Blu-ray has now been out for almost 2 years now. With all the help PS3 has given it I, and others, still have got to wonder how long studios will support a format with low sales numbers. Time will tell and hopefully consumers do go out and purchase disc and players.

Just looking at the titles that sold 10,000+ copies, (there were none Week ending April 27), got me wondering how many copies a studio needs to sell just to break even.

I mean, BD authoring and replication are inherently more expensive that plain old DVD, so how many units do you suppose it takes to achieve a break-even proposition?

If what I have heard is correct, 2 out of 3 discs are thrown out due to the very low yields. The discs can not be recycled due to the hard coating applied to them (another extra added expense). Lines must be run with 15-20k copies made at once just to break even...so if a title does not sell that (One Miseed Call for example)...its a loss. I think in the case of One Missed Call, they sent out more copies to reviewers then customers purchased.

But it all depends who you ask on the subject.

Where have you heard that number? I don't think even the most ardent HD DVD insiders were claiming numbers that low.

I can't even remember at this point where I read it, but it was in the past month or so. Regardless, the yields are still at the point where they are tossing Blu's in large numbers.

Yep, totally misread that. Predator kicks ass. AVP2 is the steaming pile.

The numbers aren't incredibly impressive yet, but with prices as high as they are, it really isn't a surprise.

I love HD and all, but coming from a standard consumers viewpoint, it's understandable why the things aren't selling better. Most of the B1G1, B2G1, etc; sales seem to be dominated by the same folks over and over again, so it isn't really expanding their market. And I'm sure it has been said many times before, but seeing a new BD of an old movie on sale for $29.99 with the standard DVD available for less than $10, in the same rack in some instances, isn't helping things.

Problem is it was on sale for $19.99 at Target and Amazon for the weeks numbers. So if it was not for the sales...would it even be in the top 20? We've seen in the past that a sale at any store can really spike the numbers bringing a once dead catalog title up into the top 10 just because its $10 cheaper then normal.

I'm gonna go with probably not, $29.99 is just too much for a catalog title. Until these things become either loss leaders or they start jacking up DVD prices (which would suck, but I've stopped buying DVDs) I don't see it really resolving for a while yet.

I'm starting to see why some analysts are so down on the $5 bin at Walmart, it really depreciated the value of movies/dvds in my eyes.

$29.99? Its $34.99 at the #1 HDM retailer (Best Buy).

According to posts in the insiders forum at Blu-ray.com, yields at some replicators are in the 80-9% range. Supposedly DVD replication was about the same yield back in 2000. Those are very different numbers than what you are claiming.

Is it? It had a $29.99 sticker on it here, but that may be because it's next to a Target that sells it for $29.99 by default.

Regardless, shitty pricing for all.

Yes, the insiders at Blu-ray.com. Good source of information there. They won't lead us down the wrong direction at all. Just like how the Panasonic BD50 would be $599 or less when it was to be announced.

Heres one from past HD DVD supporter now Blu with envy Kosty:
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/show...&postcount=850

65% is twice what you initially said the yield was. Good source of information there.

Just a quick search. Yep, sorry, 1 out of 3 being tossed. 1 out of 3 that cannot be recycled like DVDs could be even with the same yields back in 2000 (or so the Blu insiders say). Sweet.

I wonder how many combos were tossed? Oh wait, they just shipped them to customers instead.

Still never had a single issue with combos. Yet when they offered to allow people to return them, all 9 copies came back.

I think it's funny they expected people to hang onto defective combos personally.

I had six bad ones. I returned every one of them to point of sale. I explicitly said they were defective. If they were serious about tracking down the problem, they would have looked at returns from retail. Instead they played games with asking people to send in their copies in a very informal manner. Am I supposed to wait while my return window disappears so they can screw around with me for months? Uh uh.

DVD-18's were just as bad. The process for dual-sided, dual-layered discs is obviously flawed. Thankfully it's a moot point now.

Good question. I didn't buy because not only was it too expensive, it was totally bare bones, and the reviews were somewhat less than laudatory in the PQ department.

In short, it was an easy decision to stick with my fully-loaded CE, upscaled on my XA2, and keep the $20 - $35 in my pocket.

That's why I never sent mine in. Again, it was just a post in the middle of a really long thread on AVS, wasn't it? How many responses would they reasonably expect to get?

It's beyond any argument that there were flawed combo discs in circulation. Too many people with the same exact problems with different copies of the same titles at the same exact spots.

I think the "official" point of entry for the mail in was a thread at HTF which was linked to at AVS. In fact I recall multiple posts at AVS where members said they didn't find out about it until after the exchange closed. AVS would have been a far larger sample set than HTF.

Talk about beating a dead horse and derailing the topic! Even when HD DVD is dead, still being used as an excuse to deflect negative facts about Blu Ray!

When yields are brought up and misrepresented, it's only fair to compare it to other formats, dead or alive.

...not really. We were talking about if studios will stand by and continue to make Blu-ray discs when the numbers are incredibly low and the discs are so expensive to make. That includes low yields, $1 million dollar lines, lines that take up twice as much room as DVD does, hard coating, and discs that cannot be recycled. I don't see how any of that has to do with HD DVD. Its a dead format, right?

You came out and made a claim that 2 of 3 BD's are thrown out. That was misrepresentation of yields. What it has to do with HD DVD, well, some people still fly the Dixie flag, you know what I'm sayin'?

HD DVD combos likely had yield issues too, but surprise, they would not release the numbers.

Again? Who the hell cares about HD DVD. its over. Who cares about combo HD DVD's again?

So he got a number wrong, which he readily admitted and already said he was wrong.