So on 2/14 there were 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #100 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #100

Now there are only 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #1000 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #1000

What is going on? Is everyone getting tired of buying movies? I haven't bought many in the past few weeks.

So on 2/14 there were 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #100 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #100

Now there are only 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #1000 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #1000

What is going on? Is everyone getting tired of buying movies? I haven't bought many in the past few weeks.
What's going on is the reason why there haven't been a lot of releases on HD DVD lately, a sales slump which happens every year. Blu-ray has seemed like it's been winning because it's had more titles released, but if no one's buying them then the "lead" it's enjoying almost becomes moot since there are still planned to be 100 Universal titles and 300 titles worldwide for HD DVD, which would mean that in the coming months, releases will step up a ridiculous amount. Since that will be the traditionally busy part of the year as well, it'll be interesting to see, when sales pick up for HD DVD, how the Blu-ray camp reacts.

What happened? The credit card bills for the Christmas spending sprees have to be paid. That's what happened! ;)

So on 2/14 there were 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #100 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #100

Now there are only 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #1000 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #1000

What is going on? Is everyone getting tired of buying movies? I haven't bought many in the past few weeks.
I think everyone has bought the movies they want. When more "must have" new releases are available, I'm sure things will change. I bought practically every movie I have when I got the players.

What is going on? Is everyone getting tired of buying movies? I haven't bought many in the past few weeks.From spot checking some in stock numbers at eproductwars.com it doesn't look to me like sales have really tapered off for most of these, just that their rankings have. Maybe Amazon changed the system they use for rankings.

--Darin

The rankings seem to be rebounding strongly now.

For me it's mostly been due to lack of HD-DVD releases.
and what BD I have been buying I've been buying used which doesn't count.

What's going on is the reason why there haven't been a lot of releases on HD DVD lately, a sales slump which happens every year. Blu-ray has seemed like it's been winning because it's had more titles released, but if no one's buying them then the "lead" it's enjoying almost becomes moot since there are still planned to be 100 Universal titles and 300 titles worldwide for HD DVD, which would mean that in the coming months, releases will step up a ridiculous amount. Since that will be the traditionally busy part of the year as well, it'll be interesting to see, when sales pick up for HD DVD, how the Blu-ray camp reacts.

have u seen the release schedule in the coming months for HD-DVD its bone dry compared to Blu-Ray, but all HD-DVD needs to do is release more movies and they would easily win the format war

Maybe Amazon changed the system they use for rankings.



I think you are right. Not sure if they have always done this but it almost seems like they now include the sales not directly coming from Amazon. It seems "The other buying options" are now included which is the only way I can reason that several long out of print Disney titles are in the top 100. Amazon has not had stock nor does it take orders for Disney's Beauty in the Beast yet it has been in the top 100 for several days.

We are in that dull period of releases to. Things will pick up when better newer releases start to hit... :)

We are in that dull period of releases to. Things will pick up when better newer releases start to hit... :)

...and, they do something about that stupid combo pricing. Bonus it free if you want to, but don't charge me twice for something I NEVER plan to use. ( I have no use for the 4x3 reformatted option on many SD DVDs either.)

the hd market is so small that to measure it's success right now requires you to look not in the top 100 but between 1000 and 500.

I would add that as of this morning Blu-ray had 3 titles simultaneously in the top 50 at Amazon :eek:

It really is not accurrate to include Blu-ray when talking about sales tanking.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8585/top10011recent30cn0.jpg (http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=top10011recent30cn0.jpg)

I would add that as of this morning Blu-ray had 3 titles simultaneously in the top 50 at Amazon :eek:

It really is not accurrate to include Blu-ray when talking about sales tanking.
It looks like the sales didn't tank for either format, just the sales rankings (maybe a different formula got applied). And the rankings did tank for Blu-ray as well as HD DVD. But they seem to be back to mostly normal.

--Darin

So on 2/14 there were 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #100 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #100

Now there are only 2 Blu-Ray movies in the top #1000 and 1 HD DVD movie in the top #1000

What is going on? Is everyone getting tired of buying movies? I haven't bought many in the past few weeks.

I blame Valentine's day.


The majority of movie purchases this time of year are 'date flicks' on DVD.

have u seen the release schedule in the coming months for HD-DVD its bone dry compared to Blu-Ray, but all HD-DVD needs to do is release more movies and they would easily win the format war

No offense, but I don't envision any scenario out there were either side "easily wins the format war".

I would add that as of this morning Blu-ray had 3 titles simultaneously in the top 50 at Amazon :eek:


Huzzah!

maybe BD will get us out of this infernal format war sooner than we think!

PotC anyone?

^ Sit on it, PoTC. lol I have been wanting to do that for a while now.

^ Sit on it, PoTC. lol I have been wanting to do that for a while now.

nice one!

Is this a case where just a few dozen purchases can cause a change. I have a manufacturer who comes to my practice and often quotes that fastest growing comment in his product as an example. The other day I challenged him to tell me numbers compared to the other big product lines not relative growth (devils advocate) since if he sold one yesterday and two today that's a gigantic percentage jump in sales for his product ! :D He had no answer.

Just wondering how these rankings translate into number of titles sold ?

Art

What's going on is the reason why there haven't been a lot of releases on HD DVD lately, a sales slump which happens every year. Blu-ray has seemed like it's been winning because it's had more titles released, but if no one's buying them then the "lead" it's enjoying almost becomes moot since there are still planned to be 100 Universal titles and 300 titles worldwide for HD DVD, which would mean that in the coming months, releases will step up a ridiculous amount. Since that will be the traditionally busy part of the year as well, it'll be interesting to see, when sales pick up for HD DVD, how the Blu-ray camp reacts.


Is that why BD is easily catching up to the "Since inception" sales numbers, too? ;) Because I would think that these numbers invalidate the, "Blu-ray has *seemed* like it's been winning," and make it more, "Blu-ray has been winning," instead. ;)

What drop? There are now THREE Blu-ray titles in the TOP 40!!!!

#19 The Departed
#27 The Prestige
#34 Casino Royale

PS. The Departed Hd-dvd is at #36 as i type this, even below Casino Royale....

Is this a case where just a few dozen purchases can cause a change. I have a manufacturer who comes to my practice and often quotes that fastest growing comment in his product as an example. The other day I challenged him to tell me numbers compared to the other big product lines not relative growth (devils advocate) since if he sold one yesterday and two today that's a gigantic percentage jump in sales for his product ! :D He had no answer.

Just wondering how these rankings translate into number of titles sold ?

Art

Yep. The rest is playing with numbers. IMO we are dealing with such small numbers that is why you can get some major fluctuations.

Well HD DVD, as an entire format is very smart with it's releases, releases are staggered so individual titles like departed and babel do quite well. With blu ray; sony intend on flooding the market with as many titles as possible, so you could see more consistency in sales from that format. Again, HD DVD will more than likely have huge sales spikes because of it's DVD style release system.

I'm renting, not buying like before.

Well HD DVD, as an entire format is very smart with it's releases, releases are staggered so individual titles like departed and babel do quite well.

the bd versions of departed and babel are both outselling hd dvd. you'd think that hd dvd supporters, having nothing else to buy, would have run these 2 titles to the top of the charts. yet bd, with many new releases , is still outselling hd dvd.

Huzzah BD!

the bd versions of departed and babel are both outselling hd dvd. you'd think that hd dvd supporters, having nothing else to buy, would have run these 2 titles to the top of the charts. yet bd, with many new releases , is still outselling hd dvd.

Huzzah BD!

Would the BD titles selling well have anything to do with the other titles released on Feb 13th not selling well at all!

It looks like Departed was pretty much the only title purchased by owners of both formats. The rest of the 11 BD titles released looks like were largely ignored. Given the large installed base for BD, that must be a big disappointment for the studio(s).

Would the BD titles selling well have anything to do with the other titles released on Feb 13th not selling well at all!

It looks like Departed was pretty much the only title purchased by owners of both formats. The rest of the 11 BD titles released looks like were largely ignored. Given the large installed base for BD, that must be a big disappointment for the studio(s).

I swear the arguments of Hd-dvd supporters get more feeble by the day.

Serves them right to serve up movies that aren't liked by many, huh?

The point is that good movies will sell, unpopular movies won't. Just because there are millions of people out there doesn't mean you'll get tons of watchers if your movie is not popular.

"I swear the arguments of Hd-dvd supporters get more feeble by the day."

Troll please stop, go to the BLU-RAY forums for this kind of crap

I swear the arguments of Hd-dvd supporters get more feeble by the day.

Serves them right to serve up movies that aren't liked by many, huh?

The point is that good movies will sell, unpopular movies won't. Just because there are millions of people out there doesn't mean you'll get tons of watchers if your movie is not popular.


My post was in response to the false notion that the departed is selling well on Hd DVD simply because there are no other titles to buy on that format. I just showed, that in the case of BD even with titles to buy people were not buying the rest of the titles other than The Departed....

so what makes this argument feeble? What I see is that BD supporters want free license to spread FUD and nonsense and when confronted with reality are pissed off!

My post was in response to the false notion that the departed is selling well on Hd DVD simply because there are no other titles to buy on that format. I just showed, that in the case of BD even with titles to buy people were not buying the rest of the titles other than The Departed....

1. BD users are (pre)ordering not only The Departed, but several others as well (Casino Royale, Prestige, Babel, etc)

2. BD purchases are spread out over several titles (#19,#27,#34, #101?), whereas Hd-dvd users are pretty much buying ONLY the Departed (#36), and yet the hd-dvd rankings are now consistently below Blu-ray even for the same title. This indicates that the total population of BD users is now significantly larger than hd-dvd

Anyway you spin it, the monthly sales numbers from now might be significantly favorable towards Blu-ray since almost all these orders for for near-future releases.

Is this a case where just a few dozen purchases can cause a change. From some checks of the in stock numbers I estimated that "Batman Begins" on HD DVD was selling around 24 per day on average on Amazon, and I believe its ranking was between about 500 and 1000 (I don't remember the exact range) during that time period. From last week I believe that "The Departed" was selling at least a couple hundred copies per day for each format from Amazon when the rankings were down under 30.

--Darin

1. BD users are (pre)ordering not only The Departed, but several others as well (Casino Royale, Prestige, Babel, etc)

2. BD purchases are spread out over several titles (#19,#27,#34, #101?), whereas Hd-dvd users are pretty much buying ONLY the Departed (#36), and yet the hd-dvd rankings are now consistently below Blu-ray even for the same title. This indicates that the total population of BD users is now significantly larger than hd-dvd

Anyway you spin it, the monthly sales numbers from now might be significantly favorable towards Blu-ray since almost all these orders for for near-future releases.

pre-ordering does not cost you anything! No money leaves your wallet when you pre-order. The sales ranking between Babel on both formats are close enough that they probably consititute a difference of a handful of disks. Same for The Departed...

Remember, there are far fewer HD DVD players on the market and hence if you take out the pre-orders (particularly the ones that are a month or more away, the gap on Amazon isn't as big as you think it is)...

Now, what about what's going on on the hardware side of things? The BD Players are just sitting there...both Tosh players are easily outselling the BD standalones. That was certainly one part of the battle as well. The one on the hardware side, excluding game consoles. Or does that not matter?

My post was in response to the false notion that the departed is selling well on Hd DVD simply because there are no other titles to buy on that format. I just showed, that in the case of BD even with titles to buy people were not buying the rest of the titles other than The Departed....

so what makes this argument feeble? What I see is that BD supporters want free license to spread FUD and nonsense and when confronted with reality are pissed off!

BD currently has 12 titles in the top 1000 and hd dvd has 6. i think that is pretty crappy for BOTH formats. y`all need to stop this pitiful bickering and unite, preferably behind bd, and give this format better ground to stand on.

pre-ordering does not cost you anything! No money leaves your wallet when you pre-order.
I don't know how others see this but to me pre-ordering is same as money leaving my wallet whether i get charged right away or not. I see pre-ordering the same way I see buying an expensive piece of furniture or electronics items with 12-months no payments no interest kind which to me is also money leaving my wallet the day i made the purchase!


Now, what about what's going on on the hardware side of things? The BD Players are just sitting there...both Tosh players are easily outselling the BD standalones. That was certainly one part of the battle as well. The one on the hardware side, excluding game consoles. Or does that not matter?

I just don't get why people don't consider some of the sales of PS3 are actually as Blu-Ray player. I bought it use as standalone player. Now, when friends ask me which HD-Player to get, I advise PS3 as it just can do too many things for that price plus because of all the new movies that are lined up for it. Two of my friends who got it also purchased it as movie player and eventually they want to move it to different room in the house so their kids can enjoy it as game console and movie player like I plan to do.

I love my HD-DVD player as up converting DVD player plus it becomes handy when there are HD-DVD exclusive titles.

BD currently has 12 titles in the top 1000 and hd dvd has 6. i think that is pretty crappy for BOTH formats. y`all need to stop this pitiful bickering and unite, preferably behind bd, and give this format better ground to stand on.

People will buy good titles on either format. BD now has 4 in the top 100 on Amazon. So, if the studios release high quality material people will buy it....you need more good stuff, not just more stufff :)

As for order v. pre-order. I noticed that the weekly sales on dvdempire has changed as well...the weekly sales ratio for HD DVD just just shot there!

http://www.dvdempire.com/index.asp?userid=99365388405622&tab_id=61&site_id=68&site_media_id=0

Blu-ray now has four in top 100 :)


http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1442/top10011recent30lq2.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=top10011recent30lq2.jpg)

Is it too late to save the sinking HD-DVD ship at this point?

I think this war might be decided by which studios put out the best movies this year and which format they support. I think BD is making a strong push right now because of the studios with the top movies in 2006. Of the top 20 selling DVDs for 2006, only 4 of them could be released on HD-DVD (due to studio commitments). Meanwhile, 19 of the 20 could be released on BD. For HD-DVD, King Kong is the only exclusive of the 20, while 16 of the movies would be BD exclusives.

That's not good. Studio support is going to be a major driver to determine a winner. The smaller number of major studios in the HD-DVD camp is tough. I think many people will decide on a format based on what movies are available in it. Universal is really the only major studio exclusive to HD-DVD, and I don't think their support alone can withstand the production capability on the BD side. We'll see.

I honestly can't tell anymore if some of these Blu Ray people are spreading FUD with an agenda, or if they have really been hooked by all of the sensationalism and genuinely believe they are spreading the good word?

As far as overall sales are concerned, both formats combined are a literal drop in the bucket compared to DVD for the time being.

True, overall sales are small for now. I remember the first days of DVD, when I'd go to BB and have 15 movies to choose from. DVD caught on faster than any other format before, and with the strong sales of HDTVs over the past year or so, I think these formats have a chance to grow faster. Having two of them isn't helping, but there is a lot of potential there. Being the format with a strong base earlier will pay big dividends later. That's what makes the small drop in the bucket such a big deal.

Sales talk goes in the sales thread, please.