Eddie W

It helps that most vinyl comes with a digital download. So you can buy vinyl and never use the record.

I find it amazing that standard def video still exists via DVD in a hi def world. I bought my parents a Blu Ray player for Christmas last year. Yet every time I visit they are trying to loan me the latest movie they bought...on DVD.....

BobO'Link

I can understand that. I still purchase DVDs of *some* films over the BR. It's all about price and how often I see myself watching the film. If it's something for which I'm only mildly interested and the DVD is $3 or more less expensive, then I purchase the DVD. After 3 or 4 such purchases I've saved enough for another disc - either BR or DVD depending on price. But I also find myself purchasing "combo packs" if they are only a couple of $$ over the standalone DVD or BR price. That way I can loan the DVD and not worry too much if it's damaged and give my son the DC. Films I have a high liking for, or anticipate liking very well, I'll purchase the BR (or combo pack if available).

So... your parents could be purchasing DVDs to be more frugal and likely don't care about the bump in quality most BR discs provide over the DVD.

I don't understand why *all* studios don't sell everything in combo packs in a effort to phase out standard def releases. But then there are all the newer TV series that no longer receive HD releases - only SD, even if they were produced in HD. And *older* titles that receive BR upgrades when newer ones don't get a HD release at all.

Coral

Converting people over from DVD to BD doesn't do anything for the studios bottom line. All it does is replace one format with another. People are losing interest in physical media - regardless of the format.

If anything, studios will probably wind up losing money because people can gift the format they don't want to a friend - stopping that person from buying the disc themselves. If I bought a combo-pack, I'd give the DVD away to a friend or family member - unfortunately, I don't know anyone who still plays movies from discs... so it would just rot away in the case.

orangerunner

Good quality up-conversion on a 42" (or smaller) HDTV = a very respectable-looking image.

I have about 500 Blu-rays, several of which were upgrades from DVDs I already owned and for almost all apples-to-apples comparisons there is not a huge difference between the two. If you don't have a Blu-ray version to directly compare the DVD to, the DVD usually looks just fine.

While stores still seem to have the same 20th Century Fox Blu-ray dump-bin titles, DVD still offers much more variety, especially the used market where titles can be had for $.50-$2.00.

After ten years of Blu-ray, the combination of availability of titles, nicer packaging presentation and price are still good reasons to keep buying DVDs in many cases.

PhantomStranger

The studios tried pushing combo packs and got upset that so many chains/eBay sellers were splitting up each disc for sale. That's a big reason why they haven't dropped DVD-only releases.

Alan Smithee

Oh come on, that's not like when you could buy a movie on VHS for $15 that sold for $40 on laserdisc.

True that the packaging on some older DVDs blows away the same title released years later on Blu-Ray. Quite a shame.

Coral

Yea, I no longer buy DVDs (haven't in at least 10 years) but if I did, $3 or even $5 cheaper wouldn't get me to buy the DVD - I'd still get the BD instead. Even if the DVD was loaded with supplements and had great packaging while the BD was the opposite, still no to the DVD. The picture quality (and to a lesser extent - sound quality) upgrade is worth the small increase in price.

Of course I won't buy a BD for anything more than $15... and most I'd only buy for less than $10.

slybone

My Mom (70 years old) still has a huge problem differentiating between DVDs and BDs (same size disc and all that). If we're shopping together and I'm looking at movies she'll ask "Is that DVD a Blu-ray? Probably common for her generation.

orangerunner

That's a dilemma I often find myself in where I see the Blu-ray for really cheap (say $2-$4) of a movie I already own on DVD.

The DVD has an amazing cardboard foldout Dig-Pak with an eight-page booklet and a poster with tons of extras. The Blu-ray? You get a flimsy trap-sheet in a crappy eco-case.

Solution? I end-up keeping them both. No wonder I'm running out of space.

slop101

My solution? I toss out the DVDs, put the blu-rays into the DVD package and toss the blu-ray package.

Coral

Back in the early days of DVDs packaging and extras was great. I'd go through all the extras after watching the movie, but now I just don't care.

I found many of the extras a chore to get through, and even the ones I thought were decent - I'd never watch again and it really didn't add much in entertainment value value in the first place. I'd rather watch another movie/show instead of watching extras. Just give me great picture and sound and I'm happy.

Trevor

Aren't the majority of TV and film releases DVD only? Even today, let alone 10 years ago. I can't imagine my tastes being so narrow that I could avoid DVD.

Coral

Well my purchasing habits have changed drastically anyway - regardless of format. My criteria for buying a BD is narrow and will allow me to have a very small/tight collection. As it stands right now, there aren't many movies (I don't buy shows) that I really want to own that isn't available on BD. So I'm not really missing out by ignoring DVD.

Everything outside my buying criteria I'll stream.

I had over 200 DVDs at one point, but my BD collection will be limited to around 50 titles.

Trevor

Oh, a rookie!

Coral

It was actually around 240 DVDs, but yea... that's nothing compared to what others on this forum have. I found that most I'd just watch once and just collected dust afterwards. Felt like a waste of money and space after a while.

Many feel this way - hence one of the reasons why sales of movie discs have declined so dramatically.

arbogast777

TheBang

Happy New Year!

BuckNaked2k

Paging bruceames...

bruceames

I'll update the table soon.

milo bloom

I haven't even bought a used DVD since well before Christmas (found a copy of the theatrical cut of Manhunter for $2 at Goodwill).

There's no new titles I absolutely have to have until Rogue One, and I have yet to see anything used at any of the places I usually go. My collection seems to be at a point where I have most of what I want and what I want doesn't show up used.

I think there's a lot of folks like me, that's just reached this point with their collecting.

rw2516

I think it depends on where a person's interests lie. 99% of declining sales are most likely due to people not buying new, direct from theaters titles.
Should a box set of the Hope/Crosby Road movies get a BD release, sales would probably be the same as last year, the year before, or five years ago.
I think the non blockbuster pre-80s catalog market is pretty much locked in.

orangerunner

Collecting movies was never any industry that was meant to go on forever, even when the formats improve technologically. Even if streaming and downloading never existed the physical disc market would have declined to some degree, especially catalogue titles.

Almost all of my collecting these days (which is still fairly extensive) is the used market. It seems the bigger my collection gets, the lower my standards get.

Titles I would have dismissed a few years ago suddenly appear as worthy additions to my collection. Titles I thought were "good enough" on DVD show-up on Blu-ray for $1-$3 (used) and I buy them.

I've made a pact with myself to not to even start buying 4K. If you never start, you never have to worry about stopping...

Coral

I found the opposite once my DVD collection got to a relatively large size, I started getting stricter with what I thought was a good purchase. I had to question whether I really needed that title - even if the price was good. It came down to not wanting to let my collection get out of hand - which it already was.

My criteria got even more strict for BD because I didn't want to make the same mistakes as before. Especially now with streaming available, it makes me question even more if I really need to own the title when I could watch it any time I want with acceptable video/sound quality.

Even with BD titles at $5 brand new, I've walked away from buying - even though I actually liked the movie. It was only $5, but if I was only going to watch it once more - then I didn't see the point and it seemed like I'm throwing away $5.

milo bloom

I agree with Coral, I've found myself being even stricter with my purchases. I used to pick up used DVDs just because they were really cheap and I'd heard something good about them on a forum once. Now, it has to be something I truly want as part of my collection.

JimRochester

When I was buying four or five a week it was because they were used. Never would have bought new like that. Even at the <50% price of used, it was a waste of money. I have a ton of dust collectors.