"Blu-Ray Sales Tank" Editorial

[sholling]

I found this editorial at The Inquirer. It basically states that Sony has managed to destroy any possibility of high definition DVD having much of a future. I can't say that I disagree. Like most consumers I refuse to scrap my older HDTV and receiver on the alter of DRM. Yes I do enjoy my PS3 but as a game console and I refuse to pay $30 for a BD video. Anyway agree or disagree it's a good rant and an interesting read. Full Text

BLU-RAY PLAYER SALES are sucking wind as well they should. According to Cnet, sales of the DRM infected format players are dropping like rocks.

The not so bright people out there had expected sales to skyrocket once the format war was done, but it didn't. They thought was people would ignore the massive defects of Blu-ray and buy like the dumb sheep that they are, handcuffing themselves to the Sony bank account.

Surprise, it didn't happen. US consumers are still dumb sheep, but this time they are realizing what is being done to them and they aren't biting. Sony's hope of having 50% of disc sales this year be Blu-ray are more likely to happen because of falling DVD sales than rocketing Blu-ray.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You can't please everyone.

With excellent 1080p upscaling, a lot of newer SD DVDs do look great. I can't blame people for not buying into blu-ray.

I think that it is only wishful thinking to believe that blu-ray would replace SD DVD anytime soon - if ever. But they can co-exist and a lot of us can choose to enjoy blu-ray.

 

[j_garcia]

Sounds like a bunch of bull to me. I don't see any facts, only conjecture. Some of it is valid, but certainly not a show stopper by any means. The issues faced by BD are the same that would and DID plauge the other, now dead, format for the most part. NOBODY said BD would replace SD right away, but to call it marginal difference is foolish.

 

[Matt34]

I thought Bat Boy ate the staff at The Enquirer?

Ah....The Inquirer, not The Enquirer.

 

[TLS Guy]

I thought Bat Boy ate the staff at The Enquirer?

Ah....The Inquirer, not The Enquirer.

Good original post.

I've been saying this again and again; we need a Federal Ban on DRM. Sony have a studio and are part of the vile cesspool that is Hollywood. That just need putting in their place. There HDCP codes are ridiculous. I certainly will not buy a BD player, or any DRM infested material.

We need a boycott. May be someone needs to develop a DRM free system, that you can just plug and play. Now that's novel! A pox on the lot of them, they are ruining the whole hobby. Soon we all be shouting, support pirates!

 

[GlocksRock]

I think eventually the price of blu ray movies will fall, but for right now, the studios will continue to fleece the public for as long as they can.

 

[AdrianMills]

I guess someone has already pointed this out somewhere but I'll say it again; unless new movies are released simultaneously on Bluray it's going to take a hell of a long time for the format to really take off. A lot of, if not most people that are going to buy do not want to wait months to see a movie and of those that buy the DVD, only a few will buy a duplicate in Bluray when it eventually hits the market. The situation is even worse over here in Europe where Bluray releases take forever to get on the shelves in some (most?) countries.

Crapola, I should have bought a US player.

 

[unreal.freak]

would someone explain DRM to me. From reading the story, i get that it is some sort of copyright protection, but i dont know what the initials stand for.


Thanks,
Tommy

 

[MUDSHARK]

Digital Rights management
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

*

Everything you ever didn't want to know about DRM but were afraid to ask.

 

[TLS Guy]

would someone explain DRM to me. From reading the story, i get that it is some sort of copyright protection, but i dont know what the initials stand for.


Thanks,
Tommy

It stands for digital rights management. It is a creation of the huge number of outright sewers who inhabit Hollywood.

The worst forms are the HDCP codes and the DRM on Blue Ray discs. They also want to stop any HD appearing at Analog outputs

Now HDCP has been a pain because as they change versions there is no backward compatibility. When Direct TV changed my HD DVR the old was HDMI 1.1 and the replacement version 1.2, so I have had to get a 1.3 switcher, at a cost $250, thank you very much.

Now if you buy a Blue Ray disc at an extortionist price, you may get it home and find it won't play, because your player does not have the latest DRM codes. That is why current Sony players have to be connected to the Internet. It really is quite intolerable.

The criminals can crack the codes. I found that I could purchase a software program for a little over $30, if I wanted, that would crack the codes and allow me to copy HD Blue Ray all I want.

In China everything is pirated, and the writ of US law does not run in China. So guess what! They have started selling their discs at a competitive price with the pirates! That is what they need to do here. That is why we need an outright federal ban on codes going onto software that interfere with the end user.

Hollywood is just bursting at the seems with these sewers who concoct these senseless programs. They don't stop piracy, but they do increase the cost of gear enormously, because of the extortionist fees they charge manufacturers for the code licenses. They cause endless headaches for the consumer, and expense, because of obsolescence created by this profound evil.

We need to get back to plug and play and backwards compatibility.

 

[mike c]

I guess someone has already pointed this out somewhere but I'll say it again; unless new movies are released simultaneously on Bluray it's going to take a hell of a long time for the format to really take off. A lot of, if not most people that are going to buy do not want to wait months to see a movie and of those that buy the DVD, only a few will buy a duplicate in Bluray when it eventually hits the market. The situation is even worse over here in Europe where Bluray releases take forever to get on the shelves in some (most?) countries.

Crapola, I should have bought a US player.

good point. BD should be simultaneous with SD DVD otherwise, people would buy SD everytime.

i was unaware BD discs had region locks... i can play US BD's on my Asian/Japan version PS3 fine.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I found this editorial at The Inquirer. It basically states that Sony has managed to destroy any possibility of high definition DVD having much of a future. I can't say that I disagree. Like most consumers I refuse to scrap my older HDTV and receiver on the alter of DRM. Yes I do enjoy my PS3 but as a game console and I refuse to pay $30 for a BD video. Anyway agree or disagree it's a good rant and an interesting read. Full Text

It's a rant without actually factual basis.

The same things that HD DVD supporters complained about BD not having (Ethernet) are now the exact things that are being marked as bad design by uninformed bloggers.

The 'consumers not buying' while Warner claims BD sales for Q1'08 up 15 fold from last year, seems to not exactly jive either.

Then the site specifically speaks out to break the law (DMCA) and bypass DRM with a link. Don't get me wrong, but my PS3 has played 100% of every disc I've ever bought without an issue, and of the 30 discs or so that I own, I've paid on average, about $15 a disc when I've waited for sales or have done some price shopping. This includes new release titles as well as catalog titles.

In a world where HD is becoming the standard of video enjoyment, I will take 1080p BD over what else has been put forth in a second. DRM infected? Isn't tha the same as DVD... or back to Macrovision and VHS? How about iTunes downloads?

Really, this is what HD DVD had within it, and BD does as well - and was demanded by studios, notably Fox who wanted BD+ on top of standard protection. Yet, it is now 100% of all major studios backing BD, and a very poor article on very OLD news is hardly 'news' - but just someone else BSing about the same old crud. Which is exactly what it is.

2008, Q1 - Hardware sales have been reported up 3 fold - WB has claimed their software sales are up 15 fold... BD2.0 players are right around the corner, and HDTV sales continue to be the buzz, as is HD in general.

It's a long way from 'doomed' - and articles that spread bias on top of lies should be called out for the bias they show.

 

[allargon]

good point. BD should be simultaneous with SD DVD otherwise, people would buy SD everytime.

i was unaware BD discs had region locks... i can play US BD's on my Asian/Japan version PS3 fine.

Err... The US and Asia are in the same region (A) for Blu-Ray. Europe is the place left holding the delayed bag (region B) for Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray doesn't have as many regions as SD DVD. Not all studios employ region coding. Warner and Paramount don't bother. Most studios (except Fox) don't bother for catalog titles. New Line (when they still existed) publicly complained about the lack of region coding in HD DVD during the format war.

 

[yettitheman]

HD-DVD died...

... but before it did, it pulled Sony along and said "You're going to hell with me!"


hmm.. Toshiba.... maybe you aren't dead after all??

 

[sholling]

Here's a follow up. Full Text

A report on DVD player adoption finds that Blu-ray, which won a hard-fought format war with HD DVD, made negligible gains from the demise of the rival format. Sales of Blu-ray players fell 40 percent between January and February, but as it won the format war, it picked up only two percent in sales. HD DVD fell 13 percent between January and February, and then fell off the charts as production slowed and inventory disappeared.

 

[croseiv]

I certainly like the appeal of BluRay, but darn are the disks expensive. If I get a BD player then I will most certainly rent titles.

 

[ParkerAudio]

Ever since the death of HD DVD, prices have been going up, and you can't expect people to pay more with the economy sucking. $30 is just too much for what you are getting.

 

[billy p]

Here's a follow up. Full Text

Keep the slighly biased and and non factual headlines coming! Lets face it BR will be nothing more than a niche market format. Even with HD dvd defeat BR largest hurdle was and will always be the DVD!

Thanks for the links, BP

 

[BMXTRIX]

Here's a follow up. Full Text

How exactly is that a 'follow up'?

No offense, but DVD player sales between January and February also fell 40%. It's industry standard for optical players to see this type of fall of post holiday season. As prices have returned to MSRP levels, and there have been reports of short supplies of players reducing sales even further. For HD DVD, a going out of business sale after an early January annoucement... What were their Dec. to Jan. sales figures looking like?

It's like some people think that this all happens in a vacumn. That when sales of hardware is up 300% from 2007 to 2008 over the same time period it means nothing, but a normal post holiday sales decrease is somehow indicative of something much larger.

I personally just got back from my local Blockbuster who six months ago said that they weren't going to carry Blu-ray at all, they now have two racks dedicated to it and an employee telling me that by the end of this year, over half the store is shooting to have new releases on BD.

If you don't like the idea of spending the money, it's a heck of a good thing that you'll be able to rent it easily.

 

[sholling]

I think the point of both articles is that Sony and their partners are killing the format with excessive DRM and prices that are way to high to break into the mainstream. They've killed off the affordable competition and now they are killing the future of their own format.

I may rent at some point but there is no way I'm paying $30 for a video. And really why bother. Direct TV looks just as good.