Blu-ray, in General

[jedgeco]

Universal PR flack:

"Consumers who are buying Playstation 3 are buying it as a game console. They're simply not buying it for watching as many high-definition movies as Sony said they would[.]"

European Blu-ray Disc Sales Jump Following PS3 Release:

In Western Europe, the PlayStation 3 launched on March 23 and according to data from the Blu-ray Disc Association, HD DVD comfortably outsold Blu-ray up until that point. In the week immediately after the console's European launch, Blu-ray discs accounted for almost 87% of all HD disc sales. Recent weekly figures from Europe put Blu-ray sales three times greater than that of HD DVD, with the now-leading format accounting for 64% of the total volume in 2007. The quick turn of the tide, however, reflects how easily it is to sway favor in a still relatively small niche market.

(emphasis added)

Numbers given by Blu-Ray association, so take with whatever caveats are appropriate.

Edit

Video Business:

Following a reduction in pricing, HD DVD players command 60% of the high-definition stand-alone market, according to the North American HD DVD Promotional Group.

Hyping success while unilaterally excluding a big segment of the market (game consoles) screams desperation.

[The Invunche]

Hyping success while unilaterally excluding a big segment of the market (game consoles) screams desperation.

The HD DVD camp really doesn't know how to deal with the PS3. They say people are buying it for the games and not for the Blu-ray capability, but when confronted with the sales figures for HD titles they say Blu-ray's advantage should be higher than 2 to 1 because of all the PS3's sold.

[porquenegar]

Paramount annouces that Saturday Night Fever is coming this summer to both Blu Ray and HD DVD.

link

[The Invunche]

Blockbuster chooses Blu-ray: is the war over?
Posted Jun 17th 2007 6:51PM by Evan Blass
Filed under: HDTV

In a huge blow to Toshiba, Universal, and the rest of the HD DVD devotees, rental giant Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores that have been testing both formats since last year. Blockbuster VP Matthew Smith revealed to the AP that the decision to go with Blu-ray -- which will reportedly be announced tomorrow -- stemmed from an overwhelming customer preference for those titles in the test markets, accounting for over 70% of all HD discs rented. Interestingly enough, it seems that content -- and not price -- was the deciding factor for consumers, with Blu-ray-only hits such as the Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean films apparently outmatching equivalent HD DVD exclusives. While it's still a little too soon to declare Blu-ray the outright winner, this Blockbuster decision only contributes to the momentum that Sony's darling has had of late -- momentum that at this point, might be too difficult for the other guys to counter.

[exte]

Wasn't I just reading yesterday about blu-ray rot? The war is most certainly not over...

[kinjitsu]

Blu-ray disc coatings starting to rot?

[Cinesimilitude]

I work at Blockbuster.

I hope those cheap blu-ray players come out soon, cause as soon as I can get free rentals on blu-ray, I'm in.

[malcolm1980]

Maybe I should wait until gigabytes of movies get implanted directly into my brain. I hate these new formats. I already have a pretty good DVD collection going on. All right. I might get into HD.

[patrick]

I work at Blockbuster.

I hope those cheap blu-ray players come out soon, cause as soon as I can get free rentals on blu-ray, I'm in.

I work at an indie video store (the owner/my boss was a store manager at Blockbuster for years) and we've only had a trickle of interest in HD formats so far, even though we stock both and have more titles than anywhere else in town (still, it's only about 30 total). My boss went for the XBox 360 HD-DVD drive for his home, and he just got Netflix because he can't afford to bring in HD-DVDs if he's the only one renting them (we haven't rented any HD-DVD discs out yet, as opposed to renting a few Blu-Ray movies out on occasion - Casino Royale actually rented 4 or 5 times).

Unfortunately, the general attitude I get from people who come to check out our high-def section is "get the movies that I want and maybe I'll rent from you," when we've got a shelf of HD discs (including cool stuff like Planet Earth on both formats) that are just collecting dust.

Another thing I've noticed is that people who I know have PS3s/high-def setups will come in and rent the SD versions of movies we have on Blu-Ray, even after I offer them the Blu-Ray version (we charge the same price). All of this adds up in my mind to make me think that people really don't care about these formats, and we've had a lot of customers complain since we started carrying them because they feel like they're having this new technology forced on them.

[jedgeco]

Blu-ray disc coatings starting to rot? \:D/

I'm going to assume that these antecdotal reports are accurate, but I'm still not going to worry about yet for two reasons. First, it remains to be seen if there was just a bad batch of discs or if there is something about the BD standard that is flawed. Second, the reason Laser Rot was a problem with LDs was that since the majority of LD releases were farmed out to third parties (i.e., Image, Pioneer, etc.) and manufactured at 2 or 3 facilities (with many at the dreaded Sony DADC factory), there was effectively no way to get recourse for a rotted disc, and even if you could, the replacement would likely have the same problem. With BD (or HD-DVD or reg DVD for that matter), you can get replacements through the studios' home video departments. There's too much riding on it for studios to just give customers the finger if there really is a problem.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Yeah, I work at a small video store too. Our boss bought a couple of Blu-Ray and HD. The result? No one has rented a single copy of either one. I think once I saw the BLu Ray Presitge rented, but that was probably a PS3 owner who just wanted to try BLu Ray movies on it.

No one buys a PS3 for Blu Ray, they buy it for games, and even then, they games aren't that great. Poor Sony, they make good T.V.'s.

[jedgeco]

No one buys a PS3 for Blu Ray

Well, antecdotal evidence seems to indicate otherwise. (See also my post above about European Blu-Ray sales surging after the PS3 release there.) Also, FWIW, I'm this close to buying a PS3 strictly as a BD player. (I'm giving HD-DVD a few more months to try to convince me otherwise.)

Funny thing I've noticed. HT people in the HD-DVD camp say nobody is buying the PS3 as a BD player but are buying it for games. Gamers on the XBox 360 side say nobody is buying the PS3 for games but are buying it for Blu-Ray.

[redbill]

i bought ps3 for Blu-Ray, upconverting, and as a media-bridge to my computer. And was disappointed to find out my local Hollywood Video doesn't carry any high-def dvds... I'll play some games, but that'll be secondary...

[Donald Brown]

Anchor Bay (Starz) goes Blu-ray.

[quote]Starz Home Entertainment President Bill Clark announced during an executive session with MGM VP of Marketing Julia Simmons that his company will release the first season of the company's “Masters of Horrorâ€

[patrick]

Jodorowsky, Bava and Re-Animator on Blu-Ray? Fingers crossed.

[Person]

Samsung finally released an official press release for the BD-UP5000, their SD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray combo player. No full specs, release date or price yet, but I'm expecting a $1000 tag around September/October.

[redbill]

Samsung finally released an official press release for the BD-UP5000, their SD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray combo player. No full specs, release date or price yet, but I'm expecting a $1000 tag around September/October.

finally over 2 months ago...

[jedgeco]

Samsung finally released an official press release for the BD-UP5000, their SD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray combo player. No full specs, release date or price yet, but I'm expecting a $1000 tag around September/October.

finally over 2 months ago...

Samsung should have it out just in time for the format war to be over.

3:2 odds that Universal goes format neutral before Samsung does.

[patrick]

Harry Knowles supports HD-DVD

The Digital Bits' counter-article, explaining why pretty much everything Knowles says is complete bullshit

I'm thinking that someone in the HD-DVD camp (Microsoft, Universal, Toshiba) must have given Knowles some "encouragement," because Knowles has a shockingly poor understanding of the new formats (he thinks that Blu-Ray players aren't backwards compatible with DVDs and that there are only 50 Blu-Ray discs on the market). The Digital Bits response is one of the better articles explaining the format war I've seen so far, and they make a compelling argument for Blu-Ray.

[LionelHutz]

I'm not interested in either format right now but it just seems to me that the guys at the digital bits have something even personal against hd-dvd.

[The Invunche]

Something personal? I find their support for Blu-ray to be very rational.

[jedgeco]

I find their support for Blu-ray to be very rational.

I think it's the most cogent statement on the status of the format war yet, and I'm glad that someone with some credibility finally had the moxie to say something one way or the other. I predict that they'll be a noticable uptick in BD sales as a result. (Which might lead some to think Bill Hunt is on the take, but given Hunt's substantial good will over the last 10 years, there's a strong presumption against that conclusion.)

More to the point, the Digital Bits's post from the weekend after being given a preview of new HD-DVD technology should give everyone on this forum pause:

They [the HD-DVD contingency] also believe that if everything else about HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc were equal, that people would naturally chose HD-DVD because of the more advanced interactivity.... things like pop-up specs and trivia about vehicles in the films, pop-up bios of the actors, the ability to program a list of favorite scenes that your player will remember so you can demo them later for friends. ...

This same title will also have Web-enabled features that allow you to take the list of your favorite scenes (that you program with your remote) and share them online with others. ... You can then rate each other's scene lists and see how other fans have rated theirs. A different title that shall not be named lets you download historical and background information relative to the subject of the film, that (because it's online) can be updated over time. You can also participate in online polls and see how your picks match up to others' choices.

(Note: he's talking about several different titles even though I've edited to make it sound like this is all one disc.) So this is the focus of Toshiba/HD-DVD: not getting more publisher/studio support but adding useless interactive "features" for the ADD set that distract from, you know, actually watching movies, along with the ability for Universal (or whoever) to use the internet to foist updated commercials upon you. (That being said, the ability to watch a raw, pre-CGI "simulcast" does sound pretty cool.)

I continue to be shocked that Toshiba et al. have stumbled even worse than Sony did. The message I get is "Wanna see what some 13 year old thinks are the five coolest scenes in "The Mummy Returns"? Get HD-DVD. Wanna get the most titles from the most publishers? Go Blu-ray."

[patrick]

The internet thing bothers me a lot, I honestly don't really want studios knowing what I'm watching or how I'm watching it.

Is there any reason to be worried/pissed off about Blu-Ray discs having some advanced type of copy protection on them? People on various forums seem to be upset by it, but is it just because it'll be harder for them to rip the discs and share them online? Or is it something more insidious, like CD copy protection that puts software on your computer/has a digital watermark?

[barrym71]

I continue to be shocked that Toshiba et al. have stumbled even worse than Sony did. The message I get is "Wanna see what some 13 year old thinks are the five coolest scenes in "The Mummy Returns"? Get HD-DVD. Wanna get the most titles from the most publishers? Go Blu-ray."

More titles doesn't mean better titles. If you exclude the format neutral studios, I think the caliber of titles being released by Disney and Sony on Blu-ray is fairly awful (and Fox has pretty much stopped releasing titles for the time being). There are a couple of exceptions (Volver and the recently-announced The Lives of Others come to mind), but for the most part, I can't come up with more that six or eight titles I'd want that are Blu-ray exclusive (and most of those titles are Lionsgate releases). I much prefer the films that Universal, StudioCanal and The Weinstein Company are offering that are exclusive to HD DVD. I tentatively plan to add a Blu-ray player to the home theater at some point, but I have yet to see a compelling reason to do so, at least from a title selection standpoint.

[LionelHutz]

Something personal? I find their support for Blu-ray to be very rational.

It's just a feeling I have..Everytime there's some news about hd-dvd they tend to get defensive and passionate about how microsoft should just give up and how consumers are choosing a format that is going to die soon.I'm an outsider for I think I'll stay away from high def for a bit,but the only reason I can see Blue Ray as winning is the Ps3 and the support of more studios.
What I'm saying is that both formats are very similar and they both have pros and cons,probably sony will win because of the gamers support and all,but still I see no reason to get so aggressive against a very good (better in some regards,worse in others) format.
Just my two cents.