Lee Scoggins

RIAA: SACD leads in Shipments, DVDA in Awareness

Looks like the RIAA has moved to end the confusion from the Peter Hart survey....

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/ne...umber=11109165

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

Charles Gurganus

My guess on the numbers for the phone survey, which started the DVD-A outsells SACD by 5 times rucus, is that number could very easily just be CONFUSED participants. ROFL Just the fact the phrase DVD is used (and certainly is more well know than SACD but I am NOT talking about DVD-A) would be enought for consumers to give a yes (without even knowing the difference between DVD-A and DVD-V).

Charles

Jeff Ulmer

Units shipped means diddly squat, units sold is what is relevant. The survey does not indicate whether hybrids are counted as SACDs or not. If they do, then the data is unfairly biased, as there is no way to determine what percentage of buyers are even aware that hybrids are SACD, let alone are buying them specifically because they are SACD.

I suppose I fall into the "who cares" category when it comes to survey manipulation. What matters is whether, in five year's time, either high rez format is still viable, or if it has been superceded.

I do find it amusing how folks around here continue to wage this pissing contest between formats.

DVD Reviewer, digitallyOBSESSED.com | Othyrworld

LanceJ

Jeez, why doesn't the RIAA simply ask each retailer (brick & mortar and internet categories) to send in their sales numbers for each format??? The discs all have individual bar codes/UPC numbers so they HAVE to know how many of each disc has been sold. Unless the retailer uses stone tablets to keep track of their finances, can't they simply push a few keys on their computer to discover and send this information?

LJ

Lee Scoggins

The problem is that Soundscan, the industry data collector, does not distinguish between SACD and redbook sales in cases where there is a single inventory disc.

I agree with you that it is surprising that better sales tracking systems don't exist. I think Soundscan has to go with what each retailer can provide which depends on what information system each retail chain has. I suspect the RIAA is thus only able to collect that data from the "lowest common denominator" stores.



Fair enough but I guess I am intrigued by what the DVDA Council is willing to do to raise awareness...I think the evidence now points to quite a bit of hanky panky with the numbers.

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

Lee Scoggins

Here are some comments I posted elsewhere:

***********************************************

The HFR story is really interesting. It shows about a 4:1 lead in dollar volume over DVDA based on actual shipment data audited by Price Waterhouse. Compare this with a 5:1 lead in the Peter Hart survey from what people actually said.

I think the only conclusion you can reach is that DVDA shipments are flat, SACD is growing, but DVDA has higher awareness. The higher awareness rings true due to the major consumer move and marketing programs around DVD.

I also suspect that loyal audiophiles are relatively small in number but buy SACDs by the boatload. That would fit lower awareness (smaller number of purchasers) and higher dollar volume (more units shipped per household or purchaser).

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

imported_Brian-W

It's no more biased than knowing how many of the DVD-A sales were due to the AC-3 compatible track that plays on every DVD player.

Lee Scoggins

Brian,

You could also ask good questions about the phone survey techniques...did Hart use a mix of lower and upper income types? If so, the Super Audio awareness would be enhanced by wealthy audiophiles who read The Absolute Sound and Stereophile and Postive Feedback, all of which have had steady stories promoting and praising SACD software and hardware.



I follow your logic but the size of the error might be different given the different volumes involved on each format.

no fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
in her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
~skateaway

LanceJ

Brian, I'm not picking on you specifically but I keep seeing this concept brought up in discussions like this and it isn't really a good analogy to an sacd hybrid.

The ONLY reason a person buys a dvd-audio is.......because it is a dvd-audio.

And no, we don't know what part of the disc they actually bought the disc for: hi-res stereo; hi-res surround; or lossy DD/DTS surround. But we DO know it wasn't because the buyer thought it was a CD. And this last part is what really screws up the **sacd** format's sales predictions.

LJ

MatS

my conclusion without even looking at this 'story' in any detail

both formats represent a minisule marketshare and will continue to do so

most people who said they were buying dvd audio were most likely refering to music dvds because the term dvd audio has the word 'dvd' in it

of course SACD outshiped dvda, I'm sure that shipments of DSOTM and Rolling Stones catalog SACDs alone topped all dvda shipments combined in 03 as well as all other SACD titles combined.

numbers can say anything you want them to