'Planet Earth' Amazon Ranks/Comeback for HD DVD?

[jed]

Just posted a story about 'Planet Earth' and HD DVD's strong Amazon ranks:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show//580

There was an earlier thread on this topic that got out of hand and our mods had to close it -- feel free to argue your point all you want, but if you make things personal, you risk being banned from this site. (If you're not familiar with the rules in this smackdown area, here's a link: http://forums.highdefdigest.com/anno...nt.php?f=6&a=9)

[onyxx]

Like I posted in another thread, Casino Royale reached no.6 when there was actually other big releases on DVD, HD DVD and BD (even outperforming one version of CR on DVD). HD DVD did it on a blank release Sunday, don't you think that is quite a different thing?

Also the "buy-a-thon" seems to have a negative impact on other HD selling sites like DVDEmpire were HD DVD had a 50% ratio last week to have a 32% ratio this week. It is going to be interesting to see the upcoming Nielsen numbers to see if this action actually had an impact on the famous 2:1 ratio?

[MasterBlaster]

This is great news for HD DVD, it would be rather silly to waste time spinning it as a negative.

[onyxx]

This is great news for HD DVD, it would be rather silly to waste time spinning it as a negative.

Sorry if I did that, I just had to say my peace on this article...

[booner]

I'll be contributing to the "comeback" tonight with a purchase of Smokin' Aces and Feast.

[Space_Butler]

If blu-ray fans want to discount the buyathon, fine. I have no problem with that, as I don't count the Amazon blu-ray sale, as neither are indicative of people's normal buying habits. However, they can't discount the chart which shows that blu-ray sales dipped slightly a few weeks back, and HD-DVD climbed up, right around the time that HD-DVD started getting more titles out. The gap is being narrowed, and while its an uphill battle for HD-DVD, the format is far from dead. Only the most loyal of blu-ray fanboys will call the rise in HD-DVD sales several days prior to the sale part of some coordinated effort as well. If anything, it's more impressive that HD-DVD jumped up in the face of the Warner sale, which had people spending quite a bit there instead of Amazon.

[tranzparentl]

Like I posted in another thread, Casino Royale reached no.6 when there was actually other big releases on DVD, HD DVD and BD (even outperforming one version of CR on DVD). HD DVD did it on a blank release Sunday, don't you think that is quite a different thing?

Sorry we don't get to pick the release schedules. I understand where you're coming from but it depends on how you look at it.

Casino Royale was released when there was 0 HD DVD releases that week and Sony released the numbers from that week. You think those numbers aren't skewed?

If a movie flops in theatres, you think the financers are gonna want to hear excuses that it flopped because other movies opened the same day?

[Monty HD]

Like I posted in another thread, Casino Royale reached no.6 when there was actually other big releases on DVD, HD DVD and BD (even outperforming one version of CR on DVD). HD DVD did it on a blank release Sunday, don't you think that is quite a different thing?

Also the "buy-a-thon" seems to have a negative impact on other HD selling sites like DVDEmpire were HD DVD had a 50% ratio last week to have a 32% ratio this week. It is going to be interesting to see the upcoming Nielsen numbers to see if this action actually had an impact on the famous 2:1 ratio?

Casino also did it as with all the loss leaders on Amazon. Remeber the 50% sale during this time frame. A loss leader is a product sold at either a loss or a very low price in hopes the consumer will attach another item to the sale. Hince Casino Royal could be seen as the other item attached to 50% off items being purchased.

[Majestikk]

Just purchased Feast today on Amazon.com

[volcom45]

Like I posted in another thread, Casino Royale reached no.6 when there was actually other big releases on DVD, HD DVD and BD (even outperforming one version of CR on DVD). HD DVD did it on a blank release Sunday, don't you think that is quite a different thing?

It never ceases to amuse me at the type of responses the bluray fanboys will throw out when the tables have turned and now it appears their format is dying. Toshiba also hit the 100k milestone in US today of HD DVD players sold and that excludes the 360 Add-on drive! I wonder how many standalone players Bluray has sold if you exclude the PS3? Ya think even 5k? Face it guys, Sony failed with all previous formats and its only a matter of time before the fun 2-3 month ride of fame crumbles into Sony releasing an HD DVD player.. You guys said that your format was always 1st choice when compared on dual format releases like the Departed release.. but if thats the case, why is Planet Earth hitting records of #4 while the identical blu ray version sits at numbers like #17? I'm just awaiting one of your exclusive movie studio's to go neutral like Samsung has and then I think HD DVD can begin claiming victory.. Also just in case anyone cares.. If both formats were equal in picture quality, I wouldn't care who wins! Blu Ray would probably have my vote cause of the disk space! But what do they do with their picture quailty? Destroy it! HD DVD looks better hands down with the exception of the identical Warner releases which actually use VC1, but even then Blu Ray has less to offer for sound! I just want the absolute best I can get for this new generation jumping from DVD and why be closer to DVD for picture quality like Blu Ray? I read the reviews for your latest Night at the Museum and GI Jane bluray releases and they continue to use this garbage Mpeg2 transfer and the reviews say the picture quailty is terrible, hard to notice an improvement over DVD. You guys have more space! You should be the ones with the better quality, come on! Find me an HD DVD review where the release looks like the DVD? There are many for Blu ray.. its a joke!

[sparky27]

Plant earth on HD DVD! I watch this show every sunday on Discovery HD, you better bet I am buying this set!!

[ckelly79]

It never ceases to amuse me at the type of responses the bluray fanboys will throw out when the tables have turned and now it appears their format is dying. Toshiba also hit the 100k milestone in US today of HD DVD players sold and that excludes the 360 Add-on drive! I wonder how many standalone players Bluray has sold if you exclude the PS3? Ya think even 5k? Face it guys, Sony failed with all previous formats and its only a matter of time before the fun 2-3 month ride of fame crumbles into Sony releasing an HD DVD player.. You guys said that your format was always 1st choice when compared on dual format releases like the Departed release.. but if thats the case, why is Planet Earth hitting records of #4 while the identical blu ray version sits at numbers like #17? I'm just awaiting one of your exclusive movie studio's to go neutral like Samsung has and then I think HD DVD can begin claiming victory.. Also just in case anyone cares.. If both formats were equal in picture quality, I wouldn't care who wins! Blu Ray would probably have my vote cause of the disk space! But what do they do with their picture quailty? Destroy it! HD DVD looks better hands down with the exception of the identical Warner releases which actually use VC1, but even then Blu Ray has less to offer for sound! I just want the absolute best I can get for this new generation jumping from DVD and why be closer to DVD for picture quality like Blu Ray? I read the reviews for your latest Night at the Museum and GI Jane bluray releases and they continue to use this garbage Mpeg2 transfer and the reviews say the picture quailty is terrible, hard to notice an improvement over DVD. You guys have more space! You should be the ones with the better quality, come on! Find me an HD DVD review where the release looks like the DVD? There are many for Blu ray.. its a joke!

The thing I don't like about Amazon rankings is it just shows what is selling better at the moment....nothing else. Hell, if the HD DVD Planet Earth had hit #1 on Amazon, it doesn't mean it sold more than Casino Royale Blu-ray did at #9. Also, it was release back in Dec or Jan that there were 25,000 standalone Blu-ray players sold. And I don't know where you get your facts, but GI Jane uses AVC and got a 3.5 star rating for PQ and Night at the Museum on mpeg2 got a 4 star PQ rating. Thats from this site. I have seen no reviews saying the PQ is terrible for these movies. And Blu-ray has more higher quality lossless sound than HD DVD does. Do you actually read anything before you reference them in your posts?

[hdmoviefan101]

For anyone putting too much faith into the pre-order rankings, think back to the state of affairs with "The Departed" and "Babel", which I think both had pre-order sales ranking leads for HD DVD but ultimately Blu Ray outsold HD DVD for both of them both, and have a look at current rankings for staying power.

[HDFungus]

Hello! I am new here, in case it is not blatantly obvious. I saw this news article posted over at AVS and thought it was very well balanced and wanted to thank the author. It seems everyone wants to put their own spin on things these days.

For those that had brought it up, if you look at the Amazon API for downloading their stats, there is a history component to them. I'm not sure how much or for how long, but it is wrong to say the stats are only instantaneously relative to the current sales leader.

[Master X]

Is this site biased to bluray if you read the post it seems that way its seems they like bluray more