Re: The latest on Blu-ray

hoodaguy-

i found this link at Video Business site - http://www.videobusiness.com/index.asp?layout=marketData&content=hdDvd.
Another one - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=876174. One has dig through this.

As you can see Heroes Season 1 was at no-5 for 10/28. And there is a reason - it was free with the xbox hd-dvd add on at Best Buy and Buy.com last week. For the show which is almost 2 months old, coming at no-5 when it was not even in top 10 for the week ending 10/21, is not a coincidence. Same goes for Planet Earth Set. This is the sales data I am assuming it includes everything including freebies.

[Post edited by rpruthee on Nov 3, 2007]

Heroes is a very popular show, and it wasn't just given away for free. It was also sold for significantly less than suggested retail price for holiday sales.

Planet Earth is also on the BD top 10 list.

Honestly, if I was to believe the free Heroes counted, then shouldn't it be #1?

I haven't purchased it yet because it was so pricey. But lately I've seen it for as low as $45 in some places. That will definitely contribute to the success of sales.

Heroes was free last week at BB with the xbox hd-dvd drive. There were numerous posts about this. I bought one so I know. For the entire month of October, Heroes didn't even list in top 10. There has to be some consumer behavior that must attributed to its high sales index.

Infact 2 other HD-dvds were free with the purchase as well so total of 3 hd-dvd. Due to the glitch in the BB POS software, even the boxsets (2 free) rang up as free so Planet Earth landed up at no-9. If you are saying that all free items should land up as no-1, then why not we see 300 and Bourne Identity at no-1 as they are free with A3. Just because something is free does not mean that it will be no-1.

[Post edited by rpruthee on Nov 3, 2007]

I'm not disputing that with you. What I'm saying is that Heroes Season One also had a significant price reduction at many retailers the past two weeks. Before I saw it on sale for $80, but recently I have seen it in the $40 range. Don't you think that could also have something to do with it?

Now, if there wasn't such a significant price reduction then I'd definitely say that the free version had something to do with the numbers. But since there are other factors at hand, it's really hard to judge.

I hadn't planned on revisiting this messageboard or engaging in a back-and-forth, but since a few are taking issue with the "200+ versus a relative handful," I wanted to say that these numbers are no secret. The 200+ is a current count of member companies in the Blu-ray Disc Association. The HD-DVD organization, meanwhile, lists 11 companies (Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, New Line, Dreamworks Animatiion, DVD Forum, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Acer, Venturer) in support of Toshiba's technology. There may be more, but these are the ones listed on the website. I don't see how this is subjective, but I do think that 11 compared to 200 is "a relative handful."

I said in an earlier column on this site ("Confessions of an HD Heretic" that I thought this "war" wouldn't end with a winner and a loser. I thought--and still believe--that IF the studios supporting HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray stay with that format, and if electronics companies continue to make dual-format players, both formats will survive. It all hinges on studio and company support, and right now Blu-ray has the edge in both.

Oh, and speaking of support, thanks, Tim, for yours! I certainly was trying to write an objective account of what we heard and saw, rather than a Blu-ray fluff piece. I'm surprised more people weren't picking up on other news in the article, like we basically announced next October as the release date for the first Disney classic animated title and gave some pretty good indication of things to follow. Now, you can interpret this a number of ways, but I personally think that if the Blu-ray camp felt it was a closer contest right now, the association would be pressuring Disney to step up the release dates of their beloved classics to give Blu-ray a major boost. But everyone we talked with really was confident that Blu-ray was going to win out, though no one was predicting when. And that, of course, is an observation I'm reporting to you . . . not a personal belief. I still think that if the studios stay true to their formats, both formats will survive. At some point, though, you'd have to think that given the big money involved, dollars will determine whether those studios DO continue their support.

Providing the sources and the numbers certainly increases the credibility of the argument (200+ vs. 'a handful'). The comparability, however, is still questionable due to the fact that the statistics do not originate from one single source. The HD DVD camp did not list Walmart as their supporter, did it? This may not be true if the Bluray camp swaps postion with HD.

And again as I have said, numbers and strengths are two different things. If Panasonic/Samsung cannot produce cheap players, their support to the format is minimal.

[Post edited by KemVader on Nov 3, 2007]

Has anybody actually looked at the BD supporter list? There really is only about 17 or so, and the rest are just "associates" and technically not full-blown supporters. A lot of those listed don't really have a preference, and many of them support both.

Smoke and mirrors...

Quote:
Has anybody actually looked at the BD supporter list? There really is only about 17 or so, and the rest are just "associates" and technically not full-blown supporters. A lot of those listed don't really have a preference, and many of them support both.

Smoke and mirrors...

Again, you HD fanboys will squirm up any way to make yourself feel better. I think James is right, if studios that back their choice stay faithful, both sides will be around for a very long time. So save your money and get the damn BD player so you have both. That way you don't have to come in here and make specualtions, drama and Sony bash every other thread just so you can pat yourself on the back for being the big HD owner.

Ah, now I see why you are so bitter Tim, and take every single moment you can to jump on someone even when they have a viable post. YOU HAVE A SONY DVD PLAYER!

Told ya you were the fanboy.

[Post edited by hoodaguy on Nov 3, 2007]

"Has anybody actually looked at the BD supporter list? There really is only about 17 or so, and the rest are just "associates" and technically not full-blown supporters. A lot of those listed don't really have a preference, and many of them support both.

Smoke and mirrors... "

So there were 2 numbers James could choose: 17 and 200+, when he needed one to compare against the 11 supporters for HD. Although 17 is already bigger than 11 so that he could make his point, he chose 200+. This is blantant cheating, if not mercenarism. Possibly he really believed that to include the rest partial supporters makes a fairer comparison, but if this is the case DVDTown is to blame for sending an imcompetent journalist to the conference/event.