Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War 353
An anonymous reader writes "Citing the recent sales numbers, Sony exec David Bishop is claiming that the high-def format war can officially be declared over. With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1 Blu-ray discs are being declared the victor over rival HD-DVD by Blu-ray supporter Sony. 'And yet while all agree that it was a strong month for Blu-ray, opinion is split on whether the surge in sales is an indicator of stronger user adaption of Blu-ray compared to HD DVD, or simply a reflection of the larger number of new Blu-ray titles that hit the market over the month -- 25 new Blu-ray titles were released in January, compared to just 11 titles on HD DVD for the same period.'"
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Other than that... who knows. Maybe they're still relating to the BluRay "dominance" to PS3 sales - hence games.
Wait for adult titles to enter full production (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Number of movies (Score:5, Informative)
You're absolutely correct, and that would be a good measure of a particular format's success. Here's the problem: The number of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles currently available is a virtual dead heat. The last time I did a count (about 2 weeks ago) via a popular website that sells both formats, the numbers differed by less than 10, with the total being in the mid 100s.
As regards the most recent numbers, it's pretty obvious that more Blu-ray titles have been released and purchased in the last two months because a) Sony finally released the PS3 and there is nothing else to do with that hardware other than playing Blu-ray movies and play Resistance and b) they're trying to catch up with HD DVD which had a significant lead in available titles prior to the holiday season.
It's obviously way too soon to declare a winner, but I'll give Sony props for trying to turn lemons into lemonade...
I should note, as I often do, that I don't care who wins. If Toshiba and company stand pat and don't push their format then Sony could indeed win the thing because the PS3 is going to sell as time goes by, even if it doesn't become the dominant game console that the PS2 and PS were. The HD DVD folks need to get a standalone player out ASAP for under $400 and by Christmas they need to have players under $300. If they don't, then they'll have to rely on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on to compete with the PS3, and that's a dangerous road - not because the HD DVD add-on is a bad deal (it's actually a pretty good one), but because 360 owners already have what they need and want to play games without the bonus of an HD format, while PS3 owners are "forced" into possession of the HD format as a consequence of desiring PS3 gameplay.
Actually yes, all over but the shouting (Score:5, Informative)
The second week of January it was close to 3 to 1 for sales of BD
The HD-DVD camp Shot back that there where more title released on Blu-Ray the first two weeks (11 vs 21).
So what to make of this weeks releases? 12 titles to 1
It seems the distributors have decided for us.
HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on February 13th, 2007 [engadgethd.com]
Blu-ray
* Broken Arrow (Fox)
* Chain Reaction (Fox)
* Chronos (Koch)
* The Departed (Warner)
* Entrapment (Fox)
* Ladder 49 (Buena Vista)
* The Marine (Fox)
* Phone Booth (Fox)
* Planet of the Apes (Fox)
* Reign of Fire (Buena Vista)
* The Sentinel (Fox)
* The Usual Suspects (Fox)
HD DVD
* The Departed (Warner)
Titles to date HD DVD 159 vs Blu-ray 171.
and remember HD-DVD had a big head start and is now fading fast.
lets see (Score:5, Informative)
amazon.com
#1 the mystery of love
VHS Release Date: February 6, 2007
#115 Dora the Explorer - Save the Day! was Jan 10, 2007
#116 Here Comes the Big Red Car ~ Wiggles was Jan 3rd, 2007- so 115 seems to be a safe bet for new vhs titles in the last month.
Re:Number of movies (Score:3, Informative)
Resident Evil
Scooby Doo
Hitchikers Guide
Courage Under Fire
HDDVD has a a few too (counted 6), but I think blue-ray flooded the market with older movies.
Re:Free Movies, really sales? (Score:1, Informative)
I wish I had gotten a coupon for a free Blu-Ray movie but all I got was a tiny flier letting me know about Blu-Ray movies. I'll check my box again, but I'm pretty sure you're misinformed on this one.
(Sorry for posting anonymously. I moderated a couple posts in this story so I can't use my account.)
Re:Free Movies, really sales? (Score:4, Informative)
Considering those PS3s sold in November, and no other PS3 included a Blu-Ray movie, I don't think it affects the December or January numbers much.
Re:My thoughts exactly (Score:5, Informative)
Not that it really matters; the massive amount of studio support that BluRay has over HD-DVD makes it rather unlikely that HD-DVD will long enough to where dual-format players would be a viable option.
Rob
Re:Actually yes, all over but the shouting (Score:3, Informative)
WTF? Those movies are all less than 10-15 years old (unless they are talking about the original Planet of the Apes). They certainly will look better in HD. Even if they were 50 years old, they still would show improvement in HD. There is a tremendous amount of image detail in movies going back decades that is simply not visible in traditional home video formats, not even DVD. All it takes is a fresh high resolution scan to get at it.
Hell, a lot standard def DVDs out there today are already sourced from hi-def scans. In those cases, they don't even need to rescan, just reencode.
Re:My thoughts exactly (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Two major advantages (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.vgcharts.org/japconscomps.php?name1=Wi
Re:My thoughts exactly (Score:3, Informative)
LG is supposed to have one available by the end of Q1 2007. That is, in a few months. I'm not sure I believe it until I see one, but my opinion is that HD is not worth it for me. (No flames, please. For me, it isn't worth it. For you it may be).
Re:Number of movies (Score:4, Informative)
Unfortunately, that's not quite correct. While the pieces making up the drive itself (such as the blue laser) are indeed a large expense, the hardware permitting 1080p playback from such a drive are similarly expensive - CPU, audio/video decoders etc., all handling more complex work than similar hardware in a DVD player. In other words, it would take more than $50 of additional hardware to turn the add-on into a standalone device. Add in the mark-up so that both retailers and manufacturers make some dough on the deal, and the price increases quite a bit.
Still, the HD DVD prices aren't that bad compared to DVD prices at a similar point of only one year (actually, a little less) from introduction. This (and upcoming price drops, which I expect to reach $300 or less by Christmas) is most likely due to the competition in formats. While the early adopters may get hosed by the two competing formats (if their chosen format "loses"), the inevitable price war will probably greatly benefit the rest of the consumers down the line.
You have no idea of film quality (Score:3, Informative)
You don't know much about film, do you?
Scans of 35mm film exceed even the top HD resolution (1920x1080) you can get on today's HD discs.
As an example of just how wrong you are, on HDNet some time ago (when I still subscribed to Dish) I was watching Charlies Anglels, the original TV series, in full HD. It actually looked quite amazing. Even old stuff on film can look good (if a bit messy as the negatives age), modern day films will all look impressive as well - although one detraction can be that cut-rate effects really show up on HD sets. Also, anything shot in all digital can only be shown at the maximum resolution the cameras operated at (except for the special effects) that can be re-rendered.