Dave's Download

More Evidence that Blu-ray Is Struggling

By David LaGesse

Posted: September 29, 2008

More on Blu-ray's fate, as BetaNews reports that sales of the high-def disks fell 13 percent in a recent week. While those numbers from Nielsen VideoScan might be dismissed as a one-week hiccup, the trend isn't boffo for Blu-ray.

The format faces growing competition from multiple sources. A slowing economy doesn't help, either.

After vanquishing HD DVD, the new format might double its disk sales this year over 2007. But it will still have only about 5 percent of the market, says Robin Harris in the Storage Bits blog. The only hope to save Blu-ray is to drop the high prices:

Blu-ray's modest quality advantage won't overcome the convenience of electronic delivery. If Hollywood wants to be selling DVDs in 5 years, they need to make Blu-ray an affordable standard.

Price....still a major factor.

I can't understand Blu-Ray fanboys......as long as they enjoy it, why go around insisting everyone else should follow them? They need to realise that Blu-Ray may have beaten off HD-DVD....but it will NOT beat DVD. Ever. Blu-Ray will forever be a format that sits happily alongside DVD as an enthusiasts format, while the mass market is still happy to embrace DVD and will do for many years yet. That point where HD media overtakes sales of SD media will not happen in the lifetime of Blu-Ray. Independent market analysts predicted this even before the credit crunch.....so now, in a global recession, all talk of Blu-Ray outselling DVD in a couple of years is utter fantasy.....put forth by the companies with a vested interest in the format.

Take a typical punter like myself. I own all six incarnations of Star Trek and all ten movies....that alone cost me thousands of English pounds. It will be a cold day in HELL before I consign them to the scrapheap and replace them with Blu-Ray box sets. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to afford that. Star Trek is just a small percentage of my collection. I also own many other sci-fi series on DVD, like all TEN SEASONS of Stargate SG-1. No way on gods earth am I prepared to double dip. I double dipped with the upgrade from VHS to DVD because the tapes were wearing out and you couldn't buy new VHS machines. DVD's do not wear out, the quality is impressive (even more so when upscaled) and I will be able to buy a new DVD player whenever I want. The mass public upgrade from VHS to DVD was the last of its kind. You may want to dream about the same happening for BD, but don't hold your breath. And I write this in mid-2009.....a long time after this report, and well into the life of the humble Blu-Ray disc.

I can understand you fanboys wanting the public to jump on board, as it will make your HD movies cheaper, but that isn't my problem. It was you that chose to back a fledgling format....not me. As I said, it will be an enthusiast's format....like laserdisc....it will never dominate the market. DVD will be the market leader when whatever follows the BD makes its debut. I guarantee you that.

Matthew @ May 28, 2009 20:04:37 PM

n01baggiesfan is blind

'What "other" technologies are there to go against it ?'

Think of Windows Vista, you can wait for the next 5 years to come and stay with XP for the time being.

Same with Blu-Ray. There might not be anything there now, wait 5 years and see for yourself if something HD will not be there. Let's face it, 1080p is NOT high definition.

Think of DVD up-scaling and the difference is minimal or too little to jump on a DRM's infested media.

Don't think that DRMs are there to protect the movie industry. It is there to give them a false sense of security as Blu-Ray's securities are already being cracked while making the genuine owner of Blu-Rays a criminal for placing the content of the media in their own house network or willing to play it on a Linux system.

The only preachers of Blu-Ray are Sony, business affiliates and PS3 owners.

PS3 owners have bought it with the excuse it was a great Blu-Ray player but to play games. There are not going now to say that Blu-Ray are not great.

Next to that there is the others like me who can play their DVDs without having to call home to its database to make a profile of you, who can play them on their home network, on their Linux system and to high definition with upscaling for a third of the price.

Back then when DVDs came out, it was evident people were going to jump on it just as they jumped on CDs to replace tapes but with this one, I can wait for better.

xeorex @ Nov 02, 2008 09:48:16 AM

People who think Blu-ray will not succeed are either blind or upset because they bought a HD player, Blu-ray was always going to win because it had better support, bigger capacities (good for pc) and the PS3.

What "other" technologies are there to go against it ? HD lost, high def downloads will not beat it either, how many people own a 20mb+ broadband connection (even this is slow) and want to spend all day d/l hd content when they can buy a disc for as little as £5 from a shop, BD are not expensive, DVD's were similarly priced when they first came out, so were the players.

If you are really a movie lover then once you have seen the better quality of Blu-ray then you will want to buy a player and a HD tv, region coding moaning is a nonsense, it is there to protect the movie companies and the cinema companies, too be honest there are plenty of region free BD out there you have to look, you can always play them on your pc with region free software and hook your pc up to your HD tv.

Stop whinging about the technology we have today, enjoy it, everyone said cd's wouldnt work that dvd was a "fad", Blu-ray WILL win.

no1baggiesfan @ Oct 20, 2008 06:59:36 AM

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