"He's not dead yet, Jim" S-DVD sales seem to be holding their own (1 Viewer)

[Mark_TS]

I was kind of curious, as I had never seen sales comparisons between S-DVD and BR-I keep reading that S-DVDs days are numbered. I was not sure if to buy a BR player, with the economy as it is, and my job security, so I did some research.
And found this:
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Here are the recent Disc sales numbers-according to NEILSEN-ENDGADGET
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Week of Aug 24:Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 24th, 2008 - Engadget HD

Week of Aug 17:Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 24th, 2008 - Engadget HD

Week of Aug 10:Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 10th, 2008 - Engadget HD

Week of Aug 3:Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 3rd, 2008 - Engadget HD

Aug 31 numbers are due shortly. The Sept 7 numbers will likely be skewed by the Labor Day weekend.

Not exactly overwhelming, but MAY change now that the Xmas is coming-and if the economy holds out.

It seems that BR sales percentage AS A TOTAL OF ALL DISC SALES are steady at around 10%, while S-DVD seems to be holding its own at around 90% of market share in recent weeks, that, after BR's 6 months of being the only HD game in town.

There was a recent NYT article regarding this which im still looking for-which spoke of SONYs financial problems, and trepidation at the underperformance of BR-combined with consumer lack of interest and the economy-people are renting movies (S-DVD) not buying players or TVs.

Essentially, BR sales are holding at an average 10% market share.
A trend? This Christmas could make or break BR, the article went on to say. I believe they are having Playstation problems, also.

I know Summer is probably a bad time for this kind of info -but just extrapolate the playing field a bit lower to account for this and get the same numbers percentage wise.

Im no expert, but it seems that Neilsen and Endgaget would be the ones who would know- but this news surprised me.

And I keep wondering why im seeing all these free or fire sale prices on BR discs.

And dammit dont shoot me-im a messenger

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, DVD is only dead to a good chunk of people on HT boards like this. And I say that as someone who buys Blu-ray discs and has generally limited my DVD purchases to TV shows or smaller catalog titles.

Quite honestly, I'm surprised that Blu-ray is already at 10% of the market. I know that the doomsayers will say things like "Blu-ray needs to get 95% of the entire market by December and lower its prices to $2 a disc or they're done for!" but the market is growing. It just won't grow as fast as DVD did.

 

[RickER]

Nothing will grow as fast as DVD did. I also dont think this Christmas will make, or break Blu-ray. I think it will do fine this Christmas. I also dont think Sony will go tits up anytime soon. I know many Sony haters hope they will! I never understood the hate for Sony. Its like i dont own a GM car now, but its not cause i hate GM, and hope they fail. They just dont make as good a car as they should/could. You may feel the same about Sony, but IMO they DO make damn fine LCDs, and CRT TVs!

 

[Corey3rd]

This is just what happens when the upgrade doesn't require you to upgrade all your stuff. Even if you buy a Blu-ray player, you don't have to chuck out your DVDs like the transition from VHS to DVD. I know plenty of folks who don't mind watching their old DVDs on their new HDTV. DVD offered the ability to see a film in its proper aspect ratio and with greater detail than VHS. Cinephiles went nuts with all the amazing bonus features. Blu-Ray offers better picture, but at a higher price. People are going to be choosey as to what they buy on the format. They'll buy the stuff they really like and not make impulse purchases. It's like deciding if you'd rather have lunch at a hamburger joint (DVD) or a high price steakhouse.

 

[Tony J Case]

The take over wont be for a very long, long time. The difference between the two is negligable at best, the price is WAY too expensive (yeah, lets go back to laser disc pricing - thats a GOOD idea) and DVD has too much of a stranglehold on the market.

It would be like dislodging the CD. SUre there are better formats out there, but it's just way too dug in at this point.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Well I'm glad you asked ...

They push proprietary products down our throat (UMD, memory sticks, ...)
They place malware on yourr computer without informing me (the CD copy protection).
Average quality, high price.

So, just to be clear, I'm not a BD hater, just a Sony despiser in general.

 

[TravisR]

People might not care about the difference but there is a clear difference between the two.

 

[ScottHM]

The difference it not negligable, but it's not great (for most people) either.

As long as Blu-ray movies are 50%-100% more expensive than the DVD version you won't see the sales market share increase very much, IMO. The rental market may be another story though, but I haven't seen any figures on that.

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[Todd Stout]

I currently have a 4 year old Hitachi 46F500 TV (46" 1080i/720p CRT RPTV) along with a Panasonic DVD player connected via component video. The picture quality of DVD to me looks great on this set but I was always curious about what an HD source would look like. Back in January when Toshiba slashed the prices on HD-DVD players in half, I picked up an HD-D3 at Costco for $129. To me, there is a slight improvement in picture quality going from DVD to HD-DVD but it isn't light years ahead as it was going from VHS to DVD. I also notice a slight improvement in Dolby Digital audio quality as well through my old Onkyo TX-DS777 receiver.

Now, assuming that Blu-Ray is on par with HD-DVD, I really can't justify buying a Blu-Ray player at the prices they are currently charging for a slight improvement in audio and video quality. I am 99.9% positive that I will buy a Blu-Ray player one of these days but I want at least a profile 1.1 unit and I don't really want to pay more than $200 for it. I may be waiting awhile for that to happen but I did see the Panasonic profile 1.1 player for $329 at Circuit City over the weekend so perhaps I may see my price around the holidays... maybe.

I would imagine that if I were to upgrade my TV and receiver I'd notice a bigger improvement in A/V quality but that may not happen for awhile. In the meantime, I am perfectly content with watching DVDs (and the occasional HD-DVD) on my 4 year old Hitachi, and listening to them through my almost 9 year old Onkyo.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

This is what I have been saying about HD/BR since they came out. Is the picture better, certainly. How much better? Well that is very subjective. To some, it is a great deal better. To others, myself included, it is only marginally better. But is the cost worth the extra investment? With just these samples, (and this is HTF'ers), it seems the majority of consumers do not feel it is worth the extra. And yes, you can mix your movies, SD & BR, but that involves buying an additional player and connecting it into your system as well as your current SD player. For many, they opt to keep it simple and stay with SD.

I still feel that BR will remain a niche market, like Laserdisc did. It may become predominant one day, but that day is very far off and something better may come along before then. Again, just like what happened with Laserdisc. It was pricey, only stayed a niche market and the majority stayed with VHS until finally SD-DVD came along and took off, then most people went from VHS to DVD, never buying into Laserdisc.

 

[Andrew Radke]

Well I for one am perfectly content with SD-DVD. I've seen BD on display and to me, the picture quality is marginally better at best. Hardly worth spending big bucks on, especially when a standard DVD on an upconverted player looks pretty damn nice in and of itself. The switch from VHS to DVD was inevitable. The two formats were worlds apart. But this time around we have a disc versus a slightly better looking disc. No big leap there, at least not for the average J6P.

 

[MichaelEl]

It all depends on the quality of the source material. Old film elements that are one or two generations removed from the negative generally don't benefit that much from Blu-Ray. On the other hand, a recent Hollywood blockbuster filmed on HD-video can look significantly better on Blu-Ray. All this makes it likely that DVD will remain the home video medium for older movies, while Blu-Ray will be limited to new releases and a few best-selling classics.

 

[Eddie W.]

All Blu players are perfectly capable of playing SD DVD's. There's no need to keep an SD player around.

I've found when discs are priced at $30 there are very few that I want to buy at that price point. $15 vs $30 is the difference between an impulse buy and a well thought out purchase.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

And when 1.1 players drop below $200, we'll see a spike in sales, as some will feel the desire to "future-proof" themselves.

 

[Todd Stout]

Well... I can think of one reason to keep a standard DVD player around. The HD-DVD player that I have seems to take up to a couple of minutes to "boot up" before it is ready to accept a disc. I hear that Blu-Ray players have a similar start up time. DVD players are ready to go as soon as they are turned on so that may be a consideration for some people.

 

[RickER]

Not an issue with my newest Blu-ray player. It turns on quickly, and standard DVDs start fast. As a matter of fact, my Blu-rays start pretty quick, as long as they are not full of JAVA.

 

[mdnitoil]

Ummm, how exactly would this future-proof anybody? I must be missing something here.

 

[Corey3rd]

The price point doesn't matter now that the Blu-ray players are $300. People have already sprung a grand plus for their HD-Widescreens. The player is chump change at this point. Even among my friends who have sprung for the HDTV, the only ones who go Bluray are the ones who bought PS3s. And they are really choosey about what titles they'd upgrade or pay extra. Others seem happy with the DVD player that upconverts.

The DVD that seems to be pegged for the mega-break through in sales is Dark Knight.

 

[Barry_B_B]

Wasn't quite chump change then but it was pretty easy to convince my wife we NEEDED an upconverting player a couple years back after spending almost two grand on the HDTV. I fall in with the crowd that is very happy with the display I have now; I loved Dark Knight but it will be on DVD when it joins the collection.

 

[PaulDA]

First of all, the "laserdisc-like prices" nonsense needs to stop. I remember laserdiscs being 45$ and UP, not 40$ and LOWER (like BDs are now). Moreover, this is 2008 (almost 2009). A 45$ laserdisc from 1989 is the equivalent of about 75$ in 2008--and I've yet to see ANY single title (non-uber collector set) BD for anything close to that.

I have no qualms with people deciding that the improvement in BD (or HD DVD, for that matter) over SD--everyone is free to decide whether something represents a "value" purchase (cost vs benefit), but I DO have issues with baseless exaggeration as a premise upon which one makes a decision. And this "laserdisc-like pricing" is just that, baseless exaggeration.

In the end, NO ONE knows whether BD will be a niche product (like laserdisc) or if it will displace SD DVD or (what I think more likely, but it's only my guess) if it will co-exist with SD DVD as cassettes did with LPs and then CDs for quite some time.

just my 2 cents