AfterDawn: News

BDA dismisses Harris report about HD DVD ownership

The Blu-ray Disc Association is publicly calling out Harris Interactive for reporting more people own standalone HD DVD players than Blu-ray players. They're backed up by Tom Adams of Adams Media Research, who points to sales figures which would make it impossible.

"Some people believe a DVD player on an HDTV is high-def," said Adams. He added, "we have models that show those numbers just can't be true."



What neither the BDA or Adams appears to be challenging is the notion that people simply aren't looking for a replacement for DVD yet.

While sales of new releases have climbed, particularly over the last few months, sales of catalog titles have been consistently weak. The practice of releasing some high profile movies on Blu-ray before they're available on DVD even brings studio confidence in new releases into question.

There's no question that HD DVD is dead and DVD sales are slowing. It's debatable what that means for the future of Blu-ray.


Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 26 Jun 2009 9:11

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• 19 comments

• snardos

  Poll: Do you have an HD-DVD player or Blu-Ray player?
  
  Most people with an up converting DVD player: Yes I have an HD-DVD player.
  
  It makes sense that that could screw up the data.

  26.6.2009 09:47 #1

• ooZEROoo

  Originally posted by snardos: Poll: Do you have an HD-DVD player or Blu-Ray player?
  
  Most people with an up converting DVD player: Yes I have an HD-DVD player.
  
  It makes sense that that could screw up the data.You would not believe how many times I've heard that before.

  26.6.2009 10:06 #2

• klassic

  Me-
  
  Do you have a Blu-Ray player? No
  Do you have a HD-DVD player? Yes
  Do you have an upconverting DVD player? No
  
  Depending on who you ask, I am either in the majority or minority.

  26.6.2009 10:18 #3

• pphoenix

  Here we go again.
  
  "What neither the BDA or Adams appears to be challenging is the notion that people simply aren't looking for a replacement for DVD yet. "
  
  & the usual response of a none denial, denial how typical of miss leading corporate public relations.
  
  in my experience ppl don't give a dam about blu-ray as soon as they realise the cost what they do care about is as long as the movie isn't a complete bomb which they so often are from the big boys. The problem with the flicks now that is it's the 13 year old rating tag, the best marketing pigeon hole to generate more income for the investors, reducing the quality of films.

  26.6.2009 13:30 #4

• aldan

  who really gives a shite?

  26.6.2009 14:48 #5

• pphoenix

  Originally posted by aldan: who really gives a shite?thats the point, not as many as the big guns make out, if they can generate a buzz & dupe ppl into believing that it's vastly superior to dvd ppl may change.

  26.6.2009 15:18 #6

• keith1993

  Do you own a HD-DVD player?
  
  Average person: I own a Blu-Ray player that's like a DVD player but its HD
  Another average person: My Blu-Ray player plays DVD's HD so yes
  
  I think all this shows is how little people understand about the things they buy.

  26.6.2009 15:39 #7

• pirkster

  Originally posted by pphoenix: Here we go again.
  
  "What neither the BDA or Adams appears to be challenging is the notion that people simply aren't looking for a replacement for DVD yet. "
  
  & the usual response of a none denial, denial how typical of miss leading corporate public relations.
  
  in my experience ppl don't give a dam about blu-ray as soon as they realise the cost what they do care about is as long as the movie isn't a complete bomb which they so often are from the big boys. The problem with the flicks now that is it's the 13 year old rating tag, the best marketing pigeon hole to generate more income for the investors, reducing the quality of films.Here we go again is right... but not for the reasons you think.
  
  Here we go again with the loose journalism, that is.
  
  The author challenges them to answer a question that wasn't raised.
  
  "What neither the BDA or Adams appears to be challenging is the notion that people simply aren't looking for a replacement for DVD yet."
  
  That's a loaded statement if there ever was one. That would be like me saying:
  
  "What neither afterdawn or vurbal appears to be challenging is the notion that Blu-Ray sales are improving even in the face of a down economy."
  
  The author can't expect them to address a topic that had nothing to do with their presser, other than it being the author's opinion that they should have addressed that unasked question.
  
  There are a lot more mediums competing with Blu other than just DVD - it's not simply a disc war for consumer's entertainment dollar. And yes, sales are improving for Blu even though the economic times (probably more than everything else) have slowed that growth recently.
  
  The way the article was worded took a shot at a defenseless target, and painted the story in an unnecessarily negative light by suggesting they ducked a topic when that simply isn't true.

  26.6.2009 18:28 #8

• Josipher

  @pirkster
  
  i may agree with you that the un-anwsered question was never asked
  but i certainly dont agree with you implying the BDA are a "defenceless target" these corporate swines do everything to control the lives of the consumers who buy their products. why would the average joe want to scartch his head when the brand new machine he just bought tell him he needs to upgrade his 300$ player just so he could finally watch his brand new 40$ title? and im not even mentioning the astronomical pricing of blank CDs, players themselves or the crackpot DRM embedded on movies..you see DVDs are all about conveniance and simplicity.you swing the disc in and press play and presto. but besides that the sheer propaganda and the deals they make to push this new technology on people like the deal with warner..they dont care for you. they care for your wallet and how to empty it.and we all know eventually theyre going to make us all switch to BD just by making deals with studios to release BD only titles..little by little it will happen. and then we'll see whos defenceless against their actions or a better, powerless

  26.6.2009 23:51 #9

• RD42

  "Some people believe a DVD player on an HDTV is high-def," said Adams.
  
  A quality upscaling DVD player on a 720 TV is 99.9% as good as BD for almost everyone.
  
  The fact is the difference in BD is not compelling. I have been around consumer electronics for decades and BD and HDDVD have got to be the smallest generational change ever. I would say it doesn't qualify as a generational change but is more like an incremental change. certainly going from non upscaling SD DVD player to quality upscaling SD DVD player is a much much bigger difference than upscaling SD to BD.
  
  To me it is like 8-track. that was certainly better than standard cassette, but it had several drawbacks. There were so many more platforms (like walkman) that used normal cassete. the same is the case with SD, just consider laptops and portable dvd players that play SD and not BD. Then you have recordability. Like most consumers I have several devices that can record SD and disks cost about $0.15. BD can't offer that.

  27.6.2009 11:36 #10

• Interestx

  Who cares if there's been a misunderstanding between upscaling DVD & HD DVD
  (which can't btw apply to the movie disk sales mentioned).
  
  The fact is Blu-ray movie disk sales are not doing well, far from it.
  
  Neilson showed last week Blu-ray sales of $16 million and
  the week before they were less than $8 million.
  That's beyond dire.
  
  In fact in it's 3 years (contrary to the BDA's lying BS on this)
  Blu-ray is growing slower than DVD did.
  This is despite Blu-ray launching in the PS3, a console brand
  guaranteed to sell in multi-millions fast.
  
  It looks even worse when you consider that DVD had no similar
  huge selling console link until over 3yrs in when the PS2 came along.
  
  Things are going very badly for Blu-ray right now.

  27.6.2009 12:38 #11

• NexGen76

  I really think a driving force behind Blu-Ray people are not really talking about is I-MAX....I heard countless people last night at the Transformer 2 I-Max that was really shock by the diffence.A couple beside me last night told me they was going to Buy a BD player this weekend.

  27.6.2009 13:04 #12

• RD42

  Originally posted by NexGen76: I really think a driving force behind Blu-Ray people are not really talking about is I-MAX....I heard countless people last night at the Transformer 2 I-Max that was really shock by the diffence.A couple beside me last night told me they was going to Buy a BD player this weekend.LOL, they probably will change their mind and not.

  27.6.2009 17:20 #13

• Interestx

  Probably RD42, as soon as they bump into a friend with a 32" - 42" HD TV with 720/1080i res.
  And they tell them that whatever they think they've seen on the big screen a hell of a lot of high definition content looks very & decidely ordinary back at home.
  
  This is one of Blu-ray's big problems.
  For all the talk about how 'amazing' it's supposed to be many many transfers are barely better looking than upscaled DVD.
  So how is that worth the big premium they want for it?
  
  In fact that doesn't just apply to Blu-ray either, it's true that some high definition can look stunning, whatever the format it comes on (broadcast HD TV, .mkv, Blu-ray or HD DVD).
  Unfortunately far too much of it doesn't, and that applies to all the formats it comes on.

  29.6.2009 12:00 #14

• ozdavo

  Originally posted by klassic: Me-
  
  Do you have a Blu-Ray player? No
  Do you have a HD-DVD player? Yes
  Do you have an upconverting DVD player? No
  
  Depending on who you ask, I am either in the majority or minority.
  HD-DVD player is ALSO an upconverting DVD player...

  2.7.2009 19:20 #15

• qianzui

  spam removed

  3.7.2009 01:56 #16

• Alternity

  The majority of HDTV brands aren't worth view Blu on, upScale DVD is fine. However, you can now buy a Samsung 42"-46" ToC 120Hz 1080p LCD for about $999 thanks to the overpriced LEDs being released and forcing down the price for LCDs like never before. Especially Samsung brand, which is the absolute highest quality HDTV manufacturer. Blu-Ray looks so much better on a Samsung than almost every other brand it's really quite amazing. And BD is going to phase out DVDs at some point. No stores actually sell VHS anymore, one format has to eventually eclipse the previous. And on the appropriate Television with a BD capable A/V Receiver (which isn't that expansive anymore, hardly), since sound really is half the experience, I simply CAN'T watch upconversion without noticing how grainy and dull the picture is and how flat and fake Dolby Digital sounds. And at least BD players are extremely versatile. Regular firmware updates make sure you'll be able to play most anything. Not to mention that BD player DO upconvert DVD to 1080p which still looks like junk on a good TV. Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs just came out too early. Audio and visual technology only recently got to the point where the BD format can shine without costing several thousands of dollars. And as far as price goes, BD isn't that expensive anymore. It's 24.99 for a new release right now. Soon it'll be 19.99. Or be smart and just use Netflix, I save a couple hundred dollars a month with them. Point is, people who bought BD players a year or two ago still have the player and still will for a long time, but they'll get a new TV and sound system during that period and it'll be ample to show off Blu the way it's meant to be viewed. If you think this is a SMALL jump up from DVD plain, then you're watching it on a TV from 5 years ago with stereo sound. You don't buy a computer game if your computer doesn't meet the Minimum System Requirements (most gamers will say don't get it unless you can max every setting), Blu-Ray is basically the same. It's wasted on inferior equpment.

  31.7.2009 10:01 #17

• crowy

  edit

  8.10.2009 05:52 #18

• Braintwit

  SPAM removed

  14.11.2009 11:10 #19