One year later: Warner's decision proved correct

[Taffy]

Originally Posted by Sbert

Let's see continual format war, less people in it, both hidef media formats die...vs one format that has a chance to break out to the masses. Let's see, what to choose, what to choose?

Oh right, HD DVR forget both.

LOL.

.....or both formats might eventually have thrived much like Betamax and VHS did for many years until one format offers something that tips the scales in their favor. Format wars are good for the consumer and bad for manufacturers for obvious reasons.

[Centauri]

Originally Posted by Sbert

Got ANY links to back up your home video market (share) statement. It might have more titles now, but at the end of life of BD, I have a feeling that will be different.

...I need links to prove that LaserDisc held more than 1% of the market against VHS?

[Master X]

Originally Posted by Merrick97

A year has passed since Warner announced that they were dropping HD-DVD to exclusively support bluray.

This move did indeed up being the deathblow that ultimately ended the format war.

This decision brought the following:

1. A single unified format that everyone could enjoy without consumer confusion.
2. Universal, Paramount and Weinstein titles to bluray
3. Lower prices for bluray players. $250 for a BD35 is a fantastic deal.

So how do you feel one year later? Did the decision do what you hoped? Or is there more to be done?

This is NOT intended to be flamebait, but a civil discussion.

MODs if you feel this thread is in poor taste feel free to lock it.

If I was paid.............

[Dogdvr]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Uhmm... By what measure?

LD held more of the home video market than BD currently does, and its end-of-life catalog of titles was far greater.

You posted the statement.

Did you not mean it this way?

Or are you saying that BD is only 1% of the home video market?

[Woody]

Originally Posted by Taffy

.....or both formats might eventually have thrived much like Betamax and VHS did for many years until one format offers something that tips the scales in their favor. Format wars are good for the consumer and bad for manufacturers for obvious reasons.

I am not sure how you do it, but I think every post by you is worse than the previous one.

I wasn't sure I could get any dumber, but I can honestly say I actually lose intelligence after reading each one.

Give me a break man, I don't have much left.

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by Taffy

I disagree. I have a 56" 1080P in my family room and enjoy upconverted DVDs to the point where I feel it's unnecessary to buy a BD player. Come on now...who here was not initially impressed with the PQ from their DVD player the first time it was hooked up to your new HDTV. I sure was....and still am!!!

I was impressed by the quality of the first 4 head VHS player I got. I was impressed by the quality of my first LD player. I was impressed by the quality of my first DVD player and then impressed by the quality of my first upconverting DVD player. I was impressed by the quality of the first HD DVD I saw and just as impressed with my first Blu-ray.

Whats your point.

Why would I want to go back to any of those now that I have something better.

As to your point about upconverting being good enough on a 56inch screen. Well it wasnt good enough for me on a 36inch screen. I could easily tell the difference even on that screen.

Why on Earth settle for upconverted DVD when there is something so much better out there.

Originally Posted by Taffy

Are you saying that BD players OUTSOLD DVD players on BF??? Ridiculous. I bought a $27 DVD player from Walmart that upconverts to 1080P via HDMI. I don't believe those numbers.

No I said that BD players OUTSOLD upconverting DVD players on BF. Go back and look at the threads on this very site that discussed the figures if you dont believe me.

Originally Posted by Taffy

Highly priced recently released DVD titles and lousy movies that don't appeal to most DVD buyers is my bet for the decline while BD boys got a slew of comic book movies which appeal only to the younger male PS3 demographic and that would account for the increase in BD sales.

Funny......but I think you'll find that the biggest selling day and date titles on Blu-ray are the same as the biggest selling day and date titles on DVD.

Also I have to love how DVD is suddenly "highly priced" with its recent releases when every other day of the week we have people posting how Blu-ray will never be able to get a foothold over the much, much cheaper DVD

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Uhmm... By what measure?

LD held more of the home video market than BD currently does, and its end-of-life catalog of titles was far greater.

I'll take your own figure if its OK. You said LD had 1% of the VHS market. Blu-ray is already more than 4% of the DVD market.

As to its end of life catalog of titles.......no really.......a format that was out for 20 years had more titles than one that has been out just under 3 with only partial studio support for most of that time......well duh

Lets see how many titles Blu-ray has at the end of its life.

[Centauri]

Originally Posted by DaveS1138

I'll take your own figure if its OK. You said LD had 1% of the VHS market. Blu-ray is already more than 4% of the DVD market.

As to its end of life catalog of titles.......no really.......a format that was out for 20 years had more titles than one that has been out just under 3 with only partial studio support for most of that time......well duh

Lets see how many titles Blu-ray has at the end of its life.

How did you extrapolate from what I said any implication that LD only held 1% of the HV market? My implication was that BD only holds 1% of the total market now, which is correct...

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by Taffy

As a consumer during that period you were not tempted by the BOGOs and/or 5 to 15 free movies with the purchase of hardware???

Well I seem to be the only person on the planet that bought his Blu-ray player when it didnt come with a single free title

Yes I enjoyed the BOGO's during the format war just as I am enjoying the BOGO's now. Walmart currently have Blu-rays available for $9.99
Best Buy regularly have titles at $14.99 Funny, we dont seem to need a pointless format war for there to be sales huh

Originally Posted by Taffy

Right....some leap. Now we got to wait until X-mas time for some more good deals.

See above.......you dont think $9.99 is a good deal?

Originally Posted by Taffy

Competition between formats almost always benefits the consumer...that's what WE are...CONSUMERS!!! Not BD format sales people.

You should tell that to people that bought a SACD player, Or a HD DVD player for that matter.....yeah.......pointless format wars are great huh

Originally Posted by Taffy

BD is just another improvement of physical optical media. Look at it this way. The studios make both DVD and Blu-ray discs.....how can there really be any competition!!!

Blu-ray has competition from

DVD
Digital Downloads
VOD
Cable or Satallite TV
Theaters
Video rental services

You honestly dont think this is competition?

[kowhite]

Originally Posted by Centauri

...I need links to prove that LaserDisc held more than 1% of the market against VHS?

No, you need links to prove laserdisc held anywhere near 10% of the market. Which...it never did. I think it got up to about 2% though. Which is below Blu-ray today.

You're not actually trying to imply BD is 1% of the market today, are you?

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by Centauri

How did you extrapolate from what I said any implication that LD only held 1% of the HV market? My implication was that BD only holds 1% of the total market now, which is correct...

Sorry. Your post read like you were saying LD had 1% market share. In that case what percentage of market share do you think LD had over VHS?

And where are you getting Blu-ray being 1% of DVD from?

Last week it held 16% of the market share for the top 20 titles.
Last figures I saw for it against the entire of DVD was almost 5%

Where are you getting 1% from?

[Merrick97]

Originally Posted by DaveS1138

Sorry. Your post read like you were saying LD had 1% market share. In that case what percentage of market share do you think LD had over VHS?

And where are you getting Blu-ray being 1% of DVD from?

Last week it held 16% of the market share for the top 20 titles.
Last figures I saw for it against the entire of DVD was almost 5%

Where are you getting 1% from?

For the year 2008 is like 96/4.

For the whole lifetime of the format...

DVD has an insurmountable lead. Not even the absolute most optimistic of analyzers predict that bluray will sell the sheer volume of dvd.

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by Merrick97

For the year 2008 is like 96/4.

For the whole lifetime of the format...

DVD has an insurmountable lead. Not even the absolute most optimistic of analyzers predict that bluray will sell the sheer volume of dvd.

Maybe...

This comparisson was Blu-ray vs Laserdisc. The point was made that Blu-ray would always be niche never able to do better than Laserdisc. I made the point that Blu-ray has already done better than Laserdisc ever did.

[lostn]

Warner taking sides ended the war, which is what we all wanted, regardless of whether you were on HD-DVD or BD. You all wanted one format. Unfortunately for some, it wasn't their format.

I think that WB picked the correct side, because siding with HD-DVD would not have guaranteed an end to the war. BD would have increased their spending on marketing and promotions (something Toshiba and the PRG were not very good at doing -- all they were good at was slashing player prices and taking losses on them), waited until Paramount's exclusivity contract expired with HD-DVD, and then bribed them into being exclusive to BD, and left standings at 4v2 major studios. Warner would have caved eventually.

HD-DVD supporters will have felt slighted by the way things went, but in the grand scheme of things, 10 years down the line when BD is firmly entrenched as the standard disc format they will have only been a minority. Consider it collateral damage.

[lostn]

Toshiba loyalists should be happy WB killed HD-DVD. It made the future (not BD) a reality -- XDE upscaling and 4k x 2k Super HD. Right? I mean if these weren't the rightful successors to DVD, Toshi wouldn't have developed them would they?