Blockbuster to favor Blu-ray HD discs over DVD format

[Woochifer]

- What is NetFlix' take on this? (What do you know, they are in the red camp). If they were to go the other way, it would definitely add fuel to this fire.

Actually, Netflix is neutral, as they already stock Blu-ray titles. Blockbuster's website also carries both HD formats, and will continue to do so.

http://www.netflix.com/Genre?sgid=24...r=LhcGenre2444

Will Blockbuster (blue camp) be selling all their HD-DVD stock at bargain prices?

Nope. The posted article says that the 250 stores that were used to test market both formats will continue to stock HD-DVD titles, as will Blockbuster's website. All that Blockbuster's announcement means is that the 1,450 new stores (this represents about 1/4 of their stores) slated to carry HD discs will only support Blu-ray.

Fast forward to this time next year, and if HD-DVD's market share erodes further, then you might see those particular Blockbuster stores (and several other outlets) clearing out their HD-DVD inventory. This is no different than when video stores began selling off their Betamax inventory in the mid-80s. (Around that time, VHS had 3-to-1 market share advantage over Beta)

Any preliminary Walmart HD-DVD sales figures (blue company with red product - this may not work)?

That info's probably more tightly guarded than the CIA. WalMart does not participate in any of the retail sales tracking services like Nielson Videoscan, and neither does Target. Most of the other major retailers do participate, and bits and pieces of that information's widely available.

Just my own observation in my own neck of the woods, but it certainly seems like the store shelves are about 75% Blu-ray, now. I'm still waiting for regular DVD prices to drop, but somehow that kind of effect is not yet trickling down.

Doubtful that regular DVD prices will push back any further than they already have, unless the format gets supplanted and stores discontinue carrying DVDs altogether. It's pretty much a stable mature market where the new releases command the higher price points, and older titles and/or older editions get marked down (stores like BB and Fry's have weekly sale prices as low as $5). If you're willing to wait a few months before buying a new DVD release, the prices do go down.

Since you're down in the OC, you might want to check out DVD Planet's retail store over in Huntington Beach sometime. Biggest selection you'll find anywhere, competitive prices, and a lot of interesting items make it onto their clearance shelf.

On that note, I think that Toshiba is doing a better job of marketing its format in places like BB, CC, Walmart, etc. I don't know why, but it just seems like Toshiba is trying a bit harder and this may be why the individual player sales are higher. Maybe it's just SoCal, but I see more Toshiba HD-DVD ads than Sony Blu-ray ones. That said, both companies could do more and to me it seems like it's a half-hearted effort all around, almost as if the companies themselves are not entirely behind their respective formats. Maybe they expect the virtues of the formats to carry the sales figures, but personally, I think they are under-estimating what average consumers know about them.

Actually, I think Toshiba finally wised up and started playing hardball. Until the past couple of months, Toshiba had been getting out maneuvered at every step. Best Buy and all those other retailers will gladly provide the prime floor space and display areas to any company willing to pony up. Toshiba's the lone player actively peddling HD-DVD, while Blu-ray has multiple manufacturers in its corner. The sheer quantity of Blu-ray player models on the market assures that Blu-ray will occupy a certain amount of shelf space. Toshiba has to be more aggressive to maintain visibility, and it seems that they've been going in that direction. Universal has been helping with an aggressive HD-DVD release schedule. In the end though, I don't think it will be enough to keep the format afloat. Blu-ray continues to command the most in-demand titles, and I don't think that will be lost on those consumers ready to buy in the next few months.

[Mr Peabody]

It's interesting that the cheaper player isn't winning. Does this say that the HD disc war will not be decided by "Average Joe"? Is Blu ray's movie selection that much better that some one would pay almost 4 times the price for the player? Maybe people just think Blu ray is the way to go because of sheer volume of support. Also, Toshiba has gained some respect with their DLP's but I believe they still have a entry level rep where companies like Panasonic and Sony carry more weight in the quality department. Although Sony is slipping there.

Some one mentioned sound quality, is either HD disc format going to give me any better sound over DVD with out upgrading my gear?

I haven't rented anything from Blockbuster in well over a year. I quit when they started doing those gimmick promotions with all the small print. I bought into one of those when they first started, the guy did not fully explain everything, once I got out of that I never went back. I just pick up a movie or two from Hollywood when I get time to watch. I really enjoyed Blockbuster actually, their employees seemed to be energetic and helpful, the selection was great. I don't kknow why they felt they had to start running deceptive promotions. I really digressed.... strike this last statement from the record.

Bayliff, wack his P P

[Woochifer]

It's interesting that the cheaper player isn't winning. Does this say that the HD disc war will not be decided by "Average Joe"?

The "average Joe" won't decide the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Rather, they will have the final say over whether either of those HD formats eventually supplants the DVD. IMO, that's the real format war (if it ever gets that far).

Is Blu ray's movie selection that much better that some one would pay almost 4 times the price for the player? Maybe people just think Blu ray is the way to go because of sheer volume of support.

It's not really the number of titles -- Blu-ray has only a slight advantage over HD-DVD in the # of titles in release -- so much as which titles are in release that IMO will help Blu-ray maintain its advantage. If you look at the top 20 grossing movies from 2006, 19 of them are out or coming out on Blu-ray, while only 12 of them are coming out on HD-DVD. Blu-ray doesn't have that many more titles available, but it has more of the titles that consumers want. The market is driven by new releases, and the only thing stopping Blu-ray from winning the format war outright is Universal's exclusive HD-DVD support. (And among the major studios, Universal had the weakest box office performance last year, which further erodes the potential customer base for HD-DVD) The instant that Universal goes neutral (i.e., starts releasing titles in both formats), it's over.

Some one mentioned sound quality, is either HD disc format going to give me any better sound over DVD with out upgrading my gear?

On Blu-ray, you can potentially get upgraded sound quality because most of the titles so far have been using the higher bitrate 640k version of Dolby Digital (which doesn't have the aggressive high frequency channel joining that's used in the lower bitrate 448k and 384k tracks found on DVDs). All DD decoders are capable of decoding the 640k bitstream, but certain receiver models (including at least one recent Denon model) have had trouble reading the signal. In addition, the uncompressed PCM soundtracks can get output through the multichannel analog outputs.

With HD-DVD, I believe that all of the standalone players include built-in audio decoders that can decode the Dolby Digital Plus (basically the same audio resolution as the 640k DD signal, but adds support for discrete 6.1 and 7.1 output), and the lossless Dolby TrueHD tracks (same resolution as uncompressed PCM) and pass them through the multichannel analog outputs.

On both formats, the DTS-HD tracks will get downsampled to the 1.5k "core" DTS bitstream if a DTS-HD decoder isn't present. Not as high a resolution as lossless PCM, Dolby TrueHD, or DTS-HD, but certainly a higher resolution than the 754k half-bitrate DTS tracks typically used on DVDs.

I'm not surprised that the sound quality isn't a major selling point. Quite honestly, the difference between Dolby Digital 5.1 and Lossless DVD-A or whatever isn't nearly as big as most of us here (present party included) would make it out to be. We have a way of, err...exaggerating the little things in the world of audio.

Considering the visual sense is primary on the vast majority of the population, such a noticeable improvement (especially on larger screens) in the video quality area is a natural to be the biggest selling feature.

Just for giggles - I wonder, if I walked into a room and heard a 5.1 sound track, I doubt I could tell right away if it was Dolby Digital, DTS, or something hi-rez without doing an A/B and spending a bit of time. I'd probably be an above average guesser, and I'm smart enough to focus on a few limitations of Dolby, DTS, etc, but there's some good sounding mixes out there that'd make it pretty tough. (hey, I might try this experiment soon).

I'm pretty sure on a 42" screen or larger I could spot HD pretty fast.

Blu-ray has definitely been pushing the uncompressed PCM angle, though they haven't been telling the public that a lot of these PCM soundtracks are still downsampled from higher resolution masters (e.g., all of Sony's releases are 16-bit, while Fox has been going with 24-bit soundtracks; and so far none of the Blu-ray PCM tracks have used the 96 kHz sampling rate).

You're right in that the perceived sound quality improvements due to resolution can get quite exaggerated. I think that DD is easier to differentiate because of how the channel joining affects the surround imaging, but that's not going to be as easy to pick out in a dealer demo room that might have a lot of background noise, no calibration, and improperly aligned speakers.

OTOH, going from 480p to 1080p on the video side is very easy to pick out, and easy to demonstrate even in a warehouse-like environment like Best Buy or Costco. Anybody passing by with a shopping cart can see how good a movie looks in HD. Demonstrating the merits of higher audio resolution takes a lot more effort, and is not readily discernable through casual listening in a less-than-optimal room.

I tell people all the time, the sound is what really makes the movie, and not always the big explosion, but the small little things: a dog barking off camera and making you turn your head to see, or water dripping from behind and you thinking you may have a leak in your house.

You're so right about that. Those subtleties that you cite are often underappreciated, but they add so much to the immersive effect that a movie can provide. Master and Commander is very frequently cited as a reference quality soundtrack, and while the explosions in the battle scenes are great demonstration pieces, to me the best aspect of that soundtrack is with how it conveys a sense of space. When the scene takes place under the deck, the sound conveys the tightness of that space, and on above deck, you can sense the spaciousness. Very impressive all the way around.

[pixelthis]

Blu-ray caters to collectors, hddvd caters to renters, simple as that.
And PSP3 is actually canabalizing player sales in blu-ray, most will buy a psp just
because they are cheaper than a player( but the new 600 player will change this)
I hope blu wins, because its the more advanced format, and if we must have a hd disc, lets go with the more advanced.
AND heres another thing, with all of this great sound how about some concert discs?
Or music video collections?
Or decent classics that arent computer generated "blockbusters"
Anyway great toshiba lost, I hate em, everything I had tosh either broke, malfunctioned
or underperformed or was poorly designed

[nightflier]

Blu-ray caters to collectors, hddvd caters to renters, simple as that.[/QUOTE]

How do you figure that?

I hope blu wins, because its the more advanced format, and if we must have a hd disc, lets go with the more advanced.

Well, not if they continue to downsample the sound (according to Wooch). I've also read that HD-DVD has an edge on sound quality.

...AND heres another thing, with all of this great sound how about some concert discs? Or music video collections?

I think here again, HD-DVD has greater potential because of the Universal alliance and their desperation to compete. Sony has a good catalog too, but I think (and this is just speculation) that they will also be late to the party with music and concert disks.

Anyway great toshiba lost, I hate em, everything I had tosh either broke, malfunctioned or underperformed or was poorly designed

Whoa, there. I've had the opposite experience. I think this is ultimately a matter of product lines and models (probably affected by a specific part supplier), rather than systemic in a company.

I think the best resolution is not a defeat of one side or the other, but rather some kind of truce. Consumers would fare much better if the formats worked things out. What if Universal or Microsoft refused to throw in the towel and doggedly refused to offer Blu-Ray solutions, for example? This would ultimately hurt the consumers more than anyone else.

[musicman1999]

I don't think there can be a truce.I think that at somepoint Universal will decide to start putting out films in both formats and then it will be over.If all films are available in one format then there is no need for the other format.

bill

[Woochifer]

Blu-ray caters to collectors, hddvd caters to renters, simple as that.

Not at all true. Blu-ray's releases comprise more recent box office hits, and those tend to have much greater appeal to renters than the library releases that typify more of HD-DVD's output. If HD-DVD "caters to renters," then why would Blockbuster support a format that "caters to collectors"? And why would the 70% market share for Blockbuster's Blu-ray rentals be nearly identical to the 67% market share that Blu-ray sales have claimed so far this year?

Well, not if they continue to downsample the sound (according to Wooch). I've also read that HD-DVD has an edge on sound quality.

Can't really generalize since the choice in the lossless sound format is a title-by-title choice (if the title even includes a lossless track in the first place). Can't compare the Warner titles because a lot of their early Blu-ray titles did not include lossless tracks, while the HD-DVD equivalents did.

The Blu-ray titles from Fox and Disney thus far have primarily used a 48/24 PCM resolution, which is identical to the resolution used with most HD-DVD lossless tracks (using either TrueHD or DTS-HD). Only those few HD-DVD titles that use Dolby TrueHD at 96/24 resolution can claim higher resolution. So far, Sony has stuck with 48/16 resolution. Thus far, more Blu-ray titles have gone with uncompressed PCM because the format's larger disc capacity allows for it and most Blu-ray players don't yet decode TrueHD or DTS-HD.

The latest firmware updates though with most Blu-ray players now allow for a TrueHD or DTS-HD signal to get transcoded to PCM, which theoretically at least, maintains the full resolution of the original signal. The only reason really to go with TrueHD or DTS-HD is to save on disc space and/or accommodate a higher resolution than the disc space would otherwise allow with an uncompressed PCM track.

I think here again, HD-DVD has greater potential because of the Universal alliance and their desperation to compete. Sony has a good catalog too, but I think (and this is just speculation) that they will also be late to the party with music and concert disks.

Strange as it may seem, Universal's music division is actually a member of the Blu-ray Association. I haven't checked on whether they have actually released any titles, but this seems like a rather bizarre corporate disconnect within Universal. I saw the Universal Music Group logo pop up while watching a Blu-ray demo reel, and I had to double-check this because it otherwise made no sense when I saw it.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=51

[PeruvianSkies]

...I remember when they used this same display for Beta.

[pixelthis]

...I remember when they used this same display for Beta.

FUNNY you should say that , because for all of its tech superiority Beta lost out because it could only record one and a half hours, capacity in other words.
AND the extra capacity is what makes Blu-ray the "winner" of this format war, according to those who know.
Seems like at least Sony has learned from its mistakes

[drseid]

Blu-ray caters to collectors, hddvd caters to renters, simple as that.
And PSP3 is actually canabalizing player sales in blu-ray, most will buy a psp just
because they are cheaper than a player( but the new 600 player will change this)
I hope blu wins, because its the more advanced format, and if we must have a hd disc, lets go with the more advanced.

Oh, I don't know about this at all....

HD DVD has *a lot* more of the older classic movies that should appeal to collectors like myself. Casablanca, for one... I have found so far Blu-ray has focused on many of the present day action oriented films that are of very little interest to me and many other collectors (not to imply that collectors all collect as I do). I do think that while to me, at least, the quality of the Blu-ray releases is nowhere *near* as good as HD DVD, Wooch's point about new releases driving rentals, etc. is well taken and would indeed explain Blockbuster's recent move to major Blu-ray support. You could say that HD DVD is appealing to collectors, but Blu-ray is looking at the new release blockbuster rental market, and that is where a lot of the money is to be made.

I prefer the HD DVD strategy as a classic film collector, but I think the Blu-ray new release "blockbusters" strategy is working pretty well.

---Dave