Which is great...until we find out it sold 5-6k copies

PS I Love You sold half of Twister...that's gotta tell you something right there. I hope we get real numbers not %

One thing to note about this chart is the fact that 300, Casino Royale, and Planet Earth are still coming up in the top ten which could indicate that we still have a lot of new adopters coming in. These are titles that have been out quite some time and these kinds of movies that people tend to buy first.

Or it means that there are meager sales for those titles before them.

Again, this shows why a chart without hard numbers is worthless.

I think these charts are a total joke. Unadulterated spin. We may not see eye-to-eye, but at least Grubert shows actual numbers.

No one has anything to say about DVD sales rising from last week while BDs dropped? We of course will hear when a hot title hits, or there is a big sale and the format goes up 6%. This spin will totally ignore that things have been trending downward. An upswing may be at best leveling out. But we'll hear about it as if Best Buy is getting ready to clearance DVDs.

I have over 100 Blu-rays and do not own those 3 titles. I own PE and 300 (how can you not at this point) on HD DVD though.

That sucks that these Blu-ray numbers aren't improving. Granted there hasn't been any good Blu-ray releases since Juno. But it doesn't bode well for the future.

Also hangin' in there for a while:

Over America
Cars
Ratatouille

Juno was a good film, but Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World came out just this week (May 13th) and not only is it a good film; it's also a near-reference-quality BD.

The special features do indeed lack, and sure that's disappointing, but I'd much rather have little to no special features but have outstanding video and audio quality.

Also, and although it isn't a critical success, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem came out the same day as Juno and it's a reference-quality BD.

AVP:R was a great film if you like looking at black for 90 minutes. I couldn't tell what the hell was going on because the picture was unusually black. Of course others say its fine, but for me, it was unwatchable.

Agreed on the quality of the film and the outstanding soundtrack, but the video quality is -- reportedly by design -- fairly lackluster.

It was really dark.

Oh, I haven't got around to seeing it yet, but it got a good review on Blu-ray.com.

I'm going to watch it this week so I'll see then. I just read your review (great job, BTW) and I'll definitely keep a close eye on the foggy sequences.

Has there ever been a Blu-ray that didn't get a rave review on blu-ray.com? Hardly an objective source there.

The audio on Master and Commander is terrific, but the video looks DNR'ed. Even the bright daylight scenes far away from fog or mist are lacking clarity and detail. I compared the Blu-ray to the DVD and there isn't much difference between them.

i'd rather have both, especially for $40 MSRP. a/v quality and special features do not have to be mutually exclusive (extras can go on a second disc).

They gave The Golden Compass 3.5 for video, which was a .5 star lower than what you gave it on HD Digest.

Mrs. Doubtfire
HD Digest: 4 video, 3.5 audio
BD.com: 3 video, 3 audio

Twister
HD Digest: 3.5 video, 4.5 audio
BD.com: 3.5 video, 4.5 audio

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
HD Digest: 4 video, 3.5 audio
BD.com: 3 video, 3.5 audio

There's a few examples.

You think so?







The top one is the SD and 2nd one is the Blu-ray. You might be able to tell the difference (which I'm sure is greater on a bigger screen), but it's such a marginal upgrade in image that it isn't worth the sacrifice of the extras, not to mention the higher price tag, at least not to most consumers. And this sort of charging more and giving less is how they're shooting themselves in the foot, because dvd succeeded on the inverse of that principle.

I guess the year long delay on M&C did nothing then. Glad I passed on it. Maybe a BOGO title in the future.

I just went Blu 2 weeks ago. It was an intermediate step, really - I added a Blu Ray drive to my new computer. (The Lite-On drive, only $140 from Amazon...)

Now, I've purchased 15 Blu Ray discs in that time, and can't wait to get an HDTV and standalone Blu Ray player.

But I think that the current economic problems are really hurting Blu Ray more than anything else. That's probably why DVD sales went up for that week while Blu Ray sales declined. People are spending as little as they can for the titles they want. DVD IS good enough when money's tight.

Blu Ray is better, but a lot of people don't have the extra money to spend on the Blu Ray version if it's $10-$15 more.

I'll tell you what, though - Fry's had several Blu Ray titles on sale for $11.99 on Friday, and when I was in there the Blu Ray section was jumping!

Bring the prices down and more people will buy the players and the discs.

The two biggest factors that will cause a boom in Blu Ray sales are more (and better) titles available on Blu Ray, and the lowering of prices. Bring the players down under $300, and get the discs down to a list price of $24.95 (so they can retail under $20), and it will be like the year 2000 for DVD in terms of a percentage increase in sales.

And release more Blu Ray discs with $19.95 list prices so you see more back catalog titles like Terminator 3, Total Recall, etc, for $14.99 in the stores.

Some of these price changes are in the works, but it needs to happen THIS year, before Christmas. October would be the best time for a big splash with price drops.

As more and more people buy HDTV's a large percentage of them will want HD programming from their cable provider and HD video from their DVD's (which means they'll want Blu Ray - if the price is right). SDTV's are dead - you can hardly find any anymore - even at Wal Mart! Slowly but surely people will replace the old CRT SD TV's with HDTV's and Blu Ray's market share will grow. IF they bring down the prices (and I'm confident that they will).

I'm curious, though. Many people have made the claim that, if sales don't pick up soon, hardware manufacturers and studios will pick up their marbles and go home (paraphrased). I grant that sub-$300 players would increase sales volume, but if it means losing money on each player sold, how would that be any more incentive for manufacturers to stay in the game?

Unless people think that the profit margins on all players are so high that they could all be reduced to $299 and still be profitable (which I don't believe to be true), then how can such a subsidized price drop be good for the format?

Now, as far as movies go, I wholeheartedly agree that lower prices should be possible. But I don't think that they should be lower than DVDs, which average $29.99 MSRP these days. The key is lowering the wholesale price to DVD levels, so that retailers can set shelf prices on the discs competitively with DVDs. Where I think the studios are erring right now (at least based on what little we know) is that they are trying to amortize the higher replication startup costs over too short a period. Spread it out over a longer period, and the wholesale prices could be brought down considerably.

Master & Commander is one of my favorites movies but the reviews so far haven't impressed me. I'll get it eventually.

The technology isn't all that different from DVD. More advanced, but not all that different. If they can make a profit on a $69 DVD player then they can make a profit on a $299 Blu Ray player (if they can't now, then they will be able to soon).

The problem is that as you noted about replication, when it comes to the hardware manufacturers they're trying to get all their R&D expenditures repaid too quickly, forcing the prices up. All that money put into developing the technology will be paid back - whether it takes another year or another 3 years it will be paid back, so if they spread out the amortization period they could see the format gain a larger market share much more quickly, guaranteeing the fact that they'll get paid back.

Getting the players under $300 and the movies under $20 is a must. The format will not take off big time until that happens. It will grow a little every year, but not like it could at that price point.

I think some hardware manufacturers and some software manufacturers thought the conversion to Blu Ray was a done deal since almost all you can find are HDTV's, but they're forgetting that DVD buyers have gotten used to the $15 price point (sale price) for new releases, and $10 or less for catalog titles - and they like those prices. Blu Ray prices have to at least be competitive ($5 higher per title would work) for the average DVD buyer to consider making the move.

They'll reach those price points eventually, but this really is a case of the sooner the better for the health of the format.

I'd rather have both also. a/v quality is first and foremost for me. I like special features, but I don't always get around to watching them. If I'm getting the DVD version of a film, if the film is not available in BD, I'll get the 2-disc version over the one disc if there is an option because it's only $2-$3 more and sometimes there's some good stuff on the second disc that I'll get around to watching eventually.

I think if you're paying $25-$40 for a BD it should have both great a/v quality and special features, but that's not the case for some BDs, sadly. Also, I'm pretty sure they could easily fit all the extras on 1 BD. Unless it's sacrificing the a/v quality; it should all fit.

You're right. I can't really tell much of a difference.

Of course, and like you said, it's at a small resolution so I don't think that helps.

I bought the BD because I didn't have the DVD. I'll have to see if I can get a hold of the DVD version and compare the two for myself on a 50" 1080p HDTV.

I don't see them taking their marbles and going home. They supported laserdisc for decades, but my big concern is getting mostly safer blockbuster style films on Blu-ray and fewer catalog releases. If all we end up getting is big budget films and the typical guy action and comedy releases because that is all that sells Blu-ray might as well be dead.

I still haven't purchased a Blu-ray movie since Bonnie and Clyde. The prices are just too high to buy any film I don't really want and many of the ones I have wanted have been disappointments in video quality like Butch and Sundance or extras like many Fox releases or both like Master and Commander. It seems since winning the format war the Blu-ray group has quit trying. Even V for Vendetta was just a recycle of the audio and video from the HD DVD release and again gave me no reason to upgrade my identical HD DVD.

I did want to pick up Pan's Labyrinth during the B2for$30 sale, but I either have the other titles or don't consider them worth the additional $15.

I remember The Matrix was on sale for $16.99 at B&M stores when it came out.... now we're lucky if they're $25. Certainly we can seek out decent deals if we take advantage of online sales...but the general public needs to start seeing $19.99 new release prices in stores I think. TDK or Iron Man would be a perfect start... think we'll see that?

Those screen captures are pretty much meaningless. DVD Beaver is a nice site, but they continue to use low resolution images for BD "screenshots." I understand there are bandwidth concerns, but if they're not going to compare the images at a proper resolution (at least 1280x720), there's not much of a point. All you can do is check out the colors and contrast. Those shots are even at a lower resolution than DVD. If you want accuracy, see Xylon's comparisons on AVS.

If they can't host full resolution images, I would suggest they compare a section of a BD screenshot to a section of a DVD shot that is scaled to the same resolution.

This is a fair point. It's important that pricing come down to levels that consumers consider reasonable, but that doesn't necessarily mean they need to drop to the same point or below current DVD pricing.

It's more than just pricing that's causing these poor Blu-ray sales. That's only one factor. The bigger issue is that the format has not demonstrated itself to be a sufficient improvement over DVD in the eyes of most consumers. This will require a consumer education initiative to show people that upscaled DVD is not just as good as HD, and that every movie and TV show can benefit from High Definition, not just big-budget action and sci-fi flicks. Those are huge misconceptions that still dominate the marketplace, which the studios and hardware manufacturers have further perpetuated through their release slates and marketing claims.

It will require a better selection of movies be released, content that will appeal to more than just PS3 gaming teens. Blu-ray needs to appeal to more women, families, classic film lovers, genre movie buffs, and the like. Right now, those people see next to nothing they want to watch on Blu-ray, and so have stuck with DVD. Blu-ray is seen as the "PS3 movie format" and is perceived as a toy and a gimmick.

Criterion announcing their first Blu-ray titles is a big step in the right direction, but the other studios need to open their vaults as well. And no more holding back of "prestige" titles until the market is large enough for them to make a big splash. Doing that is a sure-fire way to ensure that the market never hits that point.

It will also require that the movies that do get released offer a compelling upgrade over DVD. No more recycling dated video masters with bad edge enhancement or DNR artifacts. No more dropping all the supplements that the DVD had and then charging $39.98 for a mediocre catalog title. And if the studio is going to invest in a fancy new interactive feature, they need to make it something useful and worthwhile, not just a stupid Java game or overly complicated menus.

Fixing all of those things would be a very good start.

Just to toss on a quick addendum to this, not just movies from 199x on stand to benefit from HD. That's the most common misconception I hear. It's pretty ridiculous to think that people assume movies from the '50s or '60s will look horrible in high-def when they were shot to look spectacular on screens dozens of times the size of an average home theater.