Target shifts shelf space away from HD DVD, for Blu-ray
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Sep 21st 2007 8:23AM
posted Sep 21st 2007 8:23AM
posted Sep 21st 2007 8:23AM
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LoL here we go again
Well, there was one nice thing about HD DVD and Target. I went in there on Wednesday night and saw the "Clearance" rack, near the DVDs and magazines (Target Store in Livonia, MI) and saw the HD DVDs of 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS and JARHEAD on clearance for a whopping $4.98!!!
Thanks, Target!
Are you serious? Get the fackle over yourselves and get a real article....how does this even come up?
I rummaged through the Target website, since I never go to that stupid store, and look what I found. Is it true?!!??!
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=8-19/qid=1190381486/ref=sr_8_19/602-7205452-9993437?ie=UTF8&asin=B000NQREA0
It looks like overall the HD-DVD has less in stock in all of the pictures. Perhaps Sony is buying them out.
No, it's not true. From what I've heard, those movies are actually owned by LucasFilm and they're notorious for waiting a long, long, long time before adopting a new format. Amazon has the exact same listing.
That Target link (to a future HD DVD "Indiana Jones" Trilogy) - that's just a "header" or "place card" on their site and nothing more (yet).
Amazon has been doing this as well for both HD disc formats since last summer; you can find these not-yet-released titles by consistently clicking on page after page of the "master list", and eventually you will see the "headers" for titles that you can't purchase at this time.
No title can be expected until a formal announcement is made by the resulting studio, and usually you will find an annoucement shortly afterwards at http://www.highdefdigest.com/ or http://www.dvdtown.com/
Don't expect HD DVD of the Indiana Jones movies until next summer/winter at the earliest, timed for the 4th movie coming to theaters next summer, and probably around a new Special Edition standard DVD release as well.
Wow, you know what this means?! Absolutely notyhing! Its just like saying... He said that she said the he told her about that guy that he doesn't like them.
Well, as long as it's a possibility that it's coming. It would make sense to come out a few weeks before Indy 4 comes out. Best movies of all time, to me. :)
They've got a deal with Sony, folks--at least through Christmas. As part of the deal, they're not carrying any HD-DVD players. Instead, they're exclusively carrying Blu-Ray players. Of course, I'm sure Ben already knows this. Glad you're back, Ben! Thanks for the FUD!
Can you post a link to where Target's buyout lasts until end-of-year?
I noticed the same thing at my new Super Target in Madison, WI. Their prices are sometimes $5 to $10 cheaper than Best Buy, $15 in the case of Planet Earth, so I regularly take a look. If I had taken pictures they'd look the same as those above.
Just do a Google search. The deal is slated "through the holiday season".
Our Target made the 4:2 shift two months ago.
So for $150 million paid to Paramount, the hd-dvd group bought a speed bump in the way of Blu-Ray? Toshiba would have been better off spending the $150M to license Blu-Ray technology and start making Blu-Ray players themselves.
What would be cool is if Toshiba could make a Blu-Ray player that, instead of playing Blu-Ray discs, played HD-DVDs. Also, if they could make it cost a whole lot less, that would be nice... Oh, wait--they've already done that!
That will maybe happen when Sony starts making HD-DVD players. And don't say it's impossible. Sony made VHS decks in the past.
What would be better is if Yougo could make a car that has an AM FM cassette but is less expensive than an Acura.
What would be great is if you could buy a Fiesta for $40,000 without tires or a complete engine and claim it was superior to a working Acura because it's more expensive. I'm sure you would.
I've noticed the same kind of treatment at my local best buy. At one point HD-DVD had around 60 of a wall rack and bluray 30, tv series 10%. Now it's 60% bluray and 40% HD-DVD, the sdtv shows moved.
Target has been pimping the bluray hard even before the Sony endcap deal. They have beat out amazon on HD media pricing at times and they tend to price bluray disks a little less or equal to HD-DVD's. I've never seen a bluray cost more than a HD-DVD at target. Which is common according to this forum.
So it has finally come to retailers adopting shelf-space tactics, eh? It seems to me that negative actions and/or news about HD DVD only makes supporters buy MORE discs, somewhat like Marilyn Manson and Korn fans. (I apologize if I've offended any readers with that statement.)
Besides the obvious Democrat/Republican symbolism behind the two formats, I think of HD DVD as Rocky Balboa---humble, determined, and strong---while Blu-ray and its supporters certainly echo Apollo Creed more often than not---arrogant, blustery, disrespectful of its opponent...and in need of a serious @$$ kicking.
Haven't we gotten past the "little format that could" stage? Apparently not, as this has progressed from a format war to a propaganda war for a full year now.
Regarding shelf space tactics... unfortunately, it's nothing new. As a person who has been selling product to places like Best Buy for a number of years, I can tell you that it all comes down to the company "bean counters" making sure that each square foot of shelf space can generate "x" amount of revenue per month. If it doesn't... move it out (stock rotate it) and make room for the next product!
I would be surprised to find that any stores would suddenly start reducing HD-DVD media without a deal. Recent Nielson ratings show Blu-Ray's lead decreasing. Also, why allocate more space to a format with fewer titles? It's true that Blu-Ray is currently selling better than HD-DVD--but why make the switch now when their lead has decreased?
Dave,
The shelf space given to hd is still far less than the total available # of titles. I think my best buy is doing awesome with around 100 + hd(blu and dvd) titles in stock on the shelf. I saw the switch happen over time.
Each store will change it's shelf space according to their sales. It may be possible the bluray is getting the in store sales while HD-DVD is making ground up online. It may also just be the sales at those stores.
I know my local best buy, and area, was sold out of PS3's for quite a while and couldn't keep stock on the shelves till early march. So my area my not be typical but I do know when I went to get 300 last week they had to pull the last of their stock from the back for me.
Both are indications but not proof of high demand in my area.
Rocky Balboa is on Blu-ray.
If you want a better analogy, use "RCA SelectaVision" for HD DVD and "LaserDisc" for Blu-ray. Hopefully this time 'round, Joe Public won't simply ignore both and opt for "VHS" which would be DVD under this scenario.
I just got back from my local Target (Chicago) and had a good laugh. They had double the amount of space for Blu-Ray titles (only half the slots had skus) ...but close to the same amount of titles (and skus)as HD DVD. Several HD DVD titles were sold out, (empty slots with corresponding skus)Not one of the Blu-Ray titles was even close to being gone.
Now, someone there must not be very good at shelving because several of the Blu-Ray titles were spread out into 3 slot, but only using 1/3 of the available space in each slot. (and there were STILL empty slots without Skus) There were about 5-6 titles arranged like this...needless to say, being the helpful guy I am I corrected this issue for them...I wouldn't want the stocker to get in trouble for such a dumb mistake or anything...
Can anybody give me some advise on purchasing a 1080P DVD player? Should I go with blu ray or HD DVD? I am just not confidant in either of them at this point.
Buy HD DVD, it's a quality product, a finished specification (unlike BR) and is cheaper. Price is what will finish this war. When the products are cheap enough, people will buy in droves, and HD DVD will be there a long time b4 BR.
@TOM
Buy HD DVD, it's a quality product, has quality studio support, a finished specification (unlike BR) and is a lot cheaper. Price is what will finish this war. When the products are cheap enough, people will justify the move from DVD, not before, then will buy in droves, and HD DVD will be there a long time b4 BR.
- "if you want a better analogy, use "RCA SelectaVision" for HD DVD and "LaserDisc" for Blu-ray." -
That is just a riduculous comparison!
RCA Videodisc: 240 lines of resolution, 2-channel stereo - lasted from 1981 to 1986-87 (R.I.P.)
LaserDisc: 425 lines of resolution - lasted from 1978 until 2000 [legacy to the DVD format, introduced DIGITAL surround sound, DTS 5.1 sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, Special Edition discs, Special Edition Box Sets, Complete TV Season Box Sets, Karaoke-music discs, multi-language audio tracks, audio commentary tracks, even had Anamorphic 16X9 discs near the end (Japan only), etc etc]
Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray would be comparable to LaserDisc, and NEITHER should ever be compared to the poor quality RCA "needlevision" Videodiscs [which cost RCA over $600 million in losses by the time it folded]
LaserDisc had about 3 to 5 million users worldwide [US/UK/Asia] and although small, was still profitable, supported by many manufacturers, and was still going strong until DVD (with greater capability and benefits) surpassed it in quality, and users.
@ Joseph R,
Yes, but "The Jeremy's" over all POINT was, (which you completely missed) was nether format lasted, nor caugh on with the pubic. Did they? So resolution lines of blah, blah, blah mean nothing if there's NOTHING to play it on.
(It's best to read the WHOLE statment, before anwering -- or at lease think about it a little more)
@ The Jeremy
LOL, see what happens when you mess with A/V enthusiasts on this blog? And BTW, the fact that the movie "Rocky Balboa" is on Blu-ray (which I suspect holds little interest as an owned or rented title) has nothing to do with what I said on my previous post. I was talking about the character, not the film.
It also important to notice that the Blu ray side still has plenty of movies on the shelves while the HD DVD side is bare. I notice this recently when I went to purchase 300 at Brandsmart USA that the Blu side was loaded with movies and the HD DVD side was virtually sold out.
I wouldn't call an 18 month contract with Paramount and Dreamworks during the most important time of the formats life cycle just a "speedbump". I could care less who, if anyone wins since I own both, but Im not stupid enough to make light of a huge deal like that.
Of course, just to keep the spin going, it can also mean that the bluray camp is getting the discs to the Target stores faster than HDDVD camp and so the slots for HDDVD discs may have been sitting empty for some time while the bluray slots are being regularly filled and emptied.
You can spin it any way you want, it really means nothing.
@ Joseph R:
My analogy is accurate. RCA's SelectaVision CED was touted as a cheap alternative to LaserDisc (as well as videotape). RCA told the world that it would make movies available for $5. The point is, CED was inferior to LaserDisc and was backed by essentially a single company (RCA) hardware-wise. Sound familiar?
CED is an appropriate analogy to HD DVD since Toshiba's technology is touted as being cheaper to manufacture than Blu-ray. Furthermore, like CED's needle technology that was feeble compared to laser, HD DVD was initally supposed to be a red-laser based technology (which ultimately used blue laser by product launch) whereas Blu-ray was always supposed to be next-gen tech. For the most part, HD DVD is backed by Toshiba whereas the majority of the consumer electronics industry backs Blu-ray. HD DVD has less space per disc than Blu-ray, and the spec has much less bitrate capacity than Blu-ray.
So like it or not, CED is an appropriate analogy for modern HD DVD. True believing partisans may wish to disagree with the analogy, but I am reminded of my own father's misplaced support for CED and his opinion that it would ultimately succeed even when all the video stores were dumping the product circa 1985, for RCA's promised $5 or less per disc.
Yeah. That analogy sucks. Why don't you save your argument of the superiority of Blu-Ray for the day they're done with the spec?
Interesting to see in the photos that HD DVD has more empty partitions then BR, they must be selling faster!
The 2 companies should marry and have an offspring called either "HD-Ray" or "HD Blu-DVD"
That should stop the stupid war and we can all go on to spend money in the next-gen dvd format...
I now understand why the rest of the world is kicking America's ass with manufacturing. If any of you dumbas*es had a job and used the logic you use in this post, heaven help you. America where ignorance abounds, fighting to see which foreign manufacturer gets your money while not supporting the few American companies involved in the process. Your ignorance has kept you poor and will continue to. What is your debt to retirement savings ratio? Have you spent as much time worried about your job and retirement that you have on whether HD DVD or Sony will win a format war?
My Target has removed the divider completely
I don't understand the logic of some people. Who cares if the details of the specs. have been finalized or not? Is that what you're buying? It doesn't seem to slow down consumer electronics makers from making Blu-ray players. Take the names away and which would you prefer:
50 GB capacity or 30 GB capacity
Higher data bandwidth or lower data bandwidth (less detailed audio/rare lossless)
The biggest movie studio support (more titles) or less titles
Isn't the choice logically clear?
So Spock-wannabe, it's interesting that, despite your supposed superior logic, you neglected to mention the price difference in both the players and the discs. Cost wise, HD-DVD kicks BD's ass. Also, all the specs you mentioned are a big whoop for me because the differences are pretty much imperceptible. I'm not willing to pay more $$ for 20 gigs of disc space that isn't even needed. I'll bet you throw away cash on Monster cables and other things that are over-engineered and over-priced.
It's not really good logic if you don't consider ALL the pros/cons, and your bias shines through. Live long and prosper.
50 GB, WHO CARES, higher bandwidth, WHO CARES. Do they look and sound the same, YES, is one a finished specification, YES, is one considerably cheaper then the other, YES, ...."Isn't the choice logically clear?"
This is a meaningless article. The reality is that thanks to the recent $250M bribe to a major movie studio to go exclusive to a technically inferior format(none of the Blu-Ray exclusive studios had to be bribed) this idiotic format war will drag on for another year.
Newsflash -- All the company's are being bribed, that WHY whe have a format war... AGAIN. You think Hollywood gives a good goddamn about the public buying this crap and getting stuck with the next BETA-MAX?
Wake-up! I know you want to believe in magical fairies and the pure hart of Sony. But the only thing they care about is money and keeping the status quo. Which is way video downloads are going to be the way to go.
@ Mark
HAHAHAHA you really believe that ANY company has gone format exclusive without receiving compensation in some form or another? You must not understand how this world works.
@Tom, if you're not confident in either format, don't buy yet. We still have a long row to hoe before this war is played out.
Oh, and damonb, let's just stop with the whole price comparison, because price will be completely irrelevant long before the war is done. It's quite clear now that the lowest price Blu-ray and HD DVD hardware will be within spitting distance of each other, price-wise, by Christmas 2008 at the latest. Certainly HD media in general will not have even 10 percent of the total home video market by that time. Not to mention the fact that a movie lover spending several grand on a big screen HDTV is not likely to let a difference in price dissuade him from what he believes is the winning format (regardless of technical superiority of one versus the other).
As to the evoloution of the Blu-Ray specification, I submit it's not a terrible thing at all. The LaserDisc analogy is a great one, because many of the advances in home video sound that made it into DVD did so as additions to the LaserDisc format. Dolby Digital, DTS, etc., all appeared relatively late in the life of the LaserDisc. A format will not be able to survive for a long term if it's not able to add capability (while still allowing older hardware to function to its full capabilities with new software). What happens if 3D in the home takes off? How about motion encoding like D-Box? These are just examples, but there's no telling what advances are going to appear in 5, 10, or even 15 years. When new advances appear, would the HD DVD forum just throw up their hands and say "sorry, we can't consider that, since we don't want to be an evolving specification?" Ridiculous. They've already moved forward with a 3-layer disc!
Lincoln, NE
http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/1491706731/
Thanks for the contribution!