Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending April 6th, 2008
This week's Videoscan numbers from Home Media Magazine really shows how sensitive Blu-ray sales are to new releases. It is also a great example that some new releases will sell much better to the Blu-ray audience than to the more general audience of DVD. Alvin and the Chipmunks only slightly outsold the three week old I Am Legend on Blu-ray, while at the same time, the SD version outpaced its counterpart by almost 10:1. So it seems more likely that overall Blu-ray sales were down -- rather then red being up -- when you compare the Red vs Blu chart, as Red has its best week in almost a month at 36 percent. The other stat that enforces this is the fact that unlike the last time Red had this much market share, not one HD DVD made the top ten. We expect much of the same next week considering the releases, but will be interested to see if Warner's I Am Legend will see any success on the now defunct HD DVD.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nfinity @ Apr 11th 2008 5:42PM
LOL!?
Market penetration at it's best :)
Shouldn't those numbers increase? They sure seem as they are descreasing :)
Truth Teller @ Apr 11th 2008 7:25PM
It's really not hard to see why they are so shy about posting their actual numbers sold very often, eh?
Blu-ray sales numbers must be utterly laughable.
So much for the 8% v SD DVD they were trying to pull.
I wonder if Blu-ray will even hit 10 million movie disc sales this year
(which in the light of SD DVD's 750 million + movie disc sales is not even a true 1.5% of the market)
Very funny.
Here's hoping the market continues to completely ignore the greedy b@stards & their DRM stuffed nonsense.
Mr Bobby @ Apr 11th 2008 7:45PM
Although your comments are usually over the top, I've been wondering the same too. I don't see the retailers having any clear clearances on their HD-DVD. Most of them qualify to the usual BOGOs we saw during the peak of the format war. Some retailers have opted to send them back for credit. So considering that WB is the only one still releasing HD-DVD, why isn't Blu-ray's HD ratio higher. It should be.
kuromiko @ Apr 11th 2008 8:45PM
The fact that you guys are the first two to post says something.
The fact is, DVD has mass market penetration right now and Blu-Ray does not. Of course it is going to have a low market share... for now. The fact is, alot of people were surprised at the 8% share it pulled off, with most thinking that Blu had at MOST 1%. Considering last weeks numbers, unless Alvin was the movie of the year, I can't see anything but a supply shortage of I Am Legend being at fault.
You have to see some reason here. Don't you remember when DVD first came out? "Now on VHS and DVD" in the previews for EVERY new release. What do you see now? "Now on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc". I see the exact same thing... one format replacing the other.
Considering that you two have been WRONG about EVERYTHING High-Def format related, your predictions do nothing but put the so-called PS3 fanboys base at ease. Grandma on downloads? Get off the drugs! Enjoying Blu-Ray rips? You can also enjoy contributing to the numbers that tell studios that (stronger) DRM really is necessary.
Thank you gentlemen.
HD4ME @ Apr 12th 2008 2:54AM
The HD market was always going to be a lot smaller after the death of HD DVD because the market lost 40% of it's base, anyone who was price conscious, anti sony/BR, or wanted a finished spec, is now out of the market.
How many HD DVD people have jumped into the BR camp since HD's death?, ....not too many I would guess, IMO most will wait until they can at least get back what they had as far as price point and hardware quality goes, so that is a long way off for most X-HD DVD supporters.
BR for mass market consumption is still WAY to expensive, unless the consumer can justify a big leap forward technologically as was the case VHS v DVD, they wont spend the coin, most wont bother until it is a similar price point, why would the average punter bother?, DVD is good enough for most.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 7:46AM
@ kuromiko
1st to post?!
Are you really blind or just so deranged & deluded that you only see what you want to see?
lanod35 @ Apr 12th 2008 8:12AM
Are you a nerd? HD DVD is die but Blu Ray will grow on 1st June because no new HD DVD will be launch on the market. Next week maybe I am Legend will enter this top but for sure it will be the last. Then Universal and Paramount 'll be 100% behind Blu.
kuromiko @ Apr 12th 2008 11:16AM
@ TT: Last I Read:
"The fact that you guys are the first two to post says something." Note the "TWO" in there. I merely read the entire comments section and decided to address your comments below as well.
And:
"Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)"
First Poster: "NFinity",
Second Poster (in reply): "Truth Teller".
Wha you could have hit me with was how I began the first three sentenced with "The Fact". Spell checker doesn't get redundancy, and I can't look over stuff long in the office.
Now if you will, actually reply to the relevant content of my original message.
daaper @ Apr 14th 2008 1:43PM
The big difference between the VHS to DVD and the DVD to Blu-ray switch is the requirement of more than just a new player. It's a huge investment that is tough to make in financial times like these. Those who can afford it have switched and, as more buy it, the prices will fall. Do we really need to explain how this works every time a new format replaces an old?
DeadPlasmaCell @ Apr 11th 2008 5:58PM
Wow, 64/36?? Crazy.
wreckedchevy @ Apr 11th 2008 5:58PM
might be hard for i am legend to do well when most of the retailers are not stocking it....
Prey521 @ Apr 11th 2008 6:33PM
lol this should be good.
Where's my popcorn?
keithgregoire @ Apr 11th 2008 7:02PM
"Defunct"
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. :-)
Mr. E @ Apr 11th 2008 7:31PM
Your posts always crack me up, because of your avatar. I read them and really picture you sitting there sipping on a cup of coffee, mulling over the latest HD news, and laughing at the extreme fanboys coming out of the woodwork.
mntwister @ Apr 11th 2008 7:05PM
Don't forget there are alot of firesales going on and hd-dvd owners are snapping up alot of discs at close-out prices....some of those retailers count, a disc sale is a disc sale, no matter how cheap it is. I expected this to happen during the final hd-dvd software sale days.
Michael @ Apr 13th 2008 10:55AM
Actually, I have yet to see any sort of so-called "fire sale" on HD-DVD. At best, I've seen a select few titles selling for $14.99 or at a whopping $2 to $3 off their full retail prices. That's barely a sale, much less clearance style pricing.
As for the overall HD market supposedly losing 40% of their prospective market, what about all those billions of consumers who were merely waiting for the dust to clear when the format war ended to jump right in and start buying the winning format??? Come on Blu, you need to start applying the same logic and arguments you used against HD-DVD on yourselves now that you're the HD format of "choice" (and I use that term VERY loosely...).
It is amazing to me that even though the war is over, HD-DVD continues to sell at approximately the same levels as before. All the predictions and pontifications about it going 98-99% Blu overnight have simply NOT come true. What else do you suppose they may have been wrong about??? Superior format? Preferred format? Finished format? Keep guessing and you might just cover everything...
Truth Teller @ Apr 11th 2008 7:21PM
LMAO
Wow, for a dead format HD DVD sure is putting the Blu-ray performance in perspective.
*here's a hint*
Blu-ray's a dead PS3 proprietary format.....
.....it just hasn't woken up to the fact it has practically zero mass-market penetration & fallen over.
(and nor is it likely too in time either, given their sloth at reaching mass-market friendly pricing with a proper range of supposedly final spec players).
Sadly the Blu-ray crowd don't even get the benefit of HD DVDs incredibly low prices.
Happily I can enjoy every Blu-ray release currently on the market thanks to BD+ being cracked......and I can have it either as a straight rip or a nice 720p or 1080p encode.
I'm laughing.
Mr. E @ Apr 11th 2008 8:01PM
"Ha ha, Blu-ray hasn't reached mass market acceptance in less than two years so it's obviously a dismal failure. Ha ha, I steal stuff. Neener neener."
Why don't you just go away once and for all? You're not contributing anything positive to any of the discussions here, and you obviously have no interest in the future of 1080p on disc. Go enjoy your upconverted DVDs and crappy HD-Lite downloads, and leave us in peace.
kuromiko @ Apr 11th 2008 10:51PM
12 million is more market penetration than HD-DVD achieved, and that so happens to be the number of PS3s out there. DTS-HD-MA and Profile 2.0 compliant. I thought you said those players wouldn't be out till the end of the year?
12 Million Players, of which are ALL FULLY COMPLIANT.
Once you can provide a better reason for why Blu-Ray will fail (other than comparing prices to Toshiba's subsidized players) in the high-definition market, please post a SANE comment and not a SENSATIONALIST comment right here.
BMZ @ Apr 12th 2008 3:05PM
I don't understand; are you saying that we can get HD DVD disc copies of BR movies?
alienclays @ Apr 12th 2008 4:46PM
"Happily I can enjoy every Blu-ray release currently on the market thanks to BD+ being cracked......and I can have it either as a straight rip or a nice 720p or 1080p encode"
let me get this straight, what you're saying is you want to be a pirate?
or that a feature of hd-dvd (to make copies) that you say is so great, is now open to BD thanks to slysoft and is no longer an advantage hd-dvd would have had at this point in the game if it was still alive?
Mr. E @ Apr 11th 2008 7:29PM
I'll bet those HD DVD closeout sales are really going gangbusters now. I wonder what the percent off is up to?
Following these numbers, I can really believe the statistic that something like 80% of the total amount of money made on a home video release comes in its first weeks. I've never been a "get it on the first day" kind of person, but obviously I'm the exception to the rule!
Xyzzy @ Apr 12th 2008 10:42AM
Can you point me to where these fire sales are please? I haven't seen very many. There's some cheap disks on DeepDiscount, but that's about it as far as I've seen. I'd love to see a firesale, but it's just not there, or at least it's no different than it has been for the past month or two.
XDragon @ Apr 11th 2008 8:42PM
Every time this stat gets posted, I hear the same crap so let me write this in English for you.
This comparison is relevant and it does not pretend to be something more than it is.
I understand that total Blu vs Dvd sales presents a much smaller ratio but it also isn't an accurate indication of how Blu is performing and I'll tell you why.
1. Blu's library is not as large as Dvd's so you are comparing sales of movies that aren't available on Blu to Dvd's sales.
2. Just because you can play Blu doesn't mean you will be replacing your existing library.
So the point of this stat is a going forward stat which is more relevant to any NEW format competing with the current mainstream format.
Let me explain further:
Releases are divided into categories:
A. New 1st time releases
B. Re-releases (new editions of existing releases)
C. New releases of back catalog movies (old movies on DVD now on Blu)
The top 20 is mostly made up of A. and A. typically gets Blu and DVD versions released together.
Example: When the new Batman comes out, comparing DVD to Blu means something because no one already owns a *legit* copy of it and both Dvd and Blu are available; so 1. and 2. don't taint the ratio.
The true measure of Blu vs Dvd is to compare all Blu movie release's sales to the Dvd counterpart from the date of the Blu release, but that is unrealistic to maintain.
In business we call for measures or trends to paint a more accurate picture called KPIs(Key Performance Indicators).
You can't expect a new format to compete with the existing format toe to toe when their library's aren't comparable so that's were the Top 20 comparison comes into play.
People can easily choose between Blu and Dvd on new releases because they aren't repurchasing a movie(for A.) and presenting that stat indicates how Blu is penetrating into Dvd's sales.
You can't argue or disagree about this because the ratio is defined by parameters (top 20), the parameters are quantifiable, qualifiable and can be controlled and measured.
You can argue the result of the comparison by saying x% is good or bad but the result does not pretend to be something its not.
No one is saying these numbers are the be all end all stats but they do provide a good indication of the choices people are making on a going forward basis.
I'm not saying any of this as a fanboy as this also applies to any new format contending with the current mainstream format, even VHS vs Dvd back in the day.
I'm taking the confusion out of the ratio and trying to clear up the confusion that trolls like TT try to spread because of their fanboism.
Now we all know TT will come up with something to say because HD-DVD didn't win and his argument is only true for Blu because he says so, but by this point, I’d hope that common scenes will prevail over his posts.
Example, when the Mazda 3 came out, it was made to directly compete with the Honda Civic so you compare 1 car to the other, you don't compare 1 company to the other. At this point, Blu is competing with DVD only at a new release basis because that's all it can compete with because it is new. If it does well, its considered successful and then it expands by increasing its back catalog and puts up a fight to Dvd's back catalog.
As for up sampling Dvd, anyone who says Dvd up sampling to 1080p is comparable to Blu at 1080p is simply lying. Is it good enough? That's up to you but they don't look similar at all and if you don't believe me, rent the same movie like Pirates OTC3, Harry Potter 5 OOTP or I, Robot or Independence Day on Dvd and Blu, up sample the Dvd and compare for yourself as long as your tv outputs 1080p preferably though HDMI 1.3 for best results in both cases.
TT wants you to take the worst possible case scenario to make Blu look as bad as possible even though that isn't an accurate measure of penetration because he hates Blu.
To argue that point, the best case scenario for Blu could seem unfair too(only new 1st time releases that get released on the same day on both formats), and that's why the top 20 is used because it is middle ground.
To where my loyalties are, they would belong to the winner of the format war regardless of who won because I want to buy safely. I do have a PS3 but I was not buying Blu movies except The Prestige(because its my fav "newer" movie) until Toshiba pulled the plug; now I have 15 titles.
If you still don't get it or you allow people like TT to confuse you, I can't help you other than to say, check it out a friends place and see if its right for you. Don't let other people decide for you, esp. people from a blog where it can be hard to tell truth from fanboyism.
BTW, the PS3 will have DTS-MA and deinterlacing in a future update so it really is the best choice for watching Blu movies as its always upgradable due to the extra hardware in the PS3 that won't be in stand alone players: http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/04/08/interview-with-sce-engineers-reveal-bd-live-firmware-plans/
I know this was a bit lengthy so I'll say sorry, thanks and I hope it helped.
mda20 @ Apr 12th 2008 8:23AM
a few holes in your story as well. The only reason people pick up an old release is becasue it's in the 2 for $10 bin. No one cares about a fiver yr old release that $40 in BD. Plain and simple. This is not about which format is better DVD or BD. Its about comon sense. Average home has 3 - 4 DVD players. It will be years before that home gets converted to BD if ever. BD will always loose the weekly release game beacuse they are not getting the not movies. Last weeks rentals. 3 in BD. They missed out on titles like The mist, Lions for lambs, Reservation road. I watch one of the BD relaeses for the week and six DVD. Just becasue they won over HD DVD they are loosing the war. I watch what is available. Not what they re-release six months from now. There is something to be said about turning on a DVD player and watching a movie in 20sec vs. a min or more watching loading screens. BD needs to dump java and find a reliable way to run a menu. 2.0 who cares. Maybe 2% watch the special features. Yes we see the difference in quailty, 80 -90 % of the public just don't care. Just like HDTV. As long as they can watch waht they want they are happy. Quality is far down the list
ccweems @ Apr 11th 2008 9:40PM
Thanks for your time and trouble, even my beagle can now understand issue but then Mindy is smarter than TT.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 7:47AM
Yeah ccweems, some half-a$$ed & thoroughly inappropriate analogies and you think it's 'case closed'.
Figures.
LMAO
XDragon @ Apr 12th 2008 11:42AM
TT
blah blah blah, boo hoo, same old crap. We'd expect no less from you.
HD4ME @ Apr 12th 2008 2:59AM
So the REAL figure is blu ray at "0.4"%, not the hogwash being posted here.
DrXym @ Apr 12th 2008 4:14AM
It's funny to see the usual sore losers Truth Teller, Nfinity and HD4ME crawl out of the woodwork with their usual inane comments. Grow up guys, HD DVD lost.
mntwister @ Apr 12th 2008 4:46AM
I love some of these comments, it's a riot. If you just stop and think for a minute, ANYONE who knows anything about sales knows why this chart is as it is. At this time, there are tons of hd-dvd discs being sold to hd-dvd owners at very low prices, blow-out prices. Of course the market share for hd-dvd is going to be up. I knew this was going to happen as soon as the firesales started. Let's see what happens in June, when there is not a single newe hd-dvd release, or by the end of the year, when all of the hd-dvd's that are going at a few bucks are gone.
HD4ME @ Apr 12th 2008 5:31AM
Just you wait for POC, just you wait until BR wins the format war, just wait till we have BD live, now it's lets wait until the end of the year until HD DVD doesn't have any sales, THEN you watch BR go !! , WHATS THE NEXT EXCUSE !!, LOL
XDragon @ Apr 12th 2008 7:28AM
mntwister
You're right.
HD-DVD prices are way down and if you've already invested in the format, its not a crime to pick up more movies for less than the cost of the Dvd version.
As we've seen, not all retailers are having big sales on HD-DVD and the ones that do aren't even at the same time. This is why HD-DVD is doing so well and given the circumstance it should be doing well until most of the stock is sold. Also, the movies that have been coming out recently aren't big sellers; look at the top 10, there's not much on there that's going to generate huge sales.
Blu is not getting a back catalog release very quickly and new releases won't be good until The Dark Knight, Harry Potter 6, Indian Jones 4 and National Treasure 2 come out. We'll also see improvements when titles like Gladiator, Lord Of The Rings, Batman Begins, The Matrix and Transformers come out.
People need to keep things in perspective; the format war being over either way does not mean instant penetration in to the Dvd pie.
To our regular fools, you do realize that if the war went the other way, the stats would look the same except you exchange the labels of Blu with HD-DVD. Maybe I shouldn't have gone there, there's no point arguing with these guys.
XDragon @ Apr 12th 2008 7:30AM
mntwister
You're right.
HD-DVD prices are way down and if you've already invested in the format, its not a crime to pick up more movies for less than the cost of the Dvd version.
As we've seen, not all retailers are having big sales on HD-DVD and the ones that do aren't even at the same time. This is why HD-DVD is doing so well and given the circumstance it should be doing well until most of the stock is sold. Also, the movies that have been coming out recently aren't big sellers; look at the top 10, there's not much on there that's going to generate huge sales.
Blu is not getting a back catalog release very quickly and new releases won't be good until The Dark Knight, Harry Potter 6, Indian Jones 4 and National Treasure 2 come out. We'll also see improvements when titles like Gladiator, Lord Of The Rings, Batman Begins, The Matrix and Transformers come out.
People need to keep things in perspective; the format war being over either way does not mean instant penetration in to the Dvd pie.
To our regular fools, you do realize that if the war went the other way, the stats would look the same except you exchange the labels of Blu with HD-DVD. Maybe I shouldn't have gone there, there's no point arguing with these guys.
XDragon @ Apr 12th 2008 7:37AM
Read the article again,
BD Live is not cracked because only the early and existing movies work and they admit in the article that there crack WILL NOT work with newer releases fulling using BD Live's protection.
You generalize when it makes your points sound better and you ignore details that make your points wrong.
If its ok for you to still buy the dead HD-DVDs because they are cheep, then why do you complain about people buying Blu? If you've already invested money in 1 format and continue to, then let Blu people do the same; at least Blu is still regularly releasing movies by all studios.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 7:55AM
*quote*
kuromiko
12 million is more market penetration than HD-DVD achieved
===============================================
1) You're referring to the game console market, not the genuine a/v mass-market and
2) that hardly prevents Blu-ray from being a dead format anyways.
Unless they get a foothold in the genuine mass-market they're going nowhere.
**********************************************
*quote*
kuromiko
12 million is more market penetration than HD-DVD achieved
===============================================
......and so what?
They're game console sales, not a/v sales.
It's an almost entirely seperate market.
Right now Blu-ray is practically 100% invisible outside of the PS3 market and driving further up the PS3 cul-de-sac does nothing to change that.
***********************************************
*quote*
kuromiko
DTS-HD-MA and Profile 2.0 compliant. I thought you said those players wouldn't be out till the end of the year?
===============================================
Actually I've always spoken about a proper range of supposedly final spec (it isn't) players at mass-market friendly prices.
The PS3 is hardly that.
If you're (LMAO) 'lucky' you might see that Daewoo POS as your mass-market 'flagship' in time for X-mas.
Good luck with that and all it'll do for the Blu-ray rep.
kuromiko @ Apr 12th 2008 7:25PM
As you said, those are ONLY PS3s.
Have you not seen the graphs? Lets recall here:
-HD-DVD outsold Blu-Ray every day of the week in 2006.... except December.
-Then after December, Blu-Ray consistently outsold HD-DVD every day of the week, nearly 2:1 the entire time.
What happened in November? The PS3 was released. People WERE and are continually buying it for the Blu-Ray functionality, and pretty much every retailer I've gone to have recommended it as the best player on the market. Game console or not, a very good percentage of those 12 million people bought the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player.
Who cares if it is a game console when it does the job better than the competition for a lower price? PS3 sales are just as good a representation of the a/v market as the HDTVs are at this point.
Stop kidding yourself into thinking that the numbers mean anything but 12 million strong and growing.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 7:59AM
@ HD4ME
Too right.
Excuses after excuses.
12 million PS3s out there (according to kuromico) and despite HD DVD being 'dead' they still don't take 2/3rds of the weeks sales and only just manage 2/3rds of the SI number.
Talk about laughably poor.
The only reason they're full of so much bile about this is that it's dawning on some of them that Blu-ray is going nowhere too.......and unlike the vast majority of HD DVD owners (excepting the tiny numbers of daft very early adopters) they got thoroughly screwed with the prices they paid.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 8:01AM
@ DrXym
Still hiding behind HD DVD, eh?
LMAO
DrXym @ Apr 12th 2008 12:22PM
No. I'm pointing out that you and you two buddies obviously can't stand it that your precious format lost and do your best to piss and moan over any blu ray story.
Sadly for you, your petulant whining and dismissal of the format won't make the slightest difference. Blu Ray is doing just fine and will continue to expand as might be expected for the defacto HD movie format.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 6:40PM
Stop judging everyone by your own small, mean & predictably sad 'standards'.
I'm doing nothing but laughing at you guys.
Your game consoles merely propped the thing up a little longer but Blu-ray is going nowhere too.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 8:20AM
*quote*
Mr. E
Why don't you just go away once and for all?
===============================================
After you.
***********************************************
*quote*
Mr. E
You're not contributing anything positive to any of the discussions here
===============================================
This isn't a 'closed' community.
I suggest you clear off to Blu-ray.com if all you want is an uncritical worshipping of BD.
If I want to laugh and point out Blu-ray's pathetic performance and puncture some of the PS3 fanboy's delusions then I'm going to do just that.
If there's one thing you guys need it's a reality check.
Tell me about that 8% again?
LMAO
***********************************************
*quote*
Mr. E
and you obviously have no interest in the future of 1080p on disc.
===============================================
Not when it comes on a retail Blu-ray disc.
And so what?
That suddenly bars anyone from having a view or making a critical comment in your dreary little world then does it?
***********************************************
*quote*
Mr. E
Go enjoy your upconverted DVDs and crappy HD-Lite downloads
===============================================
Do you know my HD A/EP35 upscales beautifully - on some discs it's very very close to some high def - which is another reason why the public are unconvinced
(especially @ the cost of Blu-ray high def).
As for cr@ppy "HD Lite"?!
Boy oh boy you really are reaching for the lies to try & damn all the encodes.
Anyone whos ever seen a decent encode knows the differences between them & retail are (often) minute
(especially given that the vast majority of the mionority with HD TVs have screen sizes between 32" - 50").
************************************************quote*
Mr. E
and leave us in peace.
===============================================
Er, no.
No-one forces you to do anything here and you're not forcing me either.
Tought t!tty old son.
kuromiko @ Apr 12th 2008 7:40PM
Quote:
---------------------------------------------
Do you know my HD A/EP35 upscales beautifully - on some discs it's very very close to some high def - which is another reason why the public are unconvinced
(especially @ the cost of Blu-ray high def).
---------------------------------------------
I can tell you the difference between Blu-Ray and Upscaled DVD on my 32", 22", and 19": 6 times the pixel resolution vs an upscale are the difference between night and day. The colors tend to suck on the DVD side, too.
And who is going to fill the void for HD media except Blu-Ray? Currently it is the only viable solution for people at this point. Downloads?
Quoting myself:
---------------------------------------------
Grandma on downloads? Get off the drugs!
---------------------------------------------
Quote:
---------------------------------------------
As for cr@ppy "HD Lite"?!
Boy oh boy you really are reaching for the lies to try & damn all the encodes.
Anyone whos ever seen a decent encode knows the differences between them & retail are (often) minute
(especially given that the vast majority of the mionority with HD TVs have screen sizes between 32" - 50").
---------------------------------------------
I'll just quote myself again:
---------------------------------------------
Enjoying Blu-Ray rips? You can also enjoy contributing to the numbers that tell studios that (stronger) DRM really is necessary.
---------------------------------------------
YOU are the reason companies stuff DRM down our throats. Thanks for helping them justify the next iteration of lock-downs.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 8:56PM
@ kuromiko
You call it a "night & day" difference and the general public simply says a resounding
'meh, big deal, isn't worth the (substantial) premium'.
Once Blu-ray dies it's inevitable death we may possibly move on to something a lot more appropriate.
Something less costly and more user friendly.
Something that stands a chance of us seeing HDMs on a proper footing and with a future, not the idiotic short-term gouge that Blu-ray so obviously is.
You can cheer-lead and try to justify DRM as much as you like but as we have just seen with the music business it is as futile as it is unworkable as it is outrageous to keep expecting the paying punter to keep on funding that ridiculous gravy-train.
But one day (fairly soon) you'll be able to have the freedom to do what you like with the content you bought.
.....but it'll be no thanks to the f*ckwits who lapped up every DRM POS system the CE corps churned out.
Oh no.
It'll be thanks to the sharers
(whom you seem to prefer to label as 'pirates' - that label might be appropriate for those selling dodgy copies at flea markets etc but it has nothing to do with sharing).
You remember to be nice and say thank you when that happens.
(and ffs wake up and grow up a little, huh?
In what sugar-coated Polly-Anna version of reality do the CE corps reluctantly get 'forced' into devising DRM only to protect the poor little diddums interests?
Jeez you game console kiddies sure are about as ludicrously naive and green as they come.......which is another extremely good reason not to let Hollywood get skewed by the preferences of the game console kiddies.)
Galley @ Apr 12th 2008 8:49AM
Who's buying all these HD DVDs, and where are they buying them? They're no longer sold at retail.
Truth Teller @ Apr 12th 2008 10:39AM
1) The HD DVD owners (obviously) are the ones buying them - and amusingly it's pi$$ing off the Blu-ray gang that they are helping to slow the adoption of Blu-ray by their not dumping HD DVD straight away and moving wholesale into Blu-ray.
LMAO
2) We're buying on-line.
What sort of idiot doesn't these days?
Why pay double or more of the possible price when a proper look around the net gives the best deals (by far) in moments.
I'm not paying any more than £6/$12 for mine and my collection is growing strongly......in fact, funnily enough, it's often cheaper to buy brand new than buy on ebay
(if you know where to look).
Xyzzy @ Apr 12th 2008 10:44AM
That's what I want to know. I keep reading about these firesales, but I haven't seen 'em (and I'd love to!). DeepDiscount has a bunch of movies, but I've already bought all of the under $10 flicks I'm interested in. Where else are there firesales please??? :)
andy @ Apr 12th 2008 12:22PM
xxyxxy,
Same question: Where in the world are the "firesales"? I'd pick up another player and some more movies, but I can't find any. I've already picked over deepdiscount, and I can't find anything else that's not full price.
Wes @ Apr 12th 2008 1:54PM
Well, my wal-mart is all out of hd-dvds almost but they still have players if you wanted some. You'd just have to drive up to Vernon, British Columbia, Canada.
Up here they have those Venteur hd-dvd players for $60.00 and right beside it they have Toshiba upconverting dvd players for $54.00. Personally, I can't understand why someone wouldn't pay the extra six bucks to get an upconverting-dvd player that plays hd-dvds versus one that does not play hd-dvds.
Even if you think hd-dvd is dead, while it may be dying, you could still pickup movies cheaper than dvd on some sites like deepdiscount and get better picture/audio quality than standard dvd.
Mind you, six bucks is six bucks. Perhaps a blu-ray fan can blow it on a cheeseburger combo at the McDonalds within my Wal-mart.
XDragon @ Apr 12th 2008 11:53AM
You have valid points about bargin priced dvds, avaliability and having multiple players in the home. Those also contribute to tainting the numbers and that also why no comparison is right except for the one I mentioned which is redicoulous to do and maintain. Its an uphill battle just like it would have been if the war went the other way as it is with all new formats. To say its losing is silly because it has to be losing at this point as its only recently become a safe choice and the library is tiny compared to dvd. Its trying to replace Dvd just like Dvd did to VHS and its following the same trends. Granted the difference between Dvd and VHS are much more significant to this esp. since HD is till a small market but it is growing and Blu will grow too. Dvd didn't get a back catalog for a long time and Blu is at least staying on par with new releases so the whole doom and gloom is exadurated. Everything that we've seen has been expected and fanboys are just trying to make things look bad because their preffered format lost. Its getting old, its sad and its childish. HD-DVD is done, so either jump on board Blu or don't but don't pretend that Blu is doomed but HD-DVD would have been ok and why come here and try to start fights with people that are now enjoying the only optical HD format that is alive and is performing as expected.