BluRay sales flourishing in ol’ Europe
Sales of Blu-ray Disc movies and players are surging all across Europe despite the gloomy economic conditions and forecast per a press release issued this weekend.British Blu-ray player owners bought approximately 462,500 titles in November, a 165% increase over the previous month. The Dark Knight is leading a December charge with 21% of all Dark Knight discs sold being Blu-ray.
Blu-ray hardware sales in Europe, which include Playstation 3 consoles, have outsold DVD hardware sales, including Playstation 2 consoles, by five times during a similar time span. Sales are forecast to triple by the end of 2009. Aggressive growth numbers are expected to be released for the United States as the year comes to a close. The real test for Blu-ray in 2009 is whether it can eat into DVDs dominant home video market share with blockbuster and catalog titles alike.
Source: HD Room
Comments(42)
This is yet another false report in order to boost the sales of both BluRay movies and the players.
Do Not Fall for this tactic.
You have been told.
i will wait for the next generation of ssd titles
no need to lower the prices then
Sorry but those numbers are not true!!!
The numbers will always be skewed if they include PS3.
Not all PS3 owners will buy BD discs, especially not when the UK in-store price in HMV (big UK shop) is £25 for most discs.
I would buy more if they offered a DVD and BD box set as I can’t afford to spend £25 on a film I can only watch on my main TV.
BluRay is just the latest “fad”. I do not expect this system to be around long at all. Too much out there to replace it. Hugely over priced, over rated, and bloated software.
blu-ray will fail until you can properly pirate it. blank bd prices have to go down to ~1 € and burners have to be included in every new pc by default then the BR format will take over.
Facts about Blu-Ray.
1. Its been dead from the start.
2. In 5 years time it will become a niche product just like LaserDisc.
3. Blu-Ray is the LaserDisc of this gen.
4. Blu-Ray is a little bit sharper than dvd. How little? Switching your component cables to an HDMI. Not a significant VHS to DVD jump.
5. Those who praise Blu-Ray are cretins with no knowledge. Resolution doesn’t equal knowledge.
6. 5 years from now, a new format will arise that will be infinitely times better than Blu-Ray.
7. Blu-Ray is just sony hype like the Betamax, like the UMD, like the minidisc which all failed. History tends to repeat itself.
8. Blu-Ray isn’t expensive, its just there is no difference in picture quality.
9. Some Blu-Ray movies take an hour to play especially if you have older players.
10. I bought a Blu-Ray player just so I can smash it with my sledge hammer.
Why all this hating? Blu-ray is here to stay. It is not another LaserDisc. If you have a 1080p screen you can see a huge difference in quality with Blu-ray movies. I don’t see screen resolutions moving more than 1080p in the near future at least for the next 10-15 years so there is really no reason for another format to be introduced, therefore blu-ray is the next DVD.
“..all across Europe despite the gloomy economic conditions and forecast..”
European consumers (like me) do not ‘feel’ the economic crisis yet, and they have spend like crazy this december. However, in 2009 thing will change…
@9 Parpar,
Actually, they’re already working on a new “Super Hi-Vision” currently, and it’ll have a resolution of 7680×4320 pixels. And they currently have hopes for it to be an international standard, and to be broadcasting with it by the year 2015, which actually isn’t 10-15 years away. The most interesting part to me is that, uncompressed, a 20 minute broadcast would require roughly 3.5TB of storage. That right there would probably kill just about every pirate in the world. Although, I assume we’d have much faster internet speeds by then. Can’t imagine what size screen you’d need for that to look good though…probably a theater sized screen. Heck, 1080P really isn’t worth it unless you have a 50″ screen, so I suppose a 200″ screen might do the trick, O_o
Basically you need a HD screen to notice the difference. You always get people saying its the same but their just too stupid to realise they dont have a HD TV. Get a nice big screen and buy Lost Season 4 on it, its incredible.
@8 DVDisKing
What was wrong with Betamax?
I agree with, #9 Parpar. There is no reason why Blu-Ray wouldn’t be the next big thing. Quality increase *is* big.
DVD Resolution: 720×480 (NTSC) or 720×576 (PAL)
Blu-Ray Resolution: 1920×1080
DVD = 414.720 pixels (PAL)
Blu-Ray = 2.073.600 pixels
That’s a pixel-increase of 400%!!
So if you don’t own a 40″+ flatscreen with 1080p support, I agree: the difference is very small. But when you do, you’ll see the full power of Blu-Ray.
VHS only made it because it had a big advantage in the porn industry & all big studios. About piracy: there are already a lot of pirated blu-ray movies out there, so that’s no issue. Still a BD burner is cheaper than a standalone player.
And I agree the discs (Burnable & Movies) should be cheaper.
Next step is 3D.
TV events like sports will be broadcasted in 3D.
We’re gonna have TV that can handle 3D in 2/3 years. Maybe OLED screens will also be there by then.
Blu-ray is gonna soon implement 3D, prepare to see BR players “3D compatible” in also 2 or 3 years.
All that “super hi-def” talk is nerd masturbation.
Whaaaaat ?!
Betamax is dead !? Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy !!!!!!!?
@5 Don’t buy bluray off the high street then!
There are plenty of titles online at less than £10 delivered.
Hell, even at HMV online has blurays for less than a tenner.
Most people will still pay more than that for a standard DVD!
@11
It’s nearly 2009 and they dont even broadcast full HD yet! I doubt full HD broadcasts will even be standard by 2015.
There is NO WAY this so called super hi vision will be useful in the home environment, only for cinema and commercial use.
Blow 1080p up to the size of a wall and it still looks sharp!
Also a 1080p bluray movie is around 22-28gb, but compressed using a more effecient codec it is only 6-9gb, so your piracy argument goes down the toilet aswell
people are that stupid, I see it daily in my store…
@ 8
“4. Blu-Ray is a little bit sharper than dvd. How little? Switching your component cables to an HDMI. Not a significant VHS to DVD jump.”
wow are you really that ret4rded? You obviously dont have, or never have watched an HDTV. I wont even watch DVDs anymore they just look horrible, even upscaled they look like absolute cr@p. I fell like im stepping back 15 years to VHS everytime I see one being played. So yes, it is a “VHS to DVD jump” and more.
When I watch DVD’s on my 22″ Full HD LCD monitor, i see pixelisation sometimes, but bluray…….bluray is different story, it is awesome, picure is so clear that my eyes are popping out.
Anyone talking that Bluray and HD movies are stupid, is an idiot.
#8
How can you comment on something when it’s obvious you haven’t seen anything in HD? All of your points are speculative and there isn’t a shred of insight anywhere. Just because you don’t want to buy your whole collection again you write 10 points of crap? My PS3 plays BR’s right away. It’s fast as hell and it’s clearer than any upconverted DVD player with a Fraujda or Anchor Bay chip. You don’t need HDMI for HD content, component can play 1080i and it looks just as good.
Haven’t you ever watched sports in HD, then switched back to an SD broadcast to see the difference? It’s huge!
And of course something will replace BR in the future, but it’ll take years for it to be cost effective and we’ll have to listen to crybabies like you then as well.
Keep your VCR and enjoy your blurry porn.
#8
You must really enjoy your moms basement, 19″ TV and your collection of VHS tapes.
@11 Respect-My-Authority
“Heck, 1080P really isn’t worth it unless you have a 50″ screen, so I suppose a 200″ screen might do the trick, O_o”
- TV is piece of furniture like any other. We will never see screens as big as 200″ in mainstream.
-People have only 20º sharp vision, so wall sized tv’s are just useless.
-> So maybee 50-60″ is maximun screen size and 1080p is maximum screen resolution.
–> Bluray is here to stay. It’s a great alternative for webstreams.
Like cars: we have big trucs and fast supercars but still most of us drive with decent hondas.
“especially not when the UK in-store price in HMV (big UK shop) is £25 for most discs”
Have you ever shopped around? It’s not that difficult these days with the internet. There are a few online retailers that sell blu-rays at a reasonable price. Try play.com, for example. They have some films in the sale at £9.99 (The Departed)! Only a moron will pay £25 for a film. Furthermore, prices of Blu-Ray are dropping a lot quicker than before and there are always 3for2 deals for fairly recent films. I remember when DVD’s were just as expensive when they first came out and it took a while before their standard prices started to go down.
@25 John Doe
You do realise that alot of people already have projectors and have 100″+ “screens”?
But I agree that Blu-ray is here to stay, altough not beeing the format I personally liked best (HD DVD), streamed video over the web and downloadable videos will never work in 1080p quality (in mainstream) because of the big size. Most people have <10Mbit connections and more and more isp’s are setting limits to their so called unlimited connections.
A blu-ray (or hd dvd) movie is atleast 20Gb in size you would reach the limit very quickly.
And dont tell me that you can compress the video without quality loss becouse there is a big difference between a real blu-ray and a x264 rip.
@ 27
get fios and usenet. I download probably 15-20 Blu-Ray rips a month (no compression) which are 45GB a piece. They only take about two hours to download too and there is no cap on usage.
bluray is here to stay…like said before…online stores will give you very good prices.
1080 is the new standard for hd…all 720 models are going away and most manufacturers barely make 720 models anymore (except for 32 inch and below)
Maybe in 10 years there will be a different format. Maybe movies on SSD or something could be possible…but people are always gonna want to own a physical object (well most people)
i think regular dvds will be around for quite a while though
@28 lol The ammount you’re paying for your bandwidth coupled with the hard disk storage of the BD-rips isn’t far off the retail price of Blu-rays.
You might as well buy the blurays and avoid the hassle of downloading them and also any illegal implications!
Heres my reasoning:
Say you download 20 per month
50mb broadband: $140/month
Storage: 1tb drive @ $150 = $0.15/gb
Electricity: unknown, guess at $20/month (2 hours x 20 movies = 400 hours)
Total
Storage: 0.15 x 45gb = $6.75
Electricity: 20/20 = $1
Broadband: $140/20 = $7
= $14.75 per movie
It would almost be cheaper to actually buy the damn things!
@ 30
Buying 15-20 bluray discs is about $500-$600 a month, I pay nowhere near that for my ISP and usenet access. Its closer to $70 which equals to someone buying 4 DVDs a month or 3 BluRays a month.
Plus, I dont need to store them, just watch and delete (with a few exceptions). If you buy bluray and the movie sucks you are stuck with it. If I ever want to watch it again I can just DL it again in an hour or two depending on the size. And on SSL usenet there are no legal implications lol. Plus I can also get all the Music, software, and games I want almost instantly. Not too bad for a $70 a month entertainment budget.
@28
Yeah, but not everyone can get a 50mbit connection.
@1,8&11
Blu-Ray is not going away any time soon, lots of people have spent their hard earned cash on HDTV’s and are not going to throw it out and buy another tele are they? And if you do wait for Ultra HD or 3D TV (which will probably be 10-15 years, if at all being as you can’t tell the difference unless you have an enormous screen) I think you will have gotten your money’s worth out of a HDTV by then. And they don’t even broadcast in 1080p yet what makes you think in 2-3 years they will be broadcasting in 4320p?
As for downloadable HD movies like off Xbox Live and Apple, it is always a possibility that this may take over Blu-Ray but lots of people (myself included) like to have a disc, something you can touch, it just seems…better to me for some reason. Also any movies you do download will be compressed in order to allow people with slow connections to download it, with a Blu-Ray you get uncompressed full 1080p.
@5
They do not sell Blu-Rays at £25 in HMV, I was in one the other day, they are all about £17, unless you were looking at a TV series or something. Anyway my advice to everyone is buy them online, they are much cheaper.
HD MOVIES in PS3 FORMATS (playable on your ps3 without needing to convert them)
2 Fast 2 Furious (1080p).vob | 8.42 GB [U][B]above dual layer[/B][/U]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=4603039
The Fast and Furious 3 (1080p).vob | 8.32 GB [U][B]above dual layer[/B][/U]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=00663a5
21 (1080p).vob | 8.38 GB [U][B]above dual layer[/B][/U]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=8a483c7
Big Trouble in Little China (720p).vob | 4.54 GB [B]Dual layer[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=841d6e6
Rounders (720p).mp4 | 4.62 GB [B]dual layer[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=367cb7a
Star Wars .EpII. clones (1080p).vob | 8.15 GB [U][B]above dual layer[/B][/U]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=5b9808c
Star Wars .EpIII. Sith. (1080p).vob | 7.79 GB [B]dual layer[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=35edc99
Star Wars .EpIV.New.Hope. (1080p).vob | 7.47 GB [B]dual layer[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=eeb2541
Star Wars .EpV.ESB. (1080p).vob | 7.35 GB [B]dual layer[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=0209b19
Star Wars .EpVI.ROJ. (1080p).vob | 8.08 GB [U][B]above dual layer[/B][/U]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=29df73e
Cars (720p).mp4 | 2.63 GB [B]standard dvd[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=8ff5636
The.Nightmare.Before.Christmas. . (1080p).mp4 | 2.44 GB [B]standard dvd[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=43eee0f
Kung Fu Panda (720p).mp4 size: 3.39 GB [B]standard dvd[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=b4efbed
Tinker_Bell_2008_(720p) .mp4 size: 2.79 GB [B]standard dvd[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=0e07ade
Sahara. Divx.720p.avi size: 4.31 GB [B]standard dvd[/B] Dvix file with 2 channels of audio (french, English)
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=8d0e477
Wall-E (720p) .mp4 size: 3.6 GB [B]standard dvd[/B]
http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=763c4a1
Anybody who thinks that BD is only slightly sharper than DVD quality is an idiot. Also anyone who argues that HD standard video cannot be pirated is also an idiot. Thank you and goodnight.
@33, there’s a lot of channels broadcasting in 1080…every big tv station does and all movie channels…there some that dont…but pretty soon it will all be available in 1080
Here You can brush up on Your knowledge about what HDTV, 1080p etc. is all about: http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/284986.html
Of course dpi (dots per inch) is even more important than screen size, most of You probably know that.
what a LIE BLU Is FaILING ANd Its CRAP
You people that think its a fad and it aint gonna last need to look at the advancements they have made this will be around for at least 10-15 years prolly longer by 2010 there will be a 400gb bluray disc and by 2013 it will be 1tb they have the technology they are just refining it now. I think its panasonic that is doing it so that should help narrow the search for those interested.
Just think 400gb ps3 games…..
@38 America IS A Piece OF Shiit
Its obvious you have something against America… what they do… steal your lolly pop?… little boy, say that to the face of any American and see what happens to you.
Yeah, regular DVD will be around for a while but i wouldn’t say that BR is just a fad, BR will be here for a while because alot of people are supporting it already and are willing to make the change from standard DVD.
This is correct, no fals information in the numbers or the article.
go buy and enjoy… Merry Christmas and a happy new year from Europe.
We in Europe have not felt the finance crisis so bad as the Americans. Blu-ray ain’t that expencive anyway
@26
Yes I could get the discs from play, axelmusic, movietyme or the other dozen online sellers but that wasn’t the point I was making.
What I was saying is that the high-street price combined with the exclusivity of the hardware needed means it isn’t yet impulse buy. It’s doesn’t go in the rack of hundreds of DVD’s but rather in a small pile near my only HDTV.
If you could buy DVD and BD together for a good price then that would be another matter.