The Industry Standard - Bad signs for Blu-ray: Free discs, cheap players, and declining market share - Comments

If you think $30 for a

Harley — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:56:15 -0700

If you think $30 for a Blu-Ray is bad, then try £30. That's reaching about $50, btw.

Blu-Ray's getting a lot of bad press. Now I can accept that it takes a new format a few years to kick off, and even DVD took a while, but DVD had almost complete support with minimal format wars. What happened was, more people were buying HD-DVD, but the market figured they could get more money out of Blu-Ray. And for that matter, had it taken off they could have.

But when Blu-Ray 'won', nobody who had just bought the HD-DVD player was overly inclined to shell out AGAIN when they'd just been ripped off once. And furthermore, you'd expect the 'winning' format to get a boost once it was the winner - maybe not the big kick but SOMETHING. Except everybody remained very cautious about the whole thing. They seem to be waiting for further price drops.

Blu-Ray won because the Playstation 3 dragged it through. But even it's NOT a movie console, it's counted consistently when Sony says how many players they're selling. Not a sign of success.

Yes, people have waited for price drops before, but that's part of the question - can Blu-Ray survive long enough until it reaches an affordable price? It sure picked a lousy release time. VHS and DVD had the same issues with prices, but they lasted it out. Will Blu-Ray survive the next five years? It's unlikely...

rofl, upscaling = near

BiLL — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:53:23 -0800

rofl, upscaling = near Blu-ray quality? roflmao! let me repeat myself clearly, once again. Go watch some really damn good Blu-ray movies ie Dark Knight on Blu-ray on a top notch tv with ...and yes of course a top notch hdmi cable. then compare that Blu-ray movie with an upscaled dvd of that same movie. 'near quality'? i think not... and i say again...laff laff. and who said you have to buy each movie. go rent it at blockbuster (US) they have tons of selections on Blu-ray.

WELL THE REASON WHY THE

mark harry — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:38:58 -0800

WELL THE REASON WHY THE BLURAY MARKET IS SLUMPING , IS THE RIDICULOUS PRICE OF THE FILMS , WHY SHOULD ANYONE WANT TO PAY £ 30 POUND IN SOME HIGH STREET STORES FOR A FILM WHICH YOU CAN BUY ON NORMAL DVD FOR £10 SQUID, AND YOUR BLURAY PLAYER WILL UPSCALE IT TO NEAR ENOUGH BLURAY QUALITY, SO THEY SHOULD STOP BEING TIGHT ARSES AND DROP THE PRICE OF THE DISCS TO THE SAME AS DVD OR IF THEY WANT TO CHARGE MORE LET IT BE ABOUT £2.00 MORE, ITS DISSCUSTING AND CHEEKY , ALSO THEY SHOULD MAKE FILMS MORE REGION FREE . SO IF THEY WANT TO SEE A FUTURE THEY SHOULD LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHOS BUYING THERE PRODUCTS.

Folks, when SONY & Co.

BC55 — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:19:27 -0800

Folks, when SONY & Co. effectively KILLED HD DVD, they killed the whole medium, including their own Blu-Ray. HD DVD had it all, was a finished standard, features that Blu Ray is still trying to implement, was cheaper to produce, and was selling well enough for SONY to fear they produced ANOTHER bomb, like they haven't done that before, and decided to use their financial power on the market to buy the movie studios out.

HD-DVD is gone, but I wonder how long Blu Ray will survive. my estimate is less than 24 months. By then, HD will be the norm all over the world, and people will be recording their HD content off satellite and / or cable feeds.

Blu Ray is overpriced, overvalued, and will die, like the death it brought to the best HD medium available, HD-DVD.

And that is well-deserved.

DVD is as good as Blu-ray?

BiLL — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:06:11 -0800

DVD is as good as Blu-ray? hah, that's quite a laugh. Wake up folks, this is how the DVD revolution started back then...so called 'over-priced equipment'. that's how things usually start off. BetaMax vs VHS; VHS vs DVD; now DVD vs Blu-ray. if you have a nice set up and you are all saying a DVD (up-convert) is as good as a Blu-ray? I guess you'll never know unless you replace that DVD player with a Blu-ray player. i mean if you compare your DVD player with a Blu-ray player, you'd better be talking about 1080p true HD status set-up with that same exact DVD player vs a Blu-ray player. after watching a blu-ray and putting in a dvd(upconverted) all i could say was...ew. cheer up, things are alrdy getting cheaper...relax, we ALL are inevitably gonna succomb to true HD 1080p Blu-rays. if you love movies...i mean LOVE movies...then Blu-ray's IT.

I disagree with you in all

JRT — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:21:26 -0800

I disagree with you in all the perspectives. First of all, the blue ray movies don't need to have any warnings about film ware or any other software that you might need for your player in order to play succesfully to your expectations. All the warnings and sugestions that you might need in order to run ANY particular movie is going to appear in you blue ray player content. If you think about it you don't need any warnings from the movie itself, you need it from the device is playing such movie. I bought a samsung blue ray player and even before openig the box I took a look to the box and it explainned me about any upgrade that I might need for the future because of all the new movies coming out. It also suggested me to do and upgrade as soon as I pluged all my system before even starting to use it which I did and my system runs beautifully.

First of all, a VERY small

Junglecrus — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:56:56 -0800

First of all, a VERY small percentage of movies merit Blue Ray, but having said that, all the movies need to be backward compatible, in other words, if I buy a copy of "The Incredibles", I want that movie to play in all players. After I play it in my Blue Ray player, I may want to play it on my laptop at work, or I may want to take it to a friends house to watch it, but guess what? it won't work.

When I got Star Trek original series in HD, I could play it in my HD player, and then I could play it (by turning it over) in my laptop or any other DVD player. Blue Ray disks should behave the same way!

Why don't people think of these things?

well it might be costing

cybertooth — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:58:33 -0700

well it might be costing sony a shit load of money but you have to think, their just trying to get more people to be know of their product which happens to be blue ray disc's. well personally i dont think that it's a bad sign because their just trying to advertise their product so that they can be successfull in their effurts of trying to advertise their product. and if there is anybody out there that doesnt agree with me and wants to tell me there opionon email me at donandjamayne@yahoo.com so if any one disagress with me just tell them to email me by bitches

well the reason that the

cybertooth — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:53:38 -0700

well the reason that the charge so much for movies now days is because of the time that is takes to be shipped to the United States and also all of the steps they have to go through to make the movie and besides some of the money that stores get from people buying movies it goes to the people who were involved with the movie so thats why movies are so high in price these days.

well put i agree 100%

tom cruise — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:12:09 -0700

well put i agree 100%

BluRay always was going to

KL — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:49:10 -0700

BluRay always was going to be a much harder "sell" to the masses than the Sony bosses had you believe.
Those young excutives and managers at Sony only tend to look at the world from their eyes rather than the mass consumer.
Unlike the highly paid folks at Sony, most consumers simply don't have the bucks or the inclination to buy a new Blu Ray player,and a new HD capable TV, along with Blu Ray discs merely to gain a better picture quality that only becomes truely noticable on a 40+ inch TV screen in normal living rooms.

Now that the global financial meltdown, and economic depression is going to filter into manufacturing firms, and more people lose , and money goes less far,people lose money on shares, and people are worried about their savings, one of the last things that the mass market will be looking to spend its hard earn cash on is Blu Ray.
Sorry Sony yet another format doomed from the start.
Next time spend some money on market research..... you might learn something!

I think the biggest problem

jeff — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:19:05 -0700

I think the biggest problem with blu ray is they release titles that wont play due to software/firmware issues. I spent 2000 plus on my tv and player and I still buy a disc that wont play. They discs are sold without any warning to the consumer, visible on the outside of the packaging, about possible issues with recent releases. And once the product is in the customers hands its too late. I ve gotten several reimbursments from target, best buy and blockbuster already. Settle the playback issues already. everyone I work with keeps hearing my horror stories and arent buying players.

BLUE -RAY IS TOP , DVD IS

gio — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:38:57 -0700

BLUE -RAY IS TOP , DVD IS CRAP

Check out the Sony

Jennifer From Sony — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:02:37 -0700

Check out the Sony Electronics Blog. A recent post talks about why Sony thinks Blu-ray is here to stay, despite contrary reports.
~Jennifer

Jennifer Peterson
Sony Electronics Blog Moderator
Sony Electronics
www.Sony.com/ElectronicsBlog

Check out the Sony

Jennifer From Sony — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:02:32 -0700

Check out the Sony Electronics Blog. A recent post talks about why Sony thinks Blu-ray is here to stay, despite contrary reports.
~Jennifer

Jennifer Peterson
Sony Electronics Blog Moderator
Sony Electronics
www.Sony.com/ElectronicsBlog

Bad signs for Blu-ray: Free discs, cheap players, and declining market share

Ian Lamont — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:57:06 -0700

In this month's issue of Wired magazine, Sony and Microsoft splurged on a full-page insert that includes a Blu-ray DVD. The disc is the "director's cut" of Coma, a seven-part noir-esque crime thriller. On the back of the insert, there's a plug for Vista and the Sony Vaio. I don't know how much this is costing Sony and its partners, but it can't be cheap -- Wired's paid circulation is 706,494, and this press release indicates that other magazines may be involved.

Have Sony and its Blu-ray backers come to this -- using a marketing tactic reminiscent of 90s-style software and music giveaways in an attempt to boost Blu-ray? Remember, this was a technology that people were supposed to rush out and buy after Blu-ray won the HD format battle with HD-DVD. Sony president Ryoji Chubachi even expressed a goal back in April that Blu-ray would grow to a global market share of 50% in 2008. There's already strong evidence that Blu-ray's market share is declining, at least in the U.S., according to recent data from Nielsen VideoScan published on EngadgetHD.

In The Industry Standard's prediction market, there's a prediction that Blu-ray's market share will not break 50% by the end of this year. That's a no-brainer. Our readers are largely behind this prediction, with community consensus currently standing at 82%. Another prediction that Blu-ray player prices would drop below $250 by Thanksgiving was judged three months early after one model hit $249.47 (with a rebate). How low can prices go for the players? This morning, another reader pointed us to news that models by Sony and Samsung are selling for less than $200, including shipping. The Engadget author calls the Sony BDP-S300 deal "unquestionably delectable." Sony better hope that mainstream consumers feel the same way, or the company risks another weak Christmas for Blu-ray this year -- and losing out in an even bigger way when consumers begin to turn to the Internet for their HD content.

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