Planet Earth HD DVD and Blu-ray sales soaring
By Matt Burns 
posted Jun 8th 2007 8:14AM
posted Jun 8th 2007 8:14AM
posted Jun 8th 2007 8:14AM
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another sign that both formats can share the market
I am not trying to sound like a fanboy but the HD-DVD has been DESTROYING the blu-ray one with constant top 10 sales the highest being #4 and the average of #7 while the blu-ray one is in the mid-low #20s. While the DVD version has been steadily #1 for weeks now and it doesn't move everytime i check it's firmly planted at #1 which is cool. I own both versions the Discovery SD one and the BBC HD-DVD ones because people were saying the bonus disc on the SD one is worth owning and i figured it would be cool to have both people plus my HD-DVD can upconvert the SD one to HD anyway so i am cool.
Have you realised that there are 5 blu-ray titles on the top 100? and only 1 HD DVD title on the top 10. if there its one format DESTROYING!! trust me its not blu-ray
I hope you're not referring to the Amazon charts, because the general consensus is that they are rigged in HD DVD's favor.
How did they do that?
Is Amazon HD DVD biased?
Is the rumour of "HD DVD anniversary buy day" a buy month now?
5.1
PS. Could you "AVS Forum" guys tell us about this month in advance?
Seems like a lot of people are missing one important difference between the formats which is behind the higher sales for HD-DVD of Planet Earth; HD-DVD players currently have no region coding so the US Planet Earth disc can be bought say for playback in Europe for example, whereas the Blu-ray version and players are region coded therefore the Blu-Ray version is US only.
tonyb
"plus my HD-DVD can upconvert the SD one to HD anyway so i am cool"
Sigh...I really hope you don't mean that. Comparing DVD upconverted to an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is just ridiculous. The difference is huge especially in Color Saturation and Contrast...not to mention perceived or temporal resolution.
It's been well documented that HD-DVD owners are apparently purchasing more movies per person. These high attach rates may be attributed to the fact that most HD-DVD owners are Xbox 360 HD-DVD users. Xbox 360 has an attach rate of 5.7 Games per console even a year and a half after being on the market. These are historically record high rates and is apparently correlating to HD-DVD movie title sales.
i know that upconverting is not the same i was just saying it's better then nothing and that i could choose which one i wanna listen to.
I don't think the PS3 crowd are really in to documentaries. Too busy playing 2nd rate PS3 games.
The problem with all the 'statistics' we are getting, is that they are the same as comparing apples to oranges.
Everyone knows that Blu-Ray currently has 6 of the 8 major studios as Exclusives while HD-DVD has only 1 (plus 2 companies are doing both formats).
You can't compare the sales of "Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Ray" with "Hot Fuzz HD-DVD".
The only numbers that give relatively useful information are the discs available in both formats.
Example:
Planet Earth - HD-DVD sales have Significantly outpaced Blu-Ray on Amazon
Jun 14/07 - HD-DVD Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3 in DVD
Jun 14/07 - Blu-Ray Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17 in DVD
Note: This is 2 MONTHS after it's release.
The best way to visualize the VAST difference in number of exclusive titles is to make yourself a 'wish list' of movies regardless of format.
All the Spider-man, X-men, Pirates of the Carribean movies are all Blu-ray exclusive (as are about 95% of the comic-based movies. Asian martial arts films are almost all Blu-Ray exclusives as well. *ALL DISNEY movies are Blu-Ray exclusive. Fox and Sony are Blu-ray Exclusives (MGM is owned by Sony as well.)
On the HD-DVD side - Universal is the ONLY HD-DVD exclusive company at this point.
Warner Brothers and Paramount are releasing titles in both formats so their numbers are slightly more informative than any others, but even those are not accurate.
Blu-ray players include the PS3, so there will be some sales of certain genres of blu-ray movies, that will sell to PS3 owners even if they have not (and don't intend to) buy any other movies to use on their PS3s.
This trend can be seen on the Xbox Live Marketplace where the top movers are consistently Comedy Central and MTV shows and Movies like Poison Ivy (with Alyssa Milano nude) Taking the number one spots when they are first released. In other words a movie with a young male audience might see significant *extra* sales to PS3 owners.
----
As companies move exclusivity based on sales, the picture may change. (Beta has several 'exclusive' companies that eventually switched to VHS long before the decade long war ended.)
Who will 'win' the format war? It's a tough one to call right now but some major factors are:
Number of blockbuster movie exclusives: Blu-ray wins by a landslide
Price of hardware: HD-DVD wins by a landslide
Cost to produce (which will *EVENTUALLY* be noted in cost to consumers): HD-DVD wins
(right now blu-ray AND HD-DVD are constantly on sale. Especially Sony's buy 2 get 1 free at Fry's and other discounted prices at Amazon and Best Buy.)
Combo DVDs: HD-DVD has a slight edge:
You can currently buy Dual format
HD-DVD/DVD discs with the HD on one side
and Standard Definition on the other
Great for having one disc for the home
AND car/portable DVD player/Kid's Room
with no HDTV - (I'm sure MOST people
won't have HDTVs and Players in their
cars for quite a few years :).
Capacity: Blu-ray currently leads
- 50 GB dual layer though I don't believe anything has been released on anything other than 25GB single layer...This will be a bigger deal in the computer backup market where backing up 50 Gigs (or more if 3x/4x stability rises) on one disc will be nice.
- HD-DVD is catching up with a stable 3x layer HD-DVD with 45GB capacity.
Durability: From original tech specs HD-DVD wins
- I personally haven't seen how the scratches affect the Blu-Ray Discs yet but originally there was a significant note that Blu-Ray Discs wouldn't be able to play with many 'surface' scratches due to the thin disc layer. This one will affect people with children and people who lay their discs around because if your discs stop working due to minor scratches, people will be PO'ed.
Finally name: Blu-ray has done a good job of getting their name out there, but the problem is HD-DVD doesn't even have to try. People have HDTV's, HD Radio, HD Printers, HD Cameras, (even Sony just released their HD Radio Receiver.)
Everyone knows HD. The tech crowd/early adopters/Geeks etc, know both HD and Blu-Rays name, but if you speak to your *AVERAGE* consumer, who still has 0 HDTVs and 3+ Standard TVs (or even 1 HDTV and 2-4 Standard TVs, you will find the Blu-ray name isn't as common knowledge as it is to you or I.
In fact, there are a fair number of people who use HDTVs and have never set their HD cable box to output in 1080i or even 720p and don't even know it....They are still outputting 480i signals which most TVs tend to upconvert, which is NOWHERE near the same quality.
Oh one last thing.
Region Codes: HD-DVD doesn't have region codes, so you can use HD-DVDs from anywhere in the world. This is significant when European or Asian companies own the rights to movies/content owned by Blu-Ray exclusive companies in North America...Meaning some Blu-Ray exclusives will be available on HD-DVD through Imports.
Also, a scary note is that Sony created the following:
Betamax (lost to VHS)
Mini-discs - nearly non-existant
SACD - to replace your CDs almost 10 years ago?
UMD - movies for your PSP, with no support anywhere else not even on Playstation..These sold very well when they first came out.
I think there is one or two more Sony formats which I can't recall that were going to 'take over' which are either non-existant or existant only in Asian markets.
This war is going to be a lot tougher to call if Disney or Fox or others decide to produce both discs.
Unless Disney is making some extra money on the side from Sony, I can't see them giving up profit from HD sales if the format war lasts much longer than Sony's prediction of early 2008. (If someone has a link to Sony's news conference where they announced that by 2008 Blu-ray sales will surpass *standard DVD* sales, I would appreciate it).
Phoenixxx1974 - It's also worth noting that Planet Earth is the _only_ HD-DVD title people are actually buying ;)
Top ten blu-ray title average is _77_ on amazon - hd-dv is _470_. And without Planet Earth, HD-DVD numbers would be close to 800 - and that's TOP TEN titles. HD-DVD is seriously going down hill, Toshiba will need a miracle to get back in the game.
And no, I don't own either format. I don't even have a hdtv - I'm just stating the obvious.
@ 0ndsk4 -- there is a Buy-1-Get-1-Free sale on Blu-ray discs Sherlock. What do you expect? LOL. I think the fact of the matter is this: Blu-ray is doing worse than expected, HD DVD is doing better than expected.
Sony did not want it to be like this. They wanted the WHOLE high-def market. Looks like we're going dual format, and I don't feel bad for Sony either.
If you dont even own an HDTV, then why are you even on this site posting comments....?!?!?!?!?
Sales numbers are likely not the best benchmark for format adoption. More DVD titles are rented than purchased in any given day, month, year. I would guess by a factor of 100, at least. With Neflix and Blockbuster.com offering HD and Blu-Ray titles, I would say that their numbers are far more meaningful than the Amazon.com sales ranking.
Now, would someone please go and get those numbers.
Well, I see you really dig HD-DVD - I don't really want to start a flame war, just giving my bystander opinion here.
I can't say I understand how a format that's never won a single weeks sales this year can be considered "doing better than expected". That sounds kind of fanboyish (when HD-DVD has a sale or a buy day, they sell _equal_ to what blu-ray sells _without_ a sale - it's terrible, really!).
However, I'm a huge fan of the Hi-Def wars since prices are driven down so damn fast, and salute Toshiba for their struggle:
Fact of the matter is this - Toshiba still haven't got studio support, they still haven't got hardware support (they make the 360 drive, the coming Onkyo one is a rebadge), they still sell less than half of what blu-ray sells even though their players cost nada.
I kinda feel bad for them, cause I think they have a larger user base than you can expect for a format that sells so little compared to the competition. It's all due to the offers - you can get 9 free HD-DVDs when buying a cheap Toshiba player. An offer that makes Toshiba bleed money badly. And they sell _alot_ of players, but then there is no content - people watch their 9 free Hi-Def discs and there's nothing else to buy since there's no studio support. If HD-DVD had had Pirates, Spiderman, Casino Royal, Star Wars, etc, I actually think they would be in the lead.
But sadly for them, all that's interesting to buy is: Planet Earth ($70-100), Matrix Trilogy ($70-80) and Heroes ($70-90). Thats more than $200 for just three purchases you can't get for free with a HDDVD purchase - money that BD owners can use to buy 10 BD movies. No wonder HD-DVD is losing the war.
By "how important quality is", I assume you mean quality of content, not video quality. I think people are so wrapped up in the video quality of high def, they fail to realize that content is still king.
Sure planet earth looks amazing, and that doesn't hurt, but the fact that I watched every episode of "The Shield" in standard def, but not a single HD episode of "24" still seals for me that a beautiful turd is still a turd. After the few fan boys buy every title on HD (if you want something scary, check out the fanboy pic threads over at avs), real people won't buy crap.
Marshall
realht.info podcast
Check this article out over and The Digital Bits. They may be on to something in terms of the Blu-Ray HD-DVD format war.
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html
@scott..
Listening to that guy is on line with listening to a fortune teller's stock picks.
What a biased retard. Nobody knows who will win.
@ Marshall
Watch your tongue about my man Jack Bauer! I'm a huge fan of both shows, and it's safe to say that Chiklis and Sutherland have created TWO of the most compelling, memorable characters in television, right up there with Gandolfini's Tony Soprano. It's even more remarkable when you consider all three of these actors' backgrounds, especialy Kiefer's, which wasn't rooted in being a ruthless, no-holds-barred badass.
"24" is great whether it's in HD or not, and there's nothing else like it on TV. The same can be said for "The Shield." Calling either one a "turd" is pretty harsh. Even Stephen King shares my views on these well-produced shows (as well as "Lost"), so you might as well call him a fanboy as well!
wannabe know-it-alls are posting their opinions as gospel. Endorsing one format over another. Here's another http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32838
What the actual sales numbers show us is the formats are close to even. What would it matter any how? These guy are outsold by VHS, Using hi def PR and going by the sales data we all should be gearing up for a VHS revival ;)
What it is coming down to and more than a few analysts concur is that the format war will go one for years. Not months, years.
More dual players are coming and more PCs will play both. While it's nice that Planet Earth is a hi def bestseller and it deserves that title because it's truly a worthy production, but it dosn't indicate any thing more than a measly 42k sold in DVD market that sells Billions. It's a case of big fish little Pond.
rofl, people actually think HD-DVD is doin well? Phoenixxx1974, Planet Earth is the ONLY HD-DVD doing better than bluray. But thats it. Blurays are doing way better than HDDVD's in the charts.
..people these days...
You know when I decided to buy hd-dvd? When the Best Buy tard gave me false figures as to why Blu-ray was better.
I like most people don't like to be told what the best thing is. I would rather get something different. I personally see no difference in video quality (I've seen both formats). HD-DVD players are cheaper (so easy decision there).
So, I bet you I have spent about half of what someone would spend on the same quality system with media in blu-ray. And that is what matters.
I have both formats via a PS3 and an XBOX360. Playing games on both made it convenient, but now that I have the option of both I generally get HD-DVD whenever available and Blu-ray discs as a second choice. When I have compared the same title in both formats in the past HD-DVD was better (both audio and video) or I couldn't see a difference.
I don't check anymore, I just prioritize on Netflix. A lot of people get up in arms about which format is better, but at this time with all of the exclusive content on each format I intend to ride both because regardless of what we think the format war will likely not be decided based on quality. Content deals come and go.
Argue away about which is better, in the end we have seen that it's not the determining factor as to which format wins.
oh give me a break. they are constantly updated and they are not biased. gee i wonder what you are, can we say close-minded sony fanboy/girl boys and girls?
"HD-DVD players currently have no region coding so the US Planet Earth disc can be bought say for playback in Europe for example, whereas the Blu-ray version and players are region coded therefore the Blu-Ray version is US only. "
The Blu-ray version of Planet Earth is not region coded - just as any other Warner title (and Paramount titles + many catalog titles from Sony, Disney, Lionsgate).
Manufactures made dual format -RW & +RW drives to suit all
So im sure once the dust settles production of dual format HD & Blu-Ray players will begin!