HD-DVD is not dead, US Sales even stronger

[Eric_Collins 11]

I like others thought that the HD war was won but seems not in the USA. The credit crunch has made sales of cheaper HD-DVD players and films go through the roof.

On the back of this i did buy a HD-E1 (for a silly cheap price) just in case they did make a comeback here in UK.

 

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[shakermaker 10]

it is effectively dead, because no-one is making discs

 

the high sales are because existing stock is being sold off cheap

 

i know a few people who have bought players ridiculously cheap and are building up a collection of discs for half the price of bluray

[theprofessor 10]

Blu-ray is the main push being made at reatail stores , here in the USA. I think shakermaker is correct in stating no new HD-DVD's are being cut.

[Eric_Collins 11]

The format is not dead if you make home movies anyways. If you have a DVDRW with a Dual Layer DVD-9 disk and Ulead Movie Factory 6, you can quiet easy fit 90mins on a disk if not more. The HD-DVD will play it as a HD-DVD in HD 1080

[Guest]

Seriously it's dead, it is no longer supported, discs are not being manufacturered nor are players. It is dead. I still have my player and discs which I'm happy with but it's a dead format, get over it.

 

Did I mention it's dead?

[L00b 441]

The notion of any format being 'dead' is entirely relative, I can never see the point in pouring terrabytes of electronic ink about it all.

 

I still have my Pioneer Laserdisc player (going on 20 years old or thereabouts) and a good handful of "essential" titles.

 

I wouldn't ever dream of parting with them, all "dead" that the format has been for donkey's years. Something to be said for watching Start Wars in full analogue glory

[Eric_Collins 11]

The notion of any format being 'dead' is entirely relative, I can never see the point in pouring terrabytes of electronic ink about it all.

 

I still have my Pioneer Laserdisc player (going on 20 years old or thereabouts) and a good handful of "essential" titles.

 

I wouldn't ever dream of parting with them, all "dead" that the format has been for donkey's years. Something to be said for watching Start Wars in full analogue glory

 

oh i have one of them got 30 titles inc. the Starwars boxed set. The fantastic thing was buying USA films and they were still on cinema here

[Kingmaker2 10]

Blu-ray is the main push being made at reatail stores , here in the USA. I think shakermaker is correct in stating no new HD-DVD's are being cut.

 

BluRay is being pushed because all the main film studios have invested in BluRay,however I've always felt that the studios have been sold a pup.

 

BluRay was supposed to revive the flagging disc market.......it hasn't.

Blu Ray discs will only make a profit for the film companies if Blu Ray out sells DVD sales at a cheaper cost.

 

Therein lies a problem, many people are put off from taking up Blu Ray because of the higer disc prices, but if the producers bring down Blu Ray disc prices, then they will actual make less net profit per disc than for a standard DVD.

 

In other words lower Blu Ray disc might help stimulate the Blu Ray market, but in the end the film companies make less money than they would have with the equivalent dvd sales.

 

For that reason the film studios won't let go of the DVD in favour of Blu Ray, because DVD is still their cash cow.

 

Blu Ray disc sales have been much much slower than the enthusiatic people at Sony had anticiptated, and the current economic climate has also impacted sales.

http://www.thehdroom.com/news/Blu-ray_Sales_Down_to_Start_November/3816

 

Blu Ray will never become a mass market product like DVD, and I think that the film studios are slowly waking up to that reality.

Whilst they probably won't scrap Blu Ray, I think they are becoming less enthusiatic about trying to promote Blu Ray as the format to replace DVD.

 

One of the first indicators of this can be seen in how new films on disc are being marketed.

Shortly after Blu Ray had won the format battle with HD DVD earlier this year,quite a lot of adverts were pushing Blu Ray by adding the tagline:

 

"Out now on Blu Ray and DVD"

 

Increasingly though adverts are now advertising dics of films using the tag line:

 

"Out now on DVD and Blu Ray"

 

And some have chosen not even to mention "BluRay" at all.

 

Now this might seem all rather minor, but if you know anything about marketing and adversting, the makers place great store in word order and prominence to make their products stand out.

 

The demotion of BluRay down to the secondary format being mentioned, indicates to me that they tried to make it the leading format, but actual sales figures suggest that it was a lost cause.

 

Blu Ray might be a nice luxury, but that's all it will be, a niche luxury product that has little appeal to the mass market.

[alchresearch 214]

Blu Ray might be a nice luxury, but that's all it will be, a niche luxry product that has little appeal to the mass market.

 

I agree. I'm happy with DVD quality on my TV. I wouldn't spent hundreds or thousands on new equipment just to watch Blu-Ray discs. Maybe when my existing equipment expires.

[Kingmaker2 10]

I agree. I'm happy with DVD quality on my TV. I wouldn't spent hundreds or thousands on new equipment just to watch Blu-Ray discs. Maybe when my existing equipment expires.

 

I've just read that the backers behind Blu Ray are going to spend $25 million, just to push Blu Ray.http://hdtv.biz-news.com/news/en_US/2008/11/17/0005/

To me that just shows how deperate the Blu Ray backers are, after all they will need to shift a fair few Blu Ray discs just to recoup the advertising costs!

 

What Sony and a lot of Blu Ray backers seem to have lost sight of, is that people rate value for money, and convenience, much higher on the priority scale than better quality.

 

I suspect that most of us could have afforded to buy a better quality TV set than the one we are currently watching, but we chose not to buy the best quality tv, because we thought that the current tv offered the best value for money at the time of purchase.

 

It's not necessarily because people can't afford to experience Blu Ray, but rather they don't want to fork out more money for better quality.

 

Blu Ray is better quality, but unlike most sucessfull products, has no USP (Unique Selling Point) and therefore the chances of Blu Ray cracking the mass market are pretty slim.

[alchresearch 214]

We were all pretty miffed to replace our VHS collection with DVDs. Nobody is going to do the same after such a short space of time.

[Kingmaker2 10]

We were all pretty miffed to replace our VHS collection with DVDs. Nobody is going to do the same after such a short space of time.

 

The latest upscaled DVD players from Oppo,Toshiba etc, will give you a better and more vibrant picture than your the standard DVD player.

 

Whilst it may not be true Blu Ray quality,it does reduce the quality gap significantly, and what's more they will play your old collection of DVDs, so you get better quality without the need to replace your collection.

 

Whilst it is true that Playstation 3 players will play your standard dvd collection too, there are reports that Sony have deliberately made an inferior upscaler, to make the quality gap between standard dvd and blu ray seem greater.

 

My next piece of equipment is likely to be a high quality upscaler from Oppo, rather than a Blu Ray player.