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

[kennyt]

tdarst,

Welcome to our forum! How did you find us?

FWIW, I had to chime in here.... HD DVD players, which ARE very reliable and do work every time (despite slow load times I have never had to do a firmware update on an HD DVD player to get it to play any movie!) are not only less than $200, but were selling @ Walmart for $99 with five free discs this past weekend!

Movie titles... well, it's growing weekly and will continue to grow.... I am as impatient as you so I want them all NOW but that isn't going to happen.

As for concert titles... Sony BMg music has taken to releasing Blu-ray concerts with the new advanced audio formats that will/should beat out SACD and hopefully they will expand that into future MC audio, maybe even re-release the old classics, but again, I can't say how this will play out but it is something to keep an eye on.

[jbk]

I think the price point is indicitive of preceive value of the product to the buying public.

The same thing happened with CD players. When I worked for NV Philips we sold the Magnavox (Philips machine in a magnavox packaging) for $300 at Christmas and by Easter they were about $125 and flying off the shelf!!

Not everyone is an audio or videophile like the members of our forums. I think a lot of this sell through is really utility

JBK

[oscar_in_fw]

Originally Posted by tdarst

Personally, I am not interested in getting either format player until:

1. Prices are $200 or lower
2. RELIABLY connects and works every time without headaches
3. Plenty of movie titles in the usual rental outlets
4. Plenty of concert titles available to purchase

I would prefer that one format die completely, OR, for dual format players abound that meet the first two criteria in my list; I could care less which.

I just acquired my first HDTV back in January of 2007; and while I LOVE watching good quality HD feeds - I am just not that interested until the industry gets their crap together and reliably delivers the technology at a reasonable price. I went through all of this with VHS and BetaMax ages ago; I bet big on BetaMax and lost. I have not fogotten that lesson; and I will not repeat it. Period.

If all consumers would firmly take this stand and boycott until - the manufacturers would respond to meet the demand much faster than they are now. It's simple business economics.

TD

A boycott won't do any good because both the BDA/Sony and Toshiba are determined to win this format war. All a boycott would accomplish is discourage the studios from releasing movies on HD media.

I would guess you are not cut out to be an "early adopter" with high initial prices and playing the role of beta hardware guinea pig. I decided to play the "early adopter" role because I was feeding a steady diet of satellite HD feeds to a 110" screen and becoming dissatisfied with SD TV and eventually DVD playback. I had almost decided on a PS3 (because it was the best Blu-ray player at the time) after the initial buying frenzy. My dealer talked me into trying the dual format LG BH100 player and I haven't looked back since.

I've updated the firmware once to fix the occasional audio dropout problem and currently waiting for a 2nd firmware fix to address a BD+/BD-J "bug" induced by the latest Fox Blu-ray releases. Other than that, I've had no problems playing HD DVD or Blu-ray discs.

I paid the "early adopter" premium price for this player and have been mildly surprised it's held it's "value" so well so far. It's been discontinued but I don't think I'd trade it for any other dual format player at this point in time.

I don't rent movies but only a fraction of the Blockbusters carry HD media anyway. Blockbusters is the only rental outlet I'm familiar with locally.

I am also excited about the possibility of music videos on the HD media. I've been torn between watching DVD music videos with unsatisfactory lossy DD/DTS audio or very good sounding multichannel DVD-A and SACD discs; but no video. Now the HD media give me the opportunity for superb video with lossless/uncompressed audio. Blu-ray has released two (2) music videos with high def picture and 5.1 24/96 uncompressed/lossless audio: Chris Botti and David Matthews. I'm hoping this is the tip of the iceberg from the Sony BMG library. Both formats also have released other music videos with lesser audio resolutions (e.g. NIN, AC/DC, Purple, Pat Metheny, Springsteen, Incubus, U2 etc with Orbison and Gilmour and the horizon). I may dive into Opera too but I'm waiting for the Blu-ray versions because I'm hoping for 5.1 24/96 content equivalent in quality to the best DVD-As.

[tdarst]

Originally Posted by kennyt

tdarst,

Welcome to our forum! How did you find us?

Thanks Kenny. I have been a subscriber to Jerry's newletters for a number of years; usually just a quiet spectator, though. In a recent edition, I spied a link this thread and read all of the posts with interest.

I may take the plunge on a HD player in the near future, if I happen to run across a deal like the one you described ($99 plus 5 discs - WOW!). It's not that I am a cheapskate when it comes to A/V - over the past 10 years years my investment in HT and 2 channel Audio gear has surpassed the $40k mark - the most recent acquisitions being hand crafted, all tube-based matching 2-channel pre-amp and 100wpc monoblock amps (price tag for both pushing close to 10k).

My holdout is primarily due to the nightmarish stories I have heard about incompability, syncing, etc. I am simply holding out until all of the bugs are worked out - and hopefully that isn't too far into the future. I really don't want to add 2 peices to my rack; so a well functioning combo player, or an emerging winner in the format war would seal the deal for me. In the meantime, given the relatively low availability of titles - I am content to keep waiting for a while.

TD

[prerich]

In the case of HD-DVD and Blu-ray I believe the Hardware will sell the software. It's been over a week since the "dumping" sale and HD-DVD titles are clearing the racks at Walmart - even the higher priced ones. The Blu-ray titles are still on the shelves not even touched. When you get to the 200.00 price point, people don't care about paying 30.00 for a movie. This is one of the reasons Wii is doing so well. My son bought a Wii for 248.00 and buys 40.00 games without winking. Hardware can sell software. My video card made me purchase Vista (as soon as Nvidia came out with purevideo HD for XP I reverted back - and won't go back to Vista until SP1).

Once the hardware is in the homes the software will sell. The Blu-ray stalemate is as good as saying lets call a truce so the massive bleeding can stop (on both sides). I listened to a podcast from one of Sony's reps and they said that its possible to sell blu-ray hardware at the same low prices as HD-DVD but they just won't do it. They admit that the building cost of both units are almost identical - Blu-ray uses a better more complex optical device but they also admit that HD-DVD contains a better high-end processor for video, so prices wash out. They just refuse to sell them at a low price. I'm purchasing more HD-DVD titles than ever now (once I saw Happy Feet - which is 1080p capable I was hooked - but I view in 720p - I can do 1080p via my computer). Warner or Disney could end this war by going exlusive HD-DVD or if Disney goes neutral - that would end the war.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by prerich

In the case of HD-DVD and Blu-ray I believe the Hardware will sell the software. It's been over a week since the "dumping" sale and HD-DVD titles are clearing the racks at Walmart - even the higher priced ones. The Blu-ray titles are still on the shelves not even touched. When you get to the 200.00 price point, people don't care about paying 30.00 for a movie. This is one of the reasons Wii is doing so well. My son bought a Wii for 248.00 and buys 40.00 games without winking. Hardware can sell software. My video card made me purchase Vista (as soon as Nvidia came out with purevideo HD for XP I reverted back - and won't go back to Vista until SP1).

Once the hardware is in the homes the software will sell. The Blu-ray stalemate is as good as saying lets call a truce so the massive bleeding can stop (on both sides). I listened to a podcast from one of Sony's reps and they said that its possible to sell blu-ray hardware at the same low prices as HD-DVD but they just won't do it. They admit that the building cost of both units are almost identical - Blu-ray uses a better more complex optical device but they also admit that HD-DVD contains a better high-end processor for video, so prices wash out. They just refuse to sell them at a low price. I'm purchasing more HD-DVD titles than ever now (once I saw Happy Feet - which is 1080p capable I was hooked - but I view in 720p - I can do 1080p via my computer). Warner or Disney could end this war by going exlusive HD-DVD or if Disney goes neutral - that would end the war.

If you compare the 1080p units their price is similar. If you compare the 1080i units, the price is not similar for production. I know what Sony is saying, but some like Samsung are using the same video chip on certain products as Toshiba.

Thus the "Stalemate," comment by Howard Stringer plus his comment that if he'd been CEO there wouldn't have been a war.