I think there would be more ruckus if they released the discs with the problems.

I like your disclosure.

I was a little tired last night , I wrote:
Now, with HD-Ready 1080p that was called Full HD before, HD-Ready logo means TV set that support 720p/1080i max.
but I was thinking "Now, with "HD-Ready 1080p" that was called Full HD before, HD-Ready logo means TV set that displays 720p/1080i max."
The difference is americans buy the titles missing in the US, europeans buy everything but the BDs that are region coded, unless they have a region A player (I own a japanese PS3 for example).
Discs are mostly between 25 and 30€ in Europe (34 to 41$), that's a big difference.

which still assumes that the percentage of consumers buying discs from another region is a statistically important percentage of the total. is there any evidence to support this other than conjecture? hd dvd players seem to have sold in far greater quantities in the usa than in europe (see the miniscule figures for countries such as spain) suggesting that the sample group for overseas purchases is larger in america than in europe.

Wow, Blu pulled very impressive numbers for Black Friday week.

Not too surprising given a strong Blu-exclusive release and no big selling HD DVD release (sorry but Star Trek: TOS was never going to be a big seller).

IMO, the numbers for the week of 12/11 will be the most telling, as you have Harry Potter releasing on both formats, Bourne Ultimatum exclusively on HD DVD and stuff like Lost S3 and High School Musical 2 exclusively on Blu-Ray.

If that week comes out with a 2:1 of higher ratio in favor of Blu, I'm not sure if HD DVD will ever recover.

Plus, the last sales week before Christmas, Blu has The Simpsons, and to a much lesser extent, Underdog. Both have Blade Runner, but HD doesn't really have a strong exclusive that week. Balls of Fury and Stardust will do OK IMO, but not anything near what the Simpsons will do.

I really think the HD DVD studios need to crank up their output for January and February to catch the post-holiday shoppers who may have gotten a cheap player. Otherwise, I do believe title availability is going to make the difference.

i think "Die Hard" performed very well and exceeded most people's expectations, which is great for blu-ray. that said, if you look at the top 10, "Open Season" was the second best-selling title, with about half as many sold as "Die Hard." No doubt that's because it was given away at Best Buy with the purchase of a PS3, so the numbers are clearly skewed in Blu-ray's favor a bit by that. How many of those people who bought the PS3 would have purchased a Blu-ray disc otherwise? knowing that number would give a better view of the "actuals" for this week.

Edited to add: I'm not intending to slam Blu-ray at all, but simply to try and keep everyone level-headed about the numbers. The Blu-ray BOGO deals offer more legitimate numbers as people are actually purchasing movies that they definitely want. Likewise, things like Amazon's free movies with an HD DVD player are more legitimate as well, as we know they are buying that hardware to watch movies. "Open Season" bundled with the PS3 confuses the reality of the numbers more than either of those other types of deals, in my opinion.

Not at all suprised by these numbers given a few factors:

Open Season was the second most sold movie of the week. It was given away for free at Best Buy with purchase of the PS3.

Spider-Man 3 was given away if you purchased a BDP-300 at Best Buy as well.

Every exclusive Blu-ray studio (Sony/Disney and for the first time Fox/MGM) had a week long BOGO at Fry's. (I'm guilty, I bought 8 Blu-ray movies)

The only new title HD DVD had was a $149.99 Star Trek boxset, while Blu-ray had Live Free Die Hard and the Die Hard Set (while still riding high on the timed Hairspray exclusive).

Now, what scares me is that more people bought Live Free then the Die Hard Set. I know a lot of places had the 'Buy a Blu-ray Player get any X amount of movies for free' so maybe thats why since it was a brand new release, but damn, it must be the same people who bought only Spider-Man 3 and not the Trilogy. Is this the PS3 demographic or just people who won't open there wallets to buy "older" movies? 300, an admitted PS3 demographic movie by Warner, once again climbs into the Top 10 for Blu-ray.

I think there's a lot of hesitancy on both formats for people to buy catalog titles, especially higher profile ones they likely already own. Aren't the Die Hard movies being sold separately as well? (If not, some of my plans for next week are shot. ) That could be cannibalizing some of the sales of the set as well.

And until HD DVD starts having deals like this more often, they'll probably continue to trail in sales.

They are sold separately. I too am hoping for a Fox BOGO in the next few weeks I just can't imagine someone paying $30-35 for Live Free vs. $90 for the Boxset with 3 additional movies. The Spider-Man Trilogy still has me guessing. Spider-Man 3 was just...so bad, yet people actually bought it.

Then again, I am one of 8 people to buy "I Know Who Killed Me" on Blu-ray after reading you're stellar review on it. I'm going in with Troll II expectations, so 'm hoping for something at least somewhat enjoyable.

if a title is procured without being paid for (ie no money is charged) i don't think that counts as a sale. this would also count for movies included in the box with various player sales.

If an item is SCANNED, it counts as a sale.

Example:
Open Season as given away for free with purchase of a PS3 at Best Buy.
The item had to be SCANNED (removed from stores inventory), therefore it counts as a sale.

Spider-Man 3 is included inside every 40GB PS3. It is NOT scanned, therefore it does not count as a sale.

Bourne Identity/300 free with the A3 do not count as"sold" units since they are inside the box and not in the stores inventory.

Wow you are the bravest person I know.

I know. $20 shipped on eBay for it...I took the risk. I just want the steaming pile of...movie in my collection. Be brave for me.

Bingo. Otherwise we would not have a year old catalog title like Open Season at #2 in the Top 10 the week it was given away with all PS3 purchases.

I agree 12/11 will be a key week, not as big as Black Friday week but right up there. I think the Potters will win the week & sell 2:1 Blu, and Lost will be too pricey for most... IMO the key will be how much better Bourne does compared to High School Musical 2 lol. I'm sure not buying HSM2, but I think it will sell pretty good.

I guess you are a true BD supporter.

And yet after all these recent $99 and $199 HD player sales you'd think the
sales of HD software would be through the roof, even if only on catalog titles.
Like you mention, the PS3 can do other things so no movie needed, but while
you can play SD discs in an HD player, that really isn't the point of purchasing
one.

There was a $99 player sale for one day only at Wal-Mart that trickled through to Best Buy for a day or two. I would guess a lot of these $99 players are Christmas gifts as well.

Blu-ray will win that week, no doubt about. Will Harry Potter sales be 2:1? Yeah, considering Harry Potter fits the PS3 demographic I would say so.

Will Bourne sell better then High School Musical 2? If it does not, there is something seriously wrong with people. I can somewhat understand buying an animated movie like Cars or Ratat on Blu-ray, but HSM2? I can only hope not.

I full expect a Blu-ray BOGO as well that week since HD DVD is having a big title release. Lost Season 3 numbers will be abysmal, much like Prison Break. The MSRP is too high for the average person to spend twice as much over the DVD set which will have some sort of "Exclusive Disc" at some store packaged inside.

Between the Bounre Trilogy, Lost Season 3, Harry Potter I'm going to be broke. The week before has POTC3 and Superbad as well, ugh.

HSM2 may be the title that push some people over the edge to get into HDM. I'm not kidding. It's not for our demographic, but that shit is pre-teen crack. I do think Bourne will sell well, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me if HSM2 outsells Harry Potter on both formats.

I'm not so sure if I agree with you here. The LOST fanbase is much greater than the Prison Break fanbase ever wished it could be. I enjoy both shows but was in no way pining for Prison Break on Blu-Ray, although I'm sure it looks nice. However, I am really looking forward to getting my hands on LOST in Blu-Ray. Besides, the sad thing here is that the Prison Breaks set was marked, for whatever reason, quite a few dollars higher than you can get a copy of LOST for upon release. I guess we will have to wait and see. Also, the biggest reason is that many people who are fans of Prison Break already own that set in standard dvd and there is no real compelling reason to pay so much more to buy it again in Blu-Ray. Where on the other hand people can get their hands on a High Definition version of LOST Season 3 without ever spending one dollar on the SD version.

A title even scarier than HSM2 on BD would be Hannah Montana. Anything Hannah Montana related turns to gold so would Disney actually put their biggest cash cow on BD next year is a very good question.