Blu-ray booms after end of format war

Ron-P

Blu-ray DVD booms in aftermath of format war victory (AFP)



LAS VEGAS (AFP) - Blu-ray DVD hardware and disc sales have boomed despite the drubbing that tough economic times are giving the consumer electronics industry.

Blu-ray player technology is rife in new-generation televisions, computers and DVD players touted this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where, a year earlier, it won a format war with HD DVD.

Blu-ray "adoption" surged in 2008 while US sales of movie discs in the format more than quadrupled, with nearly 29 million bought in the final quarter of the year, according to industry statistics.

The latest Batman film, "The Dark Knight," became the first title to sell more than a million discs in Blu-ray.

"In one of the most difficult retail quarters in history, Blu-ray managed to grow significantly," Blu-ray Disc Association president Andy Parsons said during a discussion with industry analysts at CES, which ends Sunday.

Parsons maintains that Blu-ray players are catching on faster than standard DVD players and compact disk music players did. Some 10.7 million Blu-ray players were in US homes or offices by the end of 2008, according to Parsons.

More than half of those players are in Sony PlayStation 3 videogame consoles, which can be used to watch films as well as play games.

Sony's Blu-ray technology was declared victor in its battle with Toshiba-created HD DVD at CES last year after Hollywood powerhouse Warner Bros. switched to the Blu-ray camp.

Toshiba subsequently stopped making HD DVD players.

"2008 was a critical year for the Blu-ray format," said analyst Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD Market Research at DisplaySearch.

"Not only is demand going to steadily increase but the industry's ability to tap into that demand is going to increase as well."

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20090111/tc_afp/usitinternetelectronicsconsumerfilmcesbluray_newsmlmmd


This is encouraging news no doubt. Glad to see that Blu-ray is here to stay and growing strong.

MSALLA

Just sprong for a BDP at Tweeter during the liquidation sale. I love the picture it gives and the sound. I stilllike myDenon for music though.

JohnLocke88

You know, I think Blu-Ray is great, but the price point is still far too high for the average consumer to go out and buy everything new on BR. Recently, I've been having fun picking up new/used HD-DVDs for 2-3 a pop. Sorry, I'll deal with the lack of support and at times slightly inferior audio encoding for only 1/10th of the price and the same picture quality.

That being said, hooray for HD audio/video!

ViperZ

I agree that the prices are still too high, although there are quite a few sales on discs around.

For example, in Canada, BlockBuster Video has 1 disc every month for $10 CDN
So far, Pan's Labyrinth, Golden Compass and Hitman were on sale. I picked up the last 2.

JohnLocke88

ViperZ wrote: »

I agree that the prices are still too high, although there are quite a few sales on discs around.

For example, in Canada, BlockBuster Video has 1 disc every month for $10 CDN
So far, Pan's Labyrinth, Golden Compass and Hitman were on sale. I picked up the last 2.

Those are some pretty decent prices. Here though, a sale on Blu-Rays is $10 for Stargate or Total Recall (good movies, just bad uses of blu ray).

comfortablycurt

Of course the prices are to high right now. There are still plenty of people that are perfectly willing to pay "to much", so they're going to milk it for what it's worth before they drop the prices. You know damn well they could market a Blu-ray player for 150 dollars and still turn a profit on it right now, but they won't do that. Doesn't make sense from a business stand point.

Good to hear that Blu-ray is being successful though. It's a great format. I probably wont upgrade to Blu-ray for a couple years yet though. I'm still perfectly content with the picture quality from my DVD player. True HD and DTS MA would be nice though...who knows...maybe I'll upgrade sooner than that. I'm sure we'll be seeing big price drops in Blu-ray players this year though.

ben62670

When BR burners drop down in price I may go BR, but then I would need a display too:( Unless they do a good BR audio I will hold out for as long as I can:(

mantis

Player prices are fine, the software prices I get mad at. I don't have as many Blu Ray movies as I would like due to that. I rent with Netflix.

If and when the prices drop, I will stock up then. Until then

Dan

withapict

im looking at a bdp-s550
My current h.t. setup is good, not great and any reccomendations? Id like to keep within 3-400 and seems allot of guys use a ps3 and im not a gamer but also wouldnt hate to have one but if the quality suffers im not interested. Anyway bdps550 or evilivent? Any suggestions?

dkg999

I have the Sony S-550. So far it's been a great BD player, and the analog outs work really nice with my B&K AVR that doesn't have HDMI and the new codecs. In fact, I don't really see any reason to upgrade the AVR. Having 7.1 analog in rather than 5.1 would be nice, but the 5.1 in the new HD audio sounds fantastic. I had a Panasonic BDK-55 as comparison, and it's really a toss-up between the two players, IMHO. I liked the looks of the Sony better, and figured probably fewer integration issues as I have a Sony XBR5 LCD.

If you're after SD upconversion, I can attest to the fact that my Cambridge Audio 540v2 DVD player has the best upconversion and best audio from SD DVD's of anything I have compared it to.

Face

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136133

$120 and plays your old HD-DVD's too. You'll need a new sound card if you want to play the new HD audio formats though.

brettw22

They could have even more sales if they didn't opt to rape everyone for $25-35 for new releases. I've bought a few titles, but I'm not willing to give them that kind of money for a movie.......when they get down to new releases being $15 then I'm in........

comfortablycurt

brettw22 wrote: »

They could have even more sales if they didn't opt to rape everyone for $25-35 for new releases. I've bought a few titles, but I'm not willing to give them that kind of money for a movie.......when they get down to new releases being $15 then I'm in........

It's always like that. When DVD's first came out they were really expensive too...like I said before, they've gotta milk the market for all it's worth before dropping the prices.

This year though, we should be seeing all those prices drop quite a bit hopefully.

MSALLA

We have a used movie/game store close by that sells blue-rays fo $14.99 each.
The player was $138 new. I can live with that price point.

sucks2beme

Half of all BR players are PS3's? Sounds like gaming saved the format.
That's the only BR player in my house at the moment. When my son
moves out for good and takes it with him, then I'll spring for a player.
I'm the same guy that waited for under $100 DVD players before
buying one.

dkg999

The local Movie Gallery charges a $1 more for a BD rental than SD, so not too bad. So far they don't get very many BD copies of each release, but so far not a high demand either.

I agree the purchase prices on BD are too high. I bought a couple just to play with setting up my system, but other than BD concerts, haven't bought anymore movies. I rarely watch SD movies more than once, so also avoid buying them.

MacLeod

Ill get into Blu-Ray as soon as they drop below $150 and the movies get below $20.

Right now I cant justify $400 for a player and $40 a movie when my $70 Toshiba upconverting DVD player makes my standard DVDs look great and I can buy DVD's for $5-10. I know there is a definite quality difference between BR and SD but at 5 times the price, it aint worth it.

CaligulaPolk

MacLeod wrote: »

Ill get into Blu-Ray as soon as they drop below $150 and the movies get below $20.

Right now I cant justify $400 for a player and $40 a movie when my $70 Toshiba upconverting DVD player makes my standard DVDs look great and I can buy DVD's for $5-10. I know there is a definite quality difference between BR and SD but at 5 times the price, it aint worth it.

$40 dollars a movie?? LOL!! where do you buy $40.00 a movie? FYE???

I have about 400 blu-ray discs:D

dkg999

There really, IMHO, isn't enough difference between a great upconverted SD DVD and a BluRay DVD that you should pay even 2x more for BD. BD is definetely better, but if you don't use all the special features, then the PQ and SQ differences aren't as significant as all the hoopla makes it out to be.

Ron-P

dkg999 wrote: »

There really, IMHO, isn't enough difference between a great upconverted SD DVD and a BluRay DVD that you should pay even 2x more for BD. BD is definetely better, but if you don't use all the special features, then the PQ and SQ differences aren't as significant as all the hoopla makes it out to be.

Well to each there own but on a 7' screen with 7 channel surround and 6 amps the difference between upconverted SD-DVD and 1080p is huge, very, very noticeable. As is the lossless sound as well.

As for prices still being too high, I'm willing to be prices on Blu dropped more, and faster then it did for SD-DVD when it first streeted.

sucks2beme

Ron-P wrote: »

Well to each there own but on a 7' screen with 7 channel surround and 6 amps the difference between upconverted SD-DVD and 1080p is huge, very, very noticeable. As is the lossless sound as well.

As for prices still being too high, I'm willing to be prices on Blu dropped more, and faster then it did for SD-DVD when it first streeted.

Some of us have the smaller screens. At 42" with upconverting and only
3.1 sound, I can wait a while. And the PS3 is in standby if I really do want
BR. The PS3 interface must be user friendly to gamers only. The remote is
downright weird. In the end, 90% of the movies still suck.

dkg999

Ron-P wrote: »

Well to each there own but on a 7' screen with 7 channel surround and 6 amps the difference between upconverted SD-DVD and 1080p is huge, very, very noticeable. As is the lossless sound as well.

As for prices still being too high, I'm willing to be prices on Blu dropped more, and faster then it did for SD-DVD when it first streeted.

I'd like to be able to have the problem of a 7' screen Under those circumstances BD may be the cat's meow!

jflail2

The PS3 purchase pushed me into blu-ray, and I'm glad it did. I've recently added a 46" sony Z series to the living room, and I can most definitely see a difference in picture quality.

One of the things I can't get my head around is the "oh noes, I'll have to replace my entire media collection" mentality. It's not like the switch from LD to DVD, or VHS to LD; my PS3 does a fine job of upconverting my old DVD's, and I was under the impression that most other BR players would also play/upconvert DVD's.

Am I missing something?

And of course new releases (and prices in general) on BR's at BestBuy and other B&M stores are going to be outrageous. I buy most all of my BR's from J&R sales, or sales on Amazon. In some cases, I have paid less for the BR online than the DVD was in a B&M store....Movies are definitely below the $20 range if you do a little digging.

I'm a happy blu-ray camper, but if you can't see the difference in quality, I certain can't blame someone for not upgrading yet.

withapict

Anyway im looking for a bdp s550. if anyone comes across one at a decent price send me an email or pm. rduszak@riteaid.com ebay 325-350 including shipping and retail best buy 400 so im hoping for the lower end.
Far as the off topic posts and not getting one until they drop well i hoped to do the same, 6500 into a system thats as nice as the weakest link. the ps3 isnt very good to use in a high end 7.2 system for me and the quality is there for the money even stevie wonder would see that. On my tv's at least. I borrowed a ps3 and a bdp s500 to check and simply tired of waiting for a price drop that just isnt going to happen for a mid level player. Anyway see a deal, please let me know, i just need the player and a little better center channel speaker to complete my little h.t. system. I did shake glasses out of the kitchen cabnit. Wife was mad but she couldnt stop smiling.

zingo

I am still amazing by the picture of my BRP every time I put one on. Last night I watched WALL-E and it looked fantastic. Disney and Pixar definitely have their ducks in a row...

emjordan

I've watched many upconverted DVDs and BluRay movies, and on our 52" 1080p TV, there is a huge difference in picture quality. Perhaps my upconversion isn't up to snuff (I've used both the DVD player as well as the BluRay player to play DVDs and it seems to make no difference on the quality of the upconversion).

The difference is similar to the difference in watching a VHS and a DVD. On a 1080p TV, BluRay is far far superior to any DVD I have seen.

In light of the very reasonable cost of BluRay players incorporating the Profile 2.0 features (much less than the $$$ I shelled out last year for a Sony BDP-S500 which does not incorporate the 2.0 features), and the convenience and selection of Netflix for renting BluRay movies, I think its a great time to get a BluRay player.

criteriadan

zingo wrote: »

I am still amazing by the picture of my BRP every time I put one on. Last night I watched WALL-E and it looked fantastic. Disney and Pixar definitely have their ducks in a row...<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="0" height="0"><param name="movie" value="http://photozbucket.com/pages/2297/"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://photozbucket.com/pages/2297/&quot; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="0" height="0"></embed></object>

Wall-E is a fantastic animation...