HD DVD Players Sold Out Nationwide This Weekend - Blu-ray In Trouble?

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by tigeraudio2007

Most people I know that went and got an HD DVD player got it because it was at that magic price and because it is backwards compatible with their current DVD collection. They are not concerned with what titles are available on which format. They'll use the player mainly for DVDs. If the title happens to be in HD DVD all the better.

The fact that the A3 does a good job of upconverting SD DVD (far far superior than the A30) makes it a great player for the average consumer. I still believe most people are naive to the world of 1080i, 720p, 1080p, DD+, TrueHD, DTS Master HD, etc., etc. All people want is for to get a player that works. What the average consumer is seeing is that the player is labeled "High Definition", which they equate with watching their high definition content on their HDTV. The technicalities of it all really don't serve but to confuse the masses.

And Tiger, this is what I`ve been saying for a while. people do know about HD, not like us, but to some degree they do. But, two formats, firmware updates, and the like, will KEEP them away. Even kennyt and Andrew are beginning to get a little disgusted by the whole thing. Make a player that is simple to operate, reliable, and easy to use, and your in. Now you would think, with all this so called technology, that should be easier to do today, than yesterday.
I must say, this closer marriage of computers being used with audio/video hardware, I`m not
sold on it. I know thats where we are headed, but computers still have enough of their own headaches. When your computer shuts down at work or home, or you can do is walk away!!

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by tigeraudio2007

Most people I know that went and got an HD DVD player got it because it was at that magic price and because it is backwards compatible with their current DVD collection. They are not concerned with what titles are available on which format. They'll use the player mainly for DVDs. If the title happens to be in HD DVD all the better.

That is what's going to make this sale backfire, they are taking a beating price wise, & won't be selling that many more HD-DVD titles.

HD-DVD has always had more stand alone players than Blu-Ray but Blu-Ray has sold more software, could this be because people are using the cheaper HD-DVD players as upconverting DVD players & Blu-Ray players because of their higher prices are being bought by people that are more "in" to the High def experience & therefore are buying more Blu-Ray movies?
I believe it will be software that decides the war, not hardware.

[kennyt]

You bring up a good point Moose, but with all those HD DVD players out there I'll bet those new buyers will be spreading the word of their new purchase....

It is about when people start Christmas shopping isn't it? What to buy J6P... Hummm... HJe got one of them fancy players didn't he.. maybe we could get him some movies to watch on it.....

[tigeraudio2007]

Moose,

The whole $99 player thing was brillant. They had already lost the cost of the the HD-A2 as the third genertion is being released, so why not offer the players at an unbeatable price as a marketing promo to get people to see "HD DVD".

Blu-ray may be selling more software (although Transformers on HD DVD blew Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray out of the water in each of their first weeks by reportedly 3 to 1, Ouch!), but when consumers start taking those discs home and they don't play, there is going to be serious backlash. Who cares about the titles Blu-ray has if they don't frickin' work on all the Blu-ray players. Not mention, Blu-ray is still releasing more and more standard profiles, while HD DVD is working off of and perfecting their one standard.

While software titles are important, a studio can easily start manufacturing one format or the other. If the best player that Blu-ray has is the Sony Playstation 3, that is not going to suffice for home theaters out there. No amount of titles sold in Blu-ray will make up for the lack of a stable standalone Blu-ray player with a stable and standard profile to the format.

[LBrize]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

That is what's going to make this sale backfire, they are taking a beating price wise, & won't be selling that many more HD-DVD titles.

HD-DVD has always had more stand alone players than Blu-Ray but Blu-Ray has sold more software, could this be because people are using the cheaper HD-DVD players as upconverting DVD players & Blu-Ray players because of their higher prices are being bought by people that are more "in" to the High def experience & therefore are buying more Blu-Ray movies?
I believe it will be software that decides the war, not hardware.

Hey Moose, it is always the software that sells the hardware. Look at video games. The Playstation one was underpowered compared to the Nintendo 64, yet it wiped the floor with Nintendo's expensive cartridge based system.
Again the next generation, PS2 won hands down due to literally hundreds and eventually thousands of available software titles to choose from, whereas the more powerful Nintendo Gamecube with substantially prettier graphics capabilities came in last place to both Sony and Microsoft, due to software.

I was one of those who purchased the $99 HD DVD player. I bought one movie, and have since been searching for titles both online and in stores, only to find hardly none. I'll wait, but I am one who will buy the software once its available, but usually it's the software that determines the winner.

Here's hoping the cost difference beween HD and Blu ray will make a difference this time around, and that all those people who bought the Toshiba last weekend will prompt studios to make HD releases as well.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by tigeraudio2007

Blu-ray may be selling more software (although Transformers on HD DVD blew Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray out of the water in each of their first weeks by reportedly 3 to 1, Ouch!)

I'd like to know where you heard that, as far as I know no numbers have been released on Spiderman 3 yet but it has been said it is Sony's best selling Blu-Ray so far which means it sold more than the 122K that Casino Royal sold in the same time period.
according to blu-ray.com/news
"Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that 'Spider-man 3' has become their best selling Blu-ray title to date. Final numbers are a few days away, but it appears that the web-slinging hero managed to surpass sales of Sony's longtime Blu-ray golden-child 'Casino Royale' in its first week of sales.

As for Transformers, According to deadlinehollywooddaily.com/ those sales numbers were greatly exaggerated.

"they've claimed to sell 100K (Transformers on HD-DVD) in one day and 190K in one week. Exact point of sale data from 3 retailers that make up 62% of the high-def market show sales of 73K units for the week. Being very generous, they could possibly reach 125K-130K, which would barely set a record for HD-DVD. "

So your 3 to 1 figure seems highly unlikely!

With Cars & Ratatouille coming out tomorrow, Close Encounters of the Third Kind next week, Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End & Live Free or Die Hard (As well as the 4 disc set) coming out soon there are a lot of big titles coming on Blu-Ray, that will really boost the Blu-Ray sales.

Personally I've been buying a bunch of Blu-Ray movies lately, with Best Buys $17 sale & Amazons buy 1 get 1 sale I have 20 Blu-Ray movies I haven't had the time to watch yet & I'm going to be getting a few more tomorrow as BB has more titles on sale & I just ordered Cars & Ratatouille from Amazon.

While Toshiba has been having fire sale prices on players Blu-Ray has been selling a lot of movies.