[official] Blu-ray Confirmed News

[shockz]

This thread was created to consolidate all the news threads regarding Blu-Ray into one area, and will help with organization by cutting down on the repetitive posts regarding this subject.

This will also help staff moderate any issues such as flaming and trolling.

So... if you see or hear any official news about Blu-ray... then this is the place to post.

This thread will be strictly moderated... any rule breakage including flames and trolling will be dealt with warns and restrictions

Edited January 15, 2008 by shockz

[soniqstylz]

Digital Playground is now Blu-ray exclusive.

There goes the "porn" angle.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35630/98/

Hollywood (CA) - HD DVD is losing support left and right, this time from the adult film studio Digital Playground.

About a couple dozen titles were released on HD DVD from the studio, making it the leader in high-def adult entertainment. The lucrative industry has been deemed one of the most important factors in determining the success of a new format.

The fact that HD DVD had the adult film industry on its side was seen as a big plus for it, especially because Sony was purposefully not allowing any such titles to be printed on Blu-ray Discs.

However, Sony had a change of heart, and allowed Digital Playground to start releasing its titles on BD last year. Because of the dominant force Blu-ray has in the format war, the studio has chosen to drop HD DVD support entirely, reports German publication Heise.

Digital Playground joins Warner Bros, New Line, and HBO as recent converts to Blu-ray exclusivity. HD DVD is left with just Universal, a founding member of the format, and Paramount, which reportedly received huge monetary incentives to move away from Blu-ray.

[ctebah]

there goes another kick for hd-dvd.

[shakey_snake]

humm....

[Sam Symons Veteran]

HD-DVD lost porn? Dang. Killing blow, that.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

HD DVD Makes Announcements - New Blu-ray Market Share Record?

This article at Hollywood Reporter seems to have good news for both camps.

It starts with a list of new HD DVD title announcements including Into the Wild, Things We Lost in the Fire and Bee Movie from Paramount/DreamWorks, and later The Kite Runner and The Jack Ryan Collection.

Universal announced American Gangster.

The good news for Blu-ray enthusiasts is last week?s Videoscan First Alert data which reportedly states thaall of the Top 10 HD Discs were Blu-ray titles and that Blu-ray held an 85% market shareb>, which I believe sets a new high for market share in any given week for Blu-ray Disc.The article notes that the top HD DVD seller, The Kingdom, sold just 10% as many copies as the top Blu-ray Disc release, 3:10 to Yuma.b>

Source: http://formatwarcentral.com/index.php/2008...t-share-record/

[KoL Veteran]

85% BD and 15% HD?? ouch :pinch:

[Boz]

Digital Playground is now Blu-ray exclusive.

There goes the "porn" angle.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35630/98/

Incorrect. Digital Playground was contacted by some members on HighDefDigest forums and this is the response from Digital Playground when asked to clarify their position:

?We are currently producing both HD DVD and Blu-ray. HD DVD is still a viable market for us and we?re selling a lot of units. There are over a million players out there, so it may be perceived as ?dead? in the long term, but on an immediate basis, it?s still a viable market. We will continue to grow our Blu-ray business as well, and for us, it?s going to be a smooth transition if we have to go from one to the other. For the time being, we will continue to release our movies on HD DVD. We have a good, solid customer (HD DVD) base that is buying a healthy quantity, so until that number starts coming down, we will continue supporting it.?

-Digital Playground

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=37343

[giantpotato]

Incorrect. Digital Playground was contacted by some members on HighDefDigest forums and this is the response from Digital Playground when asked to clarify their position:

http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=37343

I really wish companies would stop telling us about what they're doing "currently", and instead tell us what they plan on doing in the future. You know what, Warner is "currently" supporting HD DVD, but we all know how that story's going to end.

[AlphaPrime]

85% BD and 15% HD?? ouch :pinch:

I expected it, but still, wow.

[soniqstylz]

85% BD and 15% HD?? ouch :pinch:

Confirmed from Home Media Magazine

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html...rticle_ID=11894

The product announcements come in a week when the top 10 high-definition disc sellers are all Blu-ray Disc releases, according to an analysis of Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales numbers by Home Media Magazine?s market research department. Net HD DVD sales, according to Nielsen, constituted only 15% of hi-def disc sales last weekb>. And the top HD DVD seller, The Kingdom, sold just 10% as many copies as the top Blu-ray Disc release, 3:10 to Yuma. [/b]

[kak]

The best selling HD-DVD through this week fails to play in my A2 correctly as well.

If numbers like this keep up, Universal will be hard pressed not to go neutral. I'll be interested to see them in the following weeks with Toshiba's price cutting of their players

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Sony, Sharp Giving Away Blu-ray Players To K.O. HD DVD

Boston (dbTechno) - It appears that companies such as Sony and Sharp see that it is about time to go for the knockout blow with the Blu-ray format and completely knock the HD DVD format out of existence, as Sony and Sharp have a new offer up which is giving away free Blu-ray players.

The new deal that Sony and Sharp are running has to do with sales of certain LCD TV models.

Sony is offering a $400 rebate on the purchase of an LCD TV / Blu-ray player package, which would give consumers the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player for free since it is priced at $399.

The television models which include this deal are the 46″ KDL-46V3000, as well as the 46″ KDL-46W3000, and the 52″ KDL-52W3000. The televisions have an MSRP of $2,300, $2,500, and $3,000.

The rebate is instant meaning that you will not have to wait months to get your money back for the Blu-ray player either.

It can be used for all Sony Blu-ray players, excluding the Sony PS3.

Best Buy has this promotion running along with a similar promotion from Sharp as consumers who buy an Aquos D64-series LCD TV, will get a free Sharp BD-HP20U Blu-ray player for free, a $500 value!

The Blu-ray promotion also continues as movies are being given away with the sales of players.

Sony and Sharp are going in for the knockout blow it seems during the biggest time of the year for HDTV sales heading into the NFL SuperBowl.

Source: http://www.dbtechno.com/industry/2008/01/2...s-to-ko-hd-dvd/

Both make good TVs (Y)

But I still think the PS3 is the best choice, unless you want standalone - Unfortunate the rebate won't work for the PS3.

(although I seem to recall some TV bundles a while back offering a free PS3, dunno if they still exist)

[Boz]

Source: http://www.dbtechno.com/industry/2008/01/2...s-to-ko-hd-dvd/

Both make good TVs (Y)

But I still think the PS3 is the best choice, unless you want standalone - Unfortunate the rebate won't work for the PS3.

(although I seem to recall some TV bundles a while back offering a free PS3, dunno if they still exist)

And in general this is how they manage to paint the picture that they are actually selling more players then HD DVD, by giving them away for free. Hell when I buy another TV for my newly built office, I will pick one of these with free Blu-Ray player and resell it to get some money back :)

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

And in general this is how they manage to paint the picture that they are actually selling more players then HD DVD, by giving them away for free. Hell when I buy another TV for my newly built office, I will pick one of these with free Blu-Ray player and resell it to get some money back :)

And that painted picture looks good for em.

Toshiba, learn how to market/saturate the market better if you want to win.

You aren't going to find anyone complaining about a $400 rebate and the choice of a Blu Ray player to come with their TV.

Good idea on reselling, you'll get a lot more for a 2nd hand Blu Ray player than you will an HD-DVD player (Y)

[soniqstylz]

Yes, because it's "consumer benefit" when Toshiba slashes prices, but when Sony/Philips/Pioneer/<insert Blu-ray CE company here> bundles a player with a new HDTV, it's fudging the numbers.

I just call it better marketing, and better business.

BTW, blu-ray standalones outsold HD-DVD standalones 60/40 over December, and now 70/30 so far in January (including a 9:1 ratio the week after Warner's announcement).

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa149.html#npd

[AlphaPrime]

[BGM]

how does this data compare to previous weeks?

are there any graphs showing market share over a longer period?

[AlphaPrime]

how does this data compare to previous weeks?

are there any graphs showing market share over a longer period?

For this year so far:

Jan 6 - 65:35

Jan 13 - 85:15 (Warner announcement)

Jan 20 - 83:17 (Toshiba cuts prices)

Click here for the week by week market share for 2007:

[Lewism]

It smells victory here

[KoL Veteran]

ouch!!

Another big week for Blu. Universal and Paramount just go at least neutral already and finish the war.

[TruckWEB]

ouch!!

Another big week for Blu. Universal and Paramount just go at least neutral already and finish the war.

Funny thing is, when I was looking for Blu-Ray movies, I found "Coming to America", "Trading Places" on Blu-Ray. They are in the store (FutureShop), but they don't show up on their Website. Both movies are from Paramount. So it's not only Amazon.uk, they do exist in store!

Okay, so we are talking about 2 "old" movies, but it could be a sign of things to come?

[ctebah]

ouch!!

Another big week for Blu. Universal and Paramount just go at least neutral already and finish the war.

a lot of blu-ray players were given away, but that's not to say that blu-ray had a big week. the interesting fact is that the sales of hd-dvd players went down sharply.

[KoL Veteran]

a lot of blu-ray players were given away, but that's not to say that blu-ray had a big week. the interesting fact is that the sales of hd-dvd players went down sharply.

yeah but those blu-players included movies??

The 1/20 week didn't have BOGOS or big movies like the 85% week. Maybe its a start of a trend?

[Boz]

yeah but those blu-players included movies??

The 1/20 week didn't have BOGOS or big movies like the 85% week. Maybe its a start of a trend?

Why don't you read the NPD press release that was actually published as they rarely do it on account of the spin from Blu-Ray crowd and Digital Bits scumbag and paid shill for BDA Bill Hunt. The guy keeps spinning things to the point of being threatened to be sued by lying.

Btw, the charts you saw were made, they don't come from NPD.. NPD published a clear statement that Blu-Ray sales were horrible too as pure sales but the amount of software and hardware was attached to Sony, Panasonic and I think Sharp giving away movies and players with TVs. Each one accounted close to about a 1/3 of represented numbers and Samsung which was not involved in giveaway sold very bad.

The decline of HD DVD hardware was obviously connected to Warner as people wanted to hear what HD DVD Group will do in addition to MSRP on those players going back to $299/$399 respectively so they delayed their purchases. It has nothing to do with Blu-ray rising up insanely. Now when it's clear that it's going on, people are buying players at new prices like crazy. Even the weekly numbers are falling off.. First week after Warner it was 85:15, now it's closer to 80 (I think it was 83:17 so it's dropping back again), if it drops next week again it's obvious that Warner announcement has faded away and that we are seeing things going to be what it was, so I expect within a few weeks and with new people buying HD DVD players these numbers would start coming back to normal.

Here you go:

Leading brands in the category during that period were: Sony (34 percent unit share, 32 percent dollar share); Panasonic (27 percent unit share, 30 percent dollar share), Sharp (23 percent unit share, 22 percent dollar share), Toshiba (7 percent unit share, 4 percent dollar share), Samsung (6 percent unit share, 6 percent dollar share) and LG (2 percent unit share, 4 percent dollar share).

NPD attributed the results largely to promotions run by several Blu-ray supporting manufacturers, and said they were not necessarily the result of reaction to the news that Warner Bros. would be dropping support of HD DVD to go exclusively with Blu-ray in May.

"We've been doing weekly data for a long time, and we often times will see big shifts in sales for one week that doesn't necessarily determine a trend," said Stephen Baker, NPD Group industry analysis VP, told TWICE. "There were some promotions in the marketplace during that week with Sharp and Sony bundling Blu-ray players with televisions ? it seems to me unlikely that consumers would have made that kind of a choice that quickly based on new reports of Warner Bros. shifting from Blu-ray and HD DVD to Blu-ray exclusively."

Typically, Baker emphasized, big swings in market share are the result of major promotions.

Commenting on the numbers, Jodi Sally, Toshiba Digital A/V Group marketing VP said: "We all know that it is not accurate to make long-term assumptions based on one week of sales. In fact, putting it into perspective, during that specific week, it's important to recognize that the instant rebate promotions that had previously netted our players' manufacturer's suggested retail prices (MSRPs) to $199 and $249, had actually ended on Jan.^thp> - causing an increase in our MSRPs back to $299 and $399.

"Since Toshiba's retail price move on Jan. ^thp> to $149/$199 ? we are seeing very positive sales results at retail," she continued. "All of our consumer research and our experience indicates that retail price is the primary motivating factor in consumers' purchasing habits and we are confident that Toshiba's HD DVD players represent a significant value to the consumer."

They also forgot Panasonic giveaways too. So taken in considaration that almost each one of Sony, Sharp, Panasonic accounted for close to 30% each with giveaway, Blu-Ray hardly sold anything. BDA crowd seems to continue spinning garbage as always.

Edited January 27, 2008 by Boz