Nielsen VideoScan/Home Media Magazine: Blu-ray/DVD/HD DVD Stats (Updated Weekly)

[dr_ml422]

I must either be losing my mind or slowly getting it back. I asked for a link to some informative sites about digital video, and this morning when I clicked on your link about finding out whether your system is hi-def ready or not, a light bulb went off. I'm exactly at the site with some of the most informative info on digital video. Digital-Digest. I'm a regular member too. It's true when they say the answer's right in front of your eyes, but this one eats the cake in my personal book. Lol...

[admin]

All the hi-def related articles and some software links are here:

http://www.digital-digest.com/highdefdvd/index.php

The Blu-ray/HD DVD Buyer's guide is worth a read for people still not sure whether they want/need Blu-ray and how much it would all cost. I haven't updated in a while, but most of the stuff should still hold true:

http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/Blu-ray_HD_DVD_Buyers_Guide_page1.html

[dr_ml422]

I'm getting on this asap. gonna subscribe mab 2 some newsletters. plenty here though. thnx.

btw i'm not totally hi-def ready. would need hi-def burners, bigger monitor w/more resolution n the 7.1 or higher audio system. i'll get there. i see plenty of more builds in the near future.

[admin]

For the week ending 9th November 2008, here are the stats:

Percentage of Top 20 titles by disc volume:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 8% vs 92%

All sales by $ volume (Percentage of Total Sales):
Blu-ray sales down 10.04% compared to last week, total spending: $10.99 million (8.48%)
DVD sales up 0.25% compared to last week, total spending: $118.55 million (91.52%)

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom989113PBN/index.php?startid=1

This week's (well the week that this data covers anyway) major releases are "Get Smart" and "Kung Fu Panda", but "Get Smart" only sold sold a small amount over last week's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Kung Fu Panda" could not beat previous week's releases (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk). Iron Man (4th), Indy 4 (6th) and Transformers (10th) are still in the top 10.

Also on the link below is the ratio of Blu-ray movies to DVD movies for individual titles for that week (it's not an "all time" stat). It's worth noting that Blu-ray titles such as 300 or I Am Legend were practically neck and neck with the DVD sales of these movies in that week, whereas the likes of Get Smart and Kung Fu Panda did not go over 10% (8.07% and 5.55% respectively). The Incredible Hulk even reached nearly 19% when it was released, so it looks like only certain titles (most likely action flicks that appeals to the PS3 demographic and early adopter crowd) are popular with BD users, whereas most other releases (like comedies or kids flicks) are not. BD's sales ratio is over represented by certain titles and under represented by others, which accounts for the big ups and downs in the sales charts.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom989113PBN/index.php?startid=8

Next week's releases include Band of Brothers, Hellboy II, Firefly, JFK, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

[dr_ml422]

I see you got to include disc volume. Is this still the same as before, or different stat? Prolly just top 20 titles right? Some cost more than others correct? Thnx.

It's going to take until 2012 to actually get a clear picture I guess. Even though DVD sales are still out numbering Blu-ray, I'm pretty sure that the consumer is probably doing the same in respect to certain titles also. Only thing they're buying more. "Get Smart" wasn't all that. I thought the 40 yr. old virgin guy would put it up there. "Tropic Thunder" comes out this Tues., but that won't be posted until about 2 weeks after "Hellboy II".

Their definitely banking on "The Dark Knight" to push them through the holiday season. Great movie, but IMHO too long. Could of cut out about an hour of material and still pull it off.

Btw, BB going all out w/Sony hdtvs in all their locations hooked up to a sp3 showing some Blu-ray flic. I hope they have some serious security installed because they're mounting about 3 or 4 sony hdtvs in addition to the one you see right when you walk in. Not to mention the sp3s they have. Lot of characters in nyc.

[admin]

It's the same stat are before. What I really want is disc volume for all titles, not just the top 20. The second link does contain disc volume comparisons for the week in question, so it is of some interest to see how new releases sell on DVD and Blu-ray (I think that this actually favours Blu-ray because its demographic consists of more users that buy all the latest releases, whereas with DVD, many people wait until the eventual price drop). For top releases, Blu-ray's ratio can go as high as 20% (over the long term, this drops probably down to 10% as the DVD version goes on sale). For your average release like "Get Smart", the first week numbers are less than 10% usually, sometimes as low as 2% to 5%. That's the problem with Blu-ray at the moment, it's too heavily influenced by the PS3/early adopter demographic. It really needs to sell movies like "Get Smart" with 20%+ ratio to be considered proper competition to DVD.

TDK's Blu-ray ratio will probably be the highest ever, there are people buying it without even owning a Blu-ray player yet. But there might only be 3 or 4 TDK type movies every year, and Blu-ray can't survive living off only these types of movies.

[dr_ml422]

I understand. Guess you would know of some site that would post total disc volume sales for all titles by now. I also get the PS3/early adopter demographic if by that you mean that users were mainly concerned w/action as they used it w/games correct? I've yet to learn more about the whole hi-def movement, especially w/respect to the hdtvs and hd ready pcs. I'll do my homework to at least get the basics down. Mainly because I'm really close to getting a HDTV here real soon. Saw some on sale but only 780p and I know by some of the suggested buying guides posted here that it should be at least 1080p capable w/multiple HDMI connections and over the air capable of receiving hi-def signals also. The 19th of Feb is coming, and although I have a cable box, it won't be the same as getting the max out of it w/hi-def. Mind you FIOS is working quickly here and I can't wait cause they're ripping the ground and implementing true fiber optics, not like Time Warner who's compressing the signal through old lines. They also have a huge advertisement campaign going on, because they know FIOS will dominate. All these years to upgrade and now they're worried.

You're on point w/TDK observation. If they're counting on a few of these to win the consumer they're definitely not going to survive. I'm hoping they have something in the works, different format or not to ease this whole transition.

I'm so not attuned to the whole hi-def thing that I don't know what even was the big concern about Blu-ray. You posted that anyone could come out w/any format so why did this affect the other big companies like Toshiba etc...? Aren't regular hi-def movies selling also?

[admin]

For the week ending 16th November 2008, here are the stats:

Percentage of Top 20 titles by disc volume:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 9% vs 91%

All sales by $ volume (Percentage of Total Sales):
Blu-ray sales up 83.49% compared to last week, total spending: $20.17 million (10.35%)
DVD sales up 46.92% compared to last week, total spending: $174.71 million (89.65%)

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom377426CXZ/index.php?startid=1

A huge jump in sales for both Blu-ray and DVD this week thanks to Hellboy II, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and as well as the Blu-ray only releases of Band of Brothers and Firefly.

Also on the link below is the ratio of Blu-ray movies to DVD movies for individual titles for that week (it's not an "all time" stat). Unfortunately, HMM saw fit to only list the top 10 most popular Blu-ray titles (as compared to DVD), instead of the top 20, and so the figures become a largely useless list of Blu-ray only releases (for example, neither Hellboy II or Firefly are even on the list, despite being new releases this week). But from the limited useful information we can gather that 76% of all Band of Brothers sales for this week was for the Blu-ray version. This might sound impressive, but considering the DVD version has been selling since 2002, it still managed to get 25% of the market. Let's also look at Batman Begins, which is interesting because it has an exact 50/50 split for Blu-ray/DVD sales for this week. In other words, this means that a DVD title that was released in 2005 is selling as well as a Blu-ray title that was released only 4 months ago (BB being a must-have prequel to the hit movie of the year, plus the kind of movie, action/sci-fi, that will appeal to the PS3/early adopter crowd). I can imagine people buying the Blu-ray version because it's relatively new to the format, but who's still buying the DVD version so long after the movie/DVD was released (and discounted)? The 2-disc DVD version is currently just over half the price of the Blu-ray version, BTW.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom377426CXZ/index.php?startid=10

Next week's new releases include the hits WALL-E and Tropic Thunder.

[dr_ml422]

This 2012 date as the measuring stick for whether or not Blu-ray will thrive is not too far away. I used to wait on anything that wasn't sure to stay and not jump right in for fear of wasted $$$. That's a healthy fear, but I learned it's not living in the moment and enjoying it while it's here. Blu-ray or anything else for that matter. After downloading some of those H.264 trailers and playing them on my build I was convinced about raising it up a notch or two and investing a lil more to receive the full effects or come close to them anyway.

Admin try to get the trailer to the 3rd part of UNDERWORLD. My friend informed me today it's coming out. I can't wait to go see it.

[admin]

No stats for this week, as HMM decided to do a year to date set of figures, rather than the usual weekly one. Probably something to do with the Thanksgiving holiday period.

For the calendar year ending 16th November 2008, here are the stats:

Percentage of titles by disc volume:
Blu-ray vs DVD: 4% vs 96%

All sales by $ volume (Percentage of Total Sales):
Blu-ray sales up 233.23% compared to last year, total spending: $410.28 million (6.11%)
DVD sales down 8.47% compared to last year, total spending: $6,306.01 million (93.89%)

You can read the latest digital edition of HMM with the above stats here:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom137746SPL/index.php?startid=2

Not sure how useful these numbers are as the year isn't over yet (some of the busiest few weeks left). Blu-ray is way up compared to last year, which is no surprise considering it was barely launched at the beginning of 2007 - sales only picked up later in the year, and then only around 2.5% of the market and competing with HD DVD. Blu-ray has been virtually unchallenged in the HD disc arena for pretty much all of 2008.

Similarly, YTD figures are available for the top 20 Blu-ray releases of the year, plus the top 20 in terms of market share (compared to DVDs). Iron Man leads the way, followed by the discounted I Am Legend, Indy 4, 300, National Treasure 2, No Country for Old Men, Batman Begins, Planet Earth, Transformers and PotC: At World's End. The top item in terms of market share is The Fifth Element, coming at 51.69%. Iron Man's Blu-ray market share was a relatively high 17.05%.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom137746SPL/index.php?startid=12

More analysis of these figures here:

http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/12/06/blu-ray-year-to-date-stats-pc-playback/

A quiet week release wise, with only Hancock and Space Chimps being the only notable releases. Hopefully, we'll get the figures for the "week ending 23rd of November" along with the figures for the "week ending 30th of November", both should be available by then.

[dr_ml422]

Admin did HMM only post the week ending figures for DVD sales and the year ending for Blu-ray sales? If so that doesn't represent a fair assessment of how much was spent on Blu-ray as compared to dvd.

[admin]

No, all the figures for this week's issue were for YTD.

The figures for "week ending 23rd Nov" is actually quite important, because WALL-E and Tropic Thunder were released during that week. Hopefully, HMM will publish it in next week's issue.

[dr_ml422]

I got thrown off by the post saying, DVD sales down 8.47% compared to last week.

In any event 6.1% as compared to 93.89% is far aways. In a month or so 2009 will be here. If the campaign is until 2012 they have a lot of catching up to do. They still left ps3 at their prices also as wii and xbox 360 and all the others brought theirs down. Only thing I saw on special was some Blu-ray stanalone players and not many at that. Also the ones really price slashed were a lot of up-converts. All in all I see the same thing happening as did or does with any format, dvd or cd. Consumers will get around as they already have on buying it. It's kind of a double edged sword for Sony. Eventually their prices on both the players and Blu-ray discs are going to have to come down, including the blanks for recording. Even then it'll be more of an incentive for working around purchasing anything but blanks and the players to view them.

You know after what's transpired from previous experience you would think these big minds would have come up w/a more viable solution regarding new products they want the consumer to buy into. They definitely have the money and with that can make the time to do so. This isn't MS where you're almost forced to have their OS. MS always comes off even if their product is a pita because it's a industry needed standard. So they make out until they come up with the next version which almost always is a pita.

I don't think Sony or anyone else can do that w/out a complete failure of a new product launched and loss of revenue to boot. They always cut their losses anyway as that's a definite part of the process in any new business. Sony can afford to do that though easily.

[admin]

I got thrown off by the post saying, DVD sales down 8.47% compared to last week.

Oops ... fixed!

[dr_ml422]

Thnx admin. I know I get a lil nuts w/all these proggies and info, especially now that I hooked up to DD home. I either thought I was getting burnt out again, which is partially true, or that HMM just posted it that way. Lol...

I need to take it easy and try tackling one new app. at a time. It was suggested to me a while back and I still get caught up. Oh well, the saints are in heaven.