Blu-ray Disc Sales Hit 11 Million Mark

[malware]

Since Blu-ray is a lone wolf in the high-definition arena, it's time to see some reports that will tell us how well is the format selling. According to data compiled by the Redhill Group for Home Media Magazine, over 11 million Blu-ray discs have been sold since the format launched before two years. Sales have increased fourfold since this time last year, and early sales data for May suggests that more titles have been sold in the first five months of this year than all of last year combined. Current bestselling Blu-ray titles include: "I Am Legend", "3:10 To Yuma", and "No Country for Old Men". Analysts also believe that these numbers will continue to grow in the second half of the year, when blockbuster films like Paramount's "Transformers", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Tinker Bell" hit the market.

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[PrudentPrincess]

Is this really a milestone?
Or something that deserves to be news on the front page?
It seems like I could go to a web page and write a story about Xbox hitting some random "mark" and get it on TPU because its an article.
No offense, it just seems like a waste.

 

[malware]

It was submitted by a forum member, I wanted to please him...after all I'm doing this for you.

 

[Ravenas]

Is this really a milestone?
Or something that deserves to be news on the front page?
It seems like I could go to a web page and write a story about Xbox hitting some random "mark" and get it on TPU because its an article.
No offense, it just seems like a waste.

Projections based on preliminary data show that Blu-ray sales through May have already surpassed sales for all of 2007.

This quote alone is subject for being front page news on any technology site.

If you find an interesting article about the Xbox, inform a mod. Why be defensive about it?

 

[Haytch]

I expect over 100 Million sales by the end of 2009.

 

[lemonadesoda]

LOL

According to USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-01-07-dvd-sales-slippage_N.htm, Hollywood shipped shipped 1.7 billion DVDs in 2007 alone. Oh wait, those are just US figures.

So that 11 million WORLDWIDE Blue Ray represents about 0.65% of NORTH AMERICAN DVD sales.

 

[Ravenas]

LOL

According to USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-01-07-dvd-sales-slippage_N.htm, Hollywood shipped shipped 1.7 billion DVDs in 2007 alone.

So that 11 million Blue Ray represents about 0.65% of DVD sales.

Lol, I wonder how many sales the first Windows OS had when it came out when Mac had dominated the market for past xx years?

I'm sorry, horrible comparison there lemonadesoda

 

[Easy Rhino]

why are there so many haters out there. blu-ray is the HD format now. get over it. in related news, i just bought 'there will be blood' and 'casino royale.' cant wait to watch them! so far my fav is 3:10 to yuma because it is an amazing transfer with superior audio and awesome extras. you can watch the movie while reading the script, listening to commentary and view how they filmed it all at once

 

[lemonadesoda]

Fair enough, maybe you prefer this:

After 2 years, DVD was already at 80 million, and remember, at the time, "home cinema" concept didnt even exist!

 

[lemonadesoda]

why are there so many haters out there. blu-ray is the HD format now. get over it.

Whooah! No one in this thread so far expressed any "Blu-ray" hate! A bit of projection there...

The only comment is that their *massive* sales after *massive hype* dont actually stand up to comparison vs. DVD 10 years ago.

 

[Ravenas]

Fair enough, maybe you prefer this:

After 2 years, DVD was already at 80 million, and remember, at the time, "home cinema" concept didnt even exist!

Despite the sales of DVD (an extremely successful product), the sales of Blu-Ray are growing tremendously and I see nothing slowing this "train" down (as can be seen by Blu-Ray selling more Blu-Rays as of may 2008 than the entire year of 2007). As HDTVs begin to make their footprint more largely known Blu-Ray's sell will only continue to increase. Further down the line, Blu-Ray players will decrease and price and more and more people will begin to buy.

 

[Davidelmo]

I agree that sales will increase but they are also way overhyped and still represent a TINY proportion of overall home media sales. I don't think the growth is "tremendous" or the sales are "massive." They're just slowly increasing.

 

[Easy Rhino]

well what are you comparing blu-ray sales too? the story is about how quickly sales numbers have been growing.

-Blu-ray software sales in the first four months of this year more than quadrupled from the same period last year, climbing to 11 million since inception.

-consumers are increasingly choosing Blu-ray over DVD when new releases are available in both formats. For example, a year ago each new top 10 release mostly generated only 1% - 2% of sales from Blu-ray, with a couple titles collecting as much as 5% on Blu-ray.

those are pretty spectacular figures for a new media.

 

[Davidelmo]

AFAIK, bluray isn't all that new.. it's a few years old now. But anyway, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the format. It's just that there are so many headlines telling us how bluray is taking off, massive growth etc.. and really the figures aren't that huge. It still isn't anywhere close to competing with plain old DVDs. A the minute it is still very much a format for enthusiasts, and not for the general home market. Yes I'm sure that will change, but it isn't happening as quickly as the media tell us that it is.

I wonder if by the time bluray actually *really* takes off, there won't be a better alternative available? What about downloaded movies? Internet connections are already fast.. downloading a full size DVD takes about 2hrs (at 400kb/s... not a ridiculously fast speed.) Hard drives are huge and cheap too. Internet connections and hard drives will only ever get bigger and faster. Personally I'd love to be able to download HD movies in whatever quality I wanted with whatever sound I wanted (i.e stero, 5.1, 7.1 etc) on demand.

 

[Easy Rhino]

AFAIK, bluray isn't all that new.. it's a few years old now. But anyway, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the format. It's just that there are so many headlines telling us how bluray is taking off, massive growth etc.. and really the figures aren't that huge. It still isn't anywhere close to competing with plain old DVDs. A the minute it is still very much a format for enthusiasts, and not for the general home market. Yes I'm sure that will change, but it isn't happening as quickly as the media tell us that it is.

what are you comparing blu-rays numbers to?

I wonder if by the time bluray actually *really* takes off, there won't be a better alternative available? What about downloaded movies? Internet connections are already fast.. downloading a full size DVD takes about 2hrs (at 400kb/s... not a ridiculously fast speed.) Hard drives are huge and cheap too. Internet connections and hard drives will only ever get bigger and faster. Personally I'd love to be able to download HD movies in whatever quality I wanted with whatever sound I wanted (i.e stero, 5.1, 7.1 etc) on demand.

well you wont see downloadable movies match the current quality of blu-ray anytime soon. a 1080p bluray movie with an lpcm 7.1 soundtrack streams on avg of 30 Mbps and 6Mbps respectively. in the US we are not even close to achieving that kind of bandwidth at a reasonable price. you could download a blu-ray x264 using AVCHD at 720p which takes up about 5 gigs and perhaps that would be an option, but again not in the US because ISPs say we are starting to reach capacity of our infrastructure which means they will raise prices because demand will be higher. maybe in 5 years a high quality HD stream can be accomplished using a typical ISP and by that time blu-ray will have itself firmly established in households across the world.

 

[Wile E]

Fair enough, maybe you prefer this:

After 2 years, DVD was already at 80 million, and remember, at the time, "home cinema" concept didnt even exist!

Yeah, but DVD also didn't have an equivalent competitor at the time of it's release. BD had to compete against HD DVD, causing uncertainty in consumers. That doesn't exist now, and sales figures are starting to reflect it.

Another huge factor in this is DVD did not require you to buy a new TV, whereas BD requires an HD set. With HDTV prices coming down in price, they are becoming much more common. Once they get a stronger foothold, and BD players drop a little more, BD will likely be the next DVD.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Yeah, but DVD also didn't have an equivalent competitor at the time of it's release. BD had to compete against HD DVD, causing uncertainty in consumers. That doesn't exist now, and sales figures are starting to reflect it.

Another huge factor in this is DVD did not require you to buy a new TV, whereas BD requires an HD set. With HDTV prices coming down in price, they are becoming much more common. Once they get a stronger foothold, and BD players drop a little more, BD will likely be the next DVD.

two excellent points. comparing the rise of blu-ray with the rise of dvd is like apples and oranges.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Yeah, but DVD also didn't have an equivalent competitor at the time of it's release. BD had to compete against HD DVD, causing uncertainty in consumers. That doesn't exist now, and sales figures are starting to reflect it.

Another huge factor in this is DVD did not require you to buy a new TV, whereas BD requires an HD set. With HDTV prices coming down in price, they are becoming much more common. Once they get a stronger foothold, and BD players drop a little more, BD will likely be the next DVD.

i agree with you on everthing except DVD had to compete against laserdisc I believe.

 

[Wile E]

i agree with you on everthing except DVD had to compete against laserdisc I believe.

lol. Nah, laserdisc was already dead when DVD released.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

lol. Nah, laserdisc was already dead when DVD released.

Those discs were huge.

 

[Wile E]

Those discs were huge.

Yeah. lol. I think they might have just been a giant CD. lol.

 

[Easy Rhino]

laserdisc i remember watching those in elementary school when they were the next big thing. honestly, did anyone actually think laserdisc was a viable media format? i guess it is just a sign of progress. im looking at the wiki page and i cant find how much storage space is on a LD.

edit: i just realized that LD is an analogue media so capacity cant be measured in bytes.

 

[assassai]

even if DVD didnt have a competitor the market is much much bigger now so now HD DVD is gone Blu Ray sales should be up like crazy which they arent and 11 million Blu Ray Copies isnt much actually its nothing to brag about.

Personally i preferred HD DVD with network updates.


Ill never end up buying a Blu Ray player since i dont believe Blu Ray is the future and doesnt give me enough advantages over DVD.
The leap from VHS to DVD was much bigger with Blu Ray i feel its just DVD 2.0 what im looking forward to is when EVERYthing is downloadable and obsolete discs are gone.
Valve's Steam is my savior and i cant find a movie equivalent atm but Microsofts Xbox Live is promising.

 

[Easy Rhino]

even if DVD didnt have a competitor the market is much much bigger now so now HD DVD is gone Blu Ray sales should be up like crazy which they arent and 11 million Blu Ray Copies isnt much actually its nothing to brag about.

i dont see anyone bragging about the numbers. they are interesting numbers however and an interesting gauge for investors.

Personally i preferred HD DVD with network updates.


Ill never end up buying a Blu Ray player since i dont believe Blu Ray is the future and doesnt give me enough advantages over DVD.
The leap from VHS to DVD was much bigger with Blu Ray i feel its just DVD 2.0 what im looking forward to is when EVERYthing is downloadable and obsolete discs are gone.
Valve's Steam is my savior and i cant find a movie equivalent atm but Microsofts Xbox Live is promising.

you are going to wait a long time. either that, or you dont really care about high definition video quality. you can rent and stream blu-ray movies from netflix but they dont look very good so there is no point in doing so.

 

[Wile E]

even if DVD didnt have a competitor the market is much much bigger now so now HD DVD is gone Blu Ray sales should be up like crazy which they arent and 11 million Blu Ray Copies isnt much actually its nothing to brag about.

Personally i preferred HD DVD with network updates.


Ill never end up buying a Blu Ray player since i dont believe Blu Ray is the future and doesnt give me enough advantages over DVD.
The leap from VHS to DVD was much bigger with Blu Ray i feel its just DVD 2.0 what im looking forward to is when EVERYthing is downloadable and obsolete discs are gone.
Valve's Steam is my savior and i cant find a movie equivalent atm but Microsofts Xbox Live is promising.

Digital downloads don't have near the quality of a BD movie. It's not a viable replacement at all. If you are happy with the quality provided by say, a cable companies HD on demand movies, then you may as well stick with upconverted DVDs, cause the quality is no better.

That leads me to the conclusion that either you are not picky about picture quality, have not actually watched many BD's (or HD DVD for that matter), Just hate the format for personal reasons, or you have a crappy TV.