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

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

If you believe that I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you!!

Yeah I believe Howard Stringer.

Sony is currently negotiating with Toshiba about ending the "war."

We may hear something next week or early December. They really want to help both sides make a purchase towards HD content.

[JerryDelColliano]

I can tell you both sides went from spending ad money like drunken sailors on leave to ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Blu-ray Assc moved their agency and they are all quiet on the western front when they should be hitting as hard as they can this holiday season.

Write into that what you want about Stringer trying to end the war but without question - Sony calls the shots for Blu-ray.

[mixter_t]

I can't speak for all the people who bought one of the Toshiba A2's or A3's when they were such a good deal, but I can tell you my reasons. I've always been what people call and "early adopter". I was one of the first people around who bought a DVD player. I bought the first Sony DVD player ever produced at about $600, and when there were less DVDs around than there are currently HD or BluRay. I bought an SACD player when the only place you could find to buy the CDs was online. I've wanted a Hi-def DVD player from the day they started talking about them. But having been burned by the Beta vs VHS, and the SACD vs DVD Audio wars, and the obvious repeat of those in the new HD-DVD vs BluRay war, I wasn't in a hurry to spend the money on a player, much less $30.00 discs! But....then the Walmart deal! At $98.00 it was a no brainer! Also, I am a subscriber to Netflix and they carry both HD-DVD and BluRay discs for rent at no extra cost. All you do is tell them that if the title is available in HD-DVD or BluRay, ship that format, otherwise just ship the normal DVD. So for me, I couldn't care less if they don't wise up and drop the prices of the software as long at Netflix continues to offer them I'm set. I've got a great HD-DVD at player, (the A2 at walmart for $98.00), and I can watch any HD-DVD title whenever I want simply by putting it in my queue. If or when the BluRay players come down to a sane price, like $199.00, I'll buy one. But as long as they want $399.99 to $499.00, and up for them they can keep them! DVD was slow on the beginning when the players were expensive and DVDs cost upwards of $30.00. But when the price of the players dropped under $200 and the DVDs dropped to under $20.00 the whole DVD market skyrocketed!

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by oscar_in_fw

I'll agree Warner going exclusive would end this war; provided that format is Blu-Ray. Both I expect Sony/Fox/Disney are staunch Blu-ray supporters and won't go down easily. All three of these major studios are producing Blu-rays which cannot be easily transferred to HD DVD because of the storage/bandwidth limitations; said limitations being the public reason why Disney selected Blu-ray. Plus Region coding/BD+ are pluses for these studios.

Also, it would be premature to judge a probable HD-A2 closeout sale as a turning point in the format war. It could simply be a desperate move or a let's dump all the HD DVD players before Toshiba gives up the fight after Christmas. How many A2s/A3s are available for sale and at what price ? Can they duplicate this sale on Black Friday or other weekends the rest of the year ? Or will the $98 HD DVD player owner be shy about buying $30 HD DVDs ? or will he/she be upset when they find out it won't play the Sony/Fox/Disney Blu-rays ?

thats dumb if toshiba was dumping there players there would be a fire sale on all there players.
that a2 sale was planned along time ago.
your loyalty to blu-ray is great but if warners go hd dvd other studios will follow.
there not gonna leave money on the table.
by the way bd+ was cracked already so much for bd haveing the edge there.
i own a player for both formats and fail to see why bd supporters keep saying bd is better.
in fact there too much alike.
hd dvd has the edge in profiles right from launch pip etc.
another thing people forget is you get a dinger in a bd disc you cant fix it,its toast.
and because most of us have profile 1.0 players ,down the road bd profile 1.1 discs may ...i say may not play in our players now.
blu-ray is not the great format all the bs tells you,in fact they got along way to go ..if they get that kind of time.
hd dvd is set up to win this thing if they can get jp6 to bite . by the way hd dvd is testing there 51g disc so bd lost the edge there to.to say hd dvd is desperate is the party line we hear all the time from the bda.there the ones who are in the desperate mode ,but they just try to cover it up.

[dcarter4]

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 All...if I may throw my 2 cents in....

I am a hi-end custom installer, who tells his clients to get a combo player or a DVD server. My clients usually go with the Combo player (due to cost).
When I look at their collections of BR vs HD disc, the BR discs outnumber the HD discs 4 to 1.

I asked my clients why they prefer the BR over the HD discs?

Interesting answers....

1) "..Blu Ray has more of the titles that we wanted..."

2) "..there seems to be more Blur Ray discs avail in the stores..."

3) " I don't know...the Blu Ray covers look cooler "

Number 3 shocked me....but I think there is something to be said for the color BLUE? I'm sure
someone at the BR camp has done the Psych market research....but just look at
"Ratatouille" on Blu Ray's cover...next to "Tremors" on HD...or stare at "300" on BR and HD,
side by side....does your eye gravitate to the BR cover?

Mine does.

We geeks are caught-up on the technical specs of this and that. But most consumers are
"moths to a flame" ...what catches their eye....they will buy.

I know I'm reaching....but marketing is everything...

BTW...I prefer HD...but so many titles I want are on....BR

Dwayne

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by dcarter4

Hey All...if I may throw my 2 cents in....

I am a hi-end custom installer, who tells his clients to get a combo player or a DVD server. My clients usually go with the Combo player (due to cost).
When I look at their collections of BR vs HD disc, the BR discs outnumber the HD discs 4 to 1.

I asked my clients why they prefer the BR over the HD discs?

Interesting answers....

1) "..Blu Ray has more of the titles that we wanted..."

2) "..there seems to be more Blur Ray discs avail in the stores..."

3) " I don't know...the Blu Ray covers look cooler "

Number 3 shocked me....but I think there is something to be said for the color BLUE? I'm sure
someone at the BR camp has done the Psych market research....but just look at
"Ratatouille" on Blu Ray's cover...next to "Tremors" on HD...or stare at "300" on BR and HD,
side by side....does your eye gravitate to the BR cover?

Mine does.

We geeks are caught-up on the technical specs of this and that. But most consumers are
"moths to a flame" ...what catches their eye....they will buy.

I know I'm reaching....but marketing is everything...

BTW...I prefer HD...but so many titles I want are on....BR

Dwayne

Well if you're a custom installer and you're telling your clients to buy a combo player that doesn't work 33% of the time on HD DVD titles due to the fact that it's not a licensed HD DVD product...

I'd guess that would be the reason for more BD titles.

Now if they started buying the 2nd gen combo player that actually works you might have something.