So how big is JB? Oz going blu?

cheddar

So anyone know if this is significant? Is JB like BB or something smaller. Anyways, thought it was interesting that at Australia's blu-ray launch there are retailers announcing exclusive support for a format. I would think that retailers would be among the last to pick sides as they have to respond to what the customer at the counter is demanding.

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9548/52/

Emlyn

No offense to Aussies, but we have more people in Texas than there are in Australia. The market just isn't significant, even though JB is a major retailer in Australia. At least JB is open with saying they're paid by Sony to not support the rival format.

cheddar

Emlyn,

Not that I'm doubting the possibility, but where in the article does it say Sony is paying them?

JB Hi-Fi backs Blu-ray at official Australian launch
By Adam Turner
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
More than twenty Australian companies, including retail giant JB Hi-Fi, have thrown their support behind Blu-ray at the high definition format's official launch in Sydney.

Entertainment retail chain JB Hi-Fi has come out in support of the new format, declaring it will only stock Blu-ray products and not those of the rival HD DVD format.

"Blu-ray is the only format that has the ability to tell the whole story, with the most comprehensive offering on the market. With seven of Hollywood’s leading studios accounting for the vast majority of 2006’s home video sales, among the 170 plus companies globally that support Blu-ray Disc, it makes sense that content will be king when it comes to Blu-ray," said JB Hi-Fi marketing director Scott Browning

"Indeed this is the reason that we have decided to only stock Blu-ray products at JB Hi-Fi."

A raft of Blu-ray Disc products, including players, recorders, high definition computer drives, recordable media and PC applications, as well as over 70 movie and music titles were on display at the event. Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3 games console with also play Blu-ray discs.

Blu-ray offers retailers such a JB Hi-Fi a change to boost HDTV sales, which have suffered due to Australia's slow digital television takeup.

The Blu-ray camp also used the event to launch www.blurayaustralia.com.au as part of its ongoing marketing war with HD DVD. Sony continues to insist that Blu-ray has already won the format war, this time based on January sales figures.

SKsolutions

For better or worse, you might watch the adult video arena to see what way the wind blows. If you remember VHS, and Beta, you will know why. It may also follow this trend where the better product fails because of this and complexity issues.

cheddar

Yes, I know. At CES, the big buzz was that **** was on HD-DVD's side. There always seems to be some way of spinning things back to the position that HD-DVD's still got momentum. With free **** available on the internet, I wouldn't think that **** will play the same role it did when people had to go to a store to get their **** on video.

I have also heard that the 360 add-on will save it. Or that universal releasing their library will save it. Or that cheap players from China will save it. Or that sony's battery recall will sink the company, or that sony losing money on the ps3 will force it under. Or that the name blu-ray just sucks. Whatever.

Wallstreet has heard all of these things, and has analyzed this whole war a lot closer than we have. Guess what:



That's sony's stock on a constant rise since the ps3 was released, with toshiba taking a dive. And investors are usually looking 6 mo. to a year ahead. People keep asking me to wait to see which way the wind is blowing. Well, I think that the wind seems to be blowing pretty consistently, and its color is blu...;)

cheddar

So 20+ million people in Australia might only be a large state in the US. However, this decision by JB seems to be the result of a complete abandonment of the continent by Toshiba.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/home-theatre/hooray-for-bluray/2007/02/15/1171405337968.html?s_cid=rss_technology

Universal is just about the only studio producing a dribble of titles in the country and Toshiba diverted all its production capacity except for a few laptops away from the market.

If HD-DVD technology is so simple and easy to produce at low pricepoints, why ignore the international market? Why is blu-ray able to so easily produce players for this market? This doesn't seem to indicate that an economy of scale is on Toshiba's side or that an avalanche of cheap players is just around the corner.

So missing out on the Australian market actually seems to reveal that even with relatively low sales of HD players here, Toshiba is already reaching the limits of their production and distribution capacity.

SKsolutions

You seem to be better informed than I. I liked your point of Internet **** availability, although I have no personal experience with which to confirm this, as far as you know.

While I agree it may have less impact now, it's still a major issue. I believe the availability of encoding studios will better determine the outcome as opposed to stock quotes. If you count the authoring houses of each format, you may still have time to call your broker. Frankly, I forget who was winning in that area, but it was rather one sided with the one that authored ****. It will work itself out naturally long before I buy one, so I may be aphasic with the formats. Caveat reader.

cheddar

Well,

I'm not recommending Sony stock, only indicating that all the negative 'rumors' don't seem to have a pull with analysts looking at Sony's future fortunes. Here's a newsweek article on ****. It seems inline with what I was thinking that free internet **** has radically shifted the industry:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17033892/site/newsweek/

If the conclusions of the article are sound, and I don't see why they wouldn't be if **** is really shifting to the internet, then mainstream content will drive a format to victory with **** just finding a way to jump with the winner.

That means, only lonely Universal has any chance at all to save HD-DVD. If they go neutral, then blu-ray will become a universal format anyways. I wonder how long they can hold out with the trend towards declining HD-DVD sales vs Blu-ray?

http://www.dvdempire.com/Content/Features/hidef_wars.asp?view=1&userid=99365301400678

Hey, they've always got the saltwater aquarium disk to pad their sales...:rolleyes:

m00npie

cheddar wrote:

People keep asking me to wait to see which way the wind is blowing. Well, I think that the wind seems to be blowing pretty consistently, and its color is blu...;)

OK... Then why do you keep posting on this subject?

cheddar

m00npie wrote:

OK... Then why do you keep posting on this subject?

This month and last there seems to have been a complete reversal in the format war. I would think this is of interest to anyone thinking of buying an HD player as HD-DVD appears to be a somewhat riskier format to buy into at this point than Blu-ray. Especially with the news over the last few weeks.

If people are still sitting on the fence, I can understand that. But there have been people posting here that have recently bought into both formats in the last month and it might be helpful for them to know these recent developments.

That's all. It may be of interest to some people. I don't mislabel my threads. So if people are interested, fine. If they aren't, I figure they can steer clear of the threads they don't want to read...:)

TN_Polk_Lover

cheddar wrote:

. . . Or that the name blu-ray just sucks. . . .

I really like the name "blu-ray" It is easy to say and when you say it people know exactly what you are talking about.

It's kindof like Apple with "ipod". That is such a catchy name and easy to say. I'm not at all a Microsoft basher . . . I like Microsoft . . . but I think that the name they came up with for their player (the "Zune") sucks. The only thing good about it is that it rhymes with "Tune", but otherwise, it kindof sounds funny to me.

Just my humble opinion.

Robert

cheddar

Totally agree. And they seem to have color on their side too. Cool, clear blue seems so much easier to market than reddish-brown.

VXR8

Hi all,

JB Hi Fi isn't as big a retailer here in Oz as is the impression you have received there. They sell primarily CDs and DVDs, dabble in a bit of car audio (no Polk though) and have the usual "cooking models" of home theatre - they certainly aren't high end.

Both formats are slow to take off here and my first dabble with them will be via PS3 when released here on March 23 and the XBox 360 add on HD DVD player.

I like many others here in Oz won't be going out (yet) to buy a specific Blu-ray or HD DVD player until the market decides which way it will fall. Having the facility in PS3 and the add on to XBox will suffice at this stage.

Cheers.

cheddar

Thanks for the info on JB. I was actually thinking of you when I asked the question since you said you were getting a ps3.

I originally thought that Europe and Australia were getting the short end when they didn't get a ps3 release for Christmas. But it seems that you all may be getting a much smoother launch than we did in the states. You are getting a better production run/distribution network, more games, and at least europe is getting casino royale. I think I would rather have the problematic 5th element than what we got which was talledega. Does Australia get casino royale too?

Anyhoo, I'd be interested to hear how the launch goes when it happens.

VXR8

Hey cheddar,

Sorry, when you mention Casino Royale, are you referring to the PS3 game or the Blu-ray DVD? I'm not sure on either, but will investigate. Also, we don't always get new release DVDs here at the same time as you (unless it is a world release). I buy some releases from Amazon to get them earlier than the Oz release.

Ciao for now.

scottvamp

Thanks for the updates Cheddar.;) I am enjoying the format war!!!!!:D

cheddar

VXR8 wrote:

Hey cheddar,

Sorry, when you mention Casino Royale, are you referring to the PS3 game or the Blu-ray DVD? I'm not sure on either, but will investigate. Also, we don't always get new release DVDs here at the same time as you (unless it is a world release). I buy some releases from Amazon to get them earlier than the Oz release.

Ciao for now.

Actually I'm referring to the freebie BD in the ps3 box. The first 500,000 ps3s in europe are supposed to get the disk bundled for free at launch. You might want to look for it as it's always nice to get such a popular title for nothin'.

cheddar

scottvamp wrote:

Thanks for the updates Cheddar.;) I am enjoying the format war!!!!!:D

No problem. If the 360 add-on actually did a good job in the audio department, I'd probably have an HD-DVD player at this point too. I'm really just an HT fan who finds all this format market stuff fascinating...:cool:

VXR8

cheddar wrote:

Actually I'm referring to the freebie BD in the ps3 box. The first 500,000 ps3s in europe are supposed to get the disk bundled for free at launch. You might want to look for it as it's always nice to get such a popular title for nothin'.

Hi cheddar,

Nothing quoted with the PS3 launch as freebies at this stage. They haven't actually started the "pre order" bit yet, so no doubt something will come out when this happens.

scottvamp

Interesting........................
» Play.com (EU): PlayStation 3 is 'most pre-ordered console yet' Article posted by XanTium | 15-2-2007 13:01 | Permalink | Digg News » Comment article

From gamesindustry.biz:

Online retailer Play.com is taking six times more pre-orders than it received for PlayStation 3 than Xbox 360 - and 15 times more than the Nintendo Wii.

That's according to head of games Gian Luzio, who told GamesIndustry.biz that PS3 is "the most pre-ordered console yet" for Play. The retailer is offering a GBP 524.99 bundle which includes first-party titles MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man and Genji.

However, Play has pledged to deliver all pre-ordered PS3 units on launch day, with Luzio stating, "We have taken the necessary steps to ensure that customers will only be able to pre-order the system up until Play's allocation has been reached.

cheddar

Yep,

I've read other reports along those lines too. Even more amazing when you think that they raised prices for Europe. They'll definitely get another nice bump in the ps3 installed base out of the European launch. Then I think we'll have to wait until reports of pricecuts materialize and games like killzone come out later this year to see if the ps3 can gain traction against the wii. I think the console war is still alive and well even if the HD format war is beginning to fade.

I'd actually like the console war to go on for a while as it's already given us better hardware and will probably translate into better and more innovative games as well.

But as far as HD goes, I agree with Bill Hunt:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa133.html#commonsense

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

It's time for this part of the war to end so people will actually start buying the players in mass, prices can come down, and studios can start releasing the best of their libraries (spielberg (who recently thumped universal for putting his movies on their hd-dvd list before they retracted it and apologized), extended versions of LOTR (that probably wouldn't have fit on one hd-dvd anyways), etc.).

C'mon universal. Time to cry uncle and stop putting us through this mess. What the heck could they be getting out of all this that's worth missing out on the blu-ray sales? I really wonder what sweet backroom deal they cut that warrants putting themselves in such a position since the entire NBC/Universal unit seems to be in a state of uncertainty of late. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-wright4feb04,0,4061207.story?page=1&track=mostviewed-splashpage Warner and Paramount sure knew better...

VXR8

G'day all,

Just an update, the PS3 launch was yesterday here in Oz and for a limited time, when you register online you receive the Bluray Casino Royale DVD - you don't get it up front as per Europe.

cheddar

Thanks for the update. If you get a ps3 and score Casino Royale you'll definitely get a better freebie than we got in the states with talledega. CR is a really nice transfer that shows off what blu-ray can do. And it's a good movie too.

VXR8

Update - you have to subscribe to PS3 Live to receive the Casino Royale DVD.