a close eye on other forums etc regarding this, and you really have to look at sales of individual titles, and even then alot of it is taken from 'amazon sales'.

Blueray has some tremendous titles that have rightly been bought by just about every blueray owner (POTC and Casino Royale), however HDDVD has seen sales easily on a par with The Departed and Children of Men and Planet Earth selling by the bucketload.

The only way forward is (IMHO) dual players, which is what I think will happen. There are alot of rumours that FOX may well come over to the HD camp and if that happens (like if Universal going over to the BlueRay) then we may have a winner.

For me, and alot of enthusiasts, the key is in the fact there is no region locking for HDDVDs.

The PS3 should not be counted when taking account of Blueray player sales, as a huge percentage will never use it as that, whereas the Xbox add on is bought solely for the movie use.

[SAH]

Only Planet Earth has sold better on HD-DVD, the likes of Departed have sold almost 2-1 better on Blu-ray.

BTW, there is pretty much zero chance of Fox releasing on HD-DVD, both for security and political reasons.

If any studio is going to switch it's Universal, who's sales on HD-DVD have been quite dreadful.

As for region coding, there are a few thread's knocking around showing which Blu-rays are region free, you'll be suprised just how many are.

[chrislad]

Hardly surprising that Blu-ray is in the lead. No high street retailer near me, bar HMV, stocks any HD DVDs. Just Blu-ray. Plus the HD selection in HMV is poor at best and is getting less shelf space and is not marked, just thrown after Z in the DVD section. Blu-ray has it's own shelves in the PS3 section.

[Jakeh1969]

I noticed Woolworths had a range of Blu-Ray titles in store on Saturday. Not particularly competitive price wise with online retailers but very competitive compared to HMV and Virgin.

No sign of HD-DVD though!

[featherhall]

Originally Posted by SAH

Only Planet Earth has sold better on HD-DVD, the likes of Departed have sold almost 2-1 better on Blu-ray.

BTW, there is pretty much zero chance of Fox releasing on HD-DVD, both for security and political reasons.

If any studio is going to switch it's Universal, who's sales on HD-DVD have been quite dreadful.

As for region coding, there are a few thread's knocking around showing which Blu-rays are region free, you'll be suprised just how many are.

sorry, have to disagree in the main. The points you raise, do you have any links to this information ? How have Universals sales been dreadful ?
Rumours are going around that FOX may well jump on the dual format bandwagon. Only MGM I would suggest are likely to stay solo.

[featherhall]

Originally Posted by SAH

Only Planet Earth has sold better on HD-DVD, the likes of Departed have sold almost 2-1 better on Blu-ray.

BTW, there is pretty much zero chance of Fox releasing on HD-DVD, both for security and political reasons.

If any studio is going to switch it's Universal, who's sales on HD-DVD have been quite dreadful.

As for region coding, there are a few thread's knocking around showing which Blu-rays are region free, you'll be suprised just how many are.

sorry, have to disagree in the main. The points you raise, do you have any links to this information ? How have Universals sales been dreadful ?
Rumours are going around that FOX may well jump on the dual format bandwagon. Only MGM I would suggest are likely to stay solo.

[stevos]

These figures are all pointless at the minute as they include ps3 as bluray players and include freebee bluray discs like James Bond in the selling figures.

As for it being like 1999, i don't think so. Even then you could buy a dvd player for £200 from Tesco's (as i did) and the number of titles available was huge in comparision. In 1999 my local blockbusters probably had around 10% of the store devoted to dvd, in 2007 it has around 1% devoted to bluray.

The formats are too busy killing each other, to actually make any real impact.

I have both and so don't care which wins, as long as one does and does it soon before they both go the way of sacd/dvd-a.

[Pecker]

Prices, stevos, prices.

As soon as we get a dual-format player for $300 (£250) it'll be game over - no-one will ever buy a single-format player again, apart from maybe the odd high-end model.

SACD & DVD-A didn't kill each other. I have a dual-format model, but stopped buying because every time I looked there were no new releases I wanted.

BD & HD DVD simply aren't going down that route.

Steve W

[stevos]

Originally Posted by Pecker

Prices, stevos, prices.

As soon as we get a dual-format player for $300 (£250) it'll be game over - no-one will ever buy a single-format player again, apart from maybe the odd high-end model.

SACD & DVD-A didn't kill each other. I have a dual-format model, but stopped buying because every time I looked there were no new releases I wanted.

BD & HD DVD simply aren't going down that route.

Steve W

SACD/DVD-A have killed each other. Although there are combo drives (no stand alone ones that i know of they are all dvd players that also support sacd/dvd-a) the number of actual media releases is so small that the SACD/DVD-A have gone the way of HDCD (players support it but nearly no content).

Lets face it your average buyer is not going to splash out £250 for another player and then £18-£25 on media, when they could spend £50 on a dvd player and around £8 on media. Don't forget most people think because they have a hd display that means they are watching hd.

If they release a £250 combo player it will still have a hard time against the £50 dvd players. Too really take-off a sub £100 player will need to be launched along with cheaper media (around £10 for new releases) and that won't be for a couple of years yet. Will that already be too late, only time will tell.

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by stevos

If they release a £250 combo player it will still have a hard time against the £50 dvd players.

I don't think a £250 dual-format player will sell to the same people who'll buy a £50 player.

I think it'll sell to people who'd buy a £250 DVD player. I think that's the 'large niche' high def should be aiming for.

As for SACD v DVD-A (or VHS v BETA), I don't think this is the same situation.

See my comments here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=865913

Steve W

[stevos]

Originally Posted by Pecker

I don't think a £250 dual-format player will sell to the same people who'll buy a £50 player.

I think it'll sell to people who'd buy a £250 DVD player. I think that's the 'large niche' high def should be aiming for.

As for SACD v DVD-A (or VHS v BETA), I don't think this is the same situation.

See my comments here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=865913

Steve W

I would be interested to know just how big this 'large niche' is now, as i seriously have no idea but can't see it being that large. I would guess no where near enough to keep the formats alive.

To survive it has to get the masses buying it, not here but in the states where there are hdtv's everywhere (only less than 5% in the UK).

I hope that they do take off, because the potential quality (still mainly untapped if dvd improvements are anything to go by) is stunning.