Mr. Cinema

Which of those you listed are movie formats?

Sparrow

At the local Best Buy, the HD DVD section has already been moved to smaller shelf space and on the end caps, BDs are prominently displayed in the HD software section.

However, both format's hardware are displayed equally...(to date)

darkside

This is also a probably with the Video Game area. Best Buy can only allow a certain amount of space for video games or movies so when things are on the way out they start cutting out their sections quickly. DVD has a lot more releases every week compared to video games so shelf space for DVD, BD and HD DVD is precious and why continue to give space to HD DVD when you know it is on the way out.

CKMorpheus

I worked at Best Buy for nearly two years until just before the holidays. While they've sold both players and discs, they've been promoting Blu-Ray practically the entire time this war has been going down. There were several Blu-Ray displays up right as the war started, as well as being featured in Magnolia. As the months went on, they eventually got a small HD-DVD display on a 30" HDTV LCD. They didn't have one single HD-DVD player hooked up in Magnolia.

jiggawhat

You can roll your eyes all you want but it doesn't change the fact that you are comparing two completely different industries.

Now for a refresher course: BETA vs VHS. VHS won. DVD vs Divx. DVD won. Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. Well you can guess how that's going to turn out.

Do you see a trend? If not, go back and reread above.

You keep saying the same thing over and over about how both formats aren't selling? You clearly have some ridiculous expectations because you seem to think that HDM is just going to overtake DVD overnight. Wrong. Give it time.

Drexl

Yep, people certainly have a double standard when it comes to movie formats vs. video games.

Gizmo

I visit you old store several times a week...its always been Pro-Blu in everyway. Not shocked to see this happening.

buckee1

Well, at least they are saying it officially now. My local BB has always promoted BR over HD. There are no fewer than four BR displays throughout the store and not even one HD set up anywhere to be seen.

Gizmo

Problem is, the previous two battles were very important, Blu-ray vs HD DVD is not. Minor improvements and 2 years later still can't get more then 1% of DVD sales.

tonymontana313

To a certain degree I agree with you on the minor improvements but I do see HDM growing exponentially this year with more hdtvs out there and lower BD hardware prices that are sure to come.

jiggawhat

Was it not the same when DVD came out? I don't think it'll ever overtake DVD, but it's not going to as bad as a failure as people make it out to be.

namja

Actually no. People were so much more excited about DVDs and the sales didn't lag behind VHS for very long.

I can't imagine the DVD being the final mass market standard. So I think the Blu-ray may one day overtake DVD. If not Blu-ray, then perhaps another HD format (like 2160p or even higher def?).

jiggawhat

Do you or anyone know what it was percentage wise? I'd like to know. It'd be interesting to see a chart showing the progression.

bookcase3

This news isn't really new for many of us, who frequent BBs that have always displayed BDs instead of HD DVDs -- and this has been going on for quite a long time.

RoboDad

I'd have to disagree with that. Of the people in my circle of friends and co-workers when DVD launched, a significant majority waited at least three years before buying into it. They still thought VHS was "good enough".

In fact, I'd have to say that virtually every argument that has been posited against HDM's potential for success (and especially with Blu-ray as the "winner" of the format war) is identical in both content and tone to the arguments made against DVD during its first three years, both by VHS holdouts and by many LD owners.

Just looking back at the sales stats for DVD players I found that, at this same point in DVD's life cycle, there were somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million players in the wild, including those in store inventories. How is that so different from what we've seen so far with HDM?

applesandrice

It's different because "home theater" is MUCH bigger now than it was 10 years ago.

RoboDad

Bigger? Yes. "MUCH" bigger? Not from what I've seen. The explosion of "home theater" in the 90's was much more significant than the growth since then.

But even assuming that premise, that doesn't answer the question. The players are averaging around the same price as they did at this point in the history of DVD (but in 2008 dollars, not 1998 dollars), the media is about $4-5 more on average, but not significantly different, and the level of adoption is almost identical. I don't understand the doom and gloom attitude of some people here. Maybe before people pronounce HDM dead, they should wait and see when or if it actually happens.

BuckNaked2k

Also the number of people with sizable VHS collections was relatively small as compared to DVD collectors.

namja

I don't have a chart, but DVD surpassed VHS during 4Q 2001.
In the first 5 years, 675 million DVDs were sold (and 30 million DVD players).
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjo...7/daily34.html

This isn't exactly fair, of course, since VHS was primarily a rental medium while DVD was primarily a buying medium. For reference, DVD rentals outnumbered VHS rentals in June 2003 (and this isn't fair either for the same reason).

The point being, will we see HDM player sales hit 30 million within the first 5 years? Or 675 million HDMs sold? Highly doubtful. Relatively speaking, people jumped on DVD pretty fast.

Back on topic, everybody knows that the format war has been over for over a month now. News like this (and Netflix and more to come) are inevitable. Will news like this boost the sales of BD? Probably. Will it boost the total sales of HDM much faster than when there were 2 viable formats? Probably not. Again, it's not the format war that's stopping people from buying Blu-ray.

kefrank

this is as close as i've been able to find:
http://web.archive.org/web/200204210...,39362,FF.html

the pie charts of home-video spending unfortunately do not have actual percentages, but they do show a progression from 1998 to 2001 and then an estimate for 2005. in 1998 (analogous to 2007 for HDM), DVD sales were what appears to be about 4-5% of overall home-video spending (which includes rentals as well as sales). by contrast, the following article says that HDM accounted for $300 million in sales in 2007, while DVD sales had $16 billion and rental business got $7.5 billion:
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...ticle_id=11825

if you do the math, that puts HDM sales at about 1.3% of consumer home video spending (purchase + rental) in 2007. that appears to lag behind DVD's performance at a comparable time in its lifecycle, but that's really not bad when you consider that HDM requires an HDTV. one should also note though, that the number includes HD DVD. Blu-ray on its own would be something like 0.85%.

this article also has some pretty good information:
http://web.archive.org/web/200409141...vsda071502.htm

namja

Interesting charts. Good reminder of how much of a technological leap DVD was when it came out. Also, the title of that article alone should signify something:
The Meteoric Rise of the DVD.

dsa_shea

You have to realize that the general public is willing to spend more on things than we are. We, many of the posters here, are some of the pickiest buyers when it comes to prices.

TheNightFlier

I forgot the general public are just dopes

Honestly, I don't think you're giving the general public enough credit here. I know too many people; coworkers, friends, family, etc who have said shelling out the money for HDM is absolutely ridiculous. They are happy with their SDVD players on their 40"-50" HDTVs even after they've watched HDM. The price point is still too high.

RoboDad

While the format war may not be the only thing keeping people from buying in, it is a factor, and a bigger factor than you apparently give it "credit" for, since you seem to give it no share of the responsibility.

I don't think the intent of the announcement was to cause a sudden enormous spike in Blu-ray sales. This type of information takes time to foment any kind of confidence in the minds of consumers, but the timing is still good, because by the time the important fall buying season comes around, the idea that the war is over will be much more firmly cemented in their minds, and I think you may be surprised at how well Blu-ray does by the end of the year.

Gizmo

2 years and Blu-ray has yet to sell anywhere neat 1 million players...yikes.