Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 24th, 2008
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Sep 1st 2008 11:13AM
posted Sep 1st 2008 11:13AM
As expected, not much going on this week as everyone in the home media business is waiting on the holiday season to release the hounds. Sure, both DVD and Blu-ray volumes are up this week, but both are still relatively low because Street Kings -- and other titles this week -- just weren't that interesting to consumers. The number one titles on Blu-ray this week was easily Street Kings, out selling any other titles two to one, but overall that title wasn't very popular with Blu-ray as less than ten percent of those who bought a disc containing the movie last week bought it on Blu. And who says parents don't buy their kids Blu-ray discs, as the latest Hannah Montana movie takes fourth overall on the Blu-ray charts -- but at the same time only managing to steal four percent away from DVD. Looking forward once again shows much of the same for next week, as we continue to wait for all the studios to ramp up for the holiday season.
Street Kings wasn't interesting to consumers --> Street Kings was the top-selling Blu-Ray. Could it be that Blu-Ray isn't interesting to consumers?
if they would just lower the f@!*ing price, more consumers would buy this sh!t. Its about time now, geeeez
Blu-ray growth is getting stronger and stronger. I don't think many people that has the lucky chance to have BD in their homes will ever use the old SD DVD ever again... :)
So i assume we - the true High Def lovers won :)
No Blu-Ray won--High Def lovers lost.
@BMZ how so? What do you feel would be different if HD DVD, EVD or some other format had won?
Um... thats a bit of a leap don't you think? Its just as likely that current Blu-Ray owners are simply buying more titles.... and if you bothered to actually read the article, standard format sales are up as well. As recon suggested, if they lower the price more people might be inclined to try the format, but I don't see this happening in the near term. Unless that happens sooner rather than later Blu Ray wont last either, as more people will simply download and stream HD movies rather than have the clutter of all those discs lying around.
Are we ever going to get actual number of discs per title sold for Blu or would that be asking too much?
That wont happen, how can you spin pure fact?
Here we go again. This means nothing. Nothing I tell you. It shows that consumers (including me) are idiots. Did you see the movies on the list?
Street Kings, The Scorpion King 2, Camp Rock, Prom Night, are in the top 10. And you know these discs are not the cheap ones. They were bought at 29.99 at Target or Best Buy.
The question should be what kind of retarded people buy these movies, with what money, and will watch these movies twice, some will never see the movie they bought.
So why rant… because these retards buy these stupid movies at expensive prices, making Blu companies believe that they could keep producing this junk and selling them at ridiculous prices.
I contributed to this, picking up 4 BluRays this week (nearly doubling my collection). Fry's was selling certain BluRay titles (mostly catalog titles) for $14.99, the same price as the equivalent DVDs. So I snagged a couple.
Excellent. THAT is how we get to lower prices--by buying on sale or at loss leader prices only.
Mr. E, Are you being sarcastic?
Blu Ray is a joke, do you really think the average Joe cares if he gets a slightly cleaner image for $300 minimum. It's over.
Just stack it beside your SACD player (history is repeating itself).
Actually it's currently $250 and will be $200 by Christmas. I expect next year you will be looking at $150 or even $115 minimum. Prices which are entirely in line with DVD players in their day.
Just because they will lower the price to $150 on a player, it won't mean that people will give up their DVDs if they are $30 players and $4 a disc. Blu ray may have a number of advantages, but comparable prices are what the average consumer looks at first. The picture quality doesn't matter as much as some people think.
Until they declare DVD dead, Blu will slowly grow in share.
Now, with just about every DVD release commercial there is something about Blu-ray.
There was not near the saturation of PR that there is now, and the catalog grows everyday.
People are not so adverse to spending money on things as you portray, if that was the case, Iphones would still be sitting on the shelf.
Blu-ray is better, no one I know that has seen it has said anything otherwise, and people like better.
People are now just about forced to upgrade to HDTVs unless they buy a used TV and by next year the players prices and a majority of discs that have been on the shelves now for over a year will be cheap to get, so people won't be near as leery as they were just months ago.
Broadband VOD is a joke today, the availability to a majority of people is Low at best. I do not have Cable but I have been to a friends house that does spend over a hundred dollars a month on it and I scrolled through EVERY available film on demand for free and that list is small and crappy; if it's not free it's effectively a rental which is not something expanding that market fast as those have been around for years and years. Cable VOD, Hulu, etc is great for TV shows and a small selection of average movies, but that's it.
The vast majority of people can't even choose their cable provider, let alone get a real broadband connection to do VOD, let alone HDVOD, and many that can aren't the kind of media watchers that will justify another thousand dollars a year on broadband just to watch a movie or show every once in a while.
So, though Blu-ray isn't there yet, pretending that the only real future/tech competitor out there is even close to being a viable choice for most people is naive and foolish.
@Mr_Fizzlepop
There are so many things wrong with your comments.
First I would like to point out that over the past 4 months Blu-ray has been slipping and slipping in the disc unit sales against SD DVD, even though they are getting more releases every week than DVD, even if they are older titles.
Second, nobody is being forced to upgrade to HDTV, there are still many CRT and none HD-LCD, the changeover is Digital, which doesn't mandate HD.
Third, if VOD is such a joke why is it the primary major backer of Blu-ray, Sony, is doing so much to back it with the PS3, and why are there so many companies out there offering it, if it was a joke you would find nobody offering VOD. Most of the time your online and cable VOD offers more than enough movies to where you'll find something worth watching on.
Forth, the people buying the I-Phone are two types, those who are stupid enough to buy into blu-ray and those who just have to have it because "everybody else" has it, Blu-ray doesn't get the status symbol that the I-Phone does because you can't carry it around with you and show it off.
Face it Blu-ray is still struggling, even more so since HD DVD dropped out, the pricing point for the players and movies is all wrong.
Its the same old thing with the haters and fanboys every week!
Look this is how this works period.
Regardless of which format won, the hd format will not be competing with dvd in any way but 1, new releases! That's why blu is doing well and thats why it looks like its not doing well. The week with big movie 1st time releases on both formats always shows a large spike in blu sales. Thats all any new format can do to "compete" with the existing format.
Its very simple and people are making it too complicated because we all define "doing well" differently. Fanboys will always find the good, haters will always find the bad and realistic people see the line between the two. Blu is not competing with dvd, its replacing new release dvds on a going forward basis for people who can enjoy the benefits it has to offer. Few people will buy a new blu release of an old, less then average movie for $25-$30 on blu when its $5-$10 on dvd. People will upgrade their favorite movies to blu and eventually if companies move away from dvd to push blu and as prices come down, thats the only time blu can "take over" dvd. People who expect more from any format replacing dvd simply either don't understand the situation or they are not realistic. As someone who like technology without being a fanboy or a hater, I can say that blu is performing as expected which is a good thing but it will continue on a slower path until prices come down but it will also improve as hd tvs continue to get a larger share of the market. Hate it or love it all you want, but understand the big picture and understand that hd in general is still not something everyone can afford.
As for me, I'm replacing a handful of favorite movies and buying just the big new releases on blu. If not a big movie that I know i'll ove to watch many times, then I get the dvd.