HD Movie Cracks Top Ten List

[BJ_M]

For the first time, a movie in a high-definition DVD format has broken into the top ten among best-sellers. Amazon.com said Tuesday that Sony's Blu-ray HD version of Casino Royale debuted at #8 on its list. The standard-definition/wide-screen version of the movie topped it @ #1.

The full-screen version came in at No. 10.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...The full-screen version came in at No. 10.

This is the part that amazes me the most...

[KBeee]

It'll be interesting to see how long it remains in the Charts compared to the standard WS DVD

[BJ_M]

up to #6 this morning -- only HD ttile in the top 20 right now

[NiteLite]

I'm having a problem believing Amazon on this.
BJ_M, I know you are reporting what you read so nothing is implied personal but do you think that many HD-DVD's have been sold and being used? Or maybe Amazon didnt sell many of the standard versions. If indeed this from Amazon is fact, it is mind blowing. To me at least. I must really be out of the loop!

Might be a good poll question for yoda...how many here have a working HD-DVD running. Unless it has been asked and I missed it.
Wow...who's buying that many HD players...
Regards,
NL

[rotten apple]

I'm having a problem believing Amazon on this.
BJ_M, I know you are reporting what you read so nothing is implied personal but do you think that many HD-DVD's have been sold and being used? Or maybe Amazon didnt sell many of the standard versions. If indeed this from Amazon is fact, it is mind blowing. To me at least. I must really be out of the loop!

Might be a good poll question for yoda...how many here have a working HD-DVD running. Unless it has been asked and I missed it.
Wow...who's buying that many HD players...
Regards,
NL

How on earth can you suspect Amazon of 'accidently' putting a HD-DVD movie into the mainstream chart , i'm sure they have nothing to gain from flogging ridicuously inflated priced new tech via misleading gullables!


Given Yoda's posts, there is little chance such insanity will provide rational feedback. Given his prediction of seeing into the future ie stating HD optical formats WILL become mainstream despite for example the complete lack of superlative increase in functionality in contrast to upgrading to CD + DVD from their respective analogue formats provided. He criticizes everyone else for making predictions at too early a stage without credible evidence then does the same himself! Or his godly pomposity that his ability to purchase inflated initial release new tech allows technology to progress and the prices to drop or mass market consumers would never be able to afford them - as if his disappearnce from the planet would make ANY difference to humanity his money would be merely redistributed to A.N.OTHER nobody. Given his lack of mental talent, which is an ability that has real potential to help others especially those with nothing to give (according to capitalistic fundamentals).

Notice in the evidence he cites, is given as ratios or % there are no actual figures quoted ( one possibility is that real figures would look pathetic in comparison to only quoting % ). It talks about for every 100 machines sold, naturally as this is just a % statistical guide, the real figure actually sold per unit time could be anything from millions to....... TEN!

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=303742&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=180

lol..Do you think the price on every new tech magically starts on the market for what your paying today? The very prices your praising for DVD's, were 'high' for their own time when they were released. Those DVD players that you can get for less than a hundred bucks were over $1000. Each improvement will drive these prices down, as will early adopters such as myself. Without us, you'd still be listening to phonographs and paying a premium for it.

A product isn't 'failed' until it is. This product definitely is not failed, as millions have already sold in PS3's, and now the actual players have started becoming affordable. I saw a story on the news this month about a dedicated player for $500 that plays dvd and blue-ray just like the PS3. The original player was something like a thousand and it played only blue-ray. Nuff said.

Look at the facts. The prices are already dropping, which means the masses are aleady buying into it. It's here to stay.

A wee snippet I found on the net:

The Nielsen VideoScan tracking data has come in and it shows that Blu-Ray movies are outselling HD-DVD by over a 2:1 margin; in fact, closer to 3:1.

Moreover, the gap seem to show signs of widening, possibly predicting a sign of things to come for the movie industry. The numbers for the week ending January 7th demonstrate that for every 47.14 HD-DVDs movies sold, there are 100 Blu-Ray movies sold. But the statistic worsens, as for the following week, ending January 14th, the amount of HD-DVDs sold would be 38.36, for every 100 Blu-Rays sold.

Granted I grabbed this snippet off some random site, so no idea how accurate it is. In any case, both formats are selling (HD-DVD and Blue-Ray). There IS an obvious market for it.

[oldandinthe way]

Could you imagine a better movie to sell to PS3 owners than Casino Royale.

If you already had a Blu-Ray player in your games machine wouldn't you pay a bit extra for HD rather than SD.

As a lone fact, it is interesting.

If it shows a trend that would be more interesting, but a single point does not a trend make.

[ntscuser]

Big surprise!

They deliberately degraded the picture transfer of the regular DVD (as compared to the Region 3 version) and omitted the DTS audio track, so anyone in North America who cares about technical quality is forced to buy a HD version. Expect more of the same.

[oldandinthe way]

There are other reasons why they might delete DTS. Like $$$$

[ntscuser]

Sony just went to the expense of adding DTS audio tracks to all the titles in its James Bond Ultimate Collection. If they can afford to do it for those, they can afford to do it for Casino Royale.

[BJ_M]

there is another DVD coming out with more commentary , deleted scenes (more) and also a DTS track (rumour on the DTS track)--- -there seems to be an issue with the HOME surround mix on SOME playback systems currently ..... perhaps that is one reason why DD only was included ... cost is not really that much overall for adding DTS, but space is ....

[ntscuser]

Perhaps if they removed all that junk from the beginning of the disc there'd be enough room for a DTS audio track and a decent picture transfer?

[j1d10t]

This is interesting, but not unexpected. If I had an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player, and a movie that I wanted came out on that format, I'd pay the extra for the HD version, rather than the SD version.

I wonder if the movie had come out on HD DVD rather than Blu-Ray, would it still have been that high on the list? I think it will be interesting to see if more Blu-Ray titles make it that high on the list, or if any HD DVD titles do. So far, to me, that says alot about the popularity of the movie, and that HD format, not just SD Vs. HD.

[ntscuser]

This is interesting, but not unexpected. If I had an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player, and a movie that I wanted came out on that format, I'd pay the extra for the HD version, rather than the SD version.

I wonder if the movie had come out on HD DVD rather than Blu-Ray, would it still have been that high on the list? I think it will be interesting to see if more Blu-Ray titles make it that high on the list, or if any HD DVD titles do. So far, to me, that says alot about the popularity of the movie, and that HD format, not just SD Vs. HD.

I wouldn't swear to it but I think Casino Royale is the first big hit action movie to be released in HD day-and-date with the standard definition DVD? If King Kong had been released day-and-date I'm pretty sure that would have made it into the best sellers list too.

[jg0001]

Casino Royale is Blu Ray ONLY, not HD-DVD (to a much prior poster). It sold out at the Best Buy's near me and remained unavailable on 2 follow up visits.

To the above poster, Superman Returns came out day & date with the regular DVD... though it came out for DVD, HD-DVD+DVD, and Blu Ray. The HD-DVD version had the DVD version on the flip side. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a big action hit, but it is certainly a popular movie. The HD-DVD version of that was hard to find on day 1, while the Blu Ray was plentiful. By the end of the week, both were easy to find.

[NiteLite]

Casino Royale is Blu Ray ONLY, not HD-DVD (to a much prior poster).

Blu-Ray is HD-DVD (High Definition recording on DVD type format) J/k...
Yep, I saw that I misread the format and used HD instead of Blu Ray but never got around to editing the post. But everyone got the jest of the post anyway.
Either way it really suprises me.
NL