The Format War

[Zenien]

The Results for Week ending March 13th have come in for DVDEmpire:

Blu Ray: 71.43%
HD-DVD: 28.57%

Blu Ray growing after then DVD did?

“Every week it grows,” said Rich Marty, VP of new business development at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, a Blu-ray backer. “It’s growing faster than DVD did. Each month it just looks more and more promising.”

Blu Ray version of Casino Royal is the 8th highest selling DVD movie (So meaning compared against actual DVD as well as HD-DVD) on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/ref=sv_d_2/104-7770716-4670330

 

[imdaly]

Hey now, don't forget this part of the article you linked to:

However, execs at other studios said the numbers are still very small and either format could win over consumers.

“When they start talking about numbers, two-to-one, that’s really about the release schedule,” said Ken Graffeo, executive VP of marketing and head of high definition at Universal Studios Home Entertainment, the only major studio to exclusively support HD DVD.

Studios released about twice as many movies on Blu-ray during January and February, Graffeo and others noted. HD DVD studios will be releasing more movies in coming months, about equal to the number their Blu-ray counterparts are putting out.

During the first half of the year, Blu-ray studios are planning to release 265 movies on the format, while HD DVD studios have 257 movies planned for release.

“You can’t look at the last two months as a trend or as what the consumer wants to do in this format,” Graffeo said. “It’s really an artificial, short time period.”

Graffeo said Blu-ray numbers also are getting a boost from two-for-one specials offered by retailers and Blu-ray studios and noted that Amazon has halved the price of Blu-ray movies.

Total disc sales since the debut of both formats remains close. About 650,000 HD DVD discs have been sold since the format’s April debut compared to more than 675,000 Blu-ray discs sold, according to one studio source.

Meanwhile, Fox continues it's cancellation/indefinite-postponement of all of their latest Blu-rays, with this week's "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" missing its release date. This makes 13 Fox titles disappearing without any apparent reason.

This marks the third major shift to Fox's Blu-ray release plans in recent memory. The first came when the studio bumped the December release of 'From Hell' not once, but twice in less than two months. That was followed by an even more extensive overhaul (11 titles), which saw the majority of the studio's March Blu-ray releases shelved for the immediate future. We certainly hope this trend doesn't continue.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...ments/Fox_Confirms_Mr._&_Mrs._Smith_Delay/516

Let's see what the sales comparisons are like starting March 27th when HD DVD ramps back up its release schedule

 

[Zenien]

Fox has already reafirmed that the titles are coming. So no biggie.

Back catologue doesn't mean nearly as much as day and adate releases moving forward.

Keep in mind that's it's not just the number of releases. Titles that are coming to both are selling better on Blu Ray.

The war isn't over yet, but it's going to be hard for HD-DVD to stop Blu Rays momentum.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

When are the price drops for blu-ray going to happen? That IMO is all the it needs to actually become the thing to have. I would easily switch over if the **** was just more affordable. I mean I even saw they just started releasing blank blu-ray discs and one costs at least $30. So if for some reason the burning process has an error you have yourself a $30 coaster.

 

[Fading]

When are the price drops for blu-ray going to happen? That IMO is all the it needs to actually become the thing to have. I would easily switch over if the **** was just more affordable. I mean I even saw they just started releasing blank blu-ray discs and one costs at least $30. So if for some reason the burning process has an error you have yourself a $30 coaster.

By price drop do you mean for the movies themselves? As far as movie prices go Amazon.com have BR and HD at equal prices per movie. Some BR movies are less than $20, most are inbetween $20-25. So their not that much more than regular DVD's, as many DVD's are inbetween $15-20.

If you mean for players themselves, someone linked one on the page before, and there are rumors of even cheaper players coming out.

Take the departed, Amazon.com has the BR version listed as $23.95, and the HD-DVD version as $27.95, though in fairness the HD version is a combo HD-DVD/DVD version. Most titles inbetween the two are very close in price, and around the mid $20's, which only put's them $3-7 above a regular DVD. Some are around $27 though which they need to get down in price.

 

[Zenien]

Sony just announced a 599 stand alone player and apparently said they'd go as low as 299 next christmas.

But if you're looking for a good Blu Ray player now there's always the $499 Model PS3.

PS3s' are rated extremely well as Blu Ray players, in fact many say they are the best ones currently available. You won't find a standalone player for Blu Ray that matches the low end PS3 model in terms of price.

 

[Zenien]

Double post!

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

By price drop do you mean for the movies themselves? As far as movie prices go Amazon.com have BR and HD at equal prices per movie. Some BR movies are less than $20, most are inbetween $20-25. So their not that much more than regular DVD's, as many DVD's are inbetween $15-20.

If you mean for players themselves, someone linked one on the page before, and there are rumors of even cheaper players coming out.

Take the departed, Amazon.com has the BR version listed as $23.95, and the HD-DVD version as $27.95, though in fairness the HD version is a combo HD-DVD/DVD version. Most titles inbetween the two are very close in price, and around the mid $20's, which only put's them $3-7 above a regular DVD. Some are around $27 though which they need to get down in price.

Well I meant everything in general because right now it looks like it is still in the phase where the upperclass part of society are the only ones who are able to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

 

[imdaly]

For $357.00 you can get a brand new Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HD-A2...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1173851492&sr=8-1

Also, know that with the purchase of any Toshiba HD DVD player between now and the end of July, you get 5 free HD DVDs.

http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com/_pdf/perfectoffer_advert.pdf

And good luck finding a 20G PS3 anywhere. Sony seems to only want to make the $600 60G versions anymore. Haven't had any in my store for a few months now.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Sony just announced a 599 stand alone player and apparently said they'd go as low as 299 next christmas.

But if you're looking for a good Blu Ray player now there's always the $499 Model PS3.

PS3s' are rated extremely well as Blu Ray players, in fact many say they are the best ones currently available. You won't find a standalone player for Blu Ray that matches the low end PS3 model in terms of price.

Yeah I was thinking I should maybe get a PS3 and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Does it have the 1080p ability?

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

For $357.00 you can get a brand new Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HD-A2...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1173851492&sr=8-1

Also, know that with the purchase of any Toshiba HD DVD player between now and the end of July, you get 5 free HD DVDs.

http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com/_pdf/perfectoffer_advert.pdf

And good luck finding a 20G PS3 anywhere. Sony seems to only want to make the $600 60G versions anymore. Haven't had any in my store for a few months now.

From what I have seen and heard I am going with Blu-Ray.

 

[imdaly]

From what I have seen and heard I am going with Blu-Ray.

What have you seen and heard? Have you ever seen both in action?

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

What have you seen and heard? Have you ever seen both in action?

Blu-Ray having more studio backing is more than enough for me. And also they have far more space than HD.

 

[Zenien]

Yeah I was thinking I should maybe get a PS3 and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Does it have the 1080p ability?

Both models of the PS3 have HDMI and support 1080P. The only drawback currently is that PS3's do not upscale your DVD collection. It is in the works, but there's no timeframe presented yet.



Source
Source 2
Source 3

 

[L.A.]

I was browsing through the BR selection at CC and I notice they dont have HD sound??? Its just 5.1 DD?

 

[Zenien]

Which movies did you look at?

 

[L.A.]

Which movies did you look at?

Ummm Enemy of the state and casino royale? I think that was it But BR movies does have True HD sound right?

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

I read that the sound between the 2 had little to no difference?

 

[L.A.]

I read that the sound between the 2 had little to no difference?

Screw reading, you need to hear it yourself! I had an hd-dvd add on for a while and the True HD sound on the hd-dvd sounded so much better than on a regular dvd.

 

[Fading]

Well I meant everything in general because right now it looks like it is still in the phase where the upperclass part of society are the only ones who are able to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

It's always that way, and it does suck. Even when DVD's first came out the players were more expensive than VCR's, the movies cost more than VHS's. Like DVD though the price will go down. Heck the stand alone players have went from $1000 to the $600 Zenien just showed in just a few months. They'll lower more, I wouldn't be surprised if that $300 player did come out this year. For a new technology it's going down in price very fast. HD-DVD on the other hand was basically a modded current DVD process, so for BR to catch up so quick on movie prices, and possibly player prices in one year says that the BR corporation is working hard to drive the price down.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Screw reading, you need to hear it yourself! I had an hd-dvd add on for a while and the True HD sound on the hd-dvd sounded so much better than on a regular dvd.

Sorry but I ALWAYS read and listen to other peoples opinions before I make a big purchase decision like this.

 

[imdaly]

Blu-Ray having more studio backing is more than enough for me. And also they have far more space than HD.

That's it?

You do realize that any studio could switch at any time, right?

So Blu-ray has Fox, which has had a pretty poor track-record for the format so far, with their titles being $39 each, with no extras, and sub-standard quality. Not to mention they've indefinitely-postponed now 13 of their titles that were supposed to be out by now, with no hint of why.

Blu-ray has Disney, which, with the exception of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Cars" (neither of which will even be out until May and June), has released crap titles such as "Eight Below".

Warner Brothers is supporting both, yet has a good handful of titles only released on HD DVD so far, such as "Batman Begins" and "V For Vendetta", because Blu-ray is having trouble getting it's BD-J feature to work.


Aside from all the extra studios supporting Blu-ray, Blu-ray has now 183 titles released, compared to HD DVDs 163...a 20-title difference.



I'm also curious as to why we would need any more space than what's already on these discs. With the great compression codecs available today, such as VC-1 which HD DVD uses almost entirely, there's plenty of room to fit any movie in HD on one disc, along with extras. And if Blu-ray's storage space is so superior to HD DVDs, then I'll ask why "Mission Impossible 3" and "World Trade Center" are 2-Disc sets for both HD DVD and Blu-ray. If you think you're going to get full seasons of a TV show on one disc, don't hold your breath. Studios know the virtual added value to multi-disc sets. Makes the consumer feel like they're getting more bang for their buck.

 

[L.A.]

Sorry but I ALWAYS read and listen to other peoples opinions before I make a big purchase decision like this.

Sorry but I ALYWAS test out the system first and see/listen if its any good!

 

[Zenien]

PS3 will get the ability to use HDDTS sound with the march firmware update comin in a few days.

I just checked and Casino Royal uses uncompressed PCM 5.1.

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

Sorry but I ALYWAS test out the system first and see/listen if its any good!

And I will. I didn't say I was going out and buying one. But right now with what I have heard I am going with blu-ray if I had to choose one. Of course I won't buy one without actually checking it out myself first.