Blu Ray Player Sales up 72%

[dvd3500]

Arrr: http://www.pcworld.com/article/164462/us_sales_of_bluray_players_soar_npd_group.html

[lordsmurf]

This is probably a Sony-funded study, the the story is probably nothing more than a Sony press release picked up by the computer-tabloid/rag PC World.

Almost every Blu-ray disc I've seen to date was nothing more than a clone of the DVD, with a higher-resolution (but still unrestored) print of the film. Hardly worth the money.

[cal_tony]

Yeah,
I agree completely. I now have my Philips 5990 attached to the slot previously occupied by my Blu-Ray player. For all of last year probably only half a dozen movies even worth the trouble to rent in the the Blu_ray version. and with Blu rentals increasing in price, I probably wont even bother renting more than 4 or 5 for the next year.

Tony

[rhegedus]

Almost every Blu-ray disc I've seen to date was nothing more than a clone of the DVD, with a higher-resolution (but still unrestored) print of the film. Hardly worth the money.

You need to see a few more. I've got DVD and BD copies of a few films - the difference is clear.

[redwudz]

I still don't have a standalone BD player, but really no reason to buy one as I have two BD ROM drives in my PCs and they work fine, coaxial audio and all to my surround sound system and HDMI video to the projector or my 22" LCD PC monitor.

I've noticed quite a few 'remakes' in BD. I bought '2001' in BD and it does look better than the DVD release. The newer BD releases are much better quality. I have a 12' projector screen and watching a regular DVD is disappointing after watching BDs for while.

Netfiix upped their BD rental prices, but I get two day turnaround on them, and that's still cheaper than buying them. If I find one I really like, then I buy it.

I also back up my purchased BDs to my video server to make them a bit easier to watch on my LCD monitor. I'm beginning to favor ArcSoft Total Media Theatre for a BD player software as it has a bit less 'bloat' than PowerDVD or WinDVD.

[lordhutt]

I got about a dozen BD's and they all blow regular dvd's away.
Almost like you can jump into the screen it seems so real....Especially some of the scenes from 'Planet Earth'


The only one so far that was a let down was Predator....not much different than the regular dvd.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

The rising penetration of high-definition televisions and lower Blu-ray player prices are broadening the format’s market opportunity,

Uh-huh, sure...
The players are selling because the prices are coming down, but the discs still sit on the shelves because the price (especially compared to a DVD release of the same thing at the same or indistinguishably "lesser" quality!) is way too high.
I'm with ls and tony here. Most (NOT all!) of the Blu-Ray movies I've watched were tremendously underwhelming compared to the DVD of the same program/film.

[greymalkin]

hmm...this is the first time i've heard so many complaints about bluray..I don't own any b/c I'm cheap..i bought an hd-dvd player for pennies and the movies are dirt cheap too. I'll buy blu-ray when the player and movies are reasonable...I'm not one who has to get that movie right when it comes out or even a couple years later .

Every HD DVD I've ever watched was worlds ahead of anything I saw on DVD's, upconverted or not (transformers, polar express, tmnt, eagles farewell I tour, cinderella man).

I'm hoping to get 2001 soon :P.

Lordsmurf..I'm interested in this process you were talking of where they are taking a higher resolution of the print but not restoring it..could you explain this in more detail?

[greymalkin]

Also, that study apparently doesn't consider the ps3 to be a bluray player. It claims that the sale of 400,000 units in 1Q09 marks a 72% increase...but the ps3 sold over 8,000,000 units in 1Q08 in America.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Indeed. Almost everybody I personally know with a "Blu-Ray player" has only a PS3 to use for such purposes (myself included).

[guns1inger]

I own a dozen BDs, and the only one that is visually disappointing is the original Halloween, which is no better than a well upscaled DVD. However the extras it has made the purchase worth it, as they were previously only available on the Criterion or laserdisc releases, which would easily have cost me twice as much to purchase. Anything recent - Dark Knight, Wall-E etc - leave DVD for dead visually, aurally, and in the way extras can now be packaged. Wall-E's director's commentary is brilliant, as it shows picture-in-picture concept art, test footage and other material as the director describes scenes and development. No seamless branching and disruptive pauses. And with new HD restorations such as Casablanca being released, the older films should get new life as well. Cost of discs is definitely an issue, which is why the few I own have been selectively chosen and in several cases are ex-rental discs (damn, BD is so much hardier than DVD as well).

That said, I don't see myself buying a standalone BD play any time soon. The PS3 does such a good job, and does so much more than any standalone player currently does.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...Wall-E's director's commentary is brilliant, as it shows picture-in-picture concept art, test footage and other material as the director describes scenes and development...

ZZZZZZ zzz zzzzz ZZZZZ zzzz :P

I'm sorry, what? Oh yeah, all the stuff studios stopped putting into DVDs over the past few years because they were finding that nobody cares about most of that boring crap and were getting pissed that they had to pay extra $$ for "bonus" features they didn't want and would never watch.

I did watch Wall-E just the other night on Blu-Ray and it was visually stunning and beautiful. Just as I remembered it in the theater. Definitely the best movie I saw all last year.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Although there are some bad Blu-ray transfers that use MPEG-2(eg Total Recall) overall the difference is obvious on any HDTV.I own a BD player but I only own four BD titles,they were free with the purchase of the player.
If Blu-ray is to succeed they need to lower the prices of the media.

[RLT69]

Oh yeah, all the stuff studios stopped putting into DVDs over the past few years because they were finding that nobody cares about most of that boring crap and were getting pissed that they had to pay extra $$ for "bonus" features they didn't want and would never watch.

Yeah I guess if you were one of the ones who bought the LOTR latest DVD repacking that included the exclusive scene where you can hear Peter Jackson fart, then I can see where you'd be pissed.

I didn't have to pay extra $$ for the DVD extras on the Pixar films. The pixar films extras include shorts, and behind the scenes stuff which are very interesting.

You are not paying any less for DVDs that don't have extras.

[cal_tony]

I'll stick with what I said earlier.
However, I will agree that animated movies on Blu-ray look amazing but on the other hand, with an upscaling player, the same movie on DVD is still great looking. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. For most movies, the Bluray improvement in picture quality over DVD is scene by scene. Some pop others don't. The exception to this is Comic book movies. Except for the movie The Spirit, comic book people know how to use Blu-ray to make a visually impressive movie.

Finally, it seems like a big limitation to Blu-ray success is no flipper disk. The price differential between DVD and Blu-ray disks is less important to me than the fact that with a DVD disk I have the option to play it in any room in my house, barn or garage and that's what I do when I'm working out in my barn or working on a vehicle in my garage. With a Blu-ray disk I'm limited to playing it in my TV room on my Ps3. And the visual improvement of Blu-ray just isn't enough to overcome this limitation for me.

Tony

[wulf109]

My 2 cents
HDTV has gained wide acceptance because the Federal Government mandated the change which should happen officially in June. The feds should mandate an HD DVD format. Blueray players are still much too expensive,the media is absurdly expensive,and the format is nearly impossible to backup. I do have a Sony blueray player,but I've bought less than 6 movies. Netflix is almost always out of stock on the movies I want to watch. The lowest priced player I've seen is $200.00 on newegg. I wouldn't expect the players to drop in price anytime soon,but Sony could cut movie prices. With every price 2-3 times more than standard DVD,blueray is a deadend.

[MOVIEGEEK]

My 2 cents
HDTV has gained wide acceptance because the Federal Government mandated the change which should happen officially in June.

The transition on June 12th will turn off analog broadcasts and mandate DTV,there's no mandate for HD.HDTV's are gaining acceptance because that's all you can buy now,I haven't seen an SDTV in a store for several years.

[rumplestiltskin]

I watched Wall-E recently, as well, though on DVD. What a boring film; BluRay wouldn't help it.

I think the problem with BluRay is threefold:

1. Unless you have a really large HDTV, you won't see the difference unless you sit really close (too close for comfortable viewing). Such large screen HDTV's are ridiculously expensive.

2. DRM - Can't back 'em up like you can a DVD (unless you have the proper equipment which is probably lots more horsepower than the usual PC).

3. The look of film isn't the look of HDTV. Directors are already trying to figure out how to reduce the resolution of their HD video in order to make it look like film. I'm not interested in seeing the pimples on Beyonce's butt; give me my Hollywood illusions.

However, once the price drops enough so it's not worthwhile selling "plain old" DVD players, we might see another uptick in sales...until most people realize that 720p digital downloads are plenty "rich" enough and we all stop buying DRM'd discs. (I already have.)

[wulf109]

The mandate for HD broadcasting is what created HD Tv's. The marketing departments of electronic manufacturers ran with it to maximize profits.

[MOVIEGEEK]

The mandate for HD broadcasting is what created HD Tv's. The marketing departments of electronic manufacturers ran with it to maximize profits.

Again HD broadcasting was NOT mandated,the only thing mandated is that it has to be a digital signal(DTV).It is up to the broadcasters to set the resolution.

[lordsmurf]

Lordsmurf..I'm interested in this process you were talking of where they are taking a higher resolution of the print but not restoring it..could you explain this in more detail?

The dirt and film flicker is still present. Because it's high definition, the BD version can look worse, because more small dirt is present and now visible, too. Smart temporal filtering can remove the flicker, and the film can be cleaned physically or digitally. But nobody seems to be doing it.

Most BDs I've seen have the same extras as the DVDs -- sometimes years-old DVDs, to boot. In a few cases, the material is dated and a farce, because events in the real world have changed so much as to make the content look silly or quaint -- hardly what you'd expect from a April/May 2009 DVD, right?

People can say "BD blows away DVD" all they want, but I have to wander if they also see UFOs, Elvis and wear tinfoil hats -- they're clearly seeing something that us normal folks do not.

[rhegedus]

People can say "BD blows away DVD" all they want, but I have to wander if they also see UFOs, Elvis and wear tinfoil hats -- they're clearly seeing something that us normal folks do not.

So we're all kooks? Is that the basis of your argument?

[videobread]

Sounds like smoke and mirrors to me.

US consumer purchases of DVD's were $3.1 Billion in the first quarter of 2009. Of that Blu-ray accounted for $230 million. That's 230/3,100 = 7.4%. 7.4% is just barely material. Material is 5% or more by definition - GAAP. Blu-ray has a long way to go to become relevant.

I'll go Blu-ray when blanks are below $0.50 each and printable. For the hard earned money I'm very satisfied with DVD.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

You are not paying any less for DVDs that don't have extras.

Really? Why do the 2-disc versions of all the latest movies cost more?
At least the studios have gotten the picture and started making the extra bullshit an option instead of built in.

[edDV]

Current economic times are causing pressure on DVD sales. Recent earnings reports show DVD sales are way down although movie box office is holding. So are flat panel TV sales.

I expect the media companies to drop Blu-Ray player and media prices this coming Christmas season.

Blu-Ray is like tobacco, once you hook them, many will replace old favorite discs and switch buying habits.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

The dirt and film flicker is still present. Because it's high definition, the BD version can look worse, because more small dirt is present and now visible, too. Smart temporal filtering can remove the flicker, and the film can be cleaned physically or digitally. But nobody seems to be doing it...

You just hold on a minute there buddy. We're trying to make a quick buck here by jamming out a "High Def" experience for you. There is no interest on the part of the studios in putting any sort of effort into the production of this product - we are totally in this purely for the $$$. We already busted our asses making the movie (20 years ago).
Now buy it! NOW! It's High Def! BUY IT!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Blu-Ray is like tobacco, once you hook them, many will replace old favorite discs and switch buying habits.

Unfortunately, yes.
I copied most of my VHS onto DVD myself. That was my way of replacing my tapes with DVDs (and I suspect the same of many here), but certainly not how the majority of consumers did it.
Obviously most comedies or dramas would not really benefit much from buying the DVD over doing a decent capture/burn. Sci-Fi, action, and anything else with lots of cool special effects &/or multi-track audio is a different story.
As for replacing my DVDs with Blu-Rays? Nope. Not gonna happen for a long time, if at all. I thought about replacing my Terminator 2 DVD with the new Blu-Ray that just came out, but then reading the specs on the back realized that the version I had on DVD was superior. Back to what ls said about lazy production of Blu-Ray products.

[edDV]

For example, I'd consider replacing the Star Wars series , Casablanca, varoius movies and selected restored TV series with Blu-Ray when prices are reasonable.

[lordsmurf]

People can say "BD blows away DVD" all they want, but I have to wander if they also see UFOs, Elvis and wear tinfoil hats -- they're clearly seeing something that us normal folks do not.

So we're all kooks? Is that the basis of your argument?

You know I like you, but yes, your love affair with BD is a bit kooky. :P

I have a stack of BD here that aren't even released yet -- for review purposes (yes, legitimately, Fedex direct from the studios) -- and I almost hate that most of my reviews this month are at least partially negative, due to minimal improvements over DVD versions, or lackluster image quality. The disc has this little piece of paper inside that says something along the lines "this DVD is using the best technology available ... ultimate viewing experience .. be sure to update your player software or firmware .. " blah blah blah. I must have the beta copies or something, because I don't agree at all with the PR rhetoric. So rest assured I'm not talking about old BD from a few years ago or bargain-bin titles.

[gadgetguy]

Sounds like smoke and mirrors to me.

US consumer purchases of DVD's were $3.1 Billion in the first quarter of 2009. Of that Blu-ray accounted for $230 million. That's 230/3,100 = 7.4%. 7.4% is just barely material. Material is 5% or more by definition - GAAP. Blu-ray has a long way to go to become relevant.

I'll go Blu-ray when blanks are below $0.50 each and printable. For the hard earned money I'm very satisfied with DVD.

I don't have much interest in BD, but reading this is similar to my initial thought when I read the subject. "So? Even if it were 100%, twice nothing is still nothing."