Dominance.......that's a strong word.

Picked up a stand alone Blu-Ray player for Christmas, I really like it. I however, do not like it enough to to pay the cost of many of the Blu-Ray's I have seen. $35-$39.00 for some of the new and old releases is retarded. I have, however, been picking up (some) of the older titles at the $19.99 price range. Price needs to come down for Blu-Ray to become "Dominant"......, ha, that's a funny word!

What is good enough? In short time most people will have at least one HDTV. DVDs look good on it, on the other hand BluRay discs look even better and are the only medium that really shows what a 1080p TV can do.
The question is never "What is good enough" but "How much are people willing to pay to get it". And once BluRay discs and players are in the same price range as DVDs are now, that will not be a question anymore. Good enough is a construct that works in no circumstances: Hey who needs a Mercedes isn't a Volkswagen good enough?
In Europe BluRay discs still cost 30Euro, so this will take some time. You can argue and I would agree that the increased quality is not worth the price increase (But luckily there is amazon.co.uk)

gavind5uk said: Then as the popularity grew the price of VHS dropped to values like £3-4 on average, while the DVD counterparts were anything between £15-20 for many years, i even remember buying just one of the special edition versions of lord of the rings TT for something like £35.

 

Well I can't discuss about these examples, because I don't know the exchange rate between the british po0und aqnd the Deutsche Mark at that time but I knew that the real production costs for VHS were at about 15 DM (everything included), but when the DVDs were available for 15 DM in special offers, these simply crushed the VHS market. There wasn't any money to earn from them at these prices.

But even if ypu get the BluRays with discounts, they can't even reach the real DVD prices or they would loose miney simply due to the fact that t6he BluRays are even more expensive to produce, than a DVD.

And don't forget: Why are companies really interested in BluRay? They want to earn more money with it! Tell themk that they won't earn more than with the DVD and they would drop the BluRay at once!

At least in the last few months they sometimes had heavy discounts for the BluRays. I sometimes payed less than I would have had to pay for a DVD two years ago. But I don't think that this will continue. They did this as a marketing instrument for the BluRay and in the hope to get better sales and in the revenue statistics discounts are in many cases not included.

In reality they want to sell their titles without discounts. But as far as I see it very few people are ready to pay more than 20 Euro for a BluRay. This could very well become a real problem.

Very good December UK numbers. Once the BR movie prices drop significantly I expect BR sales to approach DVD ones.

And once BluRay discs and players are in the same price range as DVDs are now, that will not be a question anymore.

 

Sorry, but I thionk this expectation might be a bit steep. Not the players are the real problems but the prices that you expect for the BluRay. If the BluRay earns less money than the DVD it is no longer interesting!

PS360ForTheWin said: good stuff, @ TheBigFatJ - DVD has been on the market alot longer and has more titles and players sold, so its not a fair comparison, compare this to DVDs second xmas would be more fair, this is actually very good for blu-ray.

 

Is VHS vs. BetaMax a fair comparison?

BD and DVD must be compared, as BD aims to replace DVD.  What's at issue is whether it will ever accomplish this.  I vote no.

There are cheaper, superior media formats at BD's gate; not to mention downloadable HD content and slick upscaling DVD players.

BD won the battle with HDDVD, but what is the prize?  My guess is 5-15% market share until it and DVD are replaced by a true quantum leap forward.

ryu1976 said: PS360ForTheWin said: good stuff, @ TheBigFatJ - DVD has been on the market alot longer and has more titles and players sold, so its not a fair comparison, compare this to DVDs second xmas would be more fair, this is actually very good for blu-ray.   Is VHS vs. BetaMax a fair comparison? BD and DVD must be compared, as BD aims to replace DVD.  What's at issue is whether it will ever accomplish this.  I vote no. There are cheaper, superior media formats at BD's gate; not to mention downloadable HD content and slick upscaling DVD players. BD won the battle with HDDVD, but what is the prize?  My guess is 5-15% market share until it and DVD are replaced by a true quantum leap forward.

 

First, BR is already in 5-15% range, and the share is only going to get bigger. Second, studios behind Blu Ray (and that's ALL of them) are not going to endanger its future dominance with another format. They'll milk it dry and then get behind another format in 5+ years time.

 

As for downloadable content, for true BR quality current speeds are slow AND the GB limitations (in US) are quite unfortunate.

 

Star Scream said: ryu1976 said: PS360ForTheWin said: good stuff, @ TheBigFatJ - DVD has been on the market alot longer and has more titles and players sold, so its not a fair comparison, compare this to DVDs second xmas would be more fair, this is actually very good for blu-ray.   Is VHS vs. BetaMax a fair comparison? BD and DVD must be compared, as BD aims to replace DVD.  What's at issue is whether it will ever accomplish this.  I vote no. There are cheaper, superior media formats at BD's gate; not to mention downloadable HD content and slick upscaling DVD players. BD won the battle with HDDVD, but what is the prize?  My guess is 5-15% market share until it and DVD are replaced by a true quantum leap forward.   First, BR is already in 5-15% range, and the share is only going to get bigger. Second, studios behind Blu Ray (and that's ALL of them) are not going to endanger its future dominance with another format. They'll milk it dry and then get behind another format in 5+ years time.   As for downloadable content, for true BR quality current speeds are slow AND the GB limitations (in US) are quite unfortunate.

15% WW, huh?  Throw-up the stats, bra!

 

Good growth.

ryu1976 said: Star Scream said: ryu1976 said: PS360ForTheWin said: good stuff, @ TheBigFatJ - DVD has been on the market alot longer and has more titles and players sold, so its not a fair comparison, compare this to DVDs second xmas would be more fair, this is actually very good for blu-ray.   Is VHS vs. BetaMax a fair comparison? BD and DVD must be compared, as BD aims to replace DVD.  What's at issue is whether it will ever accomplish this.  I vote no. There are cheaper, superior media formats at BD's gate; not to mention downloadable HD content and slick upscaling DVD players. BD won the battle with HDDVD, but what is the prize?  My guess is 5-15% market share until it and DVD are replaced by a true quantum leap forward.   First, BR is already in 5-15% range, and the share is only going to get bigger. Second, studios behind Blu Ray (and that's ALL of them) are not going to endanger its future dominance with another format. They'll milk it dry and then get behind another format in 5+ years time.   As for downloadable content, for true BR quality current speeds are slow AND the GB limitations (in US) are quite unfortunate.   15% WW, huh?  Throw-up the stats, bra!

Eh, you wrote 5-15%, I used your words. I'm sure BR is in the '5-15%' bracket, ISN'T IT?