There are plenty of people who still do the same. And I will also add that the "you" to your "they" are equally guilty of this.

The chart's wording has changed over the months..so it makes you wonder..what exactly are they comparing?????? I'm sorry, wording does matter. Just because you say

And you think it is crystal clear, other people may not.

Furthermore, these numbers aren't fantastic or even that good for Blu Ray, so why would I sit and try to throw stones at them, if I was so anti-Blu Ray??? I mean seriously, the chart doesn't define "unit volume" Maybe its a trade term thats widely understood, but volume could mean raw dollar amounts or number of units sold. In fact, one of my interpretations makes the numbers for Blu Ray better than the probably the intended interpretation of the chart..since if it is truly is number of units sold, than that eliminates the bump Blu Ray would get by being more expensive.

They may be not fantastic, but 6-7% in revenue is much better than the <2% in revenue we were seeing last year and indicates growth.

Uh, I don't know... Maybe because the format you bought into last August rolled over and died?

LOL! Here we go with the personal attacks....because owning a player and the 8 HD DVD titles (total of $300 - and I still use the HD DVD player happily) I bought made me so personally vested in the format that I will sit and cry and throw stones way after the format died.

Substantively, speaking you have not addressed my points:
1.) The wording changed on the pie chart
2.) "Unit volume" is not defined, so in my book it is open to interpretation.

It is.

http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa...9283258,00.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...19/ai_17632643



(emphasis added)

unit volume is a standard term in sales. i suspect it's simiply the ignorance of one poster, or his unwillingness to admit he's wrong, which is creating this latest curfuffle.

6% isn't great, but it's certainly better than the 1% some were harping on about not so long ago. will be interesting to see how things stand this time next year. it should be instructive regarding the overall potential of bd replacing dvd as the standard optical disc format.

I'm perfectly willing to admit I'm wrong, thank you Burnt Thru for taking the time to answer the question and confirm it is a standard trade quote.

I think what is confusing some, (not me), is the placement of that pie chart in between the two sales $ figures.

Unit volume, as pointed out above, is a measurement of the actual number of undividual units sold. Here, one unit = one packaged optical media disc title. This measurement is irrespective of price, which may be $.01, $100, or any other price point.

6/29 numbers released:

HomeMediaMagazine

Blu-ray sales up 4.71% over previous week to $8.88 Million.....7% of Top 20 vs. DVD Top 20.

DVD was up slightly too, adding 5.11% over previous week.

Looks the MGS4 PS3 Bundle didn't help Blu-ray sales at all. It came out on the 12th and sales have not shot up at all.

Probably because people are too busy playing the damn game, which by the way is awesome.

Never been a fan of MGS4. I'll just wait for the eventual 360 port (even though they will deny it...it will happen someday) and give it a rent.

You need to give it a try. It's that good.

I'm not much of a gamer anymore. I play a few DS, Wii, 360 games and that's about it. Any game that requires more then 8 hours to finish is usually a pass for me.

But I do believe you that its good. Several people have come up to me and asked me if I own it yet. They still wonder why I have a PS3 if I don't have any games for it.

They hardly had any of these bundles available in stores (or online for that matter) - they made very few, and of the few that got out, most of them ended up on ebay at an inflated price.

If they wanted to make a dent in sales, they needed to pump out way more of these. But the MGS4 bundle is supposed to be a limited deal anyways, which will not be available by the Fall - so it was never really meant to invigorate sales, especially since this bundle was aimed more at gamers than those who would buy Blu-ray movies.

Can't help but notice that the price of standard DVDs have been going up, not down, in recent sales at Best Buy and Circuit City. When Blu-ray and HD-DVD were slugging it out, prices for SD actually dropped to its lowest point, even seeing $2.99 or $3.99 titles on some sales thinking maybe SD was on its last legs. Now weekly sales have SD titles as high or $5.99 or $6.99 for the same titles that used to sell cheaper just a little while ago. With studios realizing Blu-ray haven't yet caught on as they have hoped, they will have to rely on both formats, BD and SD, for continued revenues and don't seem to be selling the older format at bargain-basement prices like they used to.

One big positive on the Blu-ray camp is that they have been boosting their multi-disc offerings with upcoming releases to match or exceed their SD counterparts in terms of content. 2-disc sets are becoming more prevalent instead of 1-disc that often skimped on extras. If they offer more packages like Blade Runner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, things can only look up.

It's still too early to tell on the SD DVD front. Maybe by the end of the year we'll get a good picture on prices of SD DVDs.

SD DVDs were never on their last legs, and Best Buy and Circuit City didn't think as much. This was just part of a sale at a particular time.

The reason why prices have shot up, is probably due to fuel costs and just about everything else increasing. Product shipments to retail chains are getting expensive, and so it was just a matter of time before the prices were reflected on some things.

You make some valid points especially regarding fuel costs. And yes, SD still is far away from being on its last legs, but I couldn't help but feel back then, in the heat of the HD wars with plenty of discounts on HD titles (especially on the BD end) that SD prices had to be cut down proportionally. SD prices may well drop down to those low levels I speak of if and when BD really catches on even more. To do so, BD prices have to come down even more. It's deals like being able to pick up titles Blade Runner (5 discs) for a mere $15 that made me finally go Blu-ray, but more deals like this are needed to fuel greater adoption of the format. Let's hope we see more incredible sales on a wider range of titles than what we're seeing right now.

Vantage Point was #1 on the BD charts.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...ticle_ID=13103

This is a Grubert post on blu-ray.com:

Home Media Magazine

In the first six months of 2008, consumers spent an estimated $194 million on Blu-ray Disc purchases - a gain of nearly 350% from the $43 million that came from high-definition disc sales (BD and HD DVD combined) the first six months of 2007.

Unit sales of Blu-ray Discs in the first half of 2008 were up 340% from the first six months of 2007, according to Nielsen Videoscan data. Studio stimates peg the number of Blu-ray Discs sold in the first six months of the year at 7.37 million units.

Top BD sellers:

1. I Am Legend 305,000
2. National Treasure: Book of Secrets 145,000
3. No Country for Old Men 137,000
4. 300 133,100
5. 3:10 to Yuma 115,000

--------------------------------------

300 continues to do well. The total sales number for that title should be around the 450,000 mark. The DVD sold 12 million copies in 2007. At least this appears to show that new BD owners don't mind replacing the DVD with the BD version.

That means they only have to do another $806 Million dollars to reach that $1 Billion dollar goal. With the holidays coming up it might be possible...but unless there is some fantastic BOGO type sales I can't see the hitting that goal.

As for 300, its constantly on sale. Not shocking to see its numbers so high like that, especially since its a perfect PS3-type title. If we go by those above numbers, it looks like those Rambo numbers were in fact wrong. Hopefully Warner will see that when they price a day and date at a decent price (I Am Legend at $18.95) it will sell.

I think they'll get close. Q3 and Q4 we will FINALLY have most of the new Gen 2 players on the market, which will help some. Not to mention, mega titles like The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Wall-E, and assuming Indy 4, all should move alot of units. With this being the first holiday season that the BDA has all to itself, I expect an even larger promotion of product and more sales than what we got last time. They'll want that momentum of finishing strong at the end of the year to carry over in to 2009, when the big push is supposed to happen. I believe they are going to wait until the digital switch happens, when it's likely that alot of new HDTVs are sold.

I would hope they'll offer up alot of bundling packages this Fall as well.

Granted there are a ton of big titles coming (the ones you mention will easily sell at least 80k their first week), but with non-stop BOGOs last year how much revenue did Blu-ray pull in? Even if they did that again (and I very much doubt it at least to the 07 extent), will it help to the tune of $800 million?

They better get SA players down in price ASAP.

I think the cheaper Chinese players will arrive in time. Keith Jack, from Sigma Designs, posted a ton of pics from the SinoCES show in Qingdao, China. I believe there are around 11 different Chinese manufacturers with players now.

And of course, the Magnavox/Funai/Insignia player is a prime candidate to be a cheap option on Black Friday.

Also, I believe Microsoft is getting ready to do a price drop or already have, on the 360 Premium. I wouldn't be shocked if Sony drops the price on the PS3 later this year.

I thought Chinese players wont be coming until next year (like Q2 09). The Insignia players, if under $200, should do fine.

MS is dropping the Pro to $299...not the Elite or Arcade. The 20GB Pro will be replaced with a 60 or 80GB version at $349. Sony will not be dropping the price of the PS3 anytime soon. Have you seen the massive loss they just posted? It would be suicide for them.