Netflix and Best Buy make pro- Blu-Ray annoucnements today

[damonrpayne]

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/11/netflix-picks-blu-ray-good-luck-renting-an-hd-dvd-soon/

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/11/best-buys-pushing-blu-ray-to-the-front/

Yeouch.

[sunburnwilly]

Might be time to give Netflix a try . My Blu-Ray player has hardly been used ; for movies that is .

[jzoz01]

Bummer. I have owned both and absolutely love HD-DVD and had nothing but frustration with Blu. Really too bad things worked out the way they did.

[CECAA850]

Looks like it's time to cancel my membership. HDDVD rental was the only reason I joined flix to begin with. I use Blockbuster for Bluray. It's a shame as I really prefer HDDVD over Bluray even though I have both players.

[mas]

To quote from another story today:

"Netflix has reason to worry about confusion in
the marketplace, because the longer a next-generation format war drags
on, the more likely digital distribution will take over...

Only
a small portion of Netflix subscribers have chosen to receive movies in
high-definition, and the majority selected Blu-ray, the company said.
In turn, it wasn't financially beneficial for Netflix to keep buying
two HD formats, which cost quite a bit more than standard DVDs."

While Blu-Ray looks like it has definitely won for pre-recorded material, HD does not appear to to be gaining the traction it needs to become a dominant player in the video market. And as stated, the supply chain management costs do not make both formats financially viable. One might also wonder what the numbers are necessary to justify duplicating standard DVD titles with HD.

Especially when a rental costs almost as much as a purchase of a standard DVD.

I wonder how much better the pricing of the PS3 and XBox360 would be with an upconverting DVD player or two and media available on 1 or 2 DVDs. I suspect they would become much more attractive in price for those who do not intend to invest in an HD library of titles.

[wuzzzer]

Boo on them! I just received notice of this by email from Netflix today. Oh well, not much a guy can do is there?

[j-malotky]

No surprise here... Damon had me convinced a year ago that Blu would eventually win.

JM

[mas]

No surprise here... Damon had me convinced a year ago that Blu would eventually win.

We'll see what wins in the long term in the mass market

And the competition begins...

I prefer hard copy, but look at the prices below and tell me where you think the mass market will go?

And why do you think the network attached capability is so important to both the XBox360 and the PS3. Both parents have a longer term and larger vision than simply online gaming.

And did anyone watch the CBS feature regarding rappers complaining about piracy and online downloads hurting them? Rap/Hip hop sales are down 20%. I almost wish I could say I was sorry![]

Apple
TV update goes live with high-definition rentals

By Nate Mook and Ed Oswald,
BetaNews

February 12, 2008

Apple silently pushed its promised
update to customers with its Apple TV device on Tuesday.

The update will take about six minutes
to download over a broadband connection, and another five to ten minutes to
install. The update will install in three parts, with the Apple logo and
progress bar reappearing each time.

Users can find the download by locating
the Update Software option in Apple TV's menu.

Apple TV Take 2 most notably brings
high-definition movie content to the device, as well as a completely redesigned
user interface. About 1,000 different movies are currently available for rent,
with about 100 of them also available in high-definition.

Rentals come at a price of $2.99 (or
$3.99 for HD) for DVD-quality, and new releases are priced at $3.99 (or $4.99 for
HD).

Apple had originally promised the
update at the end of last month, but the company was unable to finish the
software in time for that deadline. No specific reasoning was given for the delay, which it announced
at the beginning of this month.

Devices built from here on out will
come with the software preinstalled, Apple said. Apple TV is available from
both Apple and its authorized resellers for $229 for the 40 GB model, and $329
for the 160 GB model.

[Kynergy]

I think the HD DVD camp strategically missed the chance to get bigger share of the market. Given the advantage of existing factories making HD DVD disks this camp should have delivered more contents earlier and should have sold players at much lower prices. Now Blue ray will keep its momentum and it's too hard for HD DVD to win back.

btw, I hate the awkward HD DVD add-on of Xbox360. Two machines and many cables and loud noise of the drives. I used the player remote and the gaming dvd drive open/close but the add-on player does not respond. The whole system locks up whenever I tried to use fast forward or fast rewind. I will contact Microsoft to see what's wrong with that.

[J.4knee]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23145734/

[mas]

I think the HD DVD camp strategically missed the chance to get bigger share of the market. Given the advantage of existing factories making HD DVD disks this camp should have delivered more contents earlier and should have sold players at much lower prices. Now Blue ray will keep its momentum and it's too hard for HD DVD to win back.

I think the point many are missing in this debate is not which format of the two wins. I am willing to cede that to Blu_ray.

But this notion that now that Blu-Ray as won that it will just continue onward and upward and take over the world simply isn't , not does it seem to have any momentum to do so. On any given week, several standard DVD releases witll sell multiple times the number of disks as the number of ALL of the HD DVD players (of both camps) sold.

HD is a niche product, and for many , broadcast, cable and satellite is fine too. And now you have downloadable, essentially on demand, standard and HD content without the high entry and media costs.

Standard and upscaled video has dominated the mainstream market, and I don't see that changing any time soon - especially with more options coming on scene with many more to come.

So enjoy Blu-Ray for the next 3-5 years, if that long, and anticipate that it will then be superceded. It's a good format, although not competitively priced for the market who wants to build and archive a hard copy library. And that will continue to hurt it.

In the meantime, you have many choices. And many that are much more affordable. With many more options becoming available.

[White_Hawk]

Downloadable hd content isn't the best quality and people who really want HD won't go big on it. Prices should drop for blueray over the years (or months) as do prices for any technology, and higher video resolutions won't matter unless you're getting an 80" screen or so. Even if 1440 comes next, BR discs have enough space to store them. So unless some media format comes out that is vastly easier to use and priced lower, BR will probably be around for a while.

[mas]

I get a kick out of a niche market denigrating the VAST majority of the market for being satisfied with something less then the maximum possible resolution (is 1080p it? really?) - despite the fact that the vast majority of the market does not even posses a 1080p capable monitor!

When multiple releases of standard DVDs each sell more copies in ONE WEEK than all of the BR/HD DVD drives sold in total, it is a bit premature to claim that 1080p is the only acceptable HD content format! Likewise more have bought upscaling DVD players, and subscribed to 720p and 1080i service than anything to do with Blu-Ray (or the total BR/HDDVD market).

And in that vein, enjoy. I certainly have nothing against recorded 1080p media. I just help but laugh when the 'videophiles rail against the masses, just like when the DVD-A and SACD folks railed against the 'regular CD audio folks. While I liked them too, I also recognize business and market reality.

Oh, I know, and the market study groups are all stupid (yet companies PAY for them to provide them insight and not many here can claim that!) and they know nothing. Yet even NetFlix publicly gave hard copy HD an optimistic maximum 5 year lifespan last week .

But the fact remains that the big investment capital is flowing into on line deliverable content, and Sony is still having trouble getting consumers to even buy their machines - with inflated sales figures a result only due to the bundling of FREE units! And this site can't even get the majority here to buy one.

I know, I know, 1080i and 720p aren't real HD (as if 1080p is...or is it 1440 or the much higher resolutions already also demonstrated???)

And like it or not, most are quite happy with not only upscaled DVDs, but with the lesser HD formats. And for all of the criticism, more are buying them than are buying Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD combined) I am certinly not denigrating BR quality. But the cost and the necessity compared to so many readily available alternatives is simply not a compelling factor. I am just surprised at so many ignoring real market factors and substituting wishful thinking for reality.

And is the technology real? AppleTV is - broadcasting 720p via H.264 compliant HD utilizing Quicktime. And for prices cheaper than whtat Blockbuster charges for a rental.

But just look where the investmet money is going in the industry...And like it or not, that is where the majority of theconsumer market is going. (What, no race to build additional BR hard copy fab factories?)

But pardon me, I need to run and go post on the audio threads and tell all of the audio fools how no one will settle for anything less than SACD...

Could
video-on-demand overtake HD discs by 2011?

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews February 14, 2008, 3:39 PM

According to analysts, just three
years from now, 129 million people worldwide will be subscribing to
Direct-to-Home Video, most likely with high definition. Will HD optical drives
plummet into a niche market along the way?

The ongoing battle between the
rivaling Blu-ray and HD DVD formats for high-definition optical drives keeps
capturing huge attention, even though the combined Blu-ray and HD DVD market
today only consists of a few million units sold, give or take a few depending
on who is doing the counting.

Recent reports by industry analysts
suggest that high-def components might always remain a "niche
market," and that in any event, these consoles are already starting to be
dwarfed by HD video content being beamed to homes over the Internet, cable,
satellite, and other broadband networks.

Bpth Blu-ray and/or HD DVD formats
"must start to make an impact on the HDTV viewer next year if hi-def
[consoles are] to become more than just a niche market," said Richard
Cooper, an analyst at Screen Digest, in a report published in December.

Yet in marked contrast, the
direct-to-home video (DTHV) pay-TV market will add up to 129 million
subscribers worldwide by 2011, according to a report issued this week by
In-Stat. What's more, the firm expects HD content to be a major driver behind
DTHV, which accommodates video on demand (VoD) over the user's choice of
delivery systems.

"HD is rapidly becoming a key
differentiator in the US, and some Western European countries like the UK have
exhibited strong growth potential for high definition," observed Michael
Inouye, an In-Stat analyst.

As evidence, Inouye cited a growth
rate of 273% in HD subscribers for the UK's BSkyB satellite network between the
third quarter of 2006 and the same period a year later.

But much more recently, as part of
its annual earnings report today, US-based Comcast announced the addition of
1.8 million additional subscribers to "advanced" Comcast services
such as HDTV and DVR.



Video sports programming is a strong emerging market for HDTV, with football
teams such as the New York Giants, New York Jets, and Dallas Cowboys now upgrading their stadiums to
support HD broadcasting. A study released by Comcast at the end of
January showed that 47% of consumers expected to make an effort to watch the
2008 Super Bowl game in HD video.

Curiously, the exact opposite seems
to hold true, at the moment, in the DVD market, where HD content isn't yet much
of a driver at all.

"High-definition content is not
the primary motivator for consumers to embrace next-generation optical
disks," according to a recent report by Jupitermedia. In that study,
conducted by analysts Michael Gartenberg and Ina Mitskaviets, only 24% of
consumers cited HD content as a motivator to upgrade their home DVD equipment.

Gartenberg and Mitskaviets pointed
to several factors behind consumer hesitance, including the lack of "broad
unified hardware support" in the current Blu-ray/HD DVD space; an absence
of "deep content support" for Blu-ray and DVD; and the lack of a
"clear and visible consumer value proposition" for buying HD drives
as opposed to ordinary DVD drives.

Meanwhile, "the growth and
penetration of broadband is facilitating content delivery directly to consumers
without the need for any optical disk," according to the report.
"Combined with portability and the ability to move content from room to
room as well as on to portable devices, the market for downloaded video content
continues to grow each day."

The Jupiter analysts further noted
that, although much of the content -- including downloads from Apple's iTunes
-- remains lower than that of DVD discs, Microsoft is now offering full 720p
encoded movies and TV shows via its Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

According to reports by other
analyst firms, although the dramatic increases in the VoD market will happen
over all channels, the Internet will lag behind cable for some time.

In-Stat's Inouve estimates that
digital satellite pay TV revenues will skyrocket to $96 billion by 2011.

By comparison, a study published in
December by the research group Understanding and Solutions says that online
video today represents only 1% of the US home entertainment market...and that
single percentage ponit is currently driven by iTunes and Xbox Live.

"Online video services and
title availability are limited, pricing strategies are enbryonic, and the
technology infrastructure has yet to catch up," said Mai Hoang, an Understanding
and Solutions analyst.

By 2011, though, online video will
step to an 8% share, representing $2.9 billion in consumer spending, according
to the U&S analyst.

Moreover, the current Blu-ray and HD
DVD format war might not even really matter all that much four years from now,
with VoD rising to the forefront.

[Montigue231]

all i know is i took back my toshiba hd dvd player for a sony blu ray because my local blockbuster only carries blu ray NO hd dvds at all..So in a few more years i know it will all be blu ray when u walk in the store...

lets all hurray the blu ray and put closure to all this

[CECAA850]

http://www.cepro.com/article/toshiba_hints_at_dropping_hd_dvd_report_says/

[Guest srobak]

I am actually kinda looking forward to the demise of HD-DVD at this point. I am going to be able to do the same thing I did with LaserDisc if Toshiba does in fact bail out...

I am going to CLEAN UP on pre-recorded media for pennies on the dollar! In the span of a few weeks after DVD began it's majority market hold I managed to bump my LD collection over 200 titles that I *actually wanted* (including some rare items) vs. having them just for the sake of having them - for less than $300. 6 months earlier - it would have cost me over $3000. I can live with that. Damn good investment, and I still watch them to this day. I don't mind at all being in the same situation with HD-DVD.

[Kynergy]

I think HD DVD is over. Walmart will sell only Blue Ray.

[mas]

I am actually kinda looking forward to the demise of HD-DVD at this point. I am going to be able to do the same thing I did with LaserDisc if Toshiba does in fact bail out...

I am going to CLEAN UP on pre-recorded media for pennies on the dollar! In the span of a few weeks after DVD began it's majority market hold I managed to bump my LD collection over 200 titles that I *actually wanted* (including some rare items) vs. having them just for the sake of having them - for less than $300. 6 months earlier - it would have cost me over $3000. I can live with that. *** good investment, and I still watch them to this day. I don't mind at all being in the same situation with HD-DVD.

A smart shopper indeed!

[Guest srobak]

Not sure if you are being your usual, sarcastic self - or genuine... but I will say that I have absolutely NO regrets about having done that route with LaserDisc. Consequently - I expect the same with HDDVD.

[Youthman]

I just came from Wal-mart. While there, I stopped by the electronics section. The Sony Blu Ray player was around $400.00. The Toshiba HD player was sitting beside it with a $150.00 price tag. Farewell HD. I'm just glad the war is over.