One of the reasons movie studios are hoping consumers adopt Blu-ray is in order to offset continually declining DVD sales. Since they plateaued three years ago, DVD sales have slowly decreased. The first quarter of this year was no different, showing an overall drop in DVD sales of 1.2% from Q1 2007. However, Blu-ray sales saved the day - just as studios have hoped they would - and when combined with DVD sales resulted in an overall increase in sales of 1% over last year.
Steve Beeks, president and co-COO of Lionsgate commented, "Blu-ray had its second-best week ever in the seven days ending March 23, and we anticipate Blu-ray sales of $800 million to $1billion-plus for all of 2008, up dramatically from approximately $300 million last year."
With the format war now over, studios are looking forward to the rest of the year as more and more consumers adopt the high definition format.
Good news...I doubt BD will surpass dvd a year from now...maybe two. I think the biggest factor of upgrading to blu-ray...is that for all the people that still dont' have an HDTV, it's yet another thing to buy. Upgrading from VHS to DVD, meant people had to buy just another compoonent. With Blu-ray, some people will have to buy the player AND the TV. I just think the whole transition will take a little longer. Everyone do your part and turn all your friends and family onto blu-ray! Push vizio 1080p sets on them or something, just so they get a blu-ray player!
Of course many people DVD, due to fact that many blu-ray player and TV is still pretty pricey whe is not onsales, But think this holiday season will see a big close gap bewteen blu-ray and DVD. Fact is there's still no PC Game or software using blur-ray at this moment.
I agree with Bango comments. VHS had a strong hold of the home video market for about fourteen or fifteen years then DVD came out, say about 1998. It wasn't until 2006 that VHS was phased out completely. It took about eight to ten years to phase out one piece of technology over another. I believe that it could take BLU-RAY less or maybe the same amount of time that it took for DVD to overtake VHS. But I DO believe that BLU-RAY WILL overtake DVD, one day!!!
Looks like the DVD sales are still slipping a little, and Blu-ray is already coming to save the day!!
Also, thanks for the "tip" at the bottom, I always have that problem with the weird text wrapping.
There are A LOT of people who have no idea what Blu-Ray is or that there was even a format war. Sure these are the same people who aren't by any means tech savy and don't have a HDTV yet but there are more of them than I think most people realize.
BD marketing should do a series of commercials simply explaining what Blu-ray is and its benefits instead of just stating that certain movies are available in Blu-ray high def. You know break down the whole blue laser vs. red laser thing and that's why you need a new player. One of my co-workers bought some Blu-ray's and thought they would work in a SD-DVD player. I do as much as I can with word of mouth but I get hoarse easily. :-)
I will probably never buy another DVD in my life now that I have experienced Blu-ray, but I think much of the decline in sales over the past three years is that there haven't been as many movies worth owning. I think the recent sequel, third movie, and remake trend has taken it's toll on the industry. Give us something new and creative and give us a reason to own it. Personal favorites over the past 3 years: Saw, V For Vendeta, The Island, & No Country for Old Men.
I can't wait till the day DVD becomes obsolete and everything comes out on Blu-ray! Since foreign countries haven't quite adopted to Blu-ray like us, that's the only time I buy DVDs and man, I kept asking myself, this movie would look/sound sweet on Blu-ray.
One of the biggest things that will keep standard dvd around is the fact that tv shows, specifically older shows from the 70's to the 90's have found life on dvd. It was unheard of for a tv show to be available on vhs, and now nearly every show that has ever had a decent run on tv is out on dvd. This will keep the dvd format going for a while, even as newr shows which broadcast in HD become available on blu-ray.
I really can't see dvd ever getting completely wiped out. The huge difference I think compared to vhs vs dvd was that they couldn't be played on the same machine. It was too much of a hassle to have a piece of equipment for both formats where as today DVDs will always be able to be used. There really will be no reason for studios to stop producing dvds. Sadly, they are here to stay.
I only buy blu-ray from now on - just keep those sales happening and the prices comming down and Picture Quality going upwards please.
Good to hear that DVD is loosing ground it will force studios to switch to HD sooner.
The full HD digital stuff like planet earth is better than film transfer. The new 2K and 1080P digital cameras have deeper/sharper focus, less noise and better color than film.
One of the reasons movie studios are hoping consumers adopt Blu-ray is in order to offset continually declining DVD sales. Since they plateaued three years ago, DVD sales have slowly decreased. The first quarter of this year was no different, showing an overall drop in DVD sales of 1.2% from Q1 2007. However, Blu-ray sales saved the day - just as studios have hoped they would - and when combined with DVD sales resulted in an overall increase in sales of 1% over last year.
