Blu-Ray Struggling Except On PS3

Livewire_19 | August 01, 2008 | News | Playstation 3

Consumer uptake of Blu-ray players is lagging with the exception of PlayStation 3; a survey of 1,000 showed over half of the respondents weren't planning on getting a Blu-ray player, and about a quarter weren't planning on it until next year. The reason? Most people are okay with their old-school DVDs.

While you might think gamers purchase fewer movie discs than others, we didnt see any significant evidence of that in our results, said ABI principle analyst Steve Wilson. PS3 console shipments will go a long way to help bring down manufacturing costs and drive down Blu-ray player prices.

Outside of PS3, however, consumer adoption of Blu-ray players is slower than the industry would like, ABI said.

A survey of 1,000 found that over half of the respondents have no plans to purchase a Blu-ray player. Twenty-three percent said they are likely to buy a player, but not until 2009.

Most consumers are apparently happy with their standard DVD players, as they don't require the purchase of a high-def TV. Half of those polled rated Blu-ray quality as "much better" than DVD, but 40 percent found it only "somewhat better."

Wilson added, We expect that [Blu-ray] player prices will remain above $300 for Tier One models for the remainder of this year."

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0 thumbs!
Slumpy monkey | August 01, 2008

I think the miain problem is people who dont watch many DVD's, Like me.

So for me its completely pointless in getting a blue-ray player on its own, and if it comes with say a PS3/PC I would only use it on the odd occasion to see what all the fuss is about.

So for me the DVD works fine, and I think this will be the predicament for alot of people also.
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Donnelly | August 01, 2008

My grandad got a HDTV the other week and he was looking into getting a blu-ray player.

I told him he was as well getting a PS3. Same price as the cheapest blu-ray player and my wee cousins can play it when they visit.
3 thumbs!
DragoniteBallZ | August 01, 2008

The thing about the switch from DVDs isn't quite like the switch from cassetes or cartridges to discs.

The truth is most people just don't understand HD, How to achieve it, etc. Which is why people don't switch to it as swiftly. Most people simply look at what they can see - portability, convenience, and price. Hence DVD easily wins over VHS.

The switch from VHS to DVD was swift not because of the video output quality, but because it was more convenient and portable. No need to rewind. The average person picks up on those simpler things more. How many gigs/better quality/etc - people just don't pick up on those things easily. First thing you see is the price and that a BluRay movie is sometimes up to twice the price of a DVD. So BluRay may replace DVD, but I don't think it would be taking over as swiftly.

BluRays/HDDVDs, to the people who don't understand technology(which in reality not many), aren't going to pick up on what the differences between to them are other than the fact that they are both just discs.
- 0 thumbs!
  chautemoc | August 01, 2008
  
  Me thinks you'd do well to post news around here, sir.
  - 1 thumbs!
    Donnelly | August 02, 2008
    
    lol. Why would being able to form a well structured argument help someone copy and paste news from another site?
1 thumbs!
Bale Fire | August 02, 2008

50% of them are planning to get a Blu ray player, how that is bad news is beyond me
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  MusiKon | August 02, 2008
  
  Because it's money that's not in Sony's pocket already. Maybe something comes up in the person's life, and they can't afford a Blu-Ray player anymore. Or priorities change in their life, and a Blu-Ray player is no longer important to them. No matter how you look at it, that's a lost sale for Sony.
1 thumbs!
kik36 | August 02, 2008

I own over 300 DVD's........I don't care what comes next I just ain't in the market to switch over. And I truly have no plans to buy and Blu Ray movies anytime soon. I'm just not at a point in my life to start wasting all that money all over again.
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  Koloth | August 02, 2008
  
  You know I think this is part of the problem. I know I'm sure as hell not in any hurry to switch over completely. I do have a decent start into blu-ray with about 20+ movies added so far. But really I'm only using them to supliment my DVD collection. I'm not moving to replace anything.
  
  I have over 500 DVDs. I'm not at all interested in replacing them. And to be honest I never even finished replacing the 90 VHS tapes I had before I switched to DVD. I still have about 10 or so left just hanging around waiting to be replaced. And worse still the only VHS player in the house is stuck in the closet now.
  - 0 thumbs!
    kik36 | August 02, 2008
    
    Yeah I didn't even think of that, I have 20 or so VHS I haven't completely replaced yet as well. I just have to face the fact I will always be somewhat behind. DVD's and Blu-ray were just too close together.
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Red 9 | August 02, 2008

I wouldn't say Blu-Ray being 50-50 in terms of customer support really warrants it to be called struggling. Considering how long it's been since DVD was introduced, it's doing reasonably well.
2 thumbs!
Newcloud | August 02, 2008

sony must have known that the ps3 would sell better then a standalone blu ray player
its cheaper and more to offer
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Absolute | August 02, 2008

What needs to happen is better advertising.

Maybe it's just me, but I never see any commercials about Blu-Ray itself. So people really don't realize how much better it is, if they can get more people to know, then it will take over much faster.
1 thumbs!
Taker4ever | August 02, 2008

I think DragoniteBallz has explained this perfectly.

At the end of the day, DVD to Blu-Ray is not the quantum leap that VHS to DVD was. While DVD was a radically new format, Blu-Ray is, essentially, DVD on steroids. It doesn't have any real practical advantage over DVD like DVD did over VHS (no rewind, no loss of quality, extras on disc etc.). In fact, it's arguably that Blu-Ray has practical disadvantages to DVD - more expensive, and unless you're very rich and/or foolish, less places to play them on.

I've got a PS3, and while I think Blu-Ray is beginning to show it's strength in regards to gaming, in terms of movies it's not that brilliant. The close-up detail is amazing, sure - but long-range shots don't look quite as spectacular as I hoped they would. I think, given that it is only increasing the quality of the picture, it will simply takeover in time when it gets cheap enough for the average consumer. It doesn't have the extra incentives for purchase that DVD had when it first came out.
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  Fatal Error | August 02, 2008
  
  DVD had many practical disadvantages at its release as well.
  
  What's funny is that the jump from DVD to Blu-Ray is actually larger than the jump from VHS to DVD, at least in terms of viewing quality. People seem to forget that DVD wasn't the first media viewing format to utilize "chapters" and playable menus.
  - 1 thumbs!
    Koloth | August 03, 2008
    
    Yea, but Laser disc sucked. Ridiculus giant CDs.
    
    Actually I would say overall Blu-ray has had a much better launch than DVD ever had. I doubt most of you had even heard of DVD in 1997 when it was released. I'll bet even fewwer people here had a DVD player at all before 2000.
    
    I got my first DVD drive for my PC in 1999. At the time DVD was celebrating its victory at reaching 5000 titles released on the format. VHS still dominated the video aisles everywhere you went. But it was a fun time. Especially trying to convince other people just how much better DVD was. The conversations were virtually EXACTLY the same.
    
    "Why buy a new player when I already have a VCR?"
    "What makes it so much better?"
    "It looks the same to me."
    "The players are just so expensive."
    
    Exactly the same comments you here right now when you talk to people about Blu-ray. And eventually they will change. I'll bet around 2010 Blu-ray will really start to hit its stride and move into the mainstream instead of playing second fiddle.
    - 0 thumbs!
      Fatal Error | August 03, 2008
      
      Okay, you got me there because Laser Disc truly was awful. I'm just saying that it did have features that were later used on DVD.