What I think they should do to increase HD home movies

It's been a while since Toshiba threw in the towel and now Blu-ray is the standard for HD, but the prices are still high and consumers are not consuming. A lot of articles and blogs are indicating that Blu will not have a strong userbase and won't start gainin momentum til 2013 or so. What I was thinking is that if the BDA wants Blu-ray to be in more households, they should a huge marketing promotion and sale on not only some disks but on all the BD's and players. This would get new people into HD content and more Bd and Bd players in their homes. If this promotion would go on for a limited time, I think people will be more aware about HD media. Just my opinion.

[Post edited by JERAVICIOUS on Apr 24, 2008]

Don't worry. Cheaper players are on the way by the summer, and we have a big slate of potential blockbuster films coming to theaters starting in May, that should arrive on Blu-ray by the Christmas shopping season. I have no doubt that the marketing and adoption of Blu-ray will be growing at a faster clip over the next 6 months, and into 2009. And look for more concerts and TV shows on BD too. A ZZTop concert was just announced by EagleVision for Blu-ray, also one by Korn.

Of course, it would help the format if one of the MAJOR BLOCKBUSTER CATALOG titles would be released, such as...





By the way, I recently heard on another forum that Universal is working on a Blu-ray Hi-Def release (for 2009) of the Back to the Future Trilogy (and correcting the incorrect framing 'issues' that exist on the current DVDs for parts 2 & 3).

Also, Blu-ray UK releases are expanding, with The Sixth Sense and the classic How the West Was Won just recently announced (among others). Most are 'Region-free' (Region ALL), and can be purchased on watched on any Blu-ray player or PS3.

-JIMI LOVE (the Voodoo Child)

Just a quick mention...



> BLADE RUNNER $19.95 Blu-ray! - still on sale at Amazon - an amazing 5-disc Special Edition Set (loads of bonuses, and collector's booklet), and one of the best restorations ever. Just click-thru on the above link, and then the link from the DVDTOWN info page.





-JIMI LOVE (the Voodoo Child)

YO Hendrix!!,
I also read that Back to the Future Trilogy will be coming 2009 in Blu which is a good thing. I not too worried about Blu from failing because it is now the standard like how dvd was ten years ago, but I am concerned about consumers being confused. It seems like summer will be the prelude to what 2009 will offer in BD. Oh yea I just picked up that bladerunner at circuit city for 20 bucks. I couldn't say no to that. Hah!!! Good looking out!!

Blade Runner for 20 bucks...5 discs...This will be the tenth time i have bought this. I picked up the standard disc before I even knew this was available,for about the same price. It also looks very good upconverted.

Getting back on topic
I think Sony is too dumb to realize that maybe a price drop would help their bottom line. They have lost a ton of cash so far on the format and sometimes when this happens, company's tend to hit the panic button. They think "Shall we continue to lose cash in order to make cash or shall we just try to do it by raising prices." It's this in between thinking that often dooms products. Also, they arent sure yet if the bluray thing is even going to work out. I have a feeling they are a little leary considering their track record. So what is Sony going to do? Probably the dumb thing. Raise prices. And once again kill their own format.

[Post edited by bladerunner1 on Apr 25, 2008]

bladerunner... your forgetting that Blu-ray is widely supported by many hardware and software parties, not just Sony (which is the leader behind it). They have the most invested for sure, so raising prices would be the wrong move, and hurt the chances for continued adoption growth.

We want things to happen fast, but give it some time. Prices of players and discs will be more affordable over the next year, as more competition arises, hardware costs improve (get lower), and more promotional offers are presented. That's hardware. On the software side, Blu-ray is no doubt going to have many more titles start arriving faster than previously, now that we have the single HD disc standard for content holders to support.

And BIG TITLES help propel sales, since people want some great content to show on their HDTVs. Look how well the PLANET EARTH series has sold, and is still selling quite well(!) - I bet the BBC and Warner are really happy with it's 'staying power'. Well, many big summer blockbusters (potentitally) are coming to theaters starting in May, and will then arrive on Blu-ray before the end of the year most likely, and will propel sales.

I just wish one of the past major blockbuster titles would get released, those that were most popular either in theaters or on home video. Like these...

STAR WARS etc
LORD OF THE RINGS etc
RAIDERS / INDIANA JONES etc
ALIEN etc
JAMES BOND series

...and some of the older classics. Warner has already indicated that in 2009 they will release Blu-ray editions of Ben-Hur, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, North By Northwest, The Maltese Falcon, and others. I also wish one of my personal favorites, The Black Stallion, would get released too (love the horse, music, and action). And the same director also did the excellent Never Cry Wolf (thru Disney). Also, TRON would look great in Blu-ray HD. These gobs of great releases to come, including more music and TV shows.

-JIMI LOVE (the Voodoo Child)

YO Bladerunner,
I can see where you are coming from, especially seeing sony's track record. Now, that Blu-ray is the successor of DVD, there is no doubt that this format is gonna fail anytime soon. That's why we had the format war, to see what was going to be the future for home video. I highly doubt that there are going to be any other format to compete with BD and VOD is suited totally for a different market, so I doubt that will affect the home video market.

Yo Hendrix,
I agree with you too. I'm sure those blockbuster films you mention will eventually come to BD. Studios will not hold back releasing their big blockbuster movies because they know those movies will equal big bucks. I'm sure things will come together in due time, but with all these articles it seems like people are coming to conclusion too fast.

I for one would like to see the next gen be adopted like how most of us have, although I was not for BD at first, we gotta move on.

Yo Jeravicious!

BD is not the "standard" . DVD still his. BD will likely never completely replace DVD.

Hendrix
This IS Sony's thing. They hold all the chips. EVERYTHING depends on what they do. If they fail, blu-ray is dead. For some odd reason SACD just keeps popping up in my head...

INTERPLANETARYSPY,
Agree. I feel that if hd-dvd had won,and the fact that they were the dvd forum's formats pick...well who knows what could of happened there. Maybe hd-dvd would have just became dvd? And their wouldnt have been any confusion at all. Except for the fact that you would have to buy a new player,which people do all the time. With blu-ray, this way of thinking will never happen. We will continue to have SD and Blu-ray...and alot of confusion. Why? No dvd forum...

[Post edited by bladerunner1 on Apr 25, 2008]

Quote:
Yo Jeravicious!

BD is not the "standard" . DVD still his. BD will likely never completely replace DVD.

The standard for HD content is BD. DVD is still what's the perfered media for movies. By no means is SD DVD on the same level that HD DVD and BD was. They are two different things.

I can see where you going with this. You probably supported HD DVD, so did I. I did not want BD to win due to many reasons. But if HD DVD did win maybe the outcome would have been different than it is right now because is was backed by the DVD forum. Who knows, but all I know is that if BD is the format for HD, whether is was by hook or by crook, then we have to adapt to it.

If you give almost anything that proceeds something enough time, it will out due or out sell it's predecessor. Example VHS and DVD. So in due time we will see the next media format (BD) out sell it's predecessor (dvd).

Quote:
If they fail, blu-ray is dead. For some odd reason SACD just keeps popping up in my head...

Is your head to small to also include DVD-Audio?

We are going to start with the war argument again...

DVD is the biggest rival, and most of us (let's include ourselves this time) don't want to buy movies again, specially for an improvement in audio or video. Most of the people don't have a HTS from the few of us who have, most of us have a HTIB (mine sounds very good, moan all you want) and we are the ones who demand better A/V quality.

Blu-ray is more of a 'commodity' than a necessity...

It's like cars almost everybody has 'normal' cars, luxury cars or more reliable cars that cost more, are not going to be sold to the majority 'Average Joes' like us...

I don't think that there is something that can be done to increase a need for HD movies as of right now...it's gona take a while, and people are not going to spend more money if they can't see a 'clear' difference in quality...

Quote:
people are not going to spend more money if they can't see a 'clear' difference in quality...

Obviously not, since most people still use old tube TVs that are hardly capable of rendering even the resolution of standard DVD. But progress is being made. I have proof: Tim even bought one! (Nice one too)

Wasn't aware Sony had anything to do with dvd audio?

Moaning.

[Post edited by bladerunner1 on Apr 25, 2008]

bladerunner, the point I was making is that the failure of DVD-A ISN'T Sony - in other words, perhaps other factors were involved with the failure of multi-channel high-def audio formats. Get it?

Totally get it.
Downloading was coming into fashion at the time those were being introduced. Plus the company's really didnt do anything to promote the formats. Kinda like how our recent situation with hd. movies was. A little setup in the back of BB/CC and that is about it. Sure that may be changing now, with the so called clear winner blu-ray,but I still am not seeing the numbers I would like to see. It's early though. We'll see.

To answer the thread question."-SLASH PRICES-PROMOTE LIKE A M.F."

Quote:
Plus the company's really didnt do anything to promote the formats.

I agree with the above, they really didn't do much to promote them. Other factors that contributed might be the following:

1. SACD and DVD-A continued the "format war" until they both died. Consumers were confused.
2. Very few people during these formats' introductions had 5.1 systems, or the ability to connect the $500+ SACD or DVD-A players to them via multi-channel analogs.
3. I would say it's a minority of people that can tell the difference between the already high quality PCM on standard CDs, and the higher bit-rate music offered on these formats.

Skyhawk,

"YEP."

As LH points out - be patient. It sounds like the Blu-ray group is planning a major promotion (or string of promotions), but it likely doesn't make sense to do a major push right now. I expect the big sales drive to start in the Fall, which is more the season when the bulk of sales are made. Timing is everything, so I'm sure they're carefully putting together a strategic plan that will be coordinated with all the major studios/manufacturers. They all have the same interest - to sell more, more, and more.

The average consumer is not like the people on this forum, of course: the Blu-ray camp will want to spend their promo dollars for maximum impact, so instead of doing some now which won't get the attention of the average person (and will for the most part only please people who have already bought into Blu-ray), they probably want to make a really big splash once they have more big titles in the market and they can try to convince the "non-early adopters" to jump onboard using a big campaign (pervasive attack of TV ads, in-store promotions, price cuts, etc.).

Very good comments sbmess.

I also think the Blu-ray camp won't do a major hardware promo push until this year's newer players are released for sale (like the 2 new Sony players forthcoming), the Funai player, the next Samsung player, Panasonic (next month) etc. And summer is when people enjoy GOING OUT to the movies more so than staying home to watch them.

So, look out(!) for the late summer/fall awareness of Blu-ray hardware and even more software releases, and then by 4th quarter (holiday shopping season) the big potential summer box office hits should arrive and be very enticing to those who own an HDTV (or soon will) but had not yet adopted into Blu-ray.... it will be tempting to buy that new Sony Blu-ray player (etc), see?

Still... there is DVD - It's #1 and we know of those rumours circulating about a 'Toshiba super-upconversion' new player, and the possibility of the company doing a major advertising push for their new technology (and targeting customers away from adodpting Blu-ray HD, since Toshiba gets the most share of royalties from DVD patents).

The Blu-ray camp will have to dig deep in their pockets and really spend some promo dollars to again tout the superior quality of BD over DVD (super) upconversion, or growth could be slower-going for some time yet. It's picked up lately a little (up to 5% of the overall market by some estimates), but DVD is the dominant leader at a healthy 95%.

-JIMI LOVE (the Voodoo Child)

The more I read our threads the more I start to think that maybe we are ALL off target for massive success. Blu-rays true power may not be in the picture/sound aspect at all. It could be in the "What can it do that regular dvd cannot do arena". Ultra cool features that dvd promised, but never delivered.

The ability to remove violent content at will (as a special feature) would do alot. There are ALOT of people out there that would like to see certain films, but don't due to language,violence,sex. Blu-ray seems powerful enough to allow such a feature.

-blade (thinking hard...but not getting paid a damn thing for it)

Hey bladerunner... I know of at least one movie - CRANK - that features an optional soundtrack option that removes the offensive language (toned downed/dubbed), and it's available on both the DVD and Blu-ray versions. I'm never impressed with bad language, and would rather avoid hearing it myself (movies like Scarface suffered from excessive and repetitive use of f-words). But occasionally it's done for comedic relief - that 'rent a car'/airport scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, comes to mind



-JIMI LOVE (the Voodoo Child)

"The Big Lebowski" uses a special button for eliminating just the F-word. It's called "Mute."

John

I wasnt really speaking for myself on that "idea" I had up there. That stuff doesnt bother me one bit. I have become "numb" if you will. I was just throwing out ideas to the fact that alot of people would like to see certain movies but because of a few bad words or scenes,or the R rating itself they avoid them. It would be a "feature" kind of like that old thing you could do with VHS. (Send it in and have it hacked for the people who wanted to watch "Titanic" without the titties.) All they would have to do is code the disc and then everybody could enjoy a movie like they would see it on normal t.v. Hence-"Blu-Ray is different than DVD...Everybody Can Watch ANYTHING!!!"

-blade (coming up with slogans for Sony, and still not getting paid a damn thing)

[Post edited by bladerunner1 on Apr 27, 2008]