Easy

http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...DVDsfailed.php

Interesting article. He makes some good points and I agree with him that HD will likely be a niche market. Time will tell. I have an analog HDTV so I'm in no hurry to jump in... I'll wait and see.

Spiky

Interesting read. Gotta disagree with some of it, though. He's got it backwards on #3,7. People SAY they want next year's toy today, and a niche actually does, but the real money-making market (Best Buy/J6P) cares more about price and availability.

2, 4, 5, 6 are dead on balls accurate.

The rest hardly matter in the real market. But make for good copy.

Drexl

Yeah, it makes for a compelling argument when you compare MSRP of one product to the street price of another.

Those $15 prices are nice, but that's because they're mainstream. HD-DVDs haven't been around long enough yet to get price drops and to be loss leaders. Besides, that $15 price for a new release often isn't as much of a value as it used to be, since they went to the two-tiered release scheme. For those titles, the HD-DVDs are actually cheaper than the 2-disc DVD versions, and contain all of the extras.


For #6, how about this guy ignoring what's happened with iTunes? People just don't care about music quality as much as they do convenience. I just don't think music and movies are comparable, as it is MUCH easier to see the difference between HD and SD video than it is to hear the difference between CD audio and higher resolution audio. I also happen to think the fact that SACD could not be played in a computer hurt it, even though I absolutely understand why it was designed that way.


#10 is just more "physical media will soon be obsolete" bullshit we've heard a thousand times.

Mr. Cinema

Let me point out for the 10,000th time. When dvds were first released, they also had retail prices between $29.99 and $34.99.

I don't think paying $10 more for a title that has a large increase in resolution and better sound quality is all that bad.

BravesMG

Complete agreement on that. But my memory is fuzzy on how many SD-DVDs were released with the players. If they came out swinging with 100-200 HD-DVDs within the first couple weeks, it would have made a lot more sense to me to shut off my SD purchases completely. My real disappointment (aside from the format war) is how few HD-DVDs are available.

Mr. Cinema

I think Paramount, Disney, and Fox are waiting until more players are in homes. I think they did the same thing when dvd was released.

Fettastic

I used to collect LDs and let me tell you, HD DVD is a STEAL compared to what I had to pay for those. They weren't anamorphic, the colors were semi-washed out and the best they could manage was stereo surround. Yet we paid out the yin-yang for it because at the time it was the best format available and pretty much the only place to get any behind the scenes video.

For example, I bought the Alien box set for $99.99. I bought the Alien QUADRILOGY for $69.99! We've got it pretty good folks. When Alien debuts on Blu-ray, it'll probably be for $24.99.

I hate to pull out the 'ol "When I was yer age", but I just want to emphasize what a fantastic deal we are getting when compared to the history of home video.

The first VHS tapes were $79.99 for crying out loud!

RockStrongo

From what I remember about the DVD launch, there was not a huge selection of titles. It is similar to the HD-DVD releases.

Personally though, I dont feel like this is comparable to DVD as much as it is laser disc. At least in terms of consumer acceptance.

This format is for a niche cinephile audience and may never be accepted like DVD.

As far as pricing, like others have said, these discs are a steal compared to some other formats. Ive bought some hd-dvds under $20 from Amazon.

Fettastic

DVDs leaked out at a S-L-O-W pace. One or two a week. They were about $30.00 each by the way and usually had no special features. Most of them were simply transfers from their LD brethren. I should point out that although colors were better, overall they weren't dramatically different from LDs at the time. In fact, LD connoisuers were divided about whether or not to even support DVD. You can hear a bit of this on Kevin Smith's commentary of Chasing Amy which was ported from the LD. In it he says "F*CK DVD!". Also in Free Enterprise they collect and talk about LDs, even though DVDs had been available for several years.

Fettastic

I just did that right before I came here. I got 7 HD DVDs for $150.00. By doing that I'm afraid I raised the prices of used ones on there because I took the cheapest ones, natch. Sorry. ;^)

awmurray

It's a great deal...

I just bought Training Day, Unforgiven, and Blazing Saddles for $19.99 each at WalMart. Great deal right out of the gate.

I hate to watch SD DVD these days. I much prefer the HD DVD versions. I've completely stopped buying anything but TV on SD DVD. Bring on the HD DVDs...

Fettastic

HD DVD seems to have completely foregone R&D recoupment in favor of getting the market share first. All the better for us!

awmurray

Yep... In fact Jarhead is cheaper than its SD DVD counterpart. Jarhead can be had for $24.99 which includes all the 2-disc extra features. The 2-disc SD version was between $29.99 and $34.99 and now it is OOP and going for $40.00 used on Amazon.

Fettastic

I just bought the HD DVD for $14.99 used on Amazon.com.

awmurray

Inconceivable!

Fettastic

I know! I'm very pleased with that deal.

Yesterday I just happened to get a 6-foot returned HDMI-to-DVI cord for $26 at Best Buy. And here I was prepared to pay $120 for one.

Of course I'm still walking on clouds because Best Buy just granted me $900 credit. You have to understand that I've NEVER been issued credit before, it's been like this weird curse on me my entire life. So that finally appears to be over and I'm damn-well gonna celebrate with HD DVD!

awmurray

Much, MUCH cheaper at monoprice.com. Oh, and it kind of goes w/o saying: set the HD-A1 to 1080i resolution for all HD DVDs-- I think they put that in an insert on top of everything else in the box now. Also the HD-A1 does come with an HDMI cable. You can try component, too, (it may look better than HDMI in some cases) for HD DVD, although most SD DVDs won't be upconverted over component (only HDMI).

BravesMG

I was completely ignorant of Laserdisc so I can't make any comparisons, but I'm confused why so few titles would be released. What's the point of a great player if there's only 5 movies released with it you want to watch? It just doesn't make sense to me in marketing or business terms, they know what's going to sell, why drag it out?

awmurray

Well, you've got to start somewhere... and there are supposed to be 200 HD DVD titles by the end of the year.

I own 6 HD DVD titles and I've got 18 in my Netflix queue right now.

The Bus

This is incorrect on several counts.

First, if you want to compare new release DVD vs. new release VHS, DVDs often could be $70 cheaper due to the rental window. This is an advantage Blu-HD does not have.

Second, and this goes for the players as well, everyone could see the difference in quality and in convenience. Now, not everyone can see or experience the quality difference w/o a TV upgrade AND the titles aren't much more convenient (TV on DVD is an exception, but where are the TV on Blu-HD releases?)

Third, and this may not matter much, it seems like a LOT of people here built up big collections during the .com days where titles went for $1 to $5 as loss leaders. That doesn't exist for Blu-HD.

Fourth, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember VHS having the low prices that DVD does today. The average VHS movie certainly wasn't $7-$12 at Wal-Mart... was it?

RockStrongo

These studios are gonna ease into it. Putting out 100-200 titles immediately at launch would cost a fortune to these companies.

Plus, those early adopters (like myself) cannot afford to shell out all that cash for alot of discs at launch. So, they put them out slowly and those wanting to buy them each week have the opportunity.

Personally, id love to see 100-200 titles in stores right now, but I also realize that its a big task to have it done and do it right (quality wise).

FRwL

to that list and especially the DVD-Audio vs. SACD allusion. It's like a mirror.

BravesMG

You're probably right that the number is too high, but I'm still concerned with WHICH movies they are releasing. I don't think too many people are pining for Doom or Assault on Precinct 13 (both movies I enjoy actually), and I don't think anybody would run out to get an HD-DVD player for those films. Why hold back the King Kong/Batman Begins/Matrix/etc... movies, or at least release some of them that might alone entice more player purchases.

Josh Z

You're not looking at this from the studio's perspective. There are only approx. 10,000 HD DVD players out there in consumers hands, which means that even in a best case scenario the most copies of a movie you can sell right now would be 10,000. A studio like Warner Bros. wants to debut Batman Begins to big sales numbers, and can't do that until there's a higher penetration of players in consumers' hands.

By the same token, if you trickle out the number of releases available at first, those people who do own a player are more likely to pick up every new disc as they come out just to have something to watch. You wonder why something like Doom is a launch title, but think about how many people who would normally not be inclined to buy Doom picked up a copy anyway just to have a new HD DVD when that's all that was available.

Adam Tyner

As depressing as it is to admit, this is why I spent $20 on a copy of Phantom of the Opera.