RichC2

Actually yes, I am. The entire thing is fairly silly.

And theres the major negative aspect to being Region Free, the delay between Blu and HD releases. That and the loss of Fox. Though I can't say New Line has really released anything I could see myself buying ... Rush Hour 3? Hairspray? Now Pan's.. that will be mine.

Gizmo

I think most of us thought HP would win as well. I imagine combined numbers of HD/BR may make it close to Bourne though.

pricdews

I've seen you state this countless times and then not respond when asked to back it up. I'll try, source?

Gizmo

I can't even find the article anymore, Ive looked. I know somewhere here has it.
Warner mentions how great 300 sales are on both formats, especially Blu-ray, but that they don't think a gamer system can substain a format. They mention SA sales are import and they will be watching them on both formats.

I know someone here can find it or link it, there is just way too many when I google it.

Here's a link similar to it..
http://www.tvsnob.com/archives/014477.php

tonymontana313

This past weeks numbers is clearly quite the victory for the BDA. I'm still can't believe hd-dvd did not win the week. I figured it was a foregone conclusion with a very highly anticipated title like Boure and the BOGO sales. It must have been the staying power of Pirates 3. Also very shocking to see HP5 underperform for both formats. I wonder what Warner thinks of that.

Hammer99

I think that's what they get for dicking around and letting all these rumors float. I can't blame anyone without both formats for not buying any Warner product right now... no telling for sure what they are going to finally do next year (if anything at all).

kefrank

Pirates 3 along with, apparently, very strong catalog sales. that suggests to me that the steady increase in PS3 purchases is having a very positive effect for blu-ray.

pricdews

I don't see a quote from Warner there. Just a secondhand restating of a supposed quote, just like I'm questioning you on. That article is titled "Warner Bros. Drops Blu-ray License, Chooses HD DVD" - a bit flawed to start with don't you think? I think your interpretation that Warner is sitting back to decide just based on standalones is a bit loopy. Early on it may have been a concern. But now with Blu-ray standalones dropping in price, I don't see how it's the PRIMARY issue. 61-39 blue on Bourne+1st BOGO week - now that's a number that speaks volumes.

Gizmo

Its not the article I was looking for, just one that mentions it off-hand.
As for Blu-ray SA dropping, its simply to clear out old models. 1.1 players will go back up to the $500 or so price range I'm sure after CES. I imagine the 1400/BDP-300 are no longer being made.

As for numbers, Warner is mainly looking at their own I'm sure. Don't think they don't know about the constant BOGOs and whatnot the BDA likes to have either.

pricdews

I agree they're mainly looking at their own titles (the best gauge of the format war IMO). I also think overall sales is something they notice. For the Warner titles, isn't Blu-ray leading on almost every one (the only decisive red leaders are a nature documentary and We Are Marshall - which was delayed release week on Blu-ray).

Someone actually compared the Warner titles, 1.2 to 2 is the range
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/show...2&postcount=11

also, Vaughn just stated on another forum that Blu-ray has a slight edge on apple-to-apple Warner comparisons. I'll agree it's not overwhelming, but with Warner sales leaning blue, I think Warner either goes blue exclusive or stays neutral.

PopcornTreeCt

Harry Potter didn't sell well because DVDs are good enough for parents to buy their kids. It's the same reasoning why High School Musical 2 isn't going to be a hit for Disney. Because if you want to buy your pre-teen child High School Musical 2 you first have to shell out $300 for a PS3. If Disney knew ahead of time there would be $100 HD-DVD players versus $250 Blu-ray players I think their decision would've been easy.

QuePaso

Where can i buy a 100 dollar HD DVD player?

pricdews

Where did he say you could? He said "there would be" and there has been. A bunch were sold at WalMart and Best Buy. On Black Friday I got one from Amazon ($110 but no tax).

jaeufraser

I would imagine that HP combined outsold Bourne by a small amount, since HD-DVD HP sold half as much as Bourne, and HP BD sold more than HD-DVD HP. And that's without counting the boxset.

So HP5 overall indeed did sell the most.

jiggawhat

I think the fact that POTC3 did so well is a major coup for BD because this title caters to everyone. For it to have sold 160K is great and it kind of tells people and Warner that BD sales are not being driven by the so called gamer crowd. Moms and Dads buy this kind of movie for their kids and I wouldn't be surprised if this helped sell some hardware.

Burnt Thru

does anyone have the figures for 300 first week sales? my recollection is that hd/bd sales were fairly close first week, and have diverged over time with the title having more legs on bd. though it's possible i'm remembering incorrectly...

darkside

POTC3 is exactly the kind of game that would do well with gamers and it only sold to 5% of BD owners if you count all the PS3s. Hardly a coup.

Qui Gon Jim

So we'll start floating the idea now that IF WHV goes HD DVD there MUST be some sort of "payoff" involved.

Warner may see the BD market as apathetic, as evidenced by the slim difference in sales between the two formats in sales of the Harry Potter discs.

Money is always a motivator, but it does not always come in the form of a "payoff."

Qui Gon Jim

Did anyone REALLY think that Bourne was a title that would turn the tide?

People are spinning their asses off. This is NOT a great "victory" for BD. In a head-to-head where the content was nearly identical, they came out nearly even. With 3-4 times the number of potential consumers. That is NOT an overwhelming victory, no matter how much you love BD. Call a spade a fucking spade.

God.

Qui Gon Jim

Exactly. You cannot look at sales figures without looking at how many of the POTENTIAL customers bought the product. This goes both ways.
I think it is great that PotC3 moved as many units as it did, but they do have to be disappointed that they only hit a small percentage of their potential market.

Sales figures alone don't tell the whole story. Neither does attach rate alone. Both are tied together.

Mr. Cinema

With the market share still 1-2%, does it really matter if HD DVD doesn't win a week? All they want to do is stay in the game by selling more hardware. That's what they are doing. I would be more concerned with hardware numbers at this extremely early stage than I would software. 2:1 doesn't sound all that bad when you factor in the HD capable players. HD DVD: 750,000 (standalone + 360 AO) vs BD: 2.5 million? (standalone + PS3)

2:1 sounds even better when the #5 discs on either format are selling only a few thousand copies. There is no need for HD DVD to panic with these small numbers. They are probably happy they are getting about 40% of the software market, especially since their competitor has many more capable players in homes.

Burnt Thru

only a very foolish studio is going to expect similar attach rates between consoles and standalones. i think an estimate of 20% was made as the percentage of ps3 owners who use their device to playback bd movies. that is probably pretty accurate, and is certainly more worthwhile a benchmark than the figures thrown around here by certain individuals.

kefrank

unfortunately, that's the reality of the situation with the PS3. it's a wildcard whose numbers can be used to justify virtually any position on both sides.

i'd be curious to know how many PS3 Blu-ray remotes have been sold. that would at least give a baseline number of PS3s playing Blu-rays.

Mr. Cinema

You'll have to take his word for it. I read the same article on AVS. Unfortunately, there's no way I'm sifting through hundreds of threads to repost it here.

Goldblum