So, here we are on day 2 or 3 of a 47% discount sale on only 20 HD DVD titles at Amazon, and the rankings show HD DVD back on top...

Every single time BR has a BOGO on Amazon, sure enough sales spike...

What does that tell us ? First, that the HDM market is so small that a 20 older titles sale is enough to skew the numbers. Second, that more so than price of hardware, it's the price of software that matters. Studios can cry all they want about HDM's adoption rates, the fact is that the software needs to come down in price. Offering a $40 MSRP catalog title is ridiculous. Offering a $35 MSRP new title is way too high also. When are studios going to wake up and smell the coffee ?

Ok, I'm ranting a bit, but honestly I'm getting tired of the software prices, and if it wasn't for the format war, we would not have those sales at this point in time and every damn title would be priced out of reason.

Very true. Although price has been playing a big part in hardware sales (90G $99 Tosh units in 2 days, for example), the cost of the discs themselves needs to come down.

I know I am checking out my local CircuitCity this evening, as they are currently running an HDM promo of buy 2, get one free (on all HDDVD & BD titles).

Both formats need to get the software costs down. Even folks who went "red" during the pre-BF Tosh sales need to see HD DVDs @ prices comparable to SD DVD to really start buying 'em up.

We have two sales going on:

1. Player sales - get new owners - expand the user base

2. Movie sales - sell more movies to current player owners

So both IMO, will affect the growth of HDM with #1 being more of a long term issue.

Well it's telling how DVD MSRP hit a respectable level from 2000 to 2003, and then when the studio figured that they could squeeze more money out of people for a 2nd disc, they raised the MSRP another $5 to $10.

I even think that "catalog" Standard Definition DVD's are still offered at ludicrous prices. All of these movies don't move any units at $9.99, but when the weekly sale ad's drop them to anywhere from $2.99 to $6.99 people take notice again. It's even worse if the studios think that "catalog" High Definition titles priced at $24.99 in Best Buy and Circuit City are going to fly off the shelves when the regular DVD is $9.99 in the other isle.

We have two sales going on:

1. Player sales - get new owners - expand the user base

So both IMO, will affect the growth of HDM with #1 being more of a long term issue.

Since this is the new mantra around here, I wonder how many of those new players are going to new owners vs. current owners buying them for multiple rooms in their home?

Is there any sales data that offers any insight into this? because the normal weekly sales data don't sure a great shift.

I don't mind paying a small premium for HDM, but IMHO, a $5 premium is much more reasonable than $20.

Meaning of course if a new release SD DVD costs $14.99 - $19.99, I shouldn't be paying more than $19.99 - $24.99 for the HDM version. I certainly shouldn't be seeing a $14.99 SD DVD with a $34.99 HDM counterpart.

Honestly I think the spikes these sales cause get everyone excited, yet are a grim reminder that overall sales for HDM are so small it takes very little to send them veering all over the place.

The best that can be said is that studios may eventually seek a mid-ground between profitability, and reasonable pricing. Yet I gotta say that no matter how low SD DVD prices dip, people still wait for sales, and whine that they're not low enough, and by all objective criteria for home video, DVDs are dirt-cheap.

I'm sure it's hard to call what studios like the idea of least, BOGO's where they're giving it away, or sales where they're presenting lower per-title pricing. Either way it points to the consumer saying your prices are to high, especially if people start holding out for bigger discounts.

Since this is the new mantra around here, I wonder how many of those new players are going to new owners vs. current owners buying them for multiple rooms in their home?

Is there any sales data that offers any insight into this? because the normal weekly sales data don't sure a great shift.

There is no way to tell if additions to or new ownership.

The big sale was at Wal-mart who does not provide data to Nielsen

The new owners may not get their player/movies until 12/25.

What happens here at AVS is not the norm of the rest of the world. The fact that many here have 2 or more HDTV's in their possession is DEFINITELY not the norm as most households (< 35%) do not even have 1.

We have two big sales coming on BF - Sears and HHGregg, for the A3. Do either of those companies sell HD DVD's?

Frys also has been running the BOGO(1/2 price) on Blu-ray titles almost every week now since Transformers hit the streets.

Frys has 30+ Blu-ray titles at 1/2 price this week.
Even the Fox titles are now BOGO/ 1/2 price.

BestBuy seems to run Blu-ray BOGO every now and then.

At $9-13.99 a movie/title, it's hard to resist considering they were priced $19.99-29.99 the previous week.


If the BDA believes it has enough players(SAL+PS3) in the field and just need to get people to buy more to accommodate the "attach rate" mantra, they can do this with disc sales.
It seems Toshiba is trying to get more players out there but disc sales aren't improving as expected since people, including myself are hesitant to pay $19-34.99 for a movie/title.

The Blu-ray players do cost more but people are buying them and they are probably buying a lot more movies/titles than HD DVD owners due to the Blu-ray BOGO / 1/2 price sales.

Ok, I'm ranting a bit, but honestly I'm getting tired of the software prices, and if it wasn't for the format war, we would not have those sales at this point in time and every damn title would be priced out of reason.
How does reasonable HDM disc prices make you tired ?

Do you have stock in Toshiba or Sony ?

under the new rules this is not allowed

[but a good try]

Happy Holidays :)