I would never have guessed that the BDA would be involved in marketing BD.

It looks nice. Why can't Best Buy do that? Very clean and organized.

And have the same prices.

That won't happen. I'll stick to tax free Amazon

Yeah, who knew?

Agreed. Stuff like this is exactly what BD needs.

FWIW, I agree with you. I thought I made it clear in my post that if the "accusation" is true, it shouldn't matter a damn because it is good promotion for the format.

My point was, to those who think "Haha! Look BD has to buy space" that paying for shelf space is SOP for retailers. Conversely, to the "BD would not need to resort to that" crowd, it is also SOP so it is not anything to be defensive about.

It doesn't always have to be so black and white.

ETA: I just went back and re-read the post you quoted. I thought by quoting someone else who thought that the idea of buying space was no big deal, and in fact a positive, and elaborating on that that my post was more balanced. I apologize if it came off as "this will go away as soon as they dollars start rolling in." I did NOT mean it to come off that way.

Stopped by my local Walmart SuperCenter and they have their new setup. 3 large BD sections, 2 on the right, 1 on the left, with the players in the middle. They did not have the players out yet, but I saw tags for the Sony 300, Samsung 1500, Panny 30, and the Magnavox. Unfortunately, all 3 BD sections remain in glass cases. I don't care for that, but if enough low-life scum are stealing, then I'd rather them be locked up so there are some to buy.

They probably had over 100 titles. Shooter, MI 1-3, and many other Paramount titles were $19.96.

Hopefully Target will remove their head from their ass and begin to lower their prices to where Walmart has them. I still can't figure this out. Walmart is Target's #1 competitor, why would Target set their BD pricing the same as Best Buy, but not Walmart?

Ill ne going to Wal-mart tomorrow to get a stand for my new TV so I'll take a look. I did see the Insignia BR player...looks very cheap and plastic. The Samsung 1500 looks kinda good.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardwa...2041652,00.htm

Chinese companies authorized to produce Blu-ray products
"Eleven Chinese disc manufacturers, including TCL, Malata and Desay, have been authorized by Blu-ray Disc Association to produce Blue-Ray discs, CDs, and disc players next year.

According to president of Blu-ray Disc Association, each of the manufacturers has now turned to BD development since Toshiba's withdrawal from the HD DVD camp in February this year and BDA's member number has increased to 187 while that of International DVD Forum has decreased to 163 from 240.

It is estimated that the demand for consumer electronics and computers adopted with BD technology will reach 5.3 million this year and top 11 million by 2009."

Wow.....

No biggie. I think when it was a war you could virtually guarantee space was bought, but now, retailer stand to make more off BD than DVD if, and it's a big IF, the volume increases substantially. So IMO retailers do have an incentive now to create displays on their own.

Wholeheartedly agree: that is rather odd. It's only NATURAL for BDA to be involved. Pretty much all CE manufacturers are involved with Best Buy, Circuit City, and other electronics stores, and BDA should be no different. On that note ...


MODERATOR COMMENT:
We would appreciate it if people would stop doing that (trying to make BDA's involvement look tainted). That amounts to nothing more than threadcrapping. On the other hand (yeah, you knew an OTOH was coming), we would also appreciate it if people would stop making BDA promotions to be such a huge deal as though it's something groundbreaking. That amounts to nothing more than rubbing in (and potentially trolling).

You're excited about Blu-ray? Fine. You're still a little bitter about HD DVD? Fine. But please don't let either of those things cloud your judgment into thinking that everything BDA does is awesome (it's not!) or that everything BDA does is awful (it's not!). Let's please be a little more tolerant. Thank you.

namja
Moderator, DVD Talk Forums

Also ...

Isn't this a "Blu-ray Sales Figure" thread? I haven't looked at the figures lately ... are they releasing actual numbers yet? Or are they still doing that #1 = 100.00 nonsense?

No,we only get #1 Movie = 100% and everything else is a smaller % next to it. We only get "real" numbers when some estimates (usually Grubert) by taking something that happened that week (like Warner says they sold 1 million DVD copies of Twister on DVD and the Blu-ray sold 5% of that so that means 50,000k. That is also an example guys).

That's a title that was delayed multiple times, so the demand for it should have been fairly high for a catalog title. Maybe this will tell Fox once and for all, to price all of their catalog titles at $19.99. When they do that, the titles start showing up in the top 10. Speaking of....here's the top 10 sellers for w/e 5/18:

1. Chronicles of Narnia - 100
2. Untraceable - 69.75
3. I Am Legend - 48.12
4. The Golden Compass - 42.08
5. 300 - 36.17
6. Twister - 31.04
7. Blade Runner - 30.63
8. Independence Day - 28.68
9. I, Robot - 21.48
10. Troy: Director's Cut - 19.25

Much like Mr. Cinema, I'm shocked Master and Commander is not on that list. Considering its been delayed for close to a year I figured it would at least be somewhere in the Top 20. Looks like more people wanted PS I love You, Over America and Shinobi more

$29.99 to $39.99 for a catalog title with middling reviews (video quality wise) on what I would consider a niche title isn't exactly something that would seem to sell too hot.

I'm sure the insanely low cost of Shinobi ($10.95 at most online retailers) mixed with its strong reviews (audio/video and movie itself) helped substantially, unless online retailers aren't counted in this.

Weren't a lot of people saying their Best Buy and other B&Ms didn't have Master & Commander? They seemed to be having to order it online. If that was widespread, which it seemed to be, that would explain the low sales.

I luckily found a copy of the Master and Commander BD at Future Shop on release day, but it still isn't listed on futureshop.ca or bestbuy.ca.

I'm not surprised it didn't make the top 20 because it didn't even make it out to all retailers.

Maybe because of the delays, retailers were skeptical that it was actually being released.

The irony of your comments with Independence Day and I, Robot sitting right in the top 10 as $40 MSRP Fox catalog titles was not lost on me. Not saying you're wrong, but I did find it amusing.

They may have been on sale that week... I can't remember. Those typically are priced $29.99-$34.99 at stores.

Best Buy had both on sale at $24.99 each during that period. Regular price there is $34.99. And since they are the #1 HD retailer, their sale prices do have an effect on the top 10.