Ive always said it isnt going to happen. BD has beaten HD-DVD, but it will NEVER beat DVD.

DVD is king and will be until video downloads or some other media type that takes us to a new level (similar to how DVD did).

Bluray is very nice and I think will have a good market, but will always be secondary.

I think that's spot on.

I agree that among the people wanting to embrace HDM, the majority may have sat out because of the format war. So I can buy the stats like 6/10 people not adopting HDM because of the format war, where people = HDM-bound people. The problem is that the number of people wanting to embrace HDM is so small, relatively speaking.

Yep...also, saying your going to embrace it and actually plopping down the 500 bones are 2 different things.

I bet alot of those people still wait a while.

Here is news article that says Best Buy's sales are down, and they are cutting forecasts. As people say Best Buy is the leader in HDM, I think it is important fact:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/pro...215&id=8198916

For the love of God, I hope not.

Best Buy is going to have to start getting realistic with software pricing if they are truly hoping to take a bite out of DVD sales, or generate new sales from people who already own the same movies on DVD.

The best way to do this is start including Blu-Ray's as loss leaders for day and date releases.

Instead of selling something like I Am Legend for 29.99 off a 35.99 list, sell it for 22.99, or even 19.99 for the first week, and then have it be a regular price of somewhere around 25.99. I know I'd start buying HDM titles there if they did this.

While this is an interesting economic factoid, I am not sure I see how it is at all relevant to their choosing of Blu-ray over HD DVD, or the shutting down of HD DVD in general.

Well if you read the article, it says that expensive TV's were poor sellers. I assume expensive = HDTV, so maybe all this anecdotal evidence of "people buying HDTVs right and left" is off the mark, especially if you consider the true benefits of HDM is on a screen larger than 42, according to things I have read. So if cheap 37 LCDs players are being moved, will the people care to buy a Blu Ray player? Just wondering.

The same problems facing those products showing slowing sales could also affect Blu Ray players, as they are most definitely a premium purchase at this point.

Since they really no longer carry any non-HD sets (with a trivial number of exceptions), I don't interpret the "expensive" label to refer to all HDTVs. I would take it to mean the larger end of the spectrum, such as 50" and larger screens. 42" sets are still at the edge of affordability at Best Buy (though they are cheaper almost anywhere else), but they aren't unapproachable any more.

And the benefits of HDM are quite visible on a 42" screen.

Yes you are right, robo. I meant below 42 the differences become less clear. I have a 720p 42incher and can see a difference.

No disagreement there at all, although with the right marketing (and the right price point) ;), people can be easily swayed into believing that they need it.

People in video enthusiast forums (such as this one) often cite the fact that, when viewed from a typical distance (which generally exceeds the "proper" distance), the benefits of HD become diminished on smaller screens. What these people forget, though, is that TVs are rarely SOLD by viewing them at that distance. Most people stand far too close to the sets they buy, and even on a small screen, when viewed up close, HDM benefits are visible. And it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see that technique become used more often to show people why they need to upgrade.

That would take some serious balls on BB's part to use BDs as loss leaders. Not a bad idea though if they want to promote themselves as the leading electronics retailer in America.

Not all BDs would need to be pushed this way, just new releases, specifically day-and-date releases. Even if they just did it on release day, imagine the attention it would bring if you could go into Best Buy and pick up a BD of a new title for the same price as the DVD?

If Walmart gets into the game for real, BB may find they need to do this to stay competitive.

How about that? Competition that doesn't come from another format... ;)

Oh, I'd be down for that. Right now there is typically $10-$15 more.

I think part of the reason that Best Buy and a lot of retailers had generally higher costs is the fact that they had to split their purchases between two formats (mainly Warner) so that prevented them from buying a lot of one format to get the prices down. Lately, though I've noticed that their prices have been getting a little cheaper. Next week for example they are going to have a lot of BDs fairly cheap.

I know. I've lost track of how many times I've picked up a disc at Best Buy, really wanting to buy it, but ended up putting it back on the shelf because of their HDM pricing structure.

Their future is in their hands. Make BD more attractive today, and they'll end up making a lot more money from it long-term.

:up: Best Buy needs to hire you as a marketing consultant!

I think that if they felt it was the right time to do loss leaders, they would have done it by now. As much as we'd like it, I don't think they'd bring in enough traffic to be worth it at this point.

There are some decent prices on catalog next week, but the day and dates are still not even 20% off list. That's got to change.

So what you are saying is that Blu-ray does things wrong 95% of the time and HD-DVD does things right 95% of the time.

Fair and balanced.

Let's stop this bickering and move on.

Toshiba has moved on....start trying to convince the stragglers...good luck with that....

Once again I ask.... " Do you actually own any piece of hardware that can actually play the Blu-ray format ????"

I still think the studios should release the BD versions a week in advance to try and push the format.