Survey Says: Blu-Ray
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Blu-ray outselling HD DVD? Arguments rage
By Stan Beer
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
The arguments continue to rage as to whether Blu-ray is winning the high definition video format war, with new retail figures showing that Blu-ray outsold HD DVD by more than two to one for the first quarter of 2007.
According to a report in Home Media Magazine, Blu-ray not only grabbed 70% of the sales in the March quarter but the Sony developed format actually increased its market share to nearly 75% in the month of March.
While there is still much contention as to which high definition format will prevail, if the data is correct, then it appears that Blu-ray is well on its way to becoming the format of choice.
As the Home Media article points out, despite the fact that Blu-ray was two months later to market than HD DVD, it has now taken a clear lead in number of discs sold. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that that Blu-ray is outselling HD DVD on titles released in both formats.
Blu-ray would also appear to have the advantage in backing from the major movie studios, with Disney, Sony and Fox not bothering to release titles in HD DVD, while Universal continues to snub Blu-ray in favor of HD DVD. However, with Blu-ray outselling or at least matching HD DVD sales, it is open to question whether Universal can afford to maintain that stance.
There is an argument that Blu-ray sales are being somehow artificially inflated by sales of the new Sony games console PlayStation 3, which incorporates a Blu-ray player. While there is no doubt that PS3 sales are helping to get Blu-ray players into the homes of consumers, the Home Media data focuses on sales of movie titles not players. If the data is correct, then HD DVD could be on the ropes. The coming quarter could reveal much about whether the format war is coming to an end or continues to rage.
Blu-ray outselling HD DVD? Arguments rage
By Stan Beer
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
The arguments continue to rage as to whether Blu-ray is winning the high definition video format war, with new retail figures showing that Blu-ray outsold HD DVD by more than two to one for the first quarter of 2007.
According to a report in Home Media Magazine, Blu-ray not only grabbed 70% of the sales in the March quarter but the Sony developed format actually increased its market share to nearly 75% in the month of March.
While there is still much contention as to which high definition format will prevail, if the data is correct, then it appears that Blu-ray is well on its way to becoming the format of choice.
As the Home Media article points out, despite the fact that Blu-ray was two months later to market than HD DVD, it has now taken a clear lead in number of discs sold. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that that Blu-ray is outselling HD DVD on titles released in both formats.
Blu-ray would also appear to have the advantage in backing from the major movie studios, with Disney, Sony and Fox not bothering to release titles in HD DVD, while Universal continues to snub Blu-ray in favor of HD DVD. However, with Blu-ray outselling or at least matching HD DVD sales, it is open to question whether Universal can afford to maintain that stance.
There is an argument that Blu-ray sales are being somehow artificially inflated by sales of the new Sony games console PlayStation 3, which incorporates a Blu-ray player. While there is no doubt that PS3 sales are helping to get Blu-ray players into the homes of consumers, the Home Media data focuses on sales of movie titles not players. If the data is correct, then HD DVD could be on the ropes. The coming quarter could reveal much about whether the format war is coming to an end or continues to rage.
Comments
Its pretty big news guy. I feel like it deserves its own thread since the other one is full of garbage and would go unnoticed.
The news is lame and old. If this was a true investivagatory story we'd have had a bit more insight into the market. I mean the sales of Blu-ray vs HD DVD are indeed important however the scope of data (Q1 2007) covered doesn't support the premise that the market is choosing Blu-ray.
In order to ascertain how the battle is going you'd have to delve into more history. HD DVD hit first and had built up a good lead of titles. Blu-ray titles trickled out until a few weeks after the PS3 shipped. In the month of December Blu-ray began to hit its stride with releases. After CES 2007 alot of HD DVD owners were pissed because the new releases dried up. Piracy concerns could have been at play here.
The HD DVD release schedule was piss poor in Jan and Feb and downright non-existant in March until Children of Men shipped on the 27th. During this time more PS3 were coming online with %%50 movie coupons in the box and Amazon hosted a Blu-ray sale where for a few weeks they dropped pricing %50 off of MSRP which many took advantage of.
That covers the range of dates that this data comes from. If anyone does even a modicum of research they'd find that the numbers are not startling in fact they should be worse for HD DVD. It's clear the the battle will teeter depending on who has the more desirable titles released in a week. That puts odd in Blu-rays camp because of the studio advantage.
HD DVD will continue to hammer on the price advantage. The Walmart deal looks substantial. I expect the Xmas sales of HD DVD Walmart players will be $199-249 and that they will be pushing a lot of movies. I think it would be foolish to proclaim either of these formats the likely winner. Neither has shown much mastery over the other.
Samsung leaving BDA exclusivity and Walmart throwing weight behind HD DVD are significant happenings that are totally absent from this article. I don't mind an article giving me their conclusion but when their premises don't support the conclusion I feel it's a waste of my team. Picking the winning format with spotty Q1 data is a fools job. We're simply entering the second phase of this battle.
Being that you have already invested in the other format hmurchison I didn't expect to see you in here at all. Although you are welcome, but HD-DVD discussions are not of great relevance here.
I haven't chosen either format yet. But I just recently got my first HDTV and haven't had much use for the HD part so far.
I really don't care who wins. In fact I don't think either will. I don't really think most people care that much. Not to say that HD is just a flash in the pan, but I think this is going to be one of those things that will take ten years. Where slowly and slowly you start seeing HDDVD/blu-ray playback added to DVD players rather then a big jump like it was to DVD. It won't really be accepted until you start seeing $50-100 players.
But with that said if Sony drops the price of the PS3 to $400 that's going to look pretty good .Even if I don't play games my kids could get use out of that part.. But $200 for HDDVD sounds a lot more reasonable.
Samsung leaving BDA exclusivity
Samsung has never been BDA exclusive!
and Walmart throwing weight behind HD DVD
This has not been confirmed!
The latter part is what sticks in my craw. I like information, by all means give me the data that you have but what I don't like are conclusions that arise from incomplete data. Blu-ray had an outstanding Q1 but the story is far more complex than what most writers cover.
I know people said that the HD-DVD name is closest to what is being offered, I still don't see it as a cool name. All they did was add 'HD' to the old name, which is not very inventive. Imagine how unpopular the ipod would be if it was called something like the Apple MP3 player.
Then the technical aspects just speak for themselves, Blu-Ray holds nearly double the amount of stuff.
People who saw them as in close competition focused on the movie industry where HD-DVD is cheaper and the movie quality is the same but in the future data storage market, the much larger storage capacity of Blu-Ray makes it an easy choice.
Now HD-DVD may be cheaper now but with Blu-Ray's popularity will come price drops.
Whether or not these stats are accurate, I'm behind Blu-Ray. Not with my money mind you, just my will power.
What else would you expect with Toshiba (HD DVD) pretty much going it alone from a hardware standpoint going against the over 170 companies of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA-Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Sharp, Samsung, LG, Apple, Dell, HP, Pioneer, Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, etc, etc.)?
I hope Blu-ray continues its dominance as the industry is pretty much unified under the format and it simply offers more than its counterpart.
I expected this to happen. From a merketing perspective, HD-DVDs are in red boxes while Blu-Ray is in blue. Nobody buys red as it signifies danger, anger and love. None of the things anyone wants to be involved in. Blue is calm and relaxing - Apple use blue a lot.
Maybe it is a Blue State/Red State thing.
Yup, Blu-ray is indeed delivering and with the pending releases of POTC and Spiderman, you can expect the chasm to widen even further in favor of Blu-ray.
What else would you expect with Toshiba (HD DVD) pretty much going it alone from a hardware standpoint going against the over 170 companies of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA-Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Sharp, Samsung, LG, Apple, Dell, HP, Pioneer, Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, etc, etc.)?
I hope Blu-ray continues its dominance as the industry is pretty much unified under the format and it simply offers more than its counterpart.
Toshbiba going it alone?
Guess that these companies forgot the memo:
Apple- ships basic HD DVD support in DVD SP 4
HP- ships the USB HD100 player and desktop PC options
Onkyo- delivering a player this year
Meridian- joined the HD DVD PRG and will help design high end players
Samsung- delivering a Universal player
LG- second generation Universal player coming this year
Hitachi- member of the HD DVD PRG
Kenwood- Member of the HD DVD PRG
Liteon- HD DVD player coming
Shinco- HD DVD player coming
Venturer- HD DVD player coming
Marzetta7 you know better than this. But then again if you cannot argue effectively without lacing too many half truths then I guess that's your imperfection :P
Blu-ray is the superior data storage platform. Within this context the extra storage is very important and I'd likely purchase a Blu-ray burner over a HD DVD. Within the context of movies neither format really is going to be able to leveredge any significant advantages. For instance Planet Earth is exactly the same encode on both discs. The quality is identical. Neutral studios are not going to do two different encodes because the difference between a 30GB movie and a 50GB is insignificant in almost all cases.
I am a HD DVD supporter but I have no problems with buying a BD player. The new profile 1.1 due in October addresses the specification issue (adds dual av decoders and persistent storage and more) and brings the hardware inline with HD DVD spec. By next year there will likely be 2nd and 3rd generation Universal players which offer the newer BD spec and HD DVD. That will be a good player IMO.
Many have tried to paint me as some HD DVD fanboy but an HD DVD fanboy would never talk about owning a Blu-ray player. Also note that I don't discuss the merits of 50GB discs or wax poetic about studio content. The first is superfluous for delivering good content and the second is malleable. I'm more concerned with the usablity of the player. I want rock solid interactivity, I want great codec support (DTS, TrueHD) and I want features I can grow into like networking and Managed Copy.
Both platforms deliver an outstanding picture. HD DVD will be in the game as long as they have nice pricing on the players. Blu-ray will be in the game as long as they have a content advantage. The most dangerous thing facing both platforms is content.
If HD DVD loses Universal and Weinstein as exclusives then the road gets MUCH harder.
If Blu-ray loses Disney and perhaps Lionsgate (the two most likely) then the road gets much harder.
I've been in sales for a long time. Content is important but in today's climate price is equally as important. Assuming equivalent quality the masses will choose the cheaper product and then lean on the content providers for support.
Apple- ships basic HD DVD support in DVD SP 4
HP- ships the USB HD100 player and desktop PC options
Onkyo- delivering a player this year
Meridian- joined the HD DVD PRG and will help design high end players
Samsung- delivering a Universal player
LG- second generation Universal player coming this year
Hitachi- member of the HD DVD PRG
Kenwood- Member of the HD DVD PRG
Liteon- HD DVD player coming
Shinco- HD DVD player coming
Venturer- HD DVD player coming
First, Apple also offers support for Blu-Ray. Second, while you focus your argument on companies supporting HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray, a careful look would show that most technology industries support Blu-Ray over HD DVD, and a larger market share of the film industry supports Blu-Ray over HD DVD. And Kenwood? Liteon? Shinco? Venturer? It's not very effective to argue that companies with such little impact in their OWN industry would make a difference in someone else's industry. And keep in mind -- Universal players are neither here nor there. And they usually fail because you are dealing with two sets of royalties, two different sets of softwares and parts, more demanding tech support required... the list goes on.
Yes, HD DVD does have the advantage of getting to the market sooner. And getting to the market sooner at first meant cheaper prices... But Sony is closing the price gap quickly, and with increasing momentum and more industry resources, will likely surpass HD DVD (and is already... after all this is the point of this thread).
I must admit, the HD DVD has inherently stronger brand power, in my opinion. Most people associate HD DVD as being less foreign of a technology, and thus are more comfortable switching to it. But the Play Station 3 has been a key factor in branding Blu-Ray as a real technology rather than an abstract technology. And HD DVD really fumbled the ball on advertising. thelookandsoundofperfect.com -- great for a slogan... MAYBE... but that is festering piece of turd as a domain name.
And this doesn't even get into the technical specifications for each format. In most ways, Blu-Ray is superior in capacity, speed, and interactivity. While HD DVD is certainly sufficient for the consumer at the present point in time, the extra features and power Sony brings to the table with Blu-Ray will likely be very important for the future. Who wants another format war in a few years?
First, Apple also offers support for Blu-Ray. Second, while you focus your argument on companies supporting HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray, a careful look would show that most technology industries support Blu-Ray over HD DVD, and a larger market share of the film industry supports Blu-Ray over HD DVD. And Kenwood? Liteon? Shinco? Venturer? It's not very effective to argue that companies with such little impact in their OWN industry would make a difference in someone else's industry. And keep in mind -- Universal players are neither here nor there. And they usually fail because you are dealing with two sets of royalties, two different sets of softwares and parts, more demanding tech support required... the list goes on.
Yes, HD DVD does have the advantage of getting to the market sooner. And getting to the market sooner at first meant cheaper prices... But Sony is closing the price gap quickly, and with increasing momentum and more industry resources, will likely surpass HD DVD (and is already... after all this is the point of this thread).
I must admit, the HD DVD has inherently stronger brand power, in my opinion. Most people associate HD DVD as being less foreign of a technology, and thus are more comfortable switching to it. But the Play Station 3 has been a key factor in branding Blu-Ray as a real technology rather than an abstract technology. And HD DVD really fumbled the ball on advertising. thelookandsoundofperfect.com -- great for a slogan... MAYBE... but that is festering piece of turd as a domain name.
And this doesn't even get into the technical specifications for each format. In most ways, Blu-Ray is superior in capacity, speed, and interactivity. While HD DVD is certainly sufficient for the consumer at the present point in time, the extra features and power Sony brings to the table with Blu-Ray will likely be very important for the future. Who wants another format war in a few years?
Apple does not support Blu-ray in ANY shipping product.
Wal-mart didn't get rich by selling Pioneer/Sony/Panasonic. They got rich selling Taiwanese and Chinese knockoffs.
You mention Sony closing the price gap but the problem is $599 is the cheapest (PS3) non discontinued Blu-ray player. Just over $300 is what you can get the A2 for which comes with 5 movies. HD DVD is still half the cost of the comparable Blu-ray player at the entry. So how is this closing the "price gap"? The gap still seems persistent to me.
What industry resources do you speak of? China's HD format is based on the same specification as HD DVD Worldwide minus the codec support. The hardware is the same thus economies of scale with HD DVD will be no problem. Broadcom's BCM7440 platform chipset supports both HD DVD and Blu-ray. NEC's chipset also supports both platforms. There are no visible economies of scale advantage for either format unless you can point me to some. Optical drives will likely trend towards HD DVD because the lens assembly is a more simplistic structure (single lense for DVD and HD DVD numerical aperture)
Agree with you on the domain name. Doesn't exactly embed itself into the psyche.
There are bound to be some amazing announcements on both sides of this platform war. Expect to see the next biggies come at CEDIA 2007 in September. My reccomendation for those who hate the war and just want content is to look at getting dual players. There will likely be $399 Blu-ray options soon enough and HD DVD could go as low as $199 on sale. Why deprive yourself of the content? It's not a given that Universal goes neutral next year.
I simply will not wait for a victor. End of next year I'm cross platform.
I scored an amazing deal on a PS3 today, and the Planet Earth BD is on it's way from Amazon.
Congrats! Let us know what your thoughts on PE are. I've only seen 2 shows broadcast but I was amazed. I'm glad it's selling like gangbusters because we need productions like this and to have them captured in HD is fantastic.
You mention Sony closing the price gap but the problem is $599 is the cheapest (PS3) non discontinued Blu-ray player. Just over $300 is what you can get the A2 for which comes with 5 movies. HD DVD is still half the cost of the comparable Blu-ray player at the entry.
And still people are buying more BDs
Apple does not support Blu-ray in ANY shipping product.
Given that you make this statment as a way to defend your stance on HD-DVD and in doing so, imply that Apple does support HD-DVD in a shipping product, Please do enlighten us as what exactly it is that Apple ships in terms of HD-DVD?
Given that you make this statment as a way to defend your stance on HD-DVD and in doing so, imply that Apple does support HD-DVD in a shipping product, Please do enlighten us as what exactly it is that Apple ships in terms of HD-DVD?
Um… DVD Studio Pro?
If you mean this
Top new features
• Work with H.264 encoding presets optimized for iPod and Apple TV.
• Output high-bit-rate video for HD DVD and Blu-ray media preparation.
• Enjoy greater creative control over your audio with filters and support for AC-3 and MP3 files.
Link
then it is funny how Blu-ray is in there as well, running counter to the argument made by hmurchison, yet he proclaims to not be a fanboy.