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Originally Posted by Cees Alons
Wow!
'PotC at Worlds End' and 'Superbad' are doing great!  What's out next week? Cees |
). Why would I?|
Originally Posted by Cees Alons
Jeff,
I'm absolutely not shooting you (or trying to do that ). Why would I?I was typing my reaction, when I later found out that another post had come in between, so I added your quote + your name to clarify what it was I was replying to. That was all! Honestly. |
| I know. I was just kidding with you. |
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Originally Posted by Cees Alons
One explanation, given elsewhere, makes sense: because HD DVD has no region setting, European customers (especially British) can have it for a great price, even including extra shipping costs.
The dollar just went down to the Euro and the Pound this week again (€1 = $1.50, approx., £ 1 = $2.05, or so). So, it's a perfect X-mas present to all those people! And think of it like this: if this explanation is true, it helps making the $ stronger again! |
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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
Doug,
what's your display system like? I'm curious as to what player you're using, your projector, connection type (ie, HDMI?) and viewing-angle. (not an arguement here, an honest question). thanks! dave |
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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
Cees, you continually bring up "combo players" as the "perfect solution". And I think you'd be absolutely right except for one thing: it will *always* cost significantly more to manufacture a combo player versus a stand-alone for a single format. Why? There are physical differences to the disc drive and lens assembly making it more comlciated to design a single drive that works well with both disc structures. There's also significant differences in the software decoding side that necessitate a more complicated mother board and chip structure: BD-J and HDi may look similar when they do a PIP image on the users screen, but what's going on behind the scenes is entirely different... and you've got double-the-chip-power under the hood if you want to do both. ie: combo players are much closer to "two single format players under one hood" than they are "a universal player with tweaks to work with both systems". It's not just marketing that Keeps Samsung's combo players at about twice the cost of their single format machines. Now, could this "twice the cost" ratio shrink over time? Most likely, But even in the best of circumstances a combo player would probably cost a consumer at least 50 percent more than would a single-format machine (and it would probably take years for production volume to push prices low enough to be a non-issue versus single-format solutions). So... in the interest of consumers and price (something you champion all the time  ) a single-format solution would be best for everyone, especially given that any "inter-format competition benefits" ejoyed thus far would also disappear with the advent of ubiquitous combo-players because the "format" would become invisible to the end-user: Studios would be competing just as they always have... one studio's titles against another on discs that play in your one machine. Might as well make that machine as cost-effective as possible (single format).The advantage of a combo-player solution model, of course, is that if that were to happen, no one's existing HD library of software is left in the ebay-cold. And if combo players could be manufactured at costs equal (or extremely close) to single-format hardware I'd be content. But that's not likely based on some significant physical and software differences between BD and HD DVD. |
| BD has more space, but is more vulnerable. |
| The thing I can't figure out is how Planet Earth is the #1 HD-DVD again for the week?!? How and why is this title outselling Transformers? It's a terrific set, but I've been puzzled for months at how a special interest title with a $100 MSRP has such staying power. |
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Originally Posted by Jeff Adkins
For those interested, Dave Vaughn has just posted the Nielsen Videoscan sales numbers for this past week. 76:24 Blu-Ray.
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Is anyone really surprised at these numbers. Any meaningful data that could or would be attached to these numbers is totally corrupted by the endless Blu-ray BOGO sales during this quarter....and past quarters for that matter.
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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
Cees, a slight correction. An *uncoated* BD is more vulnerable. However, no uncoated BDs are sold. Only *coated* Blu-ray Discs. And coated Blu-ray Discs, while more expensive than HD DVD manufacture, are actually *more* durable than an HD DVD.
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Originally Posted by Cees Alons
One explanation, given elsewhere, makes sense: because HD DVD has no region setting, European customers (especially British) can have it for a great price, even including extra shipping costs.
The dollar just went down to the Euro and the Pound this week again (€1 = $1.50, approx., £ 1 = $2.05, or so). So, it's a perfect X-mas present to all those people! And think of it like this: if this explanation is true, it helps making the $ stronger again! Cees |
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Originally Posted by bigluigi
By the same token, I eagerly await HD-DVD BOGO sales as well as further reduction in HD-DVD hardware prices (Walmart are you listening) for the same stated reason.
Hey...anyone know what's with Warner Bros having a Blu-ray EXCLUSIVE(almost) BOGO sale??? |
| They won't go the way of SACD/ DVD-A because while SD-DVD is, like CD, perfectly sufficient for 99% of consumers, HD discs have a much higher profile in the market than the advanced audio formats ever did. |
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Originally Posted by RobertR
I never did buy the notion that SACD and DVD-A failed (yes, they are both failures) because of their format war. The fact is that very few people thought they were a significant improvement over Redbook CD (there was argument about this even in the audio high-end newsgroup). No such disagreement exists about the improvement provided over DVD by the HD formats, although it can be argued that the general public won't ever think it's a big enough difference to buy them.
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Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
I agree that one of the reasons that SACD and DVD-A failed is that most people couldn't hear an improvement in the quality of the audio. But another factor is simply that most people didn't even know that they existed. I consider myself to be FAIRLY up to date on new products coming out, and I didn't know these things existed until about 3 years ago when I started reading this forum.
That says to me that there was no serious effort to market SACD or DVD-A to the general public. Doug |
| HDDVD/Blu-Ray show signs of going down the same path, although having a larger niche. The marketing is there, but people aren't flocking to either format and you can bet the format war has little to do with it. |
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Originally Posted by RobertR
That's exactly why I think all the hand-wringing by some about the "need" for one format is off-base.
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| To remain affordable, it's imperative that BOTH formats survive for some time, if only that they may compete with each other. Remember, the Laserdisc format??? Man-o-man does anyone ever remember any BOGO sales during the formats run of over 16+ years! Nope, because of its niche status software, and to a large extent, hardware prices remained very expensive. |
| To remain affordable, it's imperative that BOTH formats survive for some time, if only that they may compete with each other. |
| Remember, the Laserdisc format??? Man-o-man does anyone ever remember any BOGO sales during the formats run of over 16+ years! Nope, because of its niche status software, and to a large extent, hardware prices remained very expensive. |
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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
did the total sales for Planet Earth out-sell Transoformers, or was Planet Earth just the best-selling HDM title that week? I remember that AVS members had an "order Planet Earth on HD DVD" crusade which really helped push up the numbers to "spike" that inidiviaul title. If it continues to spike, then obviously there's a larger market issue reality. If it's just that one-time spike that we all keep talking about, then it was because of a concerted effort to rally orders to push the sales figures.
Which goes to show how with a medium with as little mass adoption as HD DVD and BD, it's actually possible for membership on a forum like AVS or HTF to significantly affect the sales numbers. |
| What was the other format that competed year after year with DVD to drive prices down? (hint... it wasn't the flash-in-the-pan DIVX) Why... it was *other* DVD players. |
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Originally Posted by RobertR
I never did buy the notion that SACD and DVD-A failed (yes, they are both failures) because of their format war.
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Originally Posted by RobertR
The fact is that very few people thought they were a significant improvement over Redbook CD (there was argument about this even in the audio high-end newsgroup).
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Originally Posted by RobertR
No such disagreement exists about the improvement provided over DVD by the HD formats
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Originally Posted by RobertR
That's true. I've seen commercials that say "Movie X now out on DVD and HDDVD (or Blu-ray)". I never saw similar commercials for those audio formats.
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Originally Posted by Jeff Adkins
I wonder what Warner thinks about Ocean's Thirteen getting beaten by Top Gun?
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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
You've already got two formats in recent history that did just fine cost-wise without dual-format competition: CD DVD . |
| I think the lack of competition is one of the reasons we are seeing problem in the music industry now. The fact that a music CD is still $20 is ridiculous. A single disc music CD should never be more than $9. Most should be $5. If they would price these things for the value that you are actually getting, they wouldn't have to worry about piracy. |
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Originally Posted by Jeff Adkins
I wonder what Warner thinks about Ocean's Thirteen getting beaten by Top Gun?
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