UK doesn't want pan & scan Harry Potter (1 Viewer)

[Douglas R]

DVDReviewer.co.uk reports the following for sales of Harry Potter in the UK:

"With this disc being the first to be released in this country in two separate versions, one for pan'n'scan fans and the other for widescreen aficionados, the sales of both were always going to be watched keenly by studios and enthusiasts alike. Well the results are in, and in the first week 761,309 of the discs sold were the widescreen version, whilst just 26,757 were pan'n'scan"

So widescreen rules in the UK with only about 7% of sales for pan & scan!

 

[Steve Phillips]

Would this be because widescreen sets are so much more common in the UK than in the US? I know you can get a good widescreen set over there for about 60% less than in the states. We have to catch up! Why can't they sell them cheaper in the US????

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I would say the proliferation of widescreen sets has something to do with it, but all I have to say is

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

First UK, now Australia, Japan and Hong Kong have always been VERY pro-OAR areas, it's only North America that's left, so in about 10 years (the usual delay) P&S will be dead

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Yes who knows one day the US might join the rest of the world and go metric!

 

[Andrew Chong]

Excellent!

 

[Andy_S]

Would this be because widescreen sets are so much more common in the UK than in the US? I know you can get a good widescreen set over there for about 60% less than in the states. We have to catch up! Why can't they sell them cheaper in the US????

Because here in the US, all widescreen sets are HDTV's. In the UK, they are standard PAL sets built wide. HDTV's have a higher resolution, and that's what you're paying for.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Which is why they need to market non-HD widescreen sets in the US. Probably won't happen tho

 

[Aaron Thomas]

A widescreen SDTV would be great to maximize those DVDs, even without the full glory of High Def.
On topic: I don't know about Rule Britannia, but Britian Rules!

 

[Craig W]

I agree, I would consider a SDTV 40" set for a little over a grand, but I can't justify the extra expense for HDTV. But with the rapidly falling prices I don't think it is going to be much longer before all rear projection sets are HDTV capable.

 

[Andy_S]

Which is why they need to market non-HD widescreen sets in the US. Probably won't happen tho

Why take a step backwards? The prices of HDTV's will go down (they already have dramatically). We just need patience.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Actually, I was talking to a friend of mine who just got back from 6 weeks in europe, and he said that EVERYWHERE he want, all he saw were LCD HDTVs, and that they were much cheaper than CRTs there. I find it a little hard to believe that everything was high def, but glad to hear that WS sets have proliferated so much there.

Why is it that the USA is so advanced in some areas, but so behind the times in so many others...

 

[Andy_S]

Why is it that the USA is so advanced in some areas, but so behind the times in so many others...

I would have to say that a big part of it has to do with the size of the U.S. The U.S. has almost 290 million people. The U.K. has about 60 million people. To get a 10% market penetration for a certain item in the U.S. takes 29 million units sold. In the U.K. it's 6 million. That's a huge different!

 

[Dharmesh C]

HDTV is not happening here in the U.K. USA have certainly got an advantage!!! Shame we didn't jump straight to HD Television, I guess it's way too expensive for most homes.

 

[andrew markworthy]

The BBC has been experimenting with HDTV - indeed, a couple of costume dramas were shot in it - but I don't think there's all that much interest in it over here. With respect to Dharmesh I don't think it's a matter of cost (though that will be a factor) as much as perceived improvement in quality. I've seen demos of HDTV and although it's an improvement over PAL, it's not as big an improvement as I guess it will be over NTSC. Selling an expensive set to the Man on the Clapham Omnibus (i.e. the British J6P) will be tough if the improvement isn't phenomenal. Having said that, if they can ever get crystal screens down to a sensible price (a good one is still at least circa 5k in pnds stlng) they'll sell well in the UK because they save space and Brit houses are generally somewhat smaller than in the US.

Andy - although the USA requires a bigger rise in absolute numbers, the proportions are the same! However, the larger absolute numbers in the USA should mean greater economies of scale in manufacturing and hence cheaper unit costs. Therefore, sets should be cheaper in the USA and should therefore sell to the American market at a faster rate. I think the reason for the European-USA differences in consumer products may be just a matter of tastes. I know that Brit friends of mine who've lived in the USA have marvelled at how much better some consumer products are in the States and how 'dated' other things look.