With Blu-ray winning the next generation DVD format war, and the format starting to go mainstream, consumer awareness and Blu-ray sales are on the rise according to a report by the NPD Group.The report, collected via an online survey of 6,994 consumers between February 25 and March 6, states that 400,000 units of standalone Blu-ray players, not including the Playstation 3 with its built in Blu-ray support, have been sold in the first quarter of 2009. That's an increase of 72 percent over the first quarter of 2008. Furthermore, the intent to purchase a Blu-ray player has risen slightly. 6% of the responders said they would be "extremely or very likely" to buy a Blu-ray device in the next six months, compared with 5 percent who responded in August 2008.
While overall consumer awareness of the format in the US has reached 90% in the past six months, 58% of adults continue to report that they were still "not very familiar" with the Blu-Ray format.
NPD's entertainment industry analyst, Russ Crupnick says that "the leading driver of Blu-ray purchase intent is recommendations from friends, family or co-workers."
The report also states that consumers who purchased Blu-ray players when they first came to market were mainly concerned with having the latest technology. Recent Blu-ray player buyers report being influenced most often by pricing, promotions, and sales. When asked about the reasons for not purchasing Blu-ray, responders said that their current DVD player is "good enough."
But also contributing to the rising sales are price drops. The report states that the average selling price for a stand-alone Blu-Ray player fell from $393 to $261, a 34% decrease in price. Consumers who claim that they are likely to buy in the next six months expect to pay $214 on average.
WTF was that even supposed to mean? That makes no sense at all.
Agreed. HD DVD lost ages ago and here's someone still bitter about it.
Same here. I'm fine with my current DVD player and see no need to upgrade.
Last edited by Xerxes on 07 May 2009 - 01:53
How long did it take for you to get that disc but?
Well I have to say that Blu-ray is not bad. The biggest problem are highly variable quality of encodes for movies on Blu-ray. A very big percentage of them are downright not satisfactory. They are just barely better then upscaled DVD. But when they are done right it is a pleasure. Out of all my Blu-ray movies (and I have quite a bit) maybe 40% are top notch. Other stuff is mediocre for Blu-ray standard.
So I can totally see why people are fine with DVD. After all, most people watch the actual movie. It's hardly the most important thing for many to see hair to the maximum detail or to read a sign in a background, especially when the premium on a blu-ray movie is quite significant.
The problem with HD on demand is that it isn't actually HD. At best, it's usually 720p. Also, a lot of people are tied down by download limits on their broadband connection, so they can't really go about downloading HD movies all the time. I'm on a daily 3000MB (between 16:00 and 22:00, 6000MB between 10:00 and 16:00) limit with Virgin Media 20Mb broadband, and I hit the 3000MB limit quite easily, due to online gaming and YouTube.
Half an hour? Can you get HD content downloaded faster than that (and when I say HD content I mean 1080i/p)? And I get to keep it and lend it to my friends.
If you have a decent connection (10-20 Mbps perhaps), you can download it faster than you can view it. In other words, you could start after a few seconds.
If the price were around $100 it would sell far more units. As it stands I see no reason to get it, DVD is a good enough picture. I have an HDTV but the extra features for Blu-ray still don't move me to get into the format.
Streaming is getting better and better so that's where I'm focusing.
Also, it's not just a matter of a higher res when we're talking video here. If you've ever encoded before or hell just watched many simple upscales, then you'd know, upping the res alone often makes the video look like ****. It's all about bitrates, and less about a higher res.
Also upscaling is not the same thing. The biggest thing that I see with BR and DVD is the difference in the colors, they are brighter, sharper and the sound is completely different too. Something a DVD upscaler can't do.
But I agree.. the movies should be cheaper...
*snore!*
Amazing that a black and white (with minor colour) can be so beautiful.
That movie was terrible. Sorry.
I like it a lot.
Anyways :
Batman was cool and pretty amusing.
and a couple of movies more (from the 200
Well yeah Blu-ray is the best i pity the fool still watching movies with SD video and sound on dvd,downloading,streaming ect. it will never match the quality of Blu-ray.
the price of the movies are more concern. i can afford a player, but buying those expensive bluray movies? forget it. i don't watch any movie twice from a dvd, what's the point of buying it?
and to those HD fanatics, what is the point of HD if the movies suck? if the movies are good, it doesn't matter if it is on HD or DVD. A good movie is still a good movie whether it is on SD or HD. a bad one is still a bad one even if it is in 3D HD.
Planet Earth on Blu-Ray is a dramatically more beautiful experience than the DVD release.
A good movie can be enhanced by better audio and visuals. They probably won't make or break a movie but they sure as hell add to the experience. I think it's very similar to the debate about graphics in games. Sure....visuals won't make a bad game great but they do add to an already good game and go a long way to drawing the viewer into the experience when executed well.
Planet Earth is a documentary, for information. when you want to absorb information, surely a good visual is a big plu point. What I meant is mainly for entertainment, e.g. movies etc. However, Planet earth is great with Bluray, because it is such a great show and information source. I watched it in SD on the free to air tv, and i still enjoyed the great deal of knowledge in it.
I have another earth for you: Battlefield Earth movie. Now watch it in Blue ray, and tell me it has become a great movie.
To Smigit:
U are going to the extreme to suggest VHS. U know u gain more from going SD to DVD than from DVD to HD. This is called diminishing rate of return, a term used in finance but applicable here also. Using your example for games. those games with nice graphics but poor play and story are the worst. I would choose a good game with average graphics over good graphics with bad gaming experience. U know why max payne is so popular and highly rated game? Its graphics was behind the technology at its time of release. Many other games have much better graphics than it. but Max payne is just a superior game than the rest. The same applies to TV shows.
Same with HD films. Sure for some DVD upscaled is fine and to them getting Blu Ray any time soon may be a waste. Thats not to say there isn't alot of people that can tell the difference and thus it isn't a wasted technology for them. Ultimately if improves their viewing experience then it may be worth the jump.
The other one to factor in is TV and audio equipment. Those need to be in line with the technology if your going to take advantage of it too.
I thought you said $20 before... lol what changed? hahaha
Pretty sure he did too. heh
Nothing changed. Before I said I don't spend over $20, which is accurate. I was referring to the retail price of most blu-rays, $29.99 - I've never spent it, which is also accurate.
DVD players are going for $29 now. I purchased my first DVD player when they dropped to $200.
because 200 dollars for a player aint exactly cheap for the average joe to afford.
and it's like others have said... the player aint the main problem... it's the price of movies that's the problem.
because the way i see it... dvd or blu-ray, films should NEVER cost more than 20 bucks although 10-15 is probably the sweet spot.
but in general i would rather get a x264 player than a blu-ray player
What the hell are you talking about?
Wake you up in a few decades maybe
'lossless movie format' means pretty much identical to the actual film resolution etc etc (i think this is basically what he means).... this way they cant keep changing formats on us to extract more and more money out of us.
"I'd prefer to stick with the best bang-for-buck in terms of filesize, quality, and price."
that pretty much means that even though blu-ray is superior to dvd... when you factor in 'bang for the buck'... DVD is miles better because players are dirt cheap and you can get a moderate amount of films for pretty cheap to unlike blu-ray.
plus going from VHS to DVD was a pretty massive jump.... where as going from standard DVD to Blu-Ray is not a massive jump... because with VHS to DVD you basically got a major convenience of the fact you can skip to certain scenes and never have to rewind the tape etc etc where as going from DVD to Blu-Ray it's basically the exact same thing as DVD but with a better picture for the most part.
and for me personally... i would rather have a x264 player than a blu-ray player for obvious reasons
Last edited by ThaCrip on 07 May 2009 - 13:35
Luckily, documentary movies usually are the top of quality.
But I already have a PS3 for that
But I already have a PS3 for that
There is something coming that will do EXACTLY what you said and tons more. Nuclius will flip the industry upside down later on this year. There is no doubt that this device will be the hottest thing on the market. A viable replacement to cable or satellite HDTV with a Blu-Ray player and tons more built in. If you haven't seen it I suggest you take a look. One of these along with my PS3 will complete my entertainment center. Man I can't wait to get my hands on one! http://tr.im/ifEI
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.