Re: Blu-ray had 81% HD on disc market share in March

Falcon

When they get downloads down to a science, it will be bye bye for the disc. (You know this.) It will be just like the CD. Thats not to say you or I are going to like this(I love CD's and still buy them.) but it will be the next boom. Did anybody here buy into the high def VHS thing? Just wondering.

But getting back on topic. Once they do get DD down to A science,it will be kinda cool to order up any movie you want at any time. We may take a hit in picture quality and we wont have media to hold, but....yankow what,I change my mind. DD's are going to suck (badword).

I'm just trying to reprogram my mind for the future.

-Aint happening.

Falcon, I'm not as picky as you!

What I mean is that in the future they don't have to come on disk, but as long as I can pay one fee and play the movie permanently as many times as I like for one fixed cost in full HD with all the features - I'm all for it!

Imagine a VOD future where you'll be able to either rent movies (as today), or permanently add them to your owned list to play whenever you want. They have over 50,000 HD titles available all searchable by any critera, and offer either 5 bucks to rent or 10 to buy and add to your online library. You can organize and search your library anyway you like, and it offers uploading to any portable device via wireless for instant playback - even on plane flights!

And the cool thing is each title you buy is indexed like IMDB, and you can browse your collection by director, actor, producer, etc. And then argue on a community message board about the movie either through text or real time voice!

But seriously, I do think this is the future and I want it! But we do need some sort of legislation or whatever when that time comes that your bought movies are transferable to another provider in cases where the provider goes out of business or perhaps you just want to switch service. No LOCK IN ALLOWED, since most of the money goes to the studios anyway no matter which provider you would choose. Of course, this is my imaginary futuristic reality... but I bet someday this will be the norm. "The Computer IS the Network". Remember that? I think Sun Microsystems had it right, and Microsoft was all wrong back in those days. Downloading to personal thick clients and home storage for an ownership model? Nope. I don't believe that's going to fly in 10 to 30 years, as it would be stupid.

You heard it here first. And I want it!

I don't see how this is a failure for Sony. We all should have seen something like this coming because we all know how well HD DVD has been selling since Toshiba pulled the plug. The format will continue to sell well until the stock has been depleted and what ever is left over gets destroyed. After that it's an all Blu playing field, unfortunately.

These numbers tell me HD DVD could have survived the format war, albeit never won it.

I disagree with those folks who say HD DVD numbers are only up because of firesales. How many HD DVD, or dual format users have stopped buying HD DVDs since the Warner announcement? The answer is many, all you have to do is look at some of the posts that have been posted since the announcement.

I for one continue to puchase both formats, although lately my purchases have slowed down. We just have not seen as many sales as in the past. I miss the days of the format war if only for the great deals on high definition software and hardware.

Vertigo me too.

I don’t think the average person sees a huge difference between the regular DVD and the Blue-ray. The Blue camp will need to be more aggressive in order to make major inroads in the market. Without direct competition, they now have the golden opportunity. Nevertheless, if they want to make it to the mainstream market, the Blue camp should work really hard on the following: 1- They need to fix their player’s glitch issues (Player freezing in the middle of a movie, or not playing certain titles), 2- Grainy picture quality on some movies. 3- Create a value line that can compete in price with up converting DVD players. Otherwise, the Blue-ray future will be uncertain.

[Post edited by PerfectBlue on Apr 24, 2008]

and considering the majority of hddvd owners stopped purchasing HD DVD'S back in the beginning of january, back when sony paid off warner.... (besides from the odd discounted title, you might see)
yeah this isnt good for sony ?

ohh yeah ? is it me or since hdvd went under? you dont hear many people talking about high defination dics in stores much? i tend to pop into bestbuy at least once a week (see what new release's came out) and on the weekends i always see the blu-ray isle fully stacked with movies and no one there?

Quote:
is it me or

Yes, it's you.

(this info also posted in another thread, but relevant here too)



Everyone... check out this report (and numbers) about the latest growth in Blu-ray sales - very good despite the recent few months (annual tax time, both property and income taxes due between Jan and April 15), as well as the somewhat softer economy overall (recently)...

> Blu-ray Sales Surging on All Fronts - and notice further down some of the "relevant sales figures" (just for North America alone - even higher worldwide)...
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-from the May 5, 2008 Scott Hettrick blog

Holy moly, it appears that some bloggers and media outlets were so anxious for any juicy new post-format-war story last week that they left all credibility behind and wound up sounding like bitter HD DVD format losers when reporting on and getting sucked into a couple of industry reports clearly designed to grab headlines about late 1Q hardware sales numbers that – no duh! – were lower than January sales.

A few quick reference points:

• Late 1Q numbers of almost anything, particularly electronics products, are almost always lower than immediate post-holiday numbers, which is when people traditionally run out to buy new gadgets on sale with their Christmas gift money.

• No one seemed to know enough to make the appropriate comparison of February/March 2008 vs February/March 2007, not January 2008.

• No one bothered to look at 1Q software sales to gauge the acceptance of Blu-ray by current customers.

• Once again, the media completely ignored sales of PlayStation 3 machines when discussing Blu-ray players even though the PS3 has been far and away the top-selling and most-used device for playing Blu-ray movies since it hit the market in late 2006.

So, let me provide a few relevant figures:

• There are more than 6 million Blu-ray players in the North American market alone (PS3 and stand-alone) – that’s up 50% from the 4 million just four months ago in December.

• More than 4.7 million copies of Blu-ray movies were sold in the first four months of the year in North America alone, a nearly 400% increase over 2007 and nearly half of the 10.8 million sold since inception, according to Home Media Research compiled by the Redhill Group.

• Blu-ray is growing from 2% of the total DVD business in 2007 to a projected 8% this year, with the percentage of Blu-ray vs DVD sales increasing even further on most new titles.

• 107 new Blu-ray titles were released from January through April, according to the DVD Release Report, and nearly 100 more are scheduled in May and June, according to High-Def Digest. The number of new releases this year will match last year’s total of 292 by the end of third quarter, before the busiest three-month selling season even begins.

All that amidst a suddenly and unexpected surge in demand for all things Blu-ray that caught suppliers offguard when HD DVD threw in the towel in mid-February, and a push to get the latest and most robust iteration of Blu-ray player models in the market this spring that offer Internet-connectivity in addition to all the previous interactive and picture-in-picture features.

What does all this mean? Blu-ray is surging strongly as expected and will take off even stronger in the coming months. And you can bet you’ll see all those same analysts and media outlets that generated last week’s headlines back with new headlines saying the exact opposite of what they reported last week. -[END]-



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-JIMI McLovin (the Voodoo Child)