Sony to begin Blu-ray marketing blitz
By Matt Burns 
posted Jun 8th 2006 10:08AM
posted Jun 8th 2006 10:08AM
HD DVD has a head start but we are only a few days away from Blu-ray's launch. But unlike Toshiba's HD DVD launch, Sony is going to stand up and shout to the world about Blu-ray. Toshiba didn't really do anything and in fact, none of us around the lab here has ever seen a HD DVD commercial. Have you? Sony is a marketing giant though and you know that when they want to sell something, they flood every media outlet with advertisements and events. Sony is already name dropping Blu-ray at the of DVD release titles like Underworld: Evolution, but there hasn't been any commercials for the Blu-ray hardware yet.
Sony kicked this marketing campaign off last week with their Blu-ray laptop demo. You might remember the whole "not a Blu-ray DVD" fiasco. Sony has also put Blu-ray demos in their top 10 retail stores. Except to see a lot more coming in the next few weeks.
Even with the hardware advantages that Blu-Ray has I still think that HD-DVD could win the format war if only they strided harder to please consumers. At this point I really think HD-DVD is dropping the ball, and mainly just because of a lack of new content releases. I think if they were able to step up content release they could easily pull further ahead of Blu-Ray since after all they have a much better price point for their players. I really feel that the ball is in HD-DVD's hand, and it's up to them to do something with it (other than just dribble).
I think Blu-Ray has the upper hand because they're only one large studio away from a clean sweep. That's VERY dangerous for HD-DVD and they'd better schmooze Universal Pictures like they've never done before.
Blu-Ray's game to lose right now. Hardwarewise Blu-Ray isn't good enough to warrant paying too much more for so it's going to boil down to content.
When the day comes that I am willing to buy either format there needs to be at least ten titles I am really craving to have. But until then neither are worth anything to me, and right now neither has sufficient titles.
There needs to be a $500 or less blu-ray player for the average hi-def enthusiast. Most of us normal people cannot justify a $1000+ blu-ray player. The cost is just too high when you have a couple kids, high gas prices, a mortgage, college tuition, etc.
I'm looking forward to the $100 player before I even think about buying either format.
HD DVD is doing OK at best with being the only one in the market. They are ahead, but seem to be sitting on the side waiting for something to happen. Blu-Ray is going to come onto the scene running and making a lot of noise. They were smart to wait this long to release their players. This will give them an advantage over HD DVD since they will be able to build momentum form here all the way to the holiday season where they will cash in. By that time I'd imagine that Sony will have a newer model out for the masses and wil be able to lower their prices a fraction.
I *HAVE* seen an HD DVD commercial. (Do I get a star? ;-) jk) It was on HDNet.
Basically, its a sterotypic male-and-female action scene with a helicopter(!) and the ever cliched "GRAB MY HAND!" but this time they fall. And where do they land? A couch in front a Toshiba TV with and HD-XA1 (and a bowl of popcorn that must have come from the helicopter). Continuing the cliches, deep voice guy comes in, and says "Toshiba HD DVD. So real you can feel it."
I thought the ad was well-placed (HDNet = Target Audience) and well made (I thought it was a movie trailer up until the end) but I still think Sony is doing a much better job by jamming Blu-Ray down average joe NBA-Final-watcher's throat. People are noticing.
I too have seen the elusive HD DVD commercial with the Helo...
"SO REAL YOU CAN FEEL IT"
It is a spot cable run, I saw it on comedy central (if I remember right), not an HD network.
Nick that was a nice piece of Science Fiction.
The Playstation 3 is Sony's only opportunity to make up for lost ground. Newsflash people Sony delayed their own player until mid Aug or later. Samsung may or may not hit June 25th of this month and even if it does I doubt you see 10 thousand people shelling out a cool grand for it.
Toshiba's shipping their Qosmio laptop with a HD DVD player in it. Acer was showing a HD DVD laptop at Computex this week. They plan to have a Blu-Ray model as well but they can't get the drives. Speaks volumes about how the BDA executes. Sending out press release bragging out your product does not equal shipping said products. Toshiba had delivered players and then patched the firmware to take care of the initial wave of glitches which are inevitable. I give them an B+ on the whole affair but had to dock them because they haven't manufactured enough.
Enough marketing...more execution please.
Yeah on Discovery HD we've seen the commercial for Toshiba's Player a couple of times. It is one of the few commercials in HD that Discovery HD plays at the end of their shows. We are looking forward to the Blu-Ray marketing!! Let the war being! :)
Number 7 -- Think deeper. "Speaks volumes about how the BDA executes? What, by perfecting a product and not releasing it with flaws? By not hurrying the superior format?
HD DVD's head start does NOT MATTER. They're only reaching a MINISCULE segment of the market. Blu-Ray will have tons of units ready to ship, and oh... 6 MILLION PS3s.
yes, saw the Toshiba HD-DVD spot on HDNet and HDNet, looks and sounds GREAT!
Saw the Toshiba commercial too on a HD station.
I think both HD DVD and Blu-Ray have an uphill battle. Both are convinced we need the technology, but I'm not sold yet. Whoever sells the player hardware at @300 or below most likely has my attention.
July 18, 2006.
As of today, both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are on the market.
Here are the facts:
-Blu-Ray didn't wait for their launch for smart reasons; they did because they have problems with manufacturing.
-Proof of concept, Blu-Ray is still using one layer discs and Mpeg2 encoding, allowing a low quantity of content.
-Sony also gives the reason for the Mpeg2 that it’s because it gives a better image quality then H.264 (WTF).
-Sony hasn't yet started its publicity.
-HD-DVD forum has created a group called TheLookAndSoundOfPerfect to promote their format everywhere.
-HD-DVD has 34 movies, Blu-Ray has 14 movies.
-Blu-Ray does have more major movie hits under the arm. (Star Wars, Matrix etc.)
-Companies publishing for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are now releasing movies only on HD-DVD or delayed their release on Blu-Ray.
-Video game consoles like the Playstation 3, especially due to its integrated Blu-Ray drive at a low cost (compared to the external problematic HD-DVD Xbox 360 drive) may play a large role in promotion of the format, especially in Japan.
-Estimations that today's DVD will still be the market leader in 2010 is foolish since the United-States will adopt HD as a broadcast standard in 2009, thus making anything standard definition obsolete (for example, the DVD).
-Blu-Ray uses Java for its menus which are easier to program then the new iHD created by Toshiba for its HD-DVD menus.
-Current Blu-Ray movies suffer from bad mastering and give poor impressions on consumers. The best movies of Blu-Ray, not matter how much there are, may not go out until the one layer only Mpeg2 problem gets fixed. This gives enough time for HD-DVD to get a good head start (which it already has) and convert other studios to make HD-DVDs.
-Blu-Ray production costs are higher then HD-DVD.
-Java has royalty costs that are directly charged to consumers with higher machine and movie prices for Blu-Ray.
-iHD and HD-DVD are royalty free and Microsoft is even giving money to PC producers to include HD-DVD drives instead of Blu-Ray in their future Windows Vista systems.
Considering the above facts and the price to convert to either format, companies probably won’t ever convert again (ex: Blu-Ray to HD-DVD). This might lead to the reign of Hybrid systems that read both. (Already in development by such manufacturers are Samsung).
We may also see the same thing as DVD-Audio or SACD. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD might get killed by future movie download services. (Widescreen iPod, iTunes Movie Store???, who knows)