Best Buy's pushing Blu-ray to the front
The HD DVD camp, still reeling after losing support from Netflix this morning, may feel flattened as Best Buy has announced it will officially promote Blu-ray as the HD format of the future. Starting in early March the store will showcase Blu hardware and software on its shelves and website, and switch from its current neutral stance, to recommending Blu-ray to any customers that ask. While "an assortment of HD DVD products" will remain, a vote of confidence from major retailers, following the majority of studio support, will make it impossible for red to recover.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 11th 2008 4:40PM
PWNED!
Larry @ Feb 13th 2008 2:04PM
Well Blu-Ray is being pulled off the shelves in Asda (Walmart) and Toys'R Us in the UK due to lack of sales.
BrokenFERN @ Feb 11th 2008 4:41PM
It's over. The war is over... again!
Truth "Hurts" Teller @ Feb 11th 2008 4:43PM
Function Error: < Code Dump >
in Function[Endless.HDDVD.bullshit.script]
while knowledge = hypocritical[useless]
{ spew.shit;
make(bogus.claims);
rehash(stupid.shit);
ignorance++;
}
end;
Sean @ Feb 11th 2008 4:44PM
If I'm not mistaken, about a week ago NPD said that 7 out of 10 people who have HDTVs said they were content with DVD.
People still have to be convinced to get a high definition player. I'm thinking the players need to come down to a more mainstream price (sub $200), and it wouldn't hurt if the titles themselves were cheaper.
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 11th 2008 4:46PM
Sub $200? Tell that to Toshiba and they'll tell you how well that worked out for them...
terapin @ Feb 11th 2008 5:11PM
You might remember that was the same thing that people were saying about VHS when DVD was released.
Sean @ Feb 11th 2008 5:30PM
There's a difference between lowering cost to survive and lowering your cost to be affordable to the masses. At $399 or more I think Blu-Ray is on the fringe.
The original PS2 was $299 when many DVD players at the time were $500+. Within 2 years, it was $199, and many stand alone players followed suit to the same level of pricing.
What I'm saying is, is that if prices were lower, I think you'll have mainstream sales. Right now Blu-Rays biggest competitor is DVD.
Gus @ Feb 11th 2008 10:33PM
@Deeznutz
Yeah, so let's leave them at $400+, that'll work!!
kcmurphy88 @ Feb 12th 2008 1:15AM
Toshiba's problem wasn't dropping the price to $150, it was doing it after the crap hit the fan. If they had done that last October, we would be having an entirely different discussion today. There are lots of things that contributed to the blu-ray win (Sony owning or controlling 30% of the movie biz didn't hurt), but the bottom line was that Toshiba tried to win on the cheap.
If they were willing to spend $500 million dollars to get Fox and Warner to switch, they could have sold 2 million players at a $250 loss and utterly won the war last Xmas. But no. And in the end they can only blame themselves.
ken52787 @ Feb 11th 2008 4:45PM
Anyone who has been in Best Buy knows this is pretty much already the case. You can't turn around with seeing something Blu-ray, while HD DVD is quarantined to a small little generic section.
Miguelitosd @ Feb 11th 2008 7:40PM
It depends on the stores (until now I guess). The 2 local BBs I frequent are very different.
One of them has Blu-ray in it's own row just down from DVD.. so it's got way more shelf space, but you have to know it's one past regular DVDs. HD-DVD, on the other hand, has a section on a wall (back of where they have a PS3 and 360 setup for demo play with lounge chairs) that is right next to and perpendicular to the DVD new releases, which gives it much more visibility.
The other store has them both in rows mixed in with DVD, very similar presentation and visibility.
ProfWho @ Feb 11th 2008 4:46PM
If I remember right this means nothing because as Truth Teller and Nfinity say brick and mortar stores are dead. Amazon is the only sales numbers that matter because everyone buys their stuff from them. Look at how HD-DVD is winning there. Who cares what NPD, Nielson, etc shows!!
Back in reality though this is not good news for HD-DVD. Best Buy is huge and having them actively supporting Blu is big. Maybe the war is finally over.
Jay @ Feb 11th 2008 4:46PM
Now that's some funny sh!t
Nfinity's better half @ Feb 11th 2008 4:47PM
HAHAHAHA.
THIS IS SOOOO AWESOME.
HEY NFINITY, YOUR PRECIOUS HD-DVD just got bitchslapped AGAIN!!!
HAHAHA.
Nothing makes me happier than to see all of your FUD turn out to be completely opposite of true.
Nfinity probably doesnt even have the guts to face the music.
He is gonna need a long while to spin this one.
BrokenFERN @ Feb 11th 2008 4:47PM
Just when I think you couldn't be more of an idiot... you post another comment.
Nfinity's better half @ Feb 11th 2008 4:53PM
We need to start some fundraising for Nfinity's HUGE psychiatric bill!!!!
Him and Truth Teller are going to need serious help after this.
ONCE AGAIN:
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAA
We got Warner, Netflix and BEST BUY!!!
All you've got is the embarrassment of supporting the wrong format!!!
HD-DVD = DEAD!!
david @ Feb 11th 2008 4:56PM
This just makes official what has been happening for a while now.
jason @ Feb 11th 2008 4:57PM
thats like being kicked in the nuts, right after being kicked in the nuts.
Stewie @ Feb 11th 2008 9:17PM
Then getting tasered for a bit.
Nate the Prophet @ Feb 11th 2008 4:58PM
It is official. Unless Sony randomly files for bankruptcy next week, HD-DVD cannot possibly come back. There is absolutely no way at all.
okeygrak @ Feb 11th 2008 4:59PM
Dude, I think those two are as clueless and pathetic as the rest of you guys do.... but still... at least mock them in a somewhat clever way. It hurts more for them, yet feels so good to us.
Besides, I think they are both too busy right now drinking a large glass of Shut-The-Fuck-Up.
okeygrak @ Feb 11th 2008 5:00PM
referring to TT and Nfinity. BTW ( as if you guys didn't know )
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 11th 2008 5:01PM
...they are chugging that glass of STFU!!
mntwister @ Feb 11th 2008 4:59PM
Holy Crap! This has been a knife-in-the-back day for hd-dvd. If Warner didn't put the nail in the coffin, everything that happened today surely will
I expect Universal and Paramount are already talking internally-again! Blu-ray fans: Transformers and Borne will be here sooner than we thought!
jody @ Feb 11th 2008 5:00PM
So much for Toshiba's marketing and retail campaign..........
Please someone put out a sub $300 Profile 2.0 BD player and REALLY end this stupid format war.
OR...
Hey Ken Graffeo, put out all new Universal releases on HD-DVD/DVD dual format only for the same price a standard DVD and give HD-DVD and HDM in general a fighting chance before it's too late.
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 11th 2008 5:03PM
Are you serious? Universal could release their entire library on HD DVD tomorrow and it still wouldn't matter... no shelves will be left to carry them.
It's over.
jody @ Feb 11th 2008 5:08PM
Oh yeah you're right the
FreeRange @ Feb 11th 2008 5:17PM
That's seriously what they need to do to save HD-DVD. Only release new movies as HD-DVD/DVD combo disks and force all DVD owners to buy the HD-DVD copies. Maybe include a coupon for 10% off a Toshiba player for good measure. It'll be the highest selling HD release to date just because the DVD sales will carry it. It's pretty much the last chance to save the format.
jody @ Feb 11th 2008 5:29PM
I've been saying this for months. I think Blu-Ray is great technology once it's completed, but will never be much bigger than LaserDisc.
If they (being universal and toshiba) really want HD-DVD to survive flood the market with HD-DVD media by making all new release dual format only, at the same price point as standard DVD's. How much could it really cost toshiba to press 20 million or so dual format discs? Have to be way less than losing money on a million HD-A3's. That way when people go to buy a DVD player they'll say "Hey, I've some of those HD things, might as well pay a few extra dollars for the new player that can play them." This is the recipe for mass adoption, the only viable chance before downloads wipe out HDM all together.
Mr. E @ Feb 11th 2008 5:57PM
"Hey Ken Graffeo, put out all new Universal releases on HD-DVD/DVD dual format only for the same price a standard DVD and give HD-DVD and HDM in general a fighting chance before it's too late."
There is NO WAY any studio would ever do something like this. The last thing they need is to completely bork their existing (and dropping) DVD sales by tying it to HD DVD. I can just picture the store exchange now
customer: "Hey, I thought American Gangster was coming out on DVD today?"
sales drone: "Yes, it's in that small red HD DVD case."
customer: "Um, no, I wanted to get the DVD. I don't have an HDTV yet."
sales drone: "I understand, the case says HD DVD, but it's got the regular DVD bundled in with it."
customer: "Okay, if you say so..."
So what do you think, maybe 1 out of 10 customers trying to find the DVD would even know that they can buy the little red case, or bother to ask somebody? The lion's share of studio revenue comes from home video sales now. Now way Universal would ever risk a complete revenue disaster like that!
FreeRange @ Feb 11th 2008 6:46PM
Jody,
It would work.
Mr. E,
Gutsy move typing up some dialogue there. If the Writer's Guild learns you wrote a little script you could get blacklisted!
cclaunch @ Feb 11th 2008 5:05PM
So, what's changed? Every Best Buy I've walked into lately has Blu-ray obviously in front. You have to walk around to the back of the shelf to see the HD-DVDs, and they usually taut their Blu-ray players in the video section. Their employees were already telling everyone to buy blu-ray. It'd just be nice if the "war" would hurry up and be done with. All these declarations that it's over still haven't removed the dang HD-DVDs from the shelf or got me my Paramount movies on Blu-ray yet.
BLU-WORLD @ Feb 11th 2008 5:06PM
& the Good news just keeps on rolling in 2day =)
Truth Teller @ Feb 11th 2008 5:08PM
How many times can these dorks roll out the same story?
How many times have we heard 'we're stooping doing HD DVD but will keep on doing it somehow anyways..
All hyped (and probably paid for) short-term BS to spoil the coming good HD DVD news, nothing more.
DEEZNUTZ @ Feb 11th 2008 5:12PM
LMAO... at you!
Tell us the big news you liar... chinese upscaling players you keep yapping about? Oh wait, since Best Buy is largely a B&M, this doesn't even matter... how could I forget that little statement of yours...
xolan99 @ Feb 11th 2008 5:16PM
Good news? Huh?
Starting with the beginning of the year, EVERY SINGLE ANNOUNCEMENT regarding support for either side has been very much in favor of Blu-ray.
For an announcement from Toshiba to be "good news" it would have to make Netflix, Best Buy, Sony, WB/New Line, Disney, Fox, etc... look foolish. Short of "HD DVD will travel through time," this won't happen.
And you accuse people of spreading FUD...now you're accusing BDA of paying Netflix and Best Buy with nothing to back that up?
You're such a hypocrite.
HaveYouGotAnyVeras? @ Feb 11th 2008 5:16PM
Good God. You really are insane. Seriously. There is living in denial and there is being on another planet altogether. You are definitely in the second category lol
Nfinity\\\'s better half @ Feb 11th 2008 5:23PM
AWWWW,
POOR BABY.
Truth Teller needs a pacifier so his mommy, Jodi Sally can comfort him.
DrXym @ Feb 11th 2008 5:21PM
Er, have you followed the link? Clearly not since it's Best Buy's own press release. Let me quote a bit of it for you:
"Beginning in early March, the leading consumer electronics retailer will prominently showcase Blu-ray hardware and software products in its Best Buy retail and online channels in the United States."
"Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. Weve listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format, said Brian Dunn, Best Buys president and chief operating officer. Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them. "
Seems pretty clear to me. They're going to push Blu Ray and probably get rid of whatever HD DVD players they haven't already sold in the recent firesales.
I'd note that Feb 28 is when the 5 free disc offer ends on HD DVD. Therefore the end of February represents a big crunch for the format. IMO the end of the month almost certainly spells the end of the format.
As for your "good news", I suggest its all in your head. It has been nothing but a barrage of bad news for HD DVD since January and it isn't going to get any better. Of course you and Nfinity can keep the dream alive. Every time a disk appears on Blu Ray you can imagine how much better it would have been with a triple layer HD DVD combo disk.
Nfinity @ Feb 11th 2008 5:23PM
Exactly.. all garbage
BEST BUY: "The company noted that it will continue to carry an assortment of HD-DVD products for customers who desire to purchase these products.". Sounds like they'll be offering HD DVD as usual plus they have huge sales with BOGO and Audio systems going with HD DVD players.
NETFLIX: Big whoop. Blockbuster and GamesNFlix and a few smaller ones including Hollywood Video support HD DVD for renting.. so it's not like you can't rent.
This is all PR and payoffs. Netflix just recently stated that majority of consumer preference on their service was HD DVD not Blu-Ray. So this announcement with the claim that studios are limiting rental copies so they would push sales comes as no surprise. They probably greased them with more copies and some payoffs for lost business they are already getting in masses.
What a stupid thing to do. Not only that Netflix lost members, they lost them to their direct competitor Blockbuster. Ironically I've personally joined Blockbuster online for renting as they are still offering full assortement of HD movies regardless of their local store policies.
Netflix just made a catastrophic mistake and Best Buy announcement. Well it's really nothing, they've been supporting Blu-Ray from the start and since they'll still sell HD DVD, it's really a non-news.
Deluded Blu-Ray fanboys will definitely start speculating and going on how this and that will happen, but I guess that's why we have psychiatric institutions for those who claim they can see the future.
Nfinity @ Feb 11th 2008 5:28PM
LOL at Best Buy reasons:
Best Buy has always believed that the customer will benefit from a widely-accepted single format that would offer advantages such as product compatibility and expanded content choices.
I'm sure that Blu-Ray simply oozes with product compatibility. .HAHAHAHAH.. what a bunch of payoffs..
I mean you really have to be an idiot not to see that it's money talking and not common and business sense.
Consumers will now get a recommendation to buy an incomplete and incompatible format across the board for 4 times the price of HD DVD. Makes sense.. sure.. if you are a moron.
kcmurphy88 @ Feb 11th 2008 5:35PM
There is no good news in this, unless paying retail (and more) for everything is your idea of good news. The format war was a price war. Say goodbye to all that. Yeah, I'm purple because I got bucks and I can see the end for HD DVD, but that doesn't mean I *like* pi$$ing money away.
Joe6P sure ain't going to spend $29.99 on each disc and $499 on a player. He'll wait until 2010, at which point MSMovies or iMovie or Amazon-Netflix owns the biz. Niche market from now on.
JimC @ Feb 11th 2008 5:40PM
OMG Truth Teller, even one a one two punch you somehow manage to ignore reality....I'll give you one thing, you're an eternal optimist....
Netflix + Best Buy in one day, I'm surprised you are even sober enough to type....
...and the dominos keep falling....
Truth Commenter @ Feb 11th 2008 5:55PM
TruthTeller aka Dave: "[snip] the coming good HD DVD news"
And that might be . . . a 3/4 off HD-DVD clearance sale perhaps!!!
Vidikron (FU) @ Feb 11th 2008 6:06PM
@kcmurphy88
Knock it off with all the stupid comments about pricing... geeze. DVD didn't remain high even without a serious competitor. And there's a lot more to the issue of HDM vs digital distribution than simple pricing hurdles. There's no way downloads take over by 2010. Not going to happen.
kcmurphy88 @ Feb 11th 2008 8:41PM
Sure DVD prices came down. Took only about 5 or 6 years. DVD came out in 1998 and it wasn't until very recently we got these $6 DVDs.
As of 3 months ago, I was buying both HD DVD and Blu-rays at about $8-10 each from Amazon during BOGO sales. Now they're back up to a rock-bottom $15 and $20. I'm not PREDICTING price increases, I'm observing them. The SOny S1 wnet from $299 to $399. And even when they haven't gone up, they haven't gone down either. Just Friday Netflix's boss said that they were going to charge more for HD, if and when they settled on a format. Didn't take long.
Now, I'm really sorry that fools like Nfinity seem to think they help the HD DVD case with their denial -- seems more like something Sony would pay for than anything useful.
You miss my point: I understand that HD DVD is dying. I lament that becuase 1) I have never had a second's problem with any HD DVD disc, and 2) the format war was a price war. It's over and we're back to list. How can this make one happy?
Even if you have only blu-ray, saving $10 on every disc could pay for an HD DVD player in short order. But I guess the lemmings are certain that that cliff holds good news. Standing over here as you guys jump off, it looks pretty crappy. But hey, it's your money.
Vidikron (FU) @ Feb 11th 2008 9:04PM
@kcmurphy88
"Sure DVD prices came down. Took only about 5 or 6 years. DVD came out in 1998 and it wasn't until very recently we got these $6 DVDs."
That's exactly my point. You don't remember when DVDs were $20-30? Because they were. DVDs had BOGOs and X number of free movies with new players offers too. There's nothing about the pricing that is different with the new HD formats compared to DVDs when they started out. Yeah, the the new HD formats will be more expensive than DVDs, as is true for any new electronic related item, but the prices will fall as volume increases.
And what's the alternative, really? You seem to be trying to argue that the format war was helping prices... but at what cost? First off, as I said, the prices are about the same as when DVDs started out. Second, it's really only the more hardcore/early adopters buying right now. I know a lot of people that have said they won't invest anything into a new format before knowing which side was going to win. So how does a format war benefit those people? And what about those of us that did back a side? So we get a few cheap BOGOs, but unless you go purple you're missing out on a lot of movies. And if you did go purple, how do you really beneift buy having to buy a combo player that is nearly $1K or having to use two standalones to replace what was one player before?
We need volume to drop the prices on both hardware and media... and by dropping prices I don't mean having Toshiba clearly subsidize their players. And don't be fooled into thinking they aren't. Both format use blue lasers... there's no real reason why the hardware in the HD DVD players should be so much cheaper than BR players. Anyway, the only chance at gaining real volume is settling on one fortmat and getting all the big players, like Best Buy, on the same page with informing consumers about the new format.
jody @ Feb 11th 2008 5:09PM
What could possibly be the HD DVD good news at this point?
MasterCKO @ Feb 11th 2008 6:34PM
Toshiba is ceasing production of HD-DVD players and abandoning the format. Will release BD players and actually start earning money on HDM.