HTG official High Definition high octane DVD format war, the aftermath

[impala454]

Same here... you'd think a month in companies would be in a frenzy announcing BD titles.

[David Meek]

The studios probably have the mastering companies scrambling to fit in the big sellers as soon as possible in an already full schedule, unless these titles are on hold for the 2008 Christmas season. Call me a cynic. . . .

[Chris D]

Well, IMHO, just because the war's over doesn't mean we'll immediately see all movies transferred to HD. Remember, it took years and years for VHS movies to be re-released on DVD. (and then we had to fight with issues like non-anamorphic transfers) :roll: Anyone recall the long, drug-out time that Lucas took to release any SW movies on DVD? Give it time, though, and they'll all come out.

[hifiguymi]

Anyone recall the long, drug-out time that Lucas took to release any SW movies on DVD? Give it time, though, and they'll all come out.

From what I understood with Star Wars, it took them a long time to restore them. The original reels didn't exist and they had to find the best copy they could and digitally clean up every frame!! Talk about time consuming.

I would bet Lucas also waited until market penetration was great enough (for him) so he would be virtually guarantied big sales numbers. I'm one who would love to have them in HD along with The Lord of the Rings.

Eric

[impala454]

Well, IMHO, just because the war's over doesn't mean we'll immediately see all movies transferred to HD.

Oh I understand that, I just figured by now we would have at least seen some stirring around/possible announcements about the big name titles on BD.

[Lex]

Actually, the irony is now that the war is over, we could actually see less newly developed films. I mean there's no competition driving them. Only profit driving them now.

[hifiguymi]

Actually, the irony is now that the war is over, we could actually see less newly developed films. I mean there's no competition driving them. Only profit driving them now.

There's a ton of competition - HD DVR's, downloads, DVD. Yes, they can make more money on BD right now and that should drive the movie studios to develop films so they can sell them at a higher price than they can DVD's right now. As fas as the BD release slate is filling right now I think there will be quite a few big titles coming late this summer through the holidays.

Eric

[impala454]

Well they can't make money from me if they don't put BDs to market that I want to shell out $30 for . I mean, at first I was buying movies I might not normally buy, just to see them on blu-ray (i.e cars, ratatouille, etc), but that "wow" factor is wearing off and now I just want my favorites and whatever good new movies come out. I doubt I will concern myself w/"catalog" titles anymore (at least those not in my favorites list).

[Hdale85]

Just because they charge more doesn't mean they make more. I'm sure DVD is extremely cheap to produce.

[impala454]

Oh I didn't mean to imply they wouldnt make money from me because they're $30, I just meant that the "wow factor" of buying up any BD I see has worn off. So they're not going to make any more money off of me until I start seeing the real "meat & potatoes" movies come out on BD.

[Hdale85]

Yes, they can make more money on BD right now and that should drive the movie studios to develop films so they can sell them at a higher price than they can DVD's right now.
Eric

I was referring to this comment.

[Andrew M Ward]

This has been an amazing thread... It's been my pleasure checking in on it


BTW: This past week I downloaded:

Lock Stock and two smoking
Fight club
The Red Violin
Office Space
Both Kill Bills
Snatch
The Hills have eyes (guilty pleasure.. sorry)
Sneakers
Harold and Maud
The Hitcher
The Venture Bros. Season one and two
Dave
Full metal Jacket

that's all I can remember.. a few other TV series crap

I'm not even going to tell you how many movies I have on my hard drive...
at lower quality than BD 8) as you know but hey.. I have a 720P TV like 85% of the rest of Flat panel owners...

oh yeah.. Silent Running I down loaded that also...

anyway: Just stirring the pot.. (is the clock ticking) 11 months and one week to go (jeeze by then I'll have 5,000 movies)

[Hdale85]

Where are you downloading movies from?

[Chris D]

Well, interesting... now that the format war is over, Amazon has changed their "Product War" tracker, comparing sales data of HD-DVD vs. BD, over to "Blu-Ray vs. standard DVD". This will be interesting to watch over time, as BD becomes more prevalent. We'll see if it progresses near the same rate as DVD grew compared to VHS.

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/

[Lex]

At the freaking prices I saw for newer releases this weekend, sales may go the other way. 38.00 for Wallstreet??? Give me a break, the movie is older than Methusala, won't be fantastic HD material anyway. *Michael Douglas.

It seemed anything in BD that had come in lately at this store with "retail pricing" was 37.99!!! I'll quit buying at those prices. I will only buy top thrillers, top movies like Borne, or Spiderman 1, or movies with the whoopla of Rings, etc... No Wallstreet, or other romantic comedies or such.

[George Bellefontaine]

I hear you, Doug. I posted a thread in AV Chalet about how much profit Lions Gate ( and other studios ) is making on Blu-ray discs. And as for Wall Street, it's a Fox movie and they are pricing their Blu discs higher than any of the studios. Bloody ridiculous and just outright greedy.

[aud19]

My guess is that they're going to milk the BD cow for anything they can, while they can, before it dies off and with no competition now all you early adopters will pay it.

[Lex]

Jason, you can save the download talk, I am not interested. LOL I'll just subscribe to showtime first, watch my 500 movies mixed in, and be happy. I don't want downloads.

And Jason, it is not early now. Not really.

I'll stick with discs, I've got players for both formats, I'll continue to buy both as long as both are available, but not at 38.00. Fox can choke on em'.

Thanks for the info George. I already have Wallstreet on standard DVD, it's certainly not a rebuy movie. Yeah, extortion, and I feared this would happen when HDDVD went away.

[aud19]

I didn't mention anything about downloads :

And being that there still, about two years after introduction, isn't a fully capable BD player available and player/disc sales are still pretty minute...I'd say it is pretty early still.

[George Bellefontaine]

I already have Wallstreet on standard DVD, it's certainly not a rebuy movie.

Same here. There are many titles in my dvd collection I'd like to own on Blu but at the prices they want, and my being on a fixed income thingy, I am very selective. I have been fortunate in replacing some titles at good prices, such as The Searchers, Bullitt, The Getaway, etc., which I got at Amazon for under $20 bucks, but others will have to wait for better pricing or I can just stick with DVD which looks pretty good upconverted to 1080p by my player.

[Lex]

DVD also was fairly slow to grow at first Jason. There is one other thing that will help HD along. December of this year standard TV broadcasts cease, meaning they are forcing everyone to HD or converters anyway, as people replace sets, HD sets are bound to grow in sales, eventually, it probably will be HD all the way, so people will begin to look more at HD players as they hopefully continue to go down in price. Well, if they are smart they will!

[Chetk]

Sorry Lex, I have to make this correction:

First, it's Feb. of '09.

Second, nobody is being forced to broadcast in HD. Everybody is forced to stop broadcasting analog, but the stations have three options.

1. Stop broadcasting anything at all (highly unlikely)
2. Broadcast the SD content digitally. (Very likely to happen.)
3. Broadcast digitally in HD. (Likely to happen depending on which market you live in.)

Note that there is a difference between broadcasting digitally and broadcasting in HD. Certainly, all HD is digital, but not all digital is HD. The broadcast requirement is digital and not HD.

[Chetk]

I didn't mention anything about downloads :

And being that there still, about two years after introduction, isn't a fully capable BD player available and player/disc sales are still pretty minute...I'd say it is pretty early still.

Also, Jason, the PS3 is a full-featured Blu-Ray player now. BD-Live (profile 2.0) and also decodes every audio format available. Didn't take long after HD-DVD went away for this to happen.

Also, Blu-ray content and disc sales are actually growing at a faster rate than DVD if you look at Blu-Rays life span so far and compare it to the same amount of time into DVD's life span.

[hifiguymi]

Universal has finally joined the BD bandwagon. Now if Paramount would, life would be good.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/

Eric

[Chris D]

Nice!

[H.T.C]

I know this does not have anything whatsoever to do with hd-dvd but out of curiosity did anyone here ever have the disc playing machine called ced/capacitance electronic disc or vhd/variable high density which used a stylist diamond (ced) and emerald (vhd) and the recording media of course was vinyl protected by a plastic sleeve so as no dirt or dust could harm the media.

Originally rca and jvc manufactured these video players which were first released in mono then stereo but tended to skip at times.

[Lex]

ok, chet, thanks for the clarification. I have not literally kept up that much, since I am HD capable anyway.

[George Bellefontaine]

I know this does not have anything whatsoever to do with hd-dvd but out of curiously did anyone here ever have the disc playing machine called ced/capacitance electronic disc or vhd/variable high density which used a stylist diamond (ced) and emerald (vhd) and the recording media of course was vinyl protected by a plastic sleeve so as no dirt or dust could harm the media.

Originally rca and jvc manufactured these video players which were first released in mono then stereo but tended to skip at times.

I knew someone who had one of these. He eventually garbaged everything because the player was troublesome and the discs were hard to find. If I recall correctly, didn't this device eventually lead to the laserdisc ?

[H.T.C]

I knew someone who had one of these. He eventually garbaged everything because the player was troublesome and the discs were hard to find. If I recall correctly, didn't this device eventually lead to the laserdisc ?

I believe your right about that or atleast nearly the same time.

The laser disc was invented in 1959 and then marketed in 1960 (non-consumer edition) for $500,000 or $350,000 not sure which number it was or what av magazine or article where the history on it came from.

[hifiguymi]

And finally the last domino falls. Paramount is back on the BD bandwagon. It's about time!! Now if Transformers will show up........

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/

Eric

[Hdale85]

Now Bee Movie comes to BD....after I already bought in on DVD. You know this movie upconverts extremely well though.

[hifiguymi]

That is usually the case with anamation. However, when you see a high def version of the same movie it usually knocks your socks off. Have you seen Ratatouille? That BD is amazing!!

Ec

[aud19]

BD sales are apparently "stagnant":

http://business.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=011000CQTTSL

[George Bellefontaine]

In the article , ABI research says HD dvd won't kick in for about a year and a half when full featured players will sell for $200. That I can believe. And software won't take off either until it is priced much more reasonably. Now I do see the odd bargain, but they are not new releases, and that's where they have to take another look at their pricing, especially Sony and Fox who seem to think consumers are willing to pay $35 for a Blu-ray title.

[H.T.C]

Its not just the price anymore not after viewing a dvd (cant remember if it was a pink panther film with alan arkin as the inspector or the tim conway/don notts movie the private eyes or even another disc) but the intro to the disc was a commercial about a person wouldn't do this and another would not commit that so why record off a dvd,that of course is illegal.

I dont know about the rest of the hobbiests here but its awfully tiresome that the movie and music industry keeps calling us gypsys,tramps and thieves especially if wasn't for the general consumer most of the actors/bands/ceos would be working at wendys and on side note most in fast food or factories do not make royalty fees and all those who work in the motion picture and music industries which believe that consumers are just money making machines can stick it where the sun dont shine.

I am thinking about never buying a movie or music cd again or renting and going back to just dxing radio be it am/fm/sw/sat instead.

[wettou]

In the article , ABI research says HD dvd won't kick in for about a year and a half when full featured players will sell for $200. That I can believe. And software won't take off either until it is priced much more reasonably. Now I do see the odd bargain, but they are not new releases, and that's where they have to take another look at their pricing, especially Sony and Fox who seem to think consumers are willing to pay $35 for a Blu-ray title.

I will never pay $35 for a blu ray they need to come down to $15 like DVDs on Amazon.

If they don't apple will eat their lunch

Déja vu any one!!

[littlesaint]

It will be an interesting game to see how Blu-ray proceeds. Sales of media won't drop in price until volumes pick up. Even then it's a maybe. Studios already have a $10-$15 dollar product in DVD. Also, let's not forget the studios (even Sony) are cutting deals left and right for alternative HD delivery whether HDTV channels, downloads, or streaming. Why not have a premium product as well? Just as Netflix's CEO said "HD consumers are used to paying more." :M

No matter what, media sales volume won't pickup until people actually start buying players, and there again, at least for now, you have a pricing problem.

[H.T.C]

It seems sony has made a statement that digital distribution will be the preferred method for buying by 2018 which could be as much as 90%of all videogame sales,not sure about the percentage wouid be for film,it wasn't said.

[impala454]

i'm starting to see blu-ray catalog titles lowering in price... saw several for around $15-18 at wal mart the other day. hopefully that's just the tip of the iceberg...

[hifiguymi]

Amazon has a pretty good sale going right now as well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_6925082_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000233361&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-blog-0&pf_rd_r=1NA68DVBJDE6MJ1B296X&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=401165201&pf_rd_i=193640011

Eric

[Chris D]

Oooh, an overall price drop would be quite nice.

[George Bellefontaine]

A lot of those Amazon sale titles are available at Walmart here for between $13 and $18. I was pleased to see the remastered Fifth Element for $18 as I wanted to get it to replace my Superbit version, but up until now they wanted $35 for the Blu disc.

[impala454]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0018RM336/dvdtalk

blu-ray 12 pack coming out June 10th... not a bad deal for a chunk of catalog titles, $162 on amazon (free shipping), comes out to $13.50/title.

Black Hawk Down
Casino Royale
The Fifth Element
Gattaca
Hellboy
House of Flying Daggers
A Knight's Tale
Layer Cake
Spider-man
Superbad
Talladega Nights
Underworld Evolution

[Chetk]

The war is over. Shouldn't this thread be locked and, like HD-DVD, put to rest? There are other threads to discuss Blu-Ray goodness.

[impala454]

Why lock the thread? We've just been updating as we see new prices/titles coming out/etc.