Blu ray sales tanking.

[Chief]

I posted this in smackdown but a mod deleted it for being in the wrong section. Even though he could have just moved it but it doesn't surprise me..........Enjoy.....http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...es-tank-reason

[Aurora]

A very credible article. No hidden agenda here. Just check out these sentences from it:

According to Cnet, sales of the DRM infected format players are dropping like rocks.

The format has three problems, DRM infections, BD-J and greed.

The movie studios have yet to convince me that The Water Horse is worth spending my money on at all, much less at twice the price for DRM'd HD versions.

That brings us to the next down side, there is no up, DRM. Every Blu-ray disc is DRM infected even if the producer doesn't want it to be, in order to get a company to manufacture it, it must be infected.

Basically the new format has DRM baked in and in your face

There are 10 occurrences of "DRM" in a 920 word article. I'd say this article has actually nothing to do with sales at all. It's a rant about DRM. The author goes on to praise the pirating software released by Slysoft--and in fact, the author goes on to advocate piracy instead of purchasing any Blu-ray product,

It will however prevent legitimate users from using legally purchased media on legally purchased hardware. If you pirate though, no more compatibility issues, once again making Piracy the Better Choice (TM)(C)(R).

So basically, the author of the article stipulates that sales are down because of DRM and BD-J. I'm pretty sure he is one of those "HD DVD was better because it was fully cracked and thus easier to pirate and rip to my HDD" people, although this guy doesn't really try to disguise it like some have.

Then there's the second half of the article, which goes from an anti-DRM-rant to an anti-Sony rant, although we do get a preview of that in the first half. Also, this part is false:

With the new BD Profile 2.0, they can run arbitrary code on your player, download and install whatever they want (You read the EULA didn't you?), and take any data they want.

In addition to not being how that works, all one would have to do is not hook the player to the internet if there actually were something to worry about. But what is there to worry about on a standalone player? What data could they possibly be taking?

[Kid Banana]

Already posted here

[stevo4]

Yes, it is more smackdown material, than it is meaningful sales material.

No real surprises, with BD sales low.

There is not enough in it, to entice mainstream consumers away from what they already have.

Not at the extra costs involved, and the way the economy is going.

I cant see BD sales picking up much, if at all, until the end of the year when consumers should see more big blockbuster releases on BD and more ppl have Hi def TV's.

The slightly better uptake of BD after the Warner decision, only picked up early adopters/fence sitters that were waiting for one format to prevail.
Now that segment of consumers has bought in, for BD sales to get much better they will have to make the format more appealing to main stream consumers, otherwise BD is unlikely to do any better than Laser Disc did.

[mitchelljd]

the Enquirer is a notorious anti-DRM and pro piracy website. obviously there would be an agenda there to be anti-DRM physical format.

also, BD players are in short supply because new models are coming out and will adhere to BD 2.0.

also, sales of PS3 are way up, this is the preferred model for many people!

this is just anti-BD BS. And for those who believe that BD is just going to be the new laserdisc. as prices come down... for both players and movies/tv dicsc... adoption rates will advance to new heights

[mosul210]

I would buy more BD titles if it was not for the high prices.

I tend to utilize renting a lot more and limit my purchases to what I consider must own titles.

The state of the economy is not helping the adoption of the format either. Not when the average cost of a gallon of petro nears $4.

[XodusTrance]

My BD buying has been way way down as of late. Nothing really good has been released as of late.

Things seemed to have slowed a bit since the war, but once some blockbusters are released later this year, Ill be buying again.

[Sporadic]

Here's the Cnet article

Looks like it wasn't the HD DVD/Blu-ray battle that was keeping potential customers away from high-definition video players after all.

The NPD Group released some of its retail sales tracking data Wednesday that showed sales of Blu-ray standalone players (not a PlayStation 3, combo player, or PC with Blu-ray drive) had mostly decreased since the beginning of the year.


Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the U.S. decreased 40 percent from January to February and saw a very slight increase (2 percent) between February and March, according to NPD.

HD DVD players fared even worse--player unit sales dropped 13 percent from January to February, and 65 percent from February to March--which was expected. Toshiba stopped production of HD DVD units in February, and the format's promotional group disbanded in March.

So what does this mean for Blu-ray player vendors? Why haven't sales experienced any sort of substantial uptick without a competitor? Prices offer one clue. Blu-ray player prices were at their peak for the year in mid-March, around $400. During the holiday shopping season the average price had been closer to $300.

But more likely is what NPD's high-def video analysts have been harping on for a while: that DVD is "good enough" for most consumers. And that the picture offered by a Blu-ray Disc and accompanying player doesn't appear so overwhelmingly better than a standard DVD and an upconverting player that many consumers can't justify the dramatically increased cost.

To that point, sales of significantly less expensive upconverting DVD players have actually increased 5 percent over the first quarter of 2008, compared with the same quarter a year ago. Standard DVD player sales dropped 39 percent over the same period.

Blu-ray player prices are going to have to drop dramatically, to around $200 probably, to make themselves more attractive to consumers outside of the early adopter/home theater enthusiast crowd. Sony, one of the largest producers of Blu-ray players, says $200 players aren't likely until next year at the earliest.

[C.S.Strowbridge]

Originally Posted by Sporadic

Here's the Cnet article

"Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the U.S. decreased 40 percent from January to February and saw a very slight increase (2 percent) between February and March, according to NPD."

So after the post Christmas sales, which extent into January now, there was a drop is sales to February and an increase in sales in March. Colour me surprised.

Seriously, there's absolutely no year-to-year comparisons for Blu-ray, so this data is meaningless. Strangely, there are year-to-year comparisons for DVDs, which leads me to believe they have those numbers and choose not to print them because they conflicted with their conclusion.

I expect this kind of shit from HD DVD fanboys who have way too much emotional investment in their format of choice, but not from a legitimate news source.

[bboy412]

Originally Posted by stevo4

Yes, it is more smackdown material, than it is meaningful sales material.

No real surprises, with BD sales low.

There is not enough in it, to entice mainstream consumers away from what they already have.

Not at the extra costs involved, and the way the economy is going.

I cant see BD sales picking up much, if at all, until the end of the year when consumers should see more big blockbuster releases on BD and more ppl have Hi def TV's.

The slightly better uptake of BD after the Warner decision, only picked up early adopters/fence sitters that were waiting for one format to prevail.
Now that segment of consumers has bought in, for BD sales to get much better they will have to make the format more appealing to main stream consumers, otherwise BD is unlikely to do any better than Laser Disc did.

But BD sales have picked up 350% since last year, have you ever been into the Nielsen thread? Most titles are selling at almost 10% of their DVD counterpart, some more.

[stevo4]

Originally Posted by bboy412

But BD sales have picked up 350% since last year, have you ever been into the Nielsen thread? Most titles are selling at almost 10% of their DVD counterpart, some more.

BS percent figures are nothing more than a desperate attempt to hide poor sales figures.

350%.

sold 10 copies last year, and 35 this year. get what I am hinting at?

As for 10% of DVD counterpart. That does not hold for many, but a few.
Certainly no trend.

[stevo4]

Originally Posted by C.S.Strowbridge

Seriously, there's absolutely no year-to-year comparisons for Blu-ray, so this data is meaningless. Strangely, there are year-to-year comparisons for DVDs, which leads me to believe they have those numbers and choose not to print them because they conflicted with their conclusion.

And comparing the uptake of DVD to Blu-ray would be even more meaningless.

A different time, with too many other factors involved to consider that you might find anything relevant in doing so.

[Marvin the Martian]

Sounds like we're in "INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER" territory, still. Tanking, rocketing, it's all the same, trying to make a silk purse (useful information) out of a sow's ear (a paltry amount of volatile raw data).

[bboy412]

Originally Posted by stevo4

BS percent figures are nothing more than a desperate attempt to hide poor sales figures.

350%.

sold 10 copies last year, and 35 this year. get what I am hinting at?

As for 10% of DVD counterpart. That does not hold for many, but a few.
Certainly no trend.

We're talking about 50 to 200,000 a week here, not tens of copies. How can you simply right off growth of 350%, what the hell do you expect it to be?! The 10% holds for all but family films as BD has not yet reached that market but rest assured it will eventually. Titles like I am Legend, Hitman, No country, 30 days etc have sold 10% every week for two months, that is cleary a trend. This is in comparison to 2% last year, Please explain to me how this equals tanking.

[Chief]

[quote=stevo4;952227]Yes, it is more smackdown material, than it is meaningful sales material.

I thought so too, but I guess the mod didn't.