Official HDDVD vs. Bluray thread

[bankybruce]

Target is insignificant in the format war.

Really, cause I thought they were one of the largest retailers in the world? And if they decided to pick on over the other that might mean something.

 

[Shane]

Target now has a ton of Blueray movie and about 5 HD movies. They also have a couple of Blueray players, but not one HD player other than the Xbox 360.

You are WAYY overexaggerating too. I have two Targets within 5 miles of me and they both have a rather large HD-DVD selection. They have about 40-50 titles to choose from.

The Blu Ray is bigger with about 80 to choose from however.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Did walmart really pick HD DVD, or was Toshiba the first to cut prices?

Reason I ask is Walmart is offering 10 free in-store bluray movies with the 80 GB PS3 for $499 with five more available by mail.

First to lower prices. Wamart = cheap. Walmart will always carry the PS3, but won't carry any other Bluray players. HDDVD players are cheap enough for Walmart to carry them though.

 

[bankybruce]

You are WAYY overexaggerating too. I have two Targets within 5 miles of me and they both have a rather large HD-DVD selection. They have about 40-50 titles to choose from.

The Blu Ray is bigger with about 80 to choose from however.

There are 2 that I was at over the last couple of days and they had no where close to that many hd-dvd, so no, I was not overexaggerating with what I saw. I was making a statement about something that I saw.


Did you also notice the big Blueray display they happen to have for the player.


Also, here are a couple of articles


Target jumps on Blu-ray bandwagon
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9750591-1.html

Target sides with Blu-ray for holiday season
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070726-target-sides-with-blu-ray-for-holiday-season.html

Target to sell only Blu-ray DVD players
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2643741920070726


Target Begins To Carry More Blu-ray Titles Than HD DVD
http://gaygamer.net/2007/09/target_begins_to_carry_more_bl.html


I have not got involved with HD vs. Blueray thing yet, I was just pointing something I saw out, so I am sorry that you felt I was WAYY overexaggerating.

 

[Shane]

There are 2 that I was at over the last couple of days and they had no where close to that many hd-dvd, so no, I was not overexaggerating with what I saw. I was making a statement about something that I saw.


Did you also notice the big Blueray display they happen to have for the player.

You are exxagerating greatly when you say they only have 5 titles. Yes they have a larger selection of Blu Ray I dont deny that. But the desparity isnt as great as you make it sound.

Yes I did notice the Blu ray display as well.

 

[bankybruce]

You are exxagerating greatly when you say they only have 5 titles. Yes they have a larger selection of Blu Ray I dont deny that. But the desparity isnt as great as you make it sound.

Yes I did notice the Blu ray display as well.

Next you are in in Phoenix, I will be more than happy to take you to the Target at Indian Bend and the 101 and let you see. Yes they had the 2 rows of HD-DVD's, but they were all duplicates adding to 5 titles. Sorry if you can not take my word for it.

One more for you.

Sony: Target says yes to Blu-ray, no to HD DVD
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/33098/113/

Target has historically called the mark on dying formats, usually being one of the first major retailer to put a halt on products that fizzle out soon afterwards. It stopped selling Nokia's multimedia N-Gage phone just months before it officially died, and got rid of UMD movies for Sony's Playstation Portable system. Not long after that decision, third-party movie studios stopped supporting the format.

 

[Shane]

Next you are in in Phoenix, I will be more than happy to take you to the Target at Indian Bend and the 101 and let you see. Yes they had the 2 rows of HD-DVD's, but they were all duplicates adding to 5 titles. Sorry if you can not take my word for it.

One more for you.

Sony: Target says yes to Blu-ray, no to HD DVD
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/33098/113/

I'll take your word for it. If that what you say. I'll just say that I find that VERY odd considering pretty much every Target I have been in across the country are pretty much the same with what they carry with just different layouts.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Listen guys. Each store is very different, they are usually pretty similar based on the city, region, whatever. For example, Walmarts near me, have next to no HD titles at all. Places like Vegas, California, etc. have huge amounts of movies.

Manufacturers have to buy shelf space in retail stores like Target, Walmart, Best Buy etc. Bluray (mostly Sony) has made an aggressive push to own more shelf space in these stores than HDDVD as part of their strategy to win the war.

Again, each store is different.

 

[D-Dogg]

Listen guys. Each store is very different, they are usually pretty similar based on the city, region, whatever. For example, Walmarts near me, have next to no HD titles at all. Places like Vegas, California, etc. have huge amounts of movies.

Anthem Wal Mart has a big selection of both, so even in the same area there are wide disparities.

Wal Mart has a "stock what sells" strategy for each store, so you might find more of items that sell well in Anthem vs. items that sell well in Glendale. It's really hard to say what Wal-Mart is doing store by store because of this strategy...in recent years though, I've noticed that they have really started slacking off in this. Their customer database and sales charts for every product were the stuff of legend...now I see them having issues stocking strong sellers. I think they've gotten too big for their own good.

 

[azsouthendzone]

Really, cause I thought they were one of the largest retailers in the world? And if they decided to pick on over the other that might mean something.

The amount of dvd and home entertainment sold at Target is minimal. People go there to buy bad clothes, not DVDs. Their home entertainment section is and always has been a very small part of their store in contrast to Wal Mart.

 

[Chaplin]

Interesting stuff from thedigitalbits.com... Nothing really definitive, but the numbers are interesting nonetheless.

Keep in mind that site is HUGE in the industry and they have publicly endorsed Blu-Ray 100%, although they are good at trying to report the good news about HD-DVD in addition to the bad.

Variety is reporting today on the home video industry's growing concern at the continuing slowdown of DVD sales this holiday season. Nearly every summer movie DVD release has fallen short of sales expectations so far in the 4th quarter, and overall DVD sales this year are down from 2006, likely reflecting the maturity of the DVD format itself, tightening budgets as a result of a downturn in the economy, and possibly the high-definition format war. The Variety piece has this to say about the format war:

"The industry is still years away from its next cash cow. The battle over high-def formats has grown more entrenched, hindering wide scale adoption of either Blu-ray or HD DVD. And Internet delivery -- a major part of the WGA strike -- is even more Lilliputian than DVD. Analysts believe it will be years before downloads become significant, and even then might only approach 15% of the current DVD biz."

That part about Internet delivery is key, I think. People who might be willing to pay $19.99 or $24.99 for a movie plus extras on a disc are unlikely to ever want to pay the same amount for a download. And the technological barriers involved in connecting to the Internet from the living room (not to mention setting up buying accounts and the problem of digital storage) will likely restrict download viewing to a small portion of the overall consumer home video market for some time to come.

Back on the subject of the HD format war impacting DVD sales, here's a bit of anecdotal evidence: I was speaking with my parents last week about holiday gifts. It seems they were thinking of giving someone DVDs for Christmas, but were concerned that they might be wasting their money if DVDs were going to be obsolete soon. Now, I was pretty surprised to hear this. We continue to get reports from readers who have stopped buying standard DVD releases in the anticipation of purchasing titles on one of the new high-def formats instead... but not until the format war is over and a single format becomes the obvious choice. My folks live in North Dakota and they're pretty casual DVD consumers - they'll buy a few titles here and there, maybe rent a couple times a month. They're not likely ever to be high-def disc buyers. And I've never really spoken to them about either high-def format before - they've just seen the commercials on TV and the in-store displays at places like Best Buy. If they're ALREADY concerned that purchasing DVDs might soon be like buying 8-track tapes (which isn't really true, of course), or at least have that concern in the back of their minds, other people are probably thinking the same thing as well. It's not good news for the home video business.

The overall DVD sales slowdown aside, it seems that Black Friday software sales were brisk. Home Media is reporting that Black Friday DVD sales this year were up 6% from last year. On the high-def front, however, software sales for the Blu-ray Disc format dominated those of HD-DVD on the biggest shopping day of the year. According to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert numbers, for the week of 11/19 to 11/25 (Monday to Sunday), Blu-ray held a commanding 72.6% share of high-def software sales compared to HD-DVD's 27.4% That's very nearly a 3 to 1 margin, and it comes in spite of a strong surge in HD-DVD player sales in the wake of Toshiba's recent discounting. Industry insiders are reporting a surge in Blu-ray Disc player sales as well, however, also in the wake of recent price reductions. Particularly strong are sales of Sony's Blu-ray ready PlayStation 3, which have reportedly increased nearly 300% according to online reports.

Meanwhile, Reuters and Gamespot UK are reporting that Blu-ray's software sales edge has now extended to Europe, in addition to existing leads in the U.S., Japan and Australia. From the Gamespot story: "According to Media Control Gfk International, 73 percent of next-generation movies bought by European consumers were on Blu-ray, and 27 percent on HD DVD."

Lest you think the news is all bad for HD-DVD, the HD-DVD Promotions Group has announced that Black Friday sales have pushed the HD-DVD format past the 750,000 players mark, when Microsoft's Xbox 360 add-on drive is counted in the figures (the actual breakdown is estimated to be something on the order of 450,000 actual stand-alone players plus 300,000 or so Xbox 360 add-on drives). On the other hand, according to recent estimates (released prior to Black Friday, so not including Black Friday sales) there are reportedly some 300,000 stand-alone Blu-ray players in North America, plus another 1.9 million PlayStation 3s, for a total of approximately 2.2 million. Ironically, that's also roughly a 3 to 1 margin. Obviously, not every PS3 owner is watching movies, but the continuing Blu-ray software sales edge (despite fewer stand-alone players sold) would seem to indicate that at least some significant percentage of PS3 owners are watching movies in addition to playing games. Moriarty over at AICN is now among them it seems.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Interesting stuff from thedigitalbits.com... Nothing really definitive, but the numbers are interesting nonetheless.

Keep in mind that site is HUGE in the industry and they have publicly endorsed Blu-Ray 100%, although they are good at trying to report the good news about HD-DVD in addition to the bad.

I disagree, although this one isnt all that bad.

 

[krispydude]

bill hunt is definitely a BD backer but he does at least try to write non-biased articles, unlike that schmuck rob enderle.

 

[puckhead]

Interesting take here:

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/10-more-reasons-hd-dvd-failed

 

[Chaplin]

I disagree, although this one isnt all that bad.

Maybe you just need to open your mind and accept the fact that Blu-Ray is better!

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Maybe you just need to open your mind and accept the fact that Blu-Ray is better!

I consider them neutral/equal.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Well I took the plung.

Just picked up a Toshiba A20 HDDVD player on sale from Circuit City for $250:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Tosh...77337/catOid/-16221/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Well I took the plung.

Just picked up a Toshiba A20 HDDVD player on sale from Circuit City for $250:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Tosh...77337/catOid/-16221/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

ouch. You should have done the best buy or upcoming walmart deal. You could have received 5-7 free movies.

 

[nashman]

ouch is right isn't that the same one for $99? you can still get them new in boxes on ebay for 150 or less

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Well I took the plung.

Just picked up a Toshiba A20 HDDVD player on sale from Circuit City for $250:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Tosh...77337/catOid/-16221/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Wow...you should have bought something on black friday.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Irregardless of who wins the war, I watched a couple movies on my Blu Ray this weekend and I was amazed at how great they looked. When I was at Best Buy I saw Evil Dead 2 was on Blu Ray. I laughed my butt off. It must be purchased.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Irregardless of who wins the war, I watched a couple movies on my Blu Ray this weekend and I was amazed at how great they looked. When I was at Best Buy I saw Evil Dead 2 was on Blu Ray. I laughed my butt off. It must be purchased.

The best looking movie I have seen so far is Curse of the Golden Flower. The movie is not for everyone, but the colors in that movie was effing amazing.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

ouch is right isn't that the same one for $99? you can still get them new in boxes on ebay for 150 or less

Nah, the A2 is the one for $99.

The A20 does output 1080p, which is nice.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

The best looking movie I have seen so far is Curse of the Golden Flower. The movie is not for everyone, but the colors in that movie was effing amazing.

I really liked that movie. I bet it looks great.

 

[Chris_Sanders]

Irregardless