High-def DVD grows at faster pace than standard DVD

Susanne Ault of Video Business writes: High-definition DVD player sales during the fourth quarter spiked well above standard DVD at the comparable point in the earlier format's life cycle.

Price-driven promotions are the main reason for high-def's steeper growth curve, according to Paul Erickson, DisplaySearch director of DVD and HD Market Research.

Standard DVD players were priced more steadily during their first months on shelves, he explained, as they were never embroiled in a hyper-competitive format war.

"There is a much larger spike at the end of the year for next-generation DVD due to strong performances by both formats for November and December, as well as heavy competition-driven promotions for both Black Friday and the December holiday season," said Erickson.

[zambrota]

I expect Blu Ray to fully replace DVD in Japan this year

Last year the penetration rate was 20%!!!

yea guys 20%

i expect that to become 60% this year. Japanese are very tech savvy

In europe i expect the rate to be around 35-40% this year

in NA cant predict before the arrival of LOTR on Blu ray

[bootsielon]

I want to know on what basis do you "expect", what models are you using nasim/larry007/shmee/tanod/zam brota?

I expect that playstation 3 will reach 25 million units sold next year. I reached that number through no models, but I guess I just expect it because I can.

[gamesR4fun]

Anyone can take a guess even better if its a reasonable one. And thats without having some jerk like you spew off with a bs line like this.
"what models are you using nasim/larry007/shmee/tanod/zam brota?" Typical stupid troll cant use logic so what maake up accusations and then you start swearing below " 6.3 - Yeah, because you know better, don't you...
Sh1t stain?" why did someone call your bf on his bs too?
Your a real piece of work stupid ignorant angry get help m8.

Bubbles --
Reported Offensive
Ignore priceless

ps tell some of your other personas below to relax were not holding the plug for the hd dvd's life support system.

[felman87]

nice to see people embrace high definition players.

[Cyrus365]

It shall be interesting to see if it grows at a faster rate, than it did with DVD's.

[zambrota]

for instance one of my friends got a free BD player with the purchase of a 62" bravia from bestbuy,LA .

He was disappointed with DVD picture quality on big screen but when he played the BD discs he was almost stunned .

even a hair was visible on BD movies .

so penetration rate will de determined the HD TV uptake in NA

but again i expect BD to actually outpace DVD at the same timeframe in terms of penetration

[ITR]

I'm sorry, but the BDPS3000 given away with any Sony promo just sucks balls especially when compared to what's already available from other manufacturers.
The only reason people don't bring it back is because it's free.
If you buy any BD player buy the new Panasonic.
Otherwise wait until BDLive hits this summer.

[WilliamRLBaker]

Is this because of people embracing high def formats over dvds compared? no

Is this because of prices? no

Is this because its the year 2008 and people are much more into tech now? yes

Back when DVD first was released most people were no where NEAR as tech centric as today hell even 90 year old grandmas know what DVD's are in this day and age the attitude has changed and this is the only reason sales are much more then compared to the dvd's first days.

lol disagree with no reason because why? because what i say is a fact and they cannot prove it wrong, its fact becaue its common sense.

[xhi4]

oh thought it meant high-def dvd grows at a faster pace than standard DVD is currently growing, not original growth.

But yer I think itd be because of people being more aware and tech savy. Probably more to it, but that's all I can think of.

[FirstknighT]

The title is misleading. It's talking about dvd players. EVERYBODY has a dvd player already. The real fact is for every 1 hidef/bluray dvd that is sold 100,000 standard dvds are sold. Bluray discs will never over take standard dvd. Especially since digital distribution will eventually be the norm.

[ThatArtGuy]

I doubt digital downloads will replace physical media this generation. The bandwidth is too large and with large companies like AT&T wanting to charge people extra for large usage, it's too soon. I think blu-ray will do quite well.

[jaja1434]

Damm that AT&T and their end caps...

[bootsielon]

Sh1t stain?

[FirstknighT]

...EVENTUALLY will be the norm.

[Rattles]

not for a very very long time, and your an idiot to think other wise.

[Mr Tretton]

well, he is. regularly.

[Skerj]

BluRay discs won't completely take over for DVDs until those damn prices come down. New releases for 25+ bucks? I don't think so, that's like half a game and/or 50 tacos from Jack in the Box. Do that math, 50 tacos or one movie? Hmm. ..

[Cyrus365]

Exactly, damn their expensice, it's like half game...When Blu-Ray's Disc prices go down to 10-20 range at most, you'll start seeing discs start flying off the shelf. 25-40 range...hell no.

[Snukadaman]

when regular dvd was starting they were at 1000$-800$..and there was no dual formats too add too those numbers...they are counting hd-dvd with blu-ray so its really not a fair comparison with just regular dvds...poor nasim/zambroata...I bet he thinks thats blu-ray alone is selling better then regular dvds...what a moron

[TheExodus]

True, but I think what's more significant is the fact that early adopters of DVD actually bought their players to play DVDs whereas early adopters of Blu-ray & HD DVD are damn near all using their players to upconvert DVD.

[hardcorehippiez]

how many times have any of you got a cd, dvd only to have it scraped destroyed by children or at parties etc. blu rays are practically indestructable so when people realize that its better to buy on blu as opposed to dvd even if they dont have a hd ready tv . the takeover will be much quicker than most think. i just wish the cd media would have been as hardwareing in the first place then i wouldnt have had to replace many of the originals as ive had to.

[zag]

HD-DVD is nothing more than sitting in the gutter of the USA movie market, the only market where it's sold, the rest of the world has basicly moved onto Blu-Ray now.

Lots of people keep saying DVDs will be around forever but this won't happen DVD sales have been dropping for the last few years.

Warner said in it's Blu-Ray only press release that it expects Blu-Rays to replace DVDs all together in 2 years time so once the studio stop releasing SD-DVDs well you can bet that's when the whole DVD market will drop as well, just like what happened with VHS when DVDs came in.

Or

People bat off about downloading their SD movies, well yes you can do this but paying $500 for a 1 TB drive then $500 for a 2 tb then $500 for 5 TB drive, I just can't see many people running around trying to buy HDs just to keep their downloaded SD movie collection.

Then you have the problem of shorting the HD which gives you a dead HD on the spot everything is lost (I've had this about 5 times so far) or formatting the HD or simply running out of space.

Then what do most people do, that's right burn it off to a writable CD/DVD/Blu-Ray which is easier to destroy the data on.

Cat's piss will make the writable layer peel off and you can't read any of the data.

make a deep enough scratch over the inner starting line and the disk isn't readable at all, won't even look up the TOC at all which equals dead disk.

Pressed disks don't have these problems, because it's a true metal layer not a changable dye.

[TheExodus]

DVD sales are down, but Blu-ray & HD DVD aren't a solution to that problem for the simple fact that the transition from DVD to Blu-ray & HD DVD isn't a revolutionary media transition like it was from vinyl/cassette to CD & VHS to DVD. From a consumer perspective it doesn't matter which shade of HD you choose given that all HD players upconvert the titles in our existing DVD libraries to near HD quality which is clearly "good enough" for most of us when you consider that upconverting DVD players are outselling Blu-ray & HD DVD players combined by 10:1. Digital distribution may not be ready for prime time yet, but it is a revolutionary media transition which is really what Hollywood needs if they want to see sales growth akin to the early days of DVD.

[Antiomo]

Since hd-dvd did not take off so well it does not mean hd media in general is not growing fast. IT is called transition and NOTHING happens over night..

Just looking at shelf space at all my local video stores and it is quite evident shelf space of hd media, more specifically just looking at hte blu-ray shelf space you can see that it is growing faster than dvd.

And if pppl bring up the idea of hd-media being too expensive... againt it is still a transition thing. Companies want to rake in on the potential profits on new tech.... and ppl will buy
I guess ppl forget the days where dvd's also costed 30-40 dollars a pop. Hell you can still see new releases cost only 2-3 bucks cheaper than the new releases of blu-rays

Btw I remember dvd players staying at the 500 dollar price range for a very long time. Hate to say this but MS propaganda is digital distribution is a moot point at the moment . IT is a a format in itself lol look how popular has it become. You rarely hear any statistics about it because there is no standard accross all platforms, and the numbers are even more minute than hd-dvd.

But then again this is typical consumer behavoir from the xbot crowd since hd-dvd is not doing so well it doesnt mean the alternative is not doing well.

[TheExodus]

DVDs have never been priced between $30 or $40, you need to stop shopping at FYE & Suncoast.

[Antiomo]

Yes they did cost that much during the debut of dvd.

I remember when purchasing bugs life ( my first dvd) it costed 30 dollars... they I stared at the fox and sony movies and they were around 35 dollars.

Companies KNOW they can gauge the market for most new tech. Hell cd's have been costing like 25-30 dollars back in the days.

If you look at the prices of new dvd release they cost about 18-25 dollars now. I dont think it is too difficult to picture dvd costing 30-40 dollars at its debut . DVD's have been around the market for a full ~11 years IT only started to REALLY pick up in the last 5 years. Funny this is when the ps2 was penetrating the market.

[PS3n360]

The DVD is hardly profitable anymore. I bought a box of serial a couple years back that came with a free dvd movie. Studios cant rake in huge bucks when the media has been devalued in the consumers eyes the way dvd has. Dont expect prices of HD movies to come down anytime soon because the studios wont let that happen. They are dropping prices of the players to below cost but the movies are still $30 a pop. And yes When DVD came out the movies were $30 minimum and stayed that way for a long time. When columbia house starts doing hd blu I will join again.

[TheExodus]

I don't know where you live/shop, but I have never paid over $20 for a DVD & I made the transition from Laserdisc back in '97. One of DVD's major selling points at launch was that DVDs were cheaper than Laserdiscs & I had been buying Laserdiscs at Suncoast for $30 to $40. It's just been within the last year or so that DVD titles at my local Best Buy managed to creep over $22, but on "New Movie Tuesday" they can generally be had for under $18. If not, there's always Circuit City, Target or Wal-mart.

EDIT: CDs at $25 to $30? You guys need to move to the Midwest where everything is half-price ;)

[Antiomo]

economics my friend..... I live in Canada.... and the dollar value of CDN has increased while the USD has less value now.

BTW the prices you stated are releat too close todays time period.

Im refering to prices in 1997 ish.

You also contradicted yourself. "I have never paid over $20 for a DVD" ;
But still today you still can find a new release for 20-25 dollars. And this is todays PRICES. If you look at some dvd's today they can still reach 30 dollars because of their 2 disc special uber edition.