Blu-ray Wallops HD DVD In Disc Sales

[JoeSp]

If you guys jumped on the Amazon bandwagon last XMAS they were offering a 10% off your HD purchases for 2007. In addition to all the BOGO and BTGO they have had over the last six months the average cost for my BD collection is around $16 a movie!! That is just $1 more then what I would have paid for DVD!!!! You have got to shop smart!! I went into Frye's in Atlanta on Black Friday and picked up Stealth and Hollowman for $19.00!!!! Every where else in the stores they were $24 apiece!! I always look for a bargan.

As for this war -- it just might be moving a little in BD's direction more. Those PS3's sold at Walmart with 10 BD movies were purchased by folks wanting a BD player. That means every one sold is going to be used primarily as a BD player. If BD starts posting numbers in North America like they are everywhere else in the world then there should start being incremental increases in BDs disc sales lead over HD-DVD. December could be a big month for both formats -- both camps are pulling out all of their guns for this XMAS. And the consumer is the one who is going to win!

 

[CochiseGuy]

As for this war -- it just might be moving a little in BD's direction more. Those PS3's sold at Walmart with 10 BD movies were purchased by folks wanting a BD player. That means every one sold is going to be used primarily as a BD player.

Or it means other folks are like you and enjoy a bargain, and figure if they're going to take the plunge and buy Sony's new game machine at new lower prices, why not take advantage of some additional freebies? You can always give the BDs away as gifts, sell them to friends, or - probably the most popular choice - put them up on eBay. That's like saying everyone who bought a 40GB PS3 with the Spiderman3 free pack-in bought it primarily as a BD player. Yeah, right - there has been such a deluge of Sm3s on eBay I finally took the bait and picked one up for $14, new, shipped. (I like my bargains too )

And, BTW - the actual WM special was 5 free BDs; the other 5 was the standard mail-in rebate. And it was only for the more expensive 80GB model, with the PS & PS2 backward compatibility - more appealing to gamers.

If BD starts posting numbers in North America like they are everywhere else in the world then there should start being incremental increases in BDs disc sales lead over HD-DVD.

1: I just get a kick out of the BDA propaganda machine - is that Iraqi Minister of Information working for them now? They love headlines - like the one I saw recently Blu-ray outselling HD DVD 85% to 15% in Australia.
But then when you read the details -

"From January through to September this year, 81,219 Blu-ray movies were sold in Australia compared with 14,632 HD DVD movies."

Less than 96k total high-def discs sold???? They sell more vegemite sandwiches in one hour in Australia.

2: And the claim that "7 out of 10 high-def movies sold during Thanksgiving week were Blu-ray"? That would be interesting if it were true - the #2 "selling" Blu-ray disc "sold" during the week" Open Season, an obscure title picked by Sony to be given away free with the purchase of a 40GB PS3 at best Buy during the week. And, masters of data manipulation, the promotion was designed so the disc was scanned as a "sale", and then discounted to $0.00, padding the numbers.

December could be a big month for both formats -- both camps are pulling out all of their guns for this XMAS. And the consumer is the one who is going to win!

The consumers are only going to "win" with the competition between the two formats leading to discounts and free pack-ins. You regularly start threads with joyful glee about the impending "death" of HD DVD - how many BOGOs, free discs, players rapidly dropping in price do you think you'll get when and if there is only Blu-ray?

 

[Zookster]

Even if there were "only Blu-ray," there would still be a lot more hardware manufacturers and studios in competition with one another trying to sell their products (thereby keeping prices down) than if red won... unless of course they won by getting EVERYONE to switch sides.

 

[allargon]

Even if there were "only Blu-ray," there would still be a lot more hardware manufacturers and studios in competition with one another trying to sell their products (thereby keeping prices down) than if red won... unless of course they won by getting EVERYONE to switch sides.

It wouldn't be everyone. Quite a few of the BDA manufacturers are also STILL part of the DVD forum--e.g., Mitsubishi and JVC.

 

[nonrev]

Is there a more reliable source other Neilsen VideoScan, a source to accounts for software stats? A source that takes into account anomalies like Open Season rank #2 and can some how include Walmart. Is there anyway to get a source that excludes $0.00 purchases(BOGO) from weekly totals?

 

[markh]

So, if somebody bought a PS3 with ten free discs, they count that as ten Blu-ray sales? The five free HD DVDs I'll get sometime in March count as sales? If that's true, how can Blu-ray lose when they give away so many discs?

 

[ONUOsFan]

So, if somebody bought a PS3 with ten free discs, they count that as ten Blu-ray sales? The five free HD DVDs I'll get sometime in March count as sales? If that's true, how can Blu-ray lose when they give away so many discs?

No, that's not true. At least not totally.

The mail-in rebates and discs packaged in box with the players (like the 2 that come with the A3 for example, or SM3 with the 40GB PS3) don't count, becuase they're not scanned anywhere.

The 5 additional free discs WalMart was giving away in store would count, as I understand it, because they are scanned, except that WalMart's numbers are not included in this.

The big gripe right now is that Open Season was given away (but scanned in store) with a promotion as part of a bundle with the PS3 - at Best Buy, I believe. So no one had to have any intent to buy the disc, they just got it thrown in. So the HD-backers want you to know that the BD ratio for last week really was only 2.2:1 and only 6.75 out of every 10 discs sold was BD, instead of the 2.65:1 and 7/10 that was reported.

(And yes, I'm pulling those numbers out of my arse, but you get the idea.)

 

[markh]

What you're saying is that someone may know the true number of each disc out there but they're not telling. There's so much spin and bluster coming from each side it's hard to tell what's really happening. It is entertaining because there's so much passion over a disc format. What else could have partially shut down AVS for a few days? They don't even get that excited over plasma vs LCD.

 

[akodoreign]

No, that's not true. At least not totally.

The mail-in rebates and discs packaged in box with the players (like the 2 that come with the A3 for example, or SM3 with the 40GB PS3) don't count, becuase they're not scanned anywhere.

The 5 additional free discs WalMart was giving away in store would count, as I understand it, because they are scanned, except that WalMart's numbers are not included in this.

The big gripe right now is that Open Season was given away (but scanned in store) with a promotion as part of a bundle with the PS3 - at Best Buy, I believe. So no one had to have any intent to buy the disc, they just got it thrown in. So the HD-backers want you to know that the BD ratio for last week really was only 2.2:1 and only 6.75 out of every 10 discs sold was BD, instead of the 2.65:1 and 7/10 that was reported.

(And yes, I'm pulling those numbers out of my arse, but you get the idea.)

Got to dig a little bit deeper. the 10 free disks 5 were via rebate. 5 were from in store scanned then discounted.

so that probably makes it 4 or 5 out of 10 sold were Blue Ray.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Got to dig a little bit deeper. the 10 free disks 5 were via rebate. 5 were from in store scanned then discounted.

so that probably makes it 4 or 5 out of 10 sold were Blue Ray.

Wasn't the 10 free movies a Wal-Mart thing? Wal-Mart numbers are not included...

At any rate, I struggle to see why giving 5 more movies away but keeping the price of the player the same is any worse than cutting the price of the player itself by $100. It's just different ways of doing business...

 

[akodoreign]

Wasn't the 10 free movies a Wal-Mart thing? Wal-Mart numbers are not included...

At any rate, I struggle to see why giving 5 more movies away but keeping the price of the player the same is any worse than cutting the price of the player itself by $100. It's just different ways of doing business...

Yeah but then it becomes a numbers game. You can say X was sold when it was given away for free.

It would be like if Toshiba said we have sold 700 to 1 stand alone players to Blue Ray.

Does it mean that more people have bought HD players. No. Means that you are making the numbers lie is all.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Yeah but then it becomes a numbers game. You can say X was sold when it was given away for free.

It would be like if Toshiba said we have sold 700 to 1 stand alone players to Blue Ray.

Does it mean that more people have bought HD players. No. Means that you are making the numbers lie is all.

No, it means that you are spending money to get yourself in a better position in the market. If the HD folks thought that giving away or discounting more discs was the right strategy, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[akodoreign]

No, it means that you are spending money to get yourself in a better position in the market. If the HD folks thought that giving away or discounting more discs was the right strategy, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

It's speculating is all. Make enough of a stink to get attention.

They are speculating that by dumping software now they can hook people into a format.

Sony has been nervous for along time. Their track record for media is poor, horrible actually, they have to scare up sales this way or fail again.

Not saying its a bad way to do it, Don't get me wrong, Just makes bad comparisons when it happens.

 

[tnsprin]

Is there a more reliable source other Neilsen VideoScan, a source to accounts for software stats? A source that takes into account anomalies like Open Season rank #2 and can some how include Walmart. Is there anyway to get a source that excludes $0.00 purchases(BOGO) from weekly totals?

Probably not. And Neilsen may soon be including some Walmart (maybe even has started too). The reason they weren't were Walmart's decision to not supply the info. But Walmart is starting to use a Nielson designed system. Some numbers from Walmart are again flowing to Nielson, but apparently not yet the video disc info.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Does anyone really think Wal-Mart's numbers will make that big of a difference either way? Yes, I know they are the leader in DVD sales, but DVD's are cheap - much cheaper than either HD format. Wal-Mart will probably be the HD format leader eventually, but not until they reach true "mass market" pricing - and they're not there yet.

They run specials for both formats, so that evens out, and their pricing, if anything, favors BD slightly, but not any more than any other retailer does (BD is generally cheaper, from what I can tell). Many of their stores don't even stock HD discs of either kind on a regular basis. The one where I got my A2 had a very small shelf - about 25 discs total and only 4 or 5 titles to choose from - and that was it. They told me they don't normally stock them.

Maybe someone else knows something I don't, but I haven't seen anything with Wal-Mart that leads me to believe it will push the numbers much one way or another.

 

[ONUOsFan]

No, it means that you are spending money to get yourself in a better position in the market. If the HD folks thought that giving away or discounting more discs was the right strategy, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

Like I said: Amazon.com: HD DVD Offer

The posturing goes both ways.

 

[allargon]

Like I said: Amazon.com: HD DVD Offer

The posturing goes both ways.

No. The difference is that this is Amazon only. It is not Toshiba, Paramount, Universal or the DVD forum. The Blu-Ray studios did a BOGO free sale NATIONWIDE--Fry's, Best Buy, Amazon, etc.

To this day, there have been no nationwide BOGO free sales for HD-DVD discs. I would totally jump on Universal and Warner (Seabiscuit, Grand Prix) catalog titles if that were the case.

 

[skottey]

I am so sick of this argument. I have two HD-DVD (xbox add-on and stand alone) players and bluray (PS3). I own movies in each format. I enjoy both formats and have said dozens of times on this site, I see room for both.

I don't bash either format but I will say this. When given a choice and the movie is available in both formats, I buy the HD-DVD version. If the movie is bluray only, I don't hesitate to buy on bluray. Both are good.

I am calling for peace here people. There is room for both formats!

 

[ONUOsFan]

No. The difference is that this is Amazon only. It is not Toshiba, Paramount, Universal or the DVD forum. The Blu-Ray studios did a BOGO free sale NATIONWIDE--Fry's, Best Buy, Amazon, etc.

To this day, there have been no nationwide BOGO free sales for HD-DVD discs. I would totally jump on Universal and Warner (Seabiscuit, Grand Prix) catalog titles if that were the case.

And there were people (maybe not you, I honestly don't remember) complaining about the Wal-Mart giveaways with the PS3, so I was just showing it goes both ways.

Personally, I wish they'd both do BOGO or 1/2 off all year around - that would build my collection (on both sides) pretty fast!

 

[akodoreign]

And there were people (maybe not you, I honestly don't remember) complaining about the Wal-Mart giveaways with the PS3, so I was just showing it goes both ways.

Personally, I wish they'd both do BOGO or 1/2 off all year around - that would build my collection (on both sides) pretty fast!

Small difference. at amazon they don't ring it up then discount it. It is marked as 0.00 when purchased. They won't show up as sales that way.

Walmart Bestbuy, they all ring up the product then discount it. Skews the numbers.