Here we are, almost 3 years since the release of the very first movies on Blu-ray, just over a year since the end of the HD format war. Blank Blu-ray disks can be had for about $6, burners $300-400 (which is high, but not unreasonable), players below $200, and most movies less than $20 (some $10-13). And there seems to be a lot more titles already.

It just seems to me that this is all happening a lot faster than it did for DVDs 10 years ago.

Just something that occurred to me while eating lunch here that I figured I'd get opinions on. Any thoughts?

Meh.

Merriam-Webster really needs to recognize that word already. I use it to my wife all the time.

I think the economy has significantly altered whatever plans they had for the format plus the war = equal better for us.

It's tough to compare the two based on blank media and burners. With DVD being revolutionary and Blu-ray being evolutionary I'm thinking that DVD was a little better 3 years in. DVD also had the advantage of a burgeoning internet marketplace eager to lose money that helped propel the purchase mentality. We could buy one cheaper than the retailers wholesale price.

Blu-ray has many advantages over the marketplace in 1997 - 2000, but I think the economy will hold it back just a bit.

It's tough to compare since they were introduced in two very different (technologically-speaking) eras.

When DVD came out, electronics were just gradually starting to be built in China so the prices were still fairly high. The mono sound, 4-head VCR I bought in 1998, one of the last made in Japan, was $229.00. Once they tapped the cheap labour in China, the prices for home electronics dropped very quickly.

By the summer of 2002 most brand-name DVD players were around $250 (retail), five years after DVD was introduced.

So, yes, Blu-ray is getting cheaper much faster than DVD as it is with all consumer electronics. I'm not sure if the actual numbers of players and discs sold are similar after three years.

DVD also had the advantage of no other superior forms of home video competition. The clunky VHS tape was no match and HD was still considered a professional format that was completely out of reach cost-wise.

Blu-ray has to compete with the very good quality of the existing DVD format, down-loading, VOD and any unknown future technology just around the corner!

I can tell you this - the San Marcos, CA Fry's is Blu Ray Heaven.

Right on the main aisle of the store is their blu ray disc section - and there are a ton titles available (they've got a great selection). Their sale prices are excellent as well. Then they've got a good number of players and blu ray drives available as well in their respective departments.

All I hear from the customers is how blu ray is the future of DVD (more or less). Hell, I heard one guy mentioning to his friend who had just gotten into blu ray how in 5 years blu ray will be what DVD was 3 years ago - the standard that most people will have adopted.

My local Wal Mart just remodeled and doubled their blu ray section.

It seems to me like this format is growing VERY rapidly.

the frys in burbank has put up a display ever since the Customer Appresciation sale right in the front of the store with the weekly specials
and to the left is a bin of Blu-Rays

i know woodland hills has a display to the right before the register line.

the walmart in Panorama has horrible dvd selection ....

No, it's not moving at the same speed. The format war and the economy have slowed it down.

Still, it's doing very well and doesn't need any sympathy cards... except perhaps for everyone to go out in Q4 and buy 10 movies.

It's not because of reasons others have mentioned. However, sales on software and hardware are consistently increasing. In this economy, I'd say that's a huge accomplishment.

I really don't know where the "most movies less than $20" comes from. There are a handful of titles that sell for less, like some Lionsgate and Warner titles, but it seems like the majority of them are $20 or more (especially new releases).

I think it's going about the same as DVD. It's faster in some ways and slower in others.

Various Universal, Paramount, Sony, WB, and LionsGate have been available often for under $20 on Amazon and at Best Buy and Target. New releases are obviously over $20, but most catalog titles debut at $20 and then sell for less a few weeks later.

There are more than a handful for under $20.

I was opening a Blu-ray last night (Defiance I think), and I still laugh at the firmware notice, when it says "Because Blu-ray is a new format...". Really?

It's 3 years old!

Wonder how long we will have to suffer through those? Years?

I wish DVD had more firmware updates. My old Philips is glitchy when it plays newer discs.

I'd say it's not mostly because the bar was set higher for Blu-ray compared to DVD.

DVD only had to compete with VHS. With VHS you had poorer quality video and audio. In addition, for a long period of time they were expensive but it wasn't as bad of a problem from around the mid-90s on. Looking at when DVDs first arrived, if a DVD came out with no special features, other than an interactive menu and chapter selections , there was less complaining than if a movie came out now that way. For a long time, most DVDs have come with some extra stuff. There was also some problems with discs not working on certain players but for the most part, that problem has fixed itself.

When Blu-ray comes out, I'm expecting to at least have the standards that most DVDs have simply because they want this to replace DVDs and they shouldn't be taking a step backwards. I'm talking about special features and making this format as a step above what it's trying to replace. Sure there's better video and audio but the jump isn't as big as between VHS and DVD.

For some special features, in a way we get screwed now. What would normally come on a DVD sometimes is now only available on a server. Couple problems there, you have the internet issue, which I'm not going to get into with what people should and could do or how they're supposed to act and deal with that, but you also get the new issue of eventually not having it available on the server anymore. If you didn't download it if you had the chance, too bad.

We also have the problem of titles with no special features when the DVD had tons of them. Hello Sony, you did this format, you put out Spider-Man, yet you're not going to put any special features on the first and second movie when the DVD had a lot of them?

How about player and disc compatibility? I can understand one brand of player not working with another company's disc. Happened with DVD and it'll happen here. But seriously, Sony puts out Starship Troopers but it has an issue during the movie with Sony players. Seriously guys.

Don't think I just hate Sony. Believe me, there's more than enough hatred to spread around, especially to Fox. At the same time they have both done decent stuff, such as the new X-Men trilogy.

Sometimes it seems some of these companies are just out to screw us. That X-Men trilogy had a clip from the wolverine movie that could be viewed in the US if you bought a ticket online with the disc. Other places got to see it without that option.

How about Spider-Man? For some insane reason, the price of that box set was high as hell. What makes even less sense is the price of just the third movie. How about the fact that if you want the first or second, we still have to buy the box set after all of these years.

How about double dips? Unlike the well established DVD format, we're trying to get people to jump on board this new and improved format. If you want people to jump on, you put out an improvement over the DVD. Say, such a disc that there's no need to double dip on because it's already that good. Still have the double dips with the new format. I know a lot of people, myself included, that don't buy certain movies because you know it's going to come out again. If you have those people not buying it on the new format, that's not getting people to jump on board.

So basically, instead of starting at the level where DVDs are at now and building off that, it seems like where building off a level of after a few years of when DVD came out. Blu-ray companies should be working on getting people into the new format before they turn around and start screwing them instead of screwing people in the beginning before it's had a chance to replace anything. It can still go away if they want to keep doing that.

I think Disney's been doing a decent job and if other movies came out with those sorts of standards, more people would be happy with it.

I agree. The prices where I'm from seem to be all over the map. New releases can range from $20 (occasionally) to $32.95. Their DVD counterparts ranging From $18.99 - $24.99.

The cheaper end of the scale is usually for blockbuster hits that they can sell on a higher volume and usually in its first week or two of release.
Paul Blart can be had for $19.99 but if you want The Wrestler, it's $32.95.

The advertised "specials" on players have been unimpressive. Most Sony brands are well over $300 with the occsional Samsung priced at $275.

DVD entered the scene when the whole concept of mass market sell through was just getting it's legs, though. (Laserdisc was out there, but was simply not a mass market medium.) Home Entertainment sell through in 1997 had not overtaken Box Office receipts yet. It took years for that to happen.

Here's some stats that show key "vs. box office" milestones:

1986 Rentals of $3.37B and sell through of $1.01B (total 4.38B) beat box office ($3.78B) for the first time

1988 Rentals alone at $5.15B beat Box Office of $4.46B for the first time.

For the next 12 years (!) sell through did not tackle Box Office.

Sell through, augmented by DVD sales, beat box office for the first time in 2000. DVD grew the entire sell through business dramatically in it's rise. It created the big business sell-through marketplace we have today.

DVD also made the business of catalog titles something serious. Sell through, previously dominated by children's titles and blockbusters and a handful of tentpoles... now got flooded with catalogs titles of all sorts.

Blu-ray enters the scene where people have collections of movies at home and have been buying movies for ~$10-20 for nearly a decade. The new format should have higher hurdle and father goalposts. The way has been trail-blazed, and 8 lane super highways have been laid down.

Plus TV on home video grew by leaps and bounds with DVD, making even niche properties profitable. BD also benefits from the retail channels that DVD built. There were no movie sections (like we see now) in the major department stores, and online retailing did not really exist when DVD launched, at least not to the extent it does now.

It is very hard to compare the two.

The DVD really got the wheels of the sell-through model going. People have amassed a lot of DVDs over the last several years.

Buying burn-out is going to be a big obstacle for Blu-ray. People bought DVDs of older films that they had never bought before on VHS. They also replaced their VHS with a much better product that offered much more content, versatility, picture and sound.

Blu-ray doesn't provide that same perceived extra value over DVD than DVD did over VHS. It was like the (much smaller-scale) attempt to sell consumers S-VHS to replace their VHS. It was backwards compatable, had better picture and sound but was ultimately seen as too similar to what they already had spent a lot of money on already.

Catalogue titles on Blu-ray will appeal to the videophiles, teenagers who take an interest in "old" classic films or someone who wants a particular old title that they never got around to buying on DVD. I imagine the Star Wars films and Indiana Jones and the like will be some exceptions when they come out.

This is not a huge demographic compared to the widespread appeal of DVD a few years after it launched. Given that, I still think new release Blu-ray titles will sell well and outpace new release DVD titles sometime soon.

I love the film Halloween. The Criterion Collection Laserdisc is why I bought a Laserdisc player, same for a DVD player. The Blu-ray of Halloween does not inspire me to purchase a Blu-ray player.

What do I get? Better picture and sound. I don't currently have a set-up to utilize these advancements. Do I need to watch another new "Making of" featurette? No. A new audio commentary? No.

Most DVD versions (with some exceptions) have given us more info about a film than we could possibly want.

I believe there's a real buying/consuming fatigue. The current "thrift" fad isn't helping things... except for Redbox and Netflix.

Great post. This is exactly what I would have said, if I hadn't been too lazy to respond.

All that said, I think Blu-ray is exactly where it needs to be and has reached the level of success that most involved were hoping for at this point in its development.

Actually, the world wide web and more specifically, early online retailers played a significant role in the rapid rise of the DVD format. A ton of online retailers practically gave away DVDs in the late 90s, before the dot com bubble popped.

Remember when you used to be able to get DVDs for like a nickel? Good times.

DVD also somehow managed the inexplicable feat of getting a lot of people to purchase more than they could consume (hello unwatched DVD pile). I don't think any other entertainment format has ever or will ever do that again.