Blu-Ray Winning!

[BreakmanX]

I've always said it was the better format...

Of the high-definition discs bought by consumers in the first quarter, 70% were in the Blu-ray Disc format and 30% were HD DVD, according to sales figures provided by Home Media Magazine's market research department. Blu-ray took the lead in February, and its percentage of total sales accelerated to the point where it accounted for nearly three out of every four high-definition discs sold in March.

From Jan. 1-March 31, consumers bought almost 1.2 million high-definition discs -- 832,530 Blu-ray units and 359,300 HD DVDs -- according to Home Media Magazine. In March, consumers bought 335,980 Blu-ray Discs and 119,570 HD DVDs.

Since the high-def format's inception -- HD DVD launched in April 2006, while Blu-ray got rolling two months later -- more than 2.14 million discs have been purchased by consumers: 1.2 million Blu-ray Discs and about 937,500 HD DVDs.

All lingering fanboyism aside, once you watch a Blu-ray movie on an HD set, you never really want to go back to a regular old DVD. And, simply because the PlayStation 3 has an included Blu-ray player, I prefer this format. The only barrier for me when buying Blu-ray is the price. It's a good thing God invented Netflix.

[Mericks]

Netflix? I can't stand just renting movies. If it's good I have an obsession about buying the movie and keeping it just because I know I'll want to watch it later.

[WiizerFanboy]

Break is always right. It's the 1st commandment.

Btw i only saw Crank in Blu-ray. It's amazing, you really never do want to go back to DVD and you'll certainly never touch a VHS again.

[Mericks]

Despite the fact that the price has made me hate Blu-ray forever more, I can't say I'm not impressed by the fact. If I had the money I'd get a blu-ray player...and annother HDTV...or maybe do something about the fact that our current HDTV constantly displays minor amounts of static (not that harsh stuff that shows up when the cable goes out or something, hell, it's even more visible than when you forgot to turn off your VCR back in the day).

[BreakmanX]

Btw i only saw Crank in Blu-ray. It's amazing, you really never do want to go back to DVD and you'll certainly never touch a VHS again.

The man speaks the truth.

And about the price... it can be misleading. Everytime I have bought a blu-ray it has cost around 18. (Ranging from 14 - 22) The odd thing is that the thing always has a sticker on it saying it costs much more (15 - 20 more than it actually costs)... Very confusing.

[Mericks]

Well it's not so much the price of the discs anymore so much as the price of the fucking player.

I had that misleading sticker price thing happen to me once. Either way I most likely won't own either HD format until I'm well out of high school. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a friend that drops out of high school and scores a million dollar deal who'll buy me a big house with all the most up to date shit.

[Vamp [Bot]]

Solution: PS3. Cheaper than any other other Blu-Ray player, not to mention it's gaming and other media functionality.

[Mericks]

Except I don't even have the $600 to spend on that. I'm having trouble as is scraping up the money I need to geta 360 let alone a PS3, not to mention it'd be a fucking waste since I'd be spending money on a gaming console just to set it up stairs next to a crappy HDTV that no one seems to be interested in fixing.

[Richie]

At just about the same time I was reading this, I caught an article on another forum that said HD-DVD was winning...

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.htm

Actually, it's not about how HD-DVD is winning, but actually how Wal*Mart is planning to manipulate the market by carrying ultra-cheap HD-DVD players and tons of HD-DVD movies (which are made on ordinary DVD presses, reducing costs).

Wal-Mart sees the new high definition formats as a way to bring in store traffic again but they realized that won’t happen unless the players are affordable and there is only one standard. They recognized their own power in being king maker previously and are now using that power to drive the format that works best for them. They could care less about the technology as this is all about making money and they (like every other retailer in this space) know that two formats won’t allow the market to move outside of the fringes and the dual-mode players are simply way too expensive.

Obviously, this majority of the article is independent analysis (opinion), and it's about a week old (despite the publish date). Still, who isn't suprised to hear that Wal*Mart is trying to run the format war?

[WiizerFanboy]

break how many Blu-ray movies do you have?

[Vamp [Bot]]

Still, who isn't suprised to hear that Wal*Mart is trying to run the format war?

It's called the invisible hand of the market, Richie. Consumers will decide which format they prefer with or without Wal-Mart's gamble, and Wal-Mart will either be rewarded as people do prefer the cheaper players or hurt because people prefer the storage space and future-proofing of Blu-Ray.

[BreakmanX]

I have six BRs.

[Mericks]

I have six BRs.

What movies are they? There's a few movies that I specifically want to see under an HD format...I might steal my mom's car drive to Lawrence if one of those movies is really, really, really, really good.

[Richie]

Still, who isn't suprised to hear that Wal*Mart is trying to run the format war?

It's called the invisible hand of the market, Richie. Consumers will decide which format they prefer with or without Wal-Mart's gamble, and Wal-Mart will either be rewarded as people do prefer the cheaper players or hurt because people prefer the storage space and future-proofing of Blu-Ray.

Whoa, you're sounding a little defensive there, Vampo. I'm knocking on Mr. Walton for trying to take over the world, and you're talking about invisible hands.

[Mericks]

Silly, Vamp. Wal-mart doesn't have hands. It's a building.