Blu-ray Disc Association's Press Conference 15:00 PST 01.08.07 (post all info here)

[dobyblue]

The Blu-ray Disc Association's CES press conference is in 40 minutes.

As the front page is getting ridiculously cluttered, perhaps we could post all news coming from this conference in here.

I'll not be checking back for another few hours as I've got errands to run, but I'm hoping to see some big announcements when I log back in this evening.

[Aodh]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/l...ss-conference/
They announced: Nothin. Re-communicated titles that did well and went over their sales, but presented nothing new. Said they're the clear winner and they don't know when the format war will end. Also said they had an 80% attach rate for PS3 users buying movies from the 10,000 surveyed, which I think everyone can agree is just way way too high. Also listed Talla. Nights as a top selling BD title, which really didn't make sense considering every PS3 user got it for free.

In short a lot of things that don't add up but show that Blu-ray is the clear winner in the BDA's perspective.

(I really want to see details on the survey, given that's my area of expertise. Something about it or how it was done doesn't seem like it would stand up.)

[Blurry]

Originally Posted by Aodh

(I really want to see details on the survey, given that's my area of expertise. Something about it or how it was done doesn't seem like it would stand up.)

You probably need to only own 1 BD movie to be included in the attach rate. I can see them asking PS3 owners:

"do you own any Blu-ray movies",

"Yeah, Talladega Nights, do yo know where I can unload...",

"That's good enough, thank you for your time".

[Aodh]

Originally Posted by Blurry

You probably need to only own 1 BD movie to be included in the attach rate. I can see them asking PS3 owners:

"do you own any Blu-ray movies",

"Yeah, Talladega Nights, do yo know where I can unload...",

"That's good enough, thank you for your time".

Or they stick the survey invite/url inside the case for some of the movies you buy, and since you bought it, you obviously buy movies. You need a solid methodology to claim crap like what they are, otherwise this could be the next fake movie review/blog site/etc.

[HarakoMeshi]

Originally Posted by Aodh

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/l...ss-conference/
They announced: Nothin. Re-communicated titles that did well and went over their sales, but presented nothing new. Said they're the clear winner and they don't know when the format war will end. Also said they had an 80% attach rate for PS3 users buying movies from the 10,000 surveyed, which I think everyone can agree is just way way too high. Also listed Talla. Nights as a top selling BD title, which really didn't make sense considering every PS3 user got it for free.

In short a lot of things that don't add up but show that Blu-ray is the clear winner in the BDA's perspective.

(I really want to see details on the survey, given that's my area of expertise. Something about it or how it was done doesn't seem like it would stand up.)

Sony announced 90 to 100 BD movies in 2007. That's 90 to 100 more movies than Toshiba Pictures announced. j.k.

The Matrix - Good!! Ocean's Good. Harry Potter Good. Disney, Fox, Lions Gate Good! Blu-ray owning Japan Good! 80% PS3 attach rate Good!!!!!!!!!

Something about the survey, one possibility is via the PS3 Network. During the subscription step there is an optional survey which asks stuff including if you will buy Blu-ray movies.

[hmurchison]

Fairly tepid announcement.

Samsung's new player looks good, Cars and PotC are coming. They definitely haven't delivered a killshot.

[Aodh]

Originally Posted by HarakoMeshi

Sony announced 90 to 100 BD movies in 2007. That's 90 to 100 BD movies than Toshiba announced. j.k.

The Matrix - Good!! Ocean's Good. Harry Potter Good. Disney, Fox, Lions Gate Good! 80% PS3 attach rate Good!!!!!!!!!

Yeah but it's nothing new, this is what all the studios have already said all afternoon. Nothing about marketing, players, pricing... There wasn't any strategy, which is really disappointing in terms of a developing multimedia format.

[HarakoMeshi]

Originally Posted by Aodh

Yeah but it's nothing new, this is what all the studios have already said all afternoon. Nothing about marketing, players, pricing... There wasn't any strategy, which is really disappointing in terms of a developing multimedia format.

Sounds to me like they think their original strategy is working just fine, with BD solftware sales growing 700% in 6 weeks.

[Blurry]

Interesting, no mention of New Line nor LOTR in upcoming titles, just Harry Potter and Matrix, both also available on HD DVD. I am thinking this may be a bad sign for Blu-ray. I think there are very few people who don't want the LOTR trilogy,and they have a great catalog in addition to the trilogy including:

Austin Powers,
Blade trilogy,
Butterfly Effect,
The Cell,
Cellular,
Dark City (a must buy for me),
Dungeons & Dragons,
Elf,
Final Destination series,
Gone with the Wind,
Magnolia (a must buy for me),
Nightmare on Elm Street series,
Rush Hour 1 & 2,
Se7en,
Snakes on a Plane,
The Wedding Singer (I always loved this movie)

Somehow, I am thinking that New Line has not committed to Blu-ray or else we would have heard of it.

[Pat H]

So this big BD press conference was called for them to essentially say "we rule" to the competition. I have to say I'm quite underwhelmed.

[StingerNLG]

I read somewhere on this forum, don't recall which thread, that distribution rights to Gladiator and some other pictures from Universal are owned by another studio. Any fact in that?

Pretty much. Gee, the BDA saying they are winning the competition. Now who would have expected THAT to happen.

If the BDA got up and said "You know, HD DVD is really better," THEN we've got a news story. Otherwise it's a rah-rah session and a chart with incorrect dates on it.

[Wretched]

If you were looking for a "killshot", I think that you may have seen it when Blu-Ray had over 80% of the movie industries support-many exclusive-and the majority of the big names in the electronics division (Apple, HP, Sony/Panasonic, Dell, etc.).
Not to mention the Blu-Ray's attach rate to that of the PS3 owners, or the fact that Japan is virtually a lost cause for HD-DVD. Oh, but of course...its an inflated number. with all the ridiculous excuses we can come up with, I'm not sure if we should even analyze these situations anymore-because it can always be spun right back around as either
-not a major deal, or
-actually a good thing for the opponents ( )
It may be inflated (in all likeliness, it is-to some extent..although the steep rise in Blu-Ray sales definitely supports it), but it shows one concrete fact: the majority of PS3 owners will buy blu ray titles. Fine, we could assume that the PS3 wont sell "too well"...ie, it wont sell 110 million over the course of 6 years...oh, fiddlesticks.
Or, better yet..lets cut that down even further for the sake of the HD-DVD supporters. Lets assume that only 50% of the Ps3 owners use the Blu-Ray drive for movies; that is still over 500K players out there in NA alone. But of course, we need to factor in the 360's HD-DVD add-on. Yes, quite a success it is when approx. 300K sold (aren't I being a bit generous with that number?) out of the 360's userbase (10.4 million, according to MS). The fact of the matter is that the BD camp will always, always, always have an advantage on this front, as Sony has chosen to make the drive standard. A nice moral decision? Of course not. A nice business decision? Depends on your perspective. A nice blu ray decision? Oh, yes. A big problem for HD-DVD? Check.
Now...for over a year, i've been observing this format war, and to this day, I still dont know how HD-DVD fans consider the fact of over 3 major studios refusing to support their format a "smaller issue than others at stake". It doesn't make sense to me. You tell me how they can win without the support of three of the biggest names in the industry. Tell me, and let me know how dense I am that I couldn't see the light. You tell me the chances of Fox or Disney going neutral after CES (nevermind Sony, or any of its studios). You tell me the chances of any HD-DVD player competing with the PS3, or that HD-DVD will ever have a year as good as 06 again.

We can dismiss all of this gloating from all of these industry giants all we want, but the fact that must be stressed is that this gloating is coming from all these giants. Their shallow comments dont matter, but their heavy support definitely does. The industry doesn't want another war-it doesn't need another war. If Total HD isn't accepted (a worthy solution to this heated conflict), then no one can argue that Blu-Ray is in a better position than HD-DVD is. None of that "blah blah Blu Ray is the confirmed winner..". No, I'm not saying that. But Blu Ray is standing taller than HD-DVD as of now, and I dont expect to see that change. HD-DVD took advantage of its head-start moderately well, but it wasn't enough, and now that chance to woo companies is almost completely gone.

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by Wretched

If you were looking for a "killshot", I think that you may have seen it when Blu-Ray had over 80% of the movie industries support-many exclusive-and the majority of the big names in the electronics division (Apple, HP, Sony/Panasonic, Dell, etc.).
Not to mention the Blu-Ray's attach rate to that of the PS3 owners, or the fact that Japan is virtually a lost cause for HD-DVD. Oh, but of course...its an inflated number. with all the ridiculous excuses we can come up with, I'm not sure if we should even analyze these situations anymore-because it can always be spun right back around as either
-not a major deal, or
-actually a good thing for the opponents ( )
It may be inflated (in all likeliness, it is-to some extent..although the steep rise in Blu-Ray sales definitely supports it), but it shows one concrete fact: the majority of PS3 owners will buy blu ray titles. Fine, we could assume that the PS3 wont sell "too well"...ie, it wont sell 110 million over the course of 6 years...oh, fiddlesticks.
Or, better yet..lets cut that down even further for the sake of the HD-DVD supporters. Lets assume that only 50% of the Ps3 owners use the Blu-Ray drive for movies; that is still over 500K players out there in NA alone. But of course, we need to factor in the 360's HD-DVD add-on. Yes, quite a success it is when approx. 300K sold (aren't I being a bit generous with that number?) out of the 360's userbase (10.4 million, according to MS). The fact of the matter is that the BD camp will always, always, always have an advantage on this front, as Sony has chosen to make the drive standard. A nice moral decision? Of course not. A nice business decision? Depends on your perspective. A nice blu ray decision? Oh, yes. A big problem for HD-DVD? Check.
Now...for over a year, i've been observing this format war, and to this day, I still dont know how HD-DVD fans consider the fact of over 3 major studios refusing to support their format a "smaller issue than others at stake". It doesn't make sense to me. You tell me how they can win without the support of three of the biggest names in the industry. Tell me, and let me know how dense I am that I couldn't see the light. You tell me the chances of Fox or Disney going neutral after CES (nevermind Sony, or any of its studios). You tell me the chances of any HD-DVD player competing with the PS3, or that HD-DVD will ever have a year as good as 06 again.

We can dismiss all of this gloating from all of these industry giants all we want, but the fact that must be stressed is that this gloating is coming from all these giants. Their shallow comments dont matter, but their heavy support definitely does. The industry doesn't want another war-it doesn't need another war. If Total HD isn't accepted (a worthy solution to this heated conflict), then no one can argue that Blu-Ray is in a better position than HD-DVD is. None of that "blah blah Blu Ray is the confirmed winner..". No, I'm not saying that. But Blu Ray is standing taller than HD-DVD as of now, and I dont expect to see that change. HD-DVD took advantage of its head-start moderately well, but it wasn't enough, and now that chance to woo companies is almost completely gone.

I am sorry I just couldnt finish reading this, too much BS.

I will say that I am not surprised by people buying movies to try out thier new BD player. The real test will be to see if they become full fledged adopters or if they end up only buying a few titles every month or every few months. I know that if I had a PS3 Iwould be buying movies as well. Its a 600 dollar machine and there are no games for it so you would want to use it for something.

The same thing happened with Sony's PSP and the minidisc. There were like zero games for it when it first came out and people were buying lots of movies so they could at least use the thing and then those movie sales dropped like a rock which i fully expect to happen here.

As for the 80% number, LOL LOL LOL. I guarantee it isnt even half that number. Sony's famous increasing numbers game.

Overall this press confernece was a joke and told us absolutly nothing new. It was just another excuse for SOny to claim themselves the victors which they love to do, just follow E3.

Sorry Doby, I know you were hoping for some killer news to come out of this thing, its why you made the thread all early and stuff. Maybe next time..

OC..

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

I am sorry I just couldnt finish reading this, too much BS.

Should I return the favor?

I will say that I am not surprised by people buying movies to try out thier new BD player. The real test will be to see if they become full fledged adopters or if they end up only buying a few titles every month or every few months.

Talladega nights could be perceived as that "test" you were looking for. And even if they do end up buying "a few" titles every month or so, that will still trounce the sales that hardcore fanatics-on either side-are responsible for.

I know that if I had a PS3 Iwould be buying movies as well. Its a 600 dollar machine and there are no games for it so you would want to use it for something.

Glad we agree.

The same thing happened with Sony's PSP and the minidisc. There were like zero games for it when it first came out and people were buying lots of movies so they could at least use the thing and then those movie sales dropped like a rock which i fully expect to happen here.

The PSP also didn't cost $600; I fully expect the majority of consumers to know what they're paying for, especially the hardcore fanatics who have a PS3 right now. How do you explain the PS2's success with the DVD format? Its 1-year presence in the industry aside, the PS2 helped push the DVD format throughout its early life, even with all of the game titles available. the UMD format also wasn't supported by the majority of movie studios...and it was built solely for the PSP handheld, unlike Blu Ray...and there was very little marketing involved...and-well, it was the PSP, not the Playstation 3.

Furthermore, I didn't see companies like Disney and Fox touting the UMD format to such an extreme extent...did you? No...dont get me wrong, I see the argument and the connections that could be made, but the situations and positions that these companies have put themselves in are much different.

All of these differences aside, lets say I actually put this aside for you. Well, there you go....now, what about everything else stated?

As for the 80% number, LOL LOL LOL. I guarantee it isnt even half that number. Sony's famous increasing numbers game.

awesome rebuttal you have there. I'm spent.

[messin18]

Originally Posted by Wretched

Should I return the favor?
.

You have to admit your post was horrendously long and poorly formatted.