Y2K9?! All your 30GB Zune's Are Belong to Skynet

 

In case anyone needed further evidence that software giant Microsoft should be permanently banned from making any future hardware products (see RRoD fiasco, et al), the latest news on the "interwebs" surely will turn any iPod-hater into a Steve Jobs disciple in no time.  Apparently, ALL 30GB Microsoft Ziune's effectively bricked themselves at precisely 12:00 midnight PST last night.  Not a couple, not several hundred... ALL of them.  Just in time for your New Year's Eve party this evening, Microsoft offers you no music.  Welcome to the social!

Though Microsoft still has not released an official statement diagnosing the problem or offering a solution, apparently, any 30GB Zune that was turned on at 12 midnight PST last night spontaneously rebooted and subsequently locked up during the boot process.  Any Zune not on at that time will suffer the same fate once turned on.  Once locked up, the device cannot be turned off, restarted, or recognized by a PC.  Basically, it's on till the battery dies.  Worse, some users report hearing the hard drive spinning and the unit heating up to uncomfortable levels as they watch... unable to do anything to correct the issue.

Although several light-hearted names for the sudden death of Zunes have appeared online (Y2K9, Z2K bug, Zunepocalypse, Zuneicide, etc) the problem may be far more serious than initially expected.  As the devices, once "bricked," can't be recognized by a PC, creating a software solution to fix effected units may not be possible, unless a backdoor "DFU"-style mode exists that Microsoft hasn't previously acknowledged.  Microsoft may have another Red Ring of Death mess on its hands, and might have to recall every 30GB Zune out there.  On the other hand, as the problem appears to be tied to the date, the units may suddenly start working again at 12 mid PST tonight.  Not much use to anyone planning on using a Zune to provide music for their New Years' party tonight, but certainly better than the alternative.

In the meantime, users who choose to take matters into their own hands can "fix" the problem by cracking open the case of their Zune and disconnecting both the hard drive and battery.  After waiting a minute to clear the stored date, and then reconnecting, the Zune should be functional again, so long as you don't sync the device with a computer (which will update its clock and lock the unit up again).  Of course, you may break the case trying to crack it open, and Microsoft's fix (whatever that may be) may not be available to users who voided their warranty by breaking into the device.

And, in other news: In what is either a huge coincidence, or the greatest marketing ploy in history, Amazon currently has all iPods on sale  (and with free shipping), for those upset enough to leave Microsoft's camp completely.

UPDATE: According to a press release put out by Microsoft, they have reportedly tracked down the issue, and expect that the issue, a programming error brought on by the leap year, will “correct itself” tomorrow when the internal component misreporting the date correctly resyncs with the other clocks.  At any rate, nothing is certain yet, but the advice is to allow the battery to FULLY run down tonight and then wait until tomorrow to connect the Zune to your computer, and HOPE that it resyncs correctly.

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CBHD Format Dead on Arrival?

 

In a Christmas gift to Blu-ray fans, and a final nail in the defunct HD DVD format’s coffin, Digitimes is now reporting that the yet-to-be-released CBHD (China Blue High-definition Disc) format, based heavily on Toshiba’s failed HD DVD format, isn’t being supported by Taiwanese optical disc manufacturers.

The format, seen by some as the last great hope for an “HD DVD comeback,” has been struggling to reach the market since the parent format HD DVD was officially pronounced dead earlier this year.

China has attempted to develop their own formats in the past, such as EVD (Enhanced Versatile Disc), which attempted to compete against the worldwide DVD standard.  Given the failure of such previous formats, along with the fact that no Taiwanese manufacturers participated in the development or promotion of the CBHD format, and its not too surprising that none of the Taiwanese manufacturers see potential in the CBHD format.

In case that wasn’t bad enough for the format, none of the major Hollywood studios are supporting it and, while Blu-ray disc players have fallen to under $200 for major brands in the United States, the CBHD players are expected to sell for the equivalent of around $438 upon their release.  Hmm… a China-exclusive format that costs over twice what the worldwide standard does, and has NO support from major studios.  Good luck with that.

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Blu-ray vs. DVD Sales for Week Ending 12/14/08

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like… well, a Dark Knight onslaught.  The biggest title of the year (or… ever) was recently released on both Blu-ray and DVD, and the Blu-ray numbers for last week are staggering.

Methodology: Due to the disparity between the number of DVDs available vs. Blu-ray Discs available, Nielson VideoScan has chosen to compare only the Top 20 selling DVDs to the Top 20 Blu-ray Discs to track Blu-ray vs. DVD sales.  While this method results in interesting results for comparing the top selling discs on both formats, it is inherently biased towards Blu-ray as it is comparing an equal number of titles on both formats.  Whilst Blu-ray has over 700 titles released in the U.S., DVD has tens of thousands of released titles.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Wow!  14% is the new record for Blu-ray going up against DVD.  The Dark Knight has very rapidly proven that it is to Blu-ray what The Matrix was to DVD… the movie that launched the emerging format into the mainstream.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

The Dark Knight managed to outsell every other Blu-ray title on the market by close to 20x! With reported sales of 600,000 on the first dat alone, and a running total over 2.7 million, this isn’t too surprising… but it is extremely impressive.

While the Dark Knight’s success is certainly the big Blu-ray news of the week, the BD Marketshare chart (on the right) also shows an amazing trend.  Buoyed by some fantastic sales on catalog titles last week, all 20 of the top Blu-ray performers (measured against their DVD counterparts) managed to sell well over 2/3 of discs sold on the Blu-ray format.  Now that’s not something you’re likely to see from a “niche” format.

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Electronic House Presents “Blu-ray 2008: A Year in Review”

 

In case you’ve been living under a rock all year (or just recently became interested in the Blu-ray format), Electronic House has put up a Blu-ray Year-in-Review featuring their top Blu-ray moments from the past year.  Some are obvious… some are questionable… but, hey, its that time of year and you’ve got to admit it’s been quite the year.  Follow the link above to see their slideshow; below are their bullet points with my comments added.

 

1/4/08 - Warner Brothers Goes Blu

Tough to argue with that – definitely the moment that changed the consumer landscape forever and made the next few points inevitable.

 

1/7/08 – HD DVD Cancels CES Press Conference

Again, it was inevitable given Warner’s earth-shattering news on days before, but still… fun to watch the tearful announcement.  This may have been the first time in history that a significant number of the press attended a press conference to announce the cancellation of another press conference.

 

2/18/08 – Toshiba Throws in the Towel

V-T Day at last!  And the long. hard forum battle ends with… oh, wait… I guess its still going on.  See, not all HD DVD fans were paid marketing consultants for Toshiba.  Some of them are just delusional. anti-social freaks who think Sony wants to steal their first born.  If only Toshiba had shipped tin-foil hats in their HD DVD player packaging, they may just have pulled this off.

 

2/19/08 – Universal Announces Support for Blu-ray

With HD DVDs demise now official, Universal’s contract to support the format came to an abrupt end.  The company that had made a point of bashing Blu-ray at every possible turn was suddenly working as fast as possible at getting their titles released on the format.  The lesson: be careful what you say… it might just cost you your job later.

 

3/11/08 – Fox’s Hitman is First to Offer Digital Copy

How quickly we forget.  It’s become so common so quickly for new releases to sport digital copies of the film on a second disc that we often fail to remember that just 10 months ago such a feature was still nowhere to be found.

 

3/24/08 – Sony Adds BD-Live Support to PS3

Yeah!  Now I can not only watch the half-dozen trailers that come up before the movie’s menu, but I can download even more!  The real breakout of BD-Live was still quite a ways off, but at least it took away the final talking point of HD DVD fans who found it unbearable to sit through a movie without a live internet connection.

 

4/8/08 – First BD-Live-enabled Titles Arrive

With the release of Walk Hard and The Sixth Day Sony became the first studio to inundate paying consumers with additional on-line marketing… er, great BD-Live features.  Thanks… really.  I don’t know how I could have watched Walk Hard and NOT gotten a Dewey Cox ringtone.

 

9/30/08 – 500,000 Copies of Iron Man Fly Off Shelves

Literally.  Or, is that just how many they sold in the first week.  I’ll never tell.

 

10/10/08 – LG Ships Netflix-Streaming BD300 Player

And Electronic House is apparently sponsored by….  Not sure how the release of a Blu-ray player by a second-tier manufacturer warrants mention, but I guess Netflix cares.

 

11/21/08 – Black Friday Brings Players Under $200

BD-Live players by real manufacturers (Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, etc) selling for under $200…can we all stop talking about how Blu-ray players are overpriced now?

 

11/28/08 – Blockbuster OnDemand Announced for Blu-ray

See, it’s like the Netflix downloads only by Blockbuster!  Does Electronic House know that Blu-ray is a disc-based format?

 

12/09/08 – The Dark Knight Debuts After 1,000,000 Copies Ship to Stores

1080p.  IMAX-framed shots.  The Joker.  It was destined that The Dark Knight would do for Blu-ray what The Matrix did for DVD… but nearly EVERYONE was shocked by just how well it did.  600,000 copies sold on day 1, and over 1.7 million sold in the few weeks since its release – Gotham seems to be immune from the global recession.

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Last Minute Holiday Blu-ray Deals

 

If you still haven’t completed your Christmas shopping, you really need to stop surfing the net and get to the store. Here’s some deals, though, in case you’re needing some last minute savings on Blu-ray products for others… or, if you just managed to come in under budget and feel the need to get yourself a little gift.

Amazon.com

• Select Blu-ray Disc on sale (as low as $14.99)
• 45-55% off MSRP on select Blu-ray Disc titles
• Buy 3, Save $20; Buy 6, Save $50; Buy 10, Save $100 on select Blu-ray Disc titles
• Save an additional 20% off on select Sony Blu-ray Disc titles with the purchase of a select PS3 game
• Save $150 on the purchase of a Samsung BD-P1500 BD-Live capable Blu-ray disc player and a select Samsung LCD HDTV
• Save $100 on the purchase of a Sony Blu-ray disc player and a select Sony LCD HDTV
• Memorex Blu-ray player on sale for $174

 

Best Buy:

• Select Blu-ray movies $24.99 ($5 off)
• Band of Brothers 50% off ($37.49)
• Sopranos: Season 6: Part 1 or Part 2 50% off ($34.99 each)

 

Circuit City:

• Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray disc player on sale for $249.99
• Samsung BDP-1500 Blu-ray disc player on sale for $249.99
• Select Blu-ray disc titles on sale for $12.99
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • Rambo: First Blood
  • Rambo: First Blood II
  • Rambo III
  • Punisher
  • Total Recall
  • Stargate
  • Stir of Echoes
  • Devil’s Rejects

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Blu-ray/DVD Hybrid Disc set for Release

 

Despite objections from those who suffered a myriad of issues with the now defunct HD DVD format’s “combo disc” concept, a Japanese optical disc manufacturer has announced a hybrid Blu-ray/DVD disc.

Infinity will be releasing the title “Code Blue” in Japan on Feb. 19, 2009 on 4 hybrid Blu-ray/DVD discs.  Unlike the combo (“flipper”) discs that were common on HD DVD, the new Blu-ray hybrid discs contain both Blu-ray and DVD data stored on the same side of the disc.  Though the initial title uses a single layer BD and double layer DVD setup, Infinity also has a dual layer BD version of their technology pending approval by the BDA.

Infinity claims their discs are compatible with all Blu-ray disc players, and virtually all DVD players.  In their testing of 64 players (across both platforms) they achieved 100% success in playing the discs.

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Zogby Poll Indicates Blu-ray Players Among Most Wanted Gifts for HDTV Owners

 

Zogby International, apparently bored with the election now over, has just conducted a survey of over 1,700 HDTV owners, asking them what they’d most like to receive as a gift this holiday season.

Respondents were given a number of choices, with a second HDTV taking the top prize for most exciting gift.  A Blu-ray player, however, came in a close second, accounting for over 30% of respondents.  An additional 18% of respondents chose a PS3 system as the most exciting gift they could receive this year.

Blu-ray players beat out other techno-gifts such as digital cameras, a GPS system, a Nintendo Wii, and an iPod/mp3 player. 

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NPD Group Releases November, 2008 U.S. Console Sales Numbers

 

NPD has released their console sales numbers for the U.S., for August, 2008.  The next-gen console sales for the month were:

XBox 360: 1,260,000 

PS3: 797,000

Wii: 1,350,000

Sony’s decision not to drop the base price of the PS3 for this holiday season has definitely cost them many sales this year.  Given the current economic climate within the US, a $399 (base price) console is going to have serious issues selling against lower priced competitors.  Of course, given the value of the dollar against the yen, it would have cost them significantly to lower the price, but Sony has essentially decided to give up on their effort to outsell the Xbox 360 in the U.S. this year.

The recent price break has been beneficial to the XBox 360, allowing it to beat the PS3 in America for the first month since April.  Nintendo, of course, continues to prove that casual gamers (and even so-called “nongamers”) can actually be a far more profitable group than the “typical gamers” and hardcore gamers that Microsoft and Sony are fighting over.

The above graph shows how well each of the three next-gen systems sold in the U.S. so far in 2008.

As I mentioned above, the combination of a price cut on the Xbox 360 and Sony’s decision not to follow suit has caused the PS3 to fall slightly behind the XBox 360 in the U.S. for the year.  The much bigger story, though, is that the Nintendo Wii has outsold the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined this year in the U.S.

Still, the XBox 360 has been out a year longer than the other consoles, so here is a chart that shows the total U.S. sales of the consoles over their lifetimes.

The PS3 continues to follow the XBox 360 line fairly closely, only a year behind.  The Wii, meanwhile, has slaughtered everything in its path and will easily beat the XBox 360 to 20 million units sold in the U.S. sometime next year.

As many people have been asking me about worldwide sales numbers, I'll go ahead and provide a screengrab from VGChartz below.  While VGChartz' data is certainly interesting to look at, it must be noted that they have a smaller sample of data to work from than the NPD data for the U.S., and that they have to attempt to extrapolate data worldwide.  As such, it must be assumed that the data is somewhat less accurate than the NPD data.

On the worldwide stage, the PS3 has done a far better job of eating into the Xbox 360’s year long head start, long ago surpassing the system in Japan, and is very close to catching it throughout the rest of the world… except, of course, the U.S.

The Wii, though, is an even greater runaway success, beating both other systems in all three markets, and accounting for nearly 50% of all “next-gen” systems sold.

It would take a miracle for either other system to make a play at overtaking the Wii in the next year.  At this point, Sony has their eyes set on gaining ground and possibly overtaking the 360 (at least in worldwide sales), and Microsoft is just reevaluating their position in the market.  Given the QA problems and costs involved in continually repairing systems, any shot the 360 had of being profitable for the company is about shot – and Microsoft shareholders (unlike the company’s fanbase) has very little patience with both the negative press from the problems and loss of shareholder value the Xbox division has brought upon the company.

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Onslaught of Blu-ray Heavy Hitters Due in December

 

Recession?  What recession?  For those still struggling to finish their Christmas or other holiday shopping for this year, the studios are proving more than happy to take your hard-earned dollars in exchange for some great Blu-ray disc titles hitting stores just in time for the holidays.  (And for those struggling to pay for that holiday shopping retailers are offering some of the best deals yet on new titles.)  Take a look at some of the biggest hits yet hitting stores now or over the next few weeks.

Leading off the month, on December 2, Universal released the hit film Wanted, while Fox put out both X-Files: I Want to Believe and 1998’s X-files: Fight the Future.  Disney, meanwhile, goes after the family market with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, in both 2-disc and 3-disc versions.  Warner sticks to their catalog this week, but what terrific titles they have: Casablanca hits stores in an “Ultimate Collector’s Edition,” while Shawshank Redemption and the Austin Powers Collection hit in less ostentatious packaging.  For those in a holiday mood, Fox also brought out Home Alone and Jingle All the Way.

On December 9, Warner will likely destroy everything in their path (along with all previous sales records) when they release The Dark Knight.  In case that wasn’t enough for the week, they are also releasing the Jim Carey comedies Dumb and Dumber and The Mask on the same day.  Meanwhile, Fox is set to release Horton Hears a Who, Dodgeball, and Super Troopers, and Disney will bring out Lost: Season 4, prior to the show’s return in January.

On December 16, Universal will release The Mummy: Tomb of the Emporer Dragon (also available as The Mummy Trilogy), the summer’s hit musical Mamma Mia!, and 8 Mile (presumably for those whose holiday gathering typically deteriorate into rap battles).  Paramount, meanwhile, drops this year’s flop remake of The Heartreak Kid and the Andy Samberg vehicle Hot Rod onto store shelves, but makes up for it by also releasing Into the Wild, comedy hits Tommy Boy and Old School, and Coach Carter on Blu-ray. Weinstein Company will also bring out both halves of last year’s Grindhouse double feature, Death Proof and Planet Terror, to store shelves for those who want to pay twice to get “extended cuts” of slasher gore in their stockings.  HBO also continues to churn out their titles as slowly and agonizingly as humanly possible, bringing this summer’s mini-series Generation Kill out.  Finally, for fans of classic and avant-garde cinema, Criterion’s first wave of titles hits, including Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Third Man.

On December 23, while most studios sleep well knowing that if nothing else they survived the season (Sony, where the hell are you?) or that they now rule the video world (Warner, I bow to you, “Dear Leader”), Universal, habitually trapped somewhere in the middle, inexplicably brings out the Coen Brother’s latest film Burn After Reading as well as Death Race (sure to become a holiday classc… or not).

Lastly, on December 27 & 30, the studios will make one final cash grab to get those holiday gift cards back into stores before the end of the year.  Paramount makes the biggest moves, putting out Eagle Eye and The Duchess, as well as catalog titles such as The Truman Show, Event Horizon, Last Holiday, and Ghost Town.  Universal and Warner also release Serenity and Wedding Crashers respectively.

And that pretty much wraps up the year!  To see the full lists of available Blu-ray titles, use the menu at the top of the page, and stay tuned for weekly hot deals on titles from various etailers and retailers.

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The Dark Knight Set to Break Blu-ray Records

 

In an announcement that should shock… well absolutely no one… it appears that Warner is set to ship over one million copies of the Blu-ray Disc of this summer’s Blockbuster hit The Dark Knight to U.S. retailers for this Tuesday’s release. 

While this fall’s release of Iron Man sold over 500,000 copies in its first week of release, The Dark Knight has the potential to double that astounding figure.  While Iron Man appears to be the first Blu-ray title to break the all-important million sold mark, The Dark Knight has the potential to do so in much less time.

These staggering numbers show just how quickly the Blu-ray market has expanded in the last two years.  In March, 2007, Sony’s release of the latest James Bond flick Casino Royale became the first Blu-ray Disc title to break the 100,000 copies sold mark.

The Blu-ray release of The Dark Knight will also mark a number of other firsts, being Warner’s first BD-Live-enabled title, as well as offering a major exclusive: while the DVD will be available in only fixed aspect ratio full screen and widescreen editions, the Blu-ray disc will feature a transfer that maintains the scope of the IMAX photography used in select scenes from the fill by utilizing an adjusting aspect ratio as was seen exclusively in IMAX theatres over the summer.  For anyone who doesn’t already have the title on order, you can pick it up for a great price over on Amazon.com.

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Blu-ray Disc Pricing Becoming More Standardized

 

Video Business has a new report this week on the stabilizing of Blu-ray Disc pricing on new releases.  Many people may be unaware that despite the huge price variance found on both Blu-rays and DVDs among various retailers, the standard pricing for new releases on DVD paid by large retailers and distributors has been set at $17.99 for the last several years.  Paramount raised the ire of some retailers earlier this year when they raised the wholesale cost of their new release DVDs to $18.30, but the other studios have so far not followed suit.

Blu-ray pricing, on the other hand, has been all over the board since the format’s launch two years ago.  According to industry buyers in the Video Business article, however, that is finally changing.  Although the pricing between studios has not standardized, the new pricing for new release titles from any given studio has now standardized. 

For the major studios, the wholesale pricing on new release titles has been set at:

• Warner: $24.99
• Paramount: $25.95
• Disney: $24.50
• Sony: $25.95

(Note: Pricing for Fox and Universal titles not mentioned.)

While these prices represent a $6.50 - $8.00 premium over the standard edition DVDs, they are generally much closer to the $23 - $26 wholesale pricing offered on special edition DVDs.  Also, retailers and rentailers are excited about re-pricing offers being offered by the major studios on catalog Blu-ray titles.  For example, in a move to help get more of their Blu-ray product onto rental store shelves, they are offering a 10 for $10 deal where stores can obtain 10 Paramount Blu-ray catalog titles for only $10 each.  Moves such as that can really help stores expand their Blu-ray offerings at a significant savings, and in turn, help promote the growth of the format by showing consumers a much broader array of title offerings.

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Year-to-date Blu-ray vs. DVD Sales Data

 

If you’re as much of a statistics addict as I am, then Home Media Magazine and Nielson Videoscan have an early Christmas present for ua: a full year-to-date data on how Blu-ray sales are comparing to DVDs.  For those who don’t think Excel is actually an entertainment program, feel free to skip the rest of this post.

Keep in mind all this data is year-to-date through 11/16/08, so the all important Holiday shopping season beginning with Black Friday is NOT included in these numbers, but it does provide us with an interesting baseline to later see how much of an improvement Blu-ray makes in these last weeks of the year.  Also, all data shown is U.S. only.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Normally, Home Media Magazine reports Blu-ray vs. DVD Sales using only the Top 20 titles for the week.  Since there are MANY more DVDs available than Blu-ray Discs, focusing on just the Top 20 titles artificially inflates the Blu-ray numbers by a few percentage points.

For the year-to-date data presented above, the pie chart shows total unit volume, so its a direct 1-to-1 comparison between number of titles sold on each format.  As such, the sales percentage for Blu-ray is quite a bit lower than normal, at only 4%.  The volume (in dollars) however, is notably better, with Blu-ray sales making up 6.1% of the total dollars spent.

Finally, and most strikingly, comparing this year with last, DVD is trending down 8.47%, while Blu-ray is up an amazing 233.23%.  Of course, the DVD market is mature, and on the decline, while Blu-ray is just emerging… but for anyone claiming Blu-ray is DOA, the numbers just don’t bare that out.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

The above charts are a bit confusing, so let me explain them up front: the left chart shows the top selling discs (ranked off of the #1 title, as to not reveal exact sales numbers), while the chart on the right shows the BD marketshare (vs. DVD) of those SAME 20 titles.  There are many higher ranked Blu-ray titles in terms of marketshare, but if they didn’t make the top 20 in total sales, they aren’t represented on the chart.

No major surprises in the top sales chart, although it must be painful for Universal, after finally joining the other studios in supporting Blu-ray, to not have a single title in the Top 20 for the year.  On the other hand, Paramount who defected from then returned to the Blu-ray camp currently holds the #1 and #3 spots.  This will be an interesting chart to look at again at the end of the year just to see how quickly and by how much The Dark Knight is able to slaughter all sales numbers to claim the top spot.

Although the marketshare chart is somewhat less useful as it isn’t a true top 20, it’s still interesting to see that among the top 20 titles on Blu-ray for the year, 9 of them did 20% or more of their sales on Blu-ray disc.  This is an excellent indicator, that at least among certain types of films, Blu-ray sales can make up a quite significant percentage of the sales.

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David Bishop Discusses Black Friday Sales Numbers

 

Recently, with Home Media Magazine choosing not to be quite so public with the weekly Blu-ray sales data numbers provided by Nielson VideoScan, its been tough to gauge just how well Blu-ray has been doing.  With the economic crisis causing everyone to reevaluate their spending patterns on non-essential goods, the “Year of Blu-ray”, looked quite possibly to be the year that wasn’t.  Black Friday (the day after American Thanksgiving) has long been held as a day of importance, both as the official launch of the Holiday shopping season, and the day retailers hope to go from “in the red” to “in the black” for the year.  So, how did things go?

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment President David Bishop gave an interview to Home Media Magazine in which he provided at least some reassurance to those fearful of a poor holiday showing for the new format.  Some of his key points:

• According to Bishop, the new Sony release of Hancock sold 300,000 copies in it’s first week, including Black Friday sales.
• For better or worse, titles geared toward the PS3 demographic continue to sell extremely well.
• Comparing Blu-ray to digital distribution methods, Blu-ray provides roughly 20x the revenue stream as the digital (download) methods do.
• Many stores were sold out of the sale-priced Blu-ray Disc players by 9:30am on Black Friday, indicating that Blu-ray players were one of the four or five “key” items people are searching for this holiday season.
• Digital distribution is likely to remain a niche market for awhile still, as, unlike music, people want to watch video on large screen HDTVs and high end 5.1 or 7.1 sound systems.  Until downloads can provide the quality required to drive such systems, it cannot compete in the mainstream market with packaged media.
• DVD sales continue to decline over previous years
• Foot traffic in stores is down 5-20% compared to last year
• Despite the economic crisis, Bishop expects another 150-300% growth year in 2009 for the Blu-ray format, as DVD sales continue to decline.

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Latest Blu-ray Deals for the Holidays

 

With the holidays quickly approaching, many have already taken advantage of the many fantastic deals being offered on Blu-ray players and discs and retailers across the country.  But, if you decided to avoid sustaining potentially fatal injuries attempting to grab a $128 player on Black Friday this year, rest assured there are still some great buys to be had – and some that don’t even require getting up out of your chair.  The best of the best going on this week are:

 

Amazon.com

• 45-55% off MSRP on select Blu-ray Disc titles
• Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale on select Blu-ray Disc titles
• Buy 3, Save $20; Buy 6, Save $50; Buy 10, Save $100 on select Blu-ray Disc titles
• Save an additional 20% off on select Sony Blu-ray Disc titles with the purchase of a select PS3 game
• Save $50 on the purchase of a Sony 80GB PS3, Blu-ray remote control, Sony Blu-ray disc movie, and a PS3 game
• Save $100 on the purchase of a Blu-ray Disc player and 4 select Warner Blu-ray Disc titles
• Save $150 on the purchase of a Samsung BD-P1500 BD-Live capable Blu-ray disc player and a select Samsung LCD HDTV
• Save $100 on the purchase of a Sony Blu-ray disc player and a select Sony LCD HDTV
• Samsung BD-P1500 on sale for $209
• Memorex Blu-ray player on sale for $169

 

Best Buy:

• Get a $10 Best Buy giftcard with the purchase of 2 select Blu-ray titles, or a $20 giftcard with the purchase of 3
• 2 for $30 on select Discovery Channel Blu-ray Disc titles
• Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Disc player with BD-Live on sale for $249

 

Circuit City:

• Panasonic DMP-BD35 Blu-ray Disc player with BD-Live on sale for $249, plus get Blood Diamond and Goodfellas on Blu-ray disc for free
• LG GBW-H20L 6x Blu-ray Disc burner for the PC on sale for $199

 

Walmart:

• Select Blu-ray Disc titles on sale for $15

 

Most of the in-store pricing is good only through Saturday, December 6.  Amazon’s offers will end at various times.

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Back up and running

Just a brief note before I get back to business around here...

Due to a confluence of events many have recently wondered whether or not I intended to keep this site up and running. The answer is yes, but its been a trying month. Some people reported being unable to access the site at various times, though the issues with Blogger and Go Daddy should now have been resolved. Also, Windows Live Writer, the blogging client I have used up until now, has recently started having problems updating older posts... making it impossible to update the title database, and difficult to do much of anything else. That issue hasn't been resolved, however, I'm now on a Mac, and am using a VERY roundabout way to update those posts using Windows Live Writer to edit the post (in a virtual machine) and then Ecto (a blog client for the Mac) to actually post. It's a mess, but Microsoft has promised to fix the issue in the next update to Live Writer. Regardless, the title lists are all up to date now, and everything else should be updated very soon.

More importantly, if you live in the United States, the election is this coming Tuesday. Although I made the decision awhile ago not to focus on politics on this site, that is my other major interest. This is quite possibly the most important election of most of our lives, and will likely decide the direction our country takes over the next several decades. Whatever your beliefs and political leanings, if you are eligible to vote, you owe it to yourself to make sure your voice is heard. Remember, if you don't vote, you give up the right to bitch about the guy that wins!

Now, then... I'll get off my soapbox.

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The State of the Format Address (Blu-ray after Q3 2008)

 

As we head into Q4 2008, its worth taking a look at the sales and release data for this past quarter, as well as since the inception of the format.  All statistics in this piece are for the U.S. only.

In terms of releases, this past quarter has marked a substantial increase in the number of titles released.  A total of 236 Blu-ray disc titles (not including adult titles or PS3 games) were released between July 1 and Sept. 30, 2008, and 82% increase from the previous quarter, and a full 70% of the number of titles released all of last year.

The above chart shows how many titles were released on Blu-ray disc in each quarter since the formats release, as well as how many titles have been announced so far for Q4 2008.

AS you can see, the first quarter in which over 100 titles were released was Q4 2007, and it wasn’t until Q3 2008 that over 200 titles were released in a single quarter.  Q4 2008 is shaping up very well, and its almost certain that once all titles have been announced, the total will be well over 300.

The total U.S. title count stands at 886 currently, and should easily be over 1,200 by the end of the year.  (Again, note that PS3 games, adult titles, and BD-R releases are not included in the total.

Although full sales data is not yet available for the last two weeks of Q3, the data throughout the rest of the quarter shows that Blu-ray disc sales varied between $6.1 mil and $10.6 mil per week.  Sales of DVD discs varied between $111 mil and $125 mil per week over the same period.  This data is for all titles, as opposed to the early release top 20 data I report each week, and thus gives DVD full credit for its extensive catalog of available titles, most of which are not yet available on Blu-ray disc.  Still, this leaves Blu-ray with between 5.3% and 8.3% of the total market each week.

Despite certain doomsday predictions that Blu-ray player pricing would increase following HD DVDs demise, the opposite has occurred.  Both Sony and Samsung have dropped the MSRP on BD-Live (Profile 2.0) players to below $300 now, and both “house brand” and name brand BonusView (Profile 1.1) players frequently sell for even less

Given the current economic slump (or recession… or dep—forget I said that) most analysts are prediction slow or no growth in retail this Q4.  This will make it more difficult for Blu-ray to make its big push into the mass market this year, though with the price cuts and release of many exciting titles it looks likely to do quite well, and to enter 2009 ready to truly break-out as a format to fully take on DVD.

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Nielson Videoscan Blu-ray vs. DVD Results for Weeks Ending 9/14 and 9/21

 

In case you didn’t have to look at enough charts due to the campaign season, here’s some that are actually interesting.

Methodology: Due to the disparity between the number of DVDs available vs. Blu-ray Discs available, Nielson VideoScan has chosen to compare only the Top 20 selling DVDs to the Top 20 Blu-ray Discs to track Blu-ray vs. DVD sales.  While this method results in interesting results for comparing the top selling discs on both formats, it is inherently biased towards Blu-ray as it is comparing an equal number of titles on both formats.  Whilst Blu-ray has over 700 titles released in the U.S., DVD has tens of thousands of released titles.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Another 8% week.  Blu-ray is hanging around the same point nearly every week lately.  They really need to make some major plays this Q4.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Speed Racer topped the sales chart for the week.  If nothing else that explains the lackluster percentage.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Say it with me now… 8%.  Shocking… absolutely astounding… ok, boring.  I don’t make the data, I just report

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

The only major surprise in the above charts is that Pan’s Labyrinth, Shoot Em Up, and A Clockwork Orange, all of which have been available on both BD and DVD forever now, sold more on Blu-ray than on DVD. 

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NPD Group Releases August, 2008 U.S. Console Sales Numbers

 

NPD has released their console sales numbers for the U.S., for August, 2008.  The next-gen console sales for the month were:

XBox 360: 195,200 

PS3: 185,400

Wii: 453,000

The recent price break has been beneficial to the XBox 360, allowing it to beat the PS3 in America for the first month since April.  Nintendo, of course, continues to prove that casual gamers (and even so-called “nongamers”) can actually be a far more profitable group than the “typical gamers” and hardcore gamers that Microsoft and Sony are fighting over.

The above graph shows how well each of the three next-gen systems sold in the U.S. so far in 2008.

Nintendo’s dominance is even more clear in the graph showing it skyrocketing past both other systems in sales this year.  With the “struggling economy” (which is the nice way of saying massive clusterf@ck on Wall St) the premium-priced PS3 likely won’t have the breakout Christmas this year they were hoping for.  The Xbox 360 will likely struggle as well, as though the lowest-priced model is comparable to the Wii’s pricing, the hard drive-equipped models cost more, as does the online service for those wishing to play against other players online.

Still, the XBox 360 has been out a year longer than the other consoles, so here is a chart that shows the total U.S. sales of the consoles over their lifetimes.

The Wii is now almost 1,000,000 units ahead of the XBox 360 in the United States, despite the year-long head start of Microsoft’s system.  The PS3 is trending very close to the XBox 360 in terms of time since release sales, which, if the trend continues, doesn’t bode especially well for the system in the U.S.  The PS3 needs to break away more substantially to catch the 360 in Microsoft’s home territory.

As many people have been asking me about worldwide sales numbers, I'll go ahead and provide a screengrab from VGChartz below.  While VGChartz' data is certainly interesting to look at, it must be noted that they have a smaller sample of data to work from than the NPD data for the U.S., and that they have to attempt to extrapolate data worldwide.  As such, it must be assumed that the data is somewhat less accurate than the NPD data.

Worldwide sales definitely shows an even bigger trend for the Wii's dominance and the slowing sales of the Xbox 360.  The PS3 trails the Xbox 360 by only 25% now, despite the Xbox's year-long head start.

While Microsoft continues to act as though the XBox 360 has been a rousing success, the slowing sales of the system, combined with massive hardware failures and a lowered price are doing nothing to bring long-term profitability to the Xbox division, something which Microsoft had promised when they launched the system.  At that time, Microsoft made it quite clear to investors that development of any future systems would be contingent on the Xbox division bringing a profit to the company in the current gen.

That leaves Microsoft in a precarious position… most likely, if they didn’t have to answer to investors, they would ditch the 360 and launch a new system next fall – one that is indisputably superior to the competing PS3 and doesn’t rely on a severely flawed design.  But the costs of developing the 360 aren’t even close to being recouped, much loess the money the extended warranty has cost the company, so an investor backlash would almost certainly result.  This leaves them in an awkward position, with the mass production of Blu-ray OPUs and other components dramatically cutting the production costs of the PS3 to ever-closer to that of the 360.  Even at higher (sometime considerably higher) prices, the PS3 has more than held its own this year against Microsoft’s offering, and if Sony decides to take a bigger hit on the system due to the economy, Microsoft could conceivably be forced (by their own investors) out of the gaming market by the end of this generation.

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World's smallest Blu-ray notebook (11.1") announced by Sony

 

Sony has officialy announced the smallest and lightest Blu-ray enabled notebook yet. The 11.1" Vaio TT series is set to replace the existing TZ series as Sony's smallest ultraportable notebook computer. The line measures only 10.99"x7.87"x0.93" thick and weighs in at only 2.87lbs.
The top of the line model features an internal Blu-ray burner (the first in such a small notebook), marking the first machine to be released with an ultra-thin 9.5mm BD drive.

The highest end model (VGN-TT190UBX) features a carbon fiber casing, 11.1" 16:9 LED-backlit (1366x768) screen, HDMI and VGA outputs, 2x 128 GB SSDs in a RAID configuration, Intel Core 2 Duo SU 9400 1.4GHz processor, Wirelessi-N and Gigabit ethernet, bluetooth, and 4GB DDR3 RAM in addition to the 2x BD-R/RE burner. Given the $4,345 price tag, it also essentially comes with a steal me sign and a second mortgage, but customizeable models should be available within a month or so that allow you to get the BD burner but not the dual SSDs for substantially less.

Equally interesting, is that 9.5mm BD burners for notebooks have gone into mass production, giving substantial weight to rumors that "a certain other notebook manufacturer" will be announcing BD burner options in their new notebook line to be announced on October 14.

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Nielson Videoscan Blu-ray vs. DVD Results for Week Ending 8/31

 

In case you didn’t have to look at enough charts due to the campaign season, here’s some that are actually interesting.

Methodology: Due to the disparity between the number of DVDs available vs. Blu-ray Discs available, Nielson VideoScan has chosen to compare only the Top 20 selling DVDs to the Top 20 Blu-ray Discs to track Blu-ray vs. DVD sales.  While this method results in interesting results for comparing the top selling discs on both formats, it is inherently biased towards Blu-ray as it is comparing an equal number of titles on both formats.  Whilst Blu-ray has over 700 titles released in the U.S., DVD has tens of thousands of released titles.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Oddly, Blu-ray managed to shoot up nearly 30% vs its own sales from the previous week, yet didn’t actually pick up any ground on DVD, which was just up 3% from the previous week.  In the end Blu-ray managed just 6% of overall sales volume among the top 20 titles on both formats.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Nothing too exciting this week, with the new catalog release of The Nightmare Before Christmas leading the way on Blu-ray.  New titles Heroes: Season 2 and What Happens in Vegas fared alright as well, but the chart falls off quickly from there.  Comparing new releases to their DVD counterparts, Heroes: Season 2 managed to do 8% of its sales volume on Blu-ray Disc, but What Happens in Vegas did less than 4% of its volume on Blu-ray.

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September Blu-ray Release Slate

 

It’s here!  The biggest month so far in Blu-ray release history is finally upon us, and many Blu-ray fans are preparing to go for broke this month, with the huge slate of major releases.  For better or worse, though, November and December are shaping up to be even bigger months for releases.  If you’re on a budget, be sure to check out the full release schedule to plan your purchases accordingly.

The month starts, on September 2, with Paramount finally bringing out last summer’s mega-hit Transformers to Blu-ray.  Every other studio mainly stayed away from the blockbuster’s debut, though Warner is bringing out a slate of catalog titles the same day, including Eraser, Every Which Way but Loose, The Gauntlet, Outbreak, and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

The following week, on September 9, a huge number of titles will be released, headlined by Disney, who is releasing Kill Bill, Volumes 1 & 2.  Warner and Sony continue rolling out classics with Cool Hand Luke & How the West Was Won and Jerry Maguire & Rudy respectively.  Meanwhile, Universal brings this summer’s Tina Fey comedy Baby Mama to disc and Starz puts out a Zombie Bundle, including Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Evil Dead 2.  In TV releases, Disney brings Grey’s Anatomy: Season 4 while Warner releases Smallville: Season 7.

On the 16th, Weinstein Co. officially joins the Blu-ray ranks, releasing 1408 and The Mist, and Paramount releases animated hits Shrek the Third and Madagascar.  Warner and Universal will be releasing two big budget films that didn’t fare so well at the box office: Speed Racer and 2003’s Hulk movie respectively.  Warner will also be releasing Risky Business and Another Cinderella Story, as well as TV releases Pushing Daisies: Season 1 and Torchwood: Season 1.

September 23 has less releases than the surrounding weeks, but with Paramount releasing the fully restored Godfather Collection, what else do you really need?  In case you do have some money left over, Warner will be releasing this summer’s hit Sex and the City: The Movie along with catalog titles LA Confidential and Blow.

The final week of the month (Sept. 30) brings a trio of comedies from Universal: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (also available as a 3-pack), and a trio of horror titles: Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead, and The Thing (also available as a 3-pack).  Paramount, meanwhile bring’s out this summer’s blockbuster Iron Man, while Fox brings out the less successful Daredevil.  Sony and Disney focus on catalog fare, releasing Can’t Hardly Wait, Maid in Manhattan, Mona Lisa Smile, My Best Friend’s Wedding (all Sony), and The Sixth Sense (Disney).

If you aren’t broke after all that, have no fear, as October promises to bring hits such as The Matrix collection, 6 films from the James Bond canon, Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, the latest Indiana Jones film, Casino, American Gangster, The Incredible Hulk, Sweeney Todd, and the Mel Berooks classic Young Frankenstein, along with the usual pre-Halloween horror bonanza.

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Blu-ray Deals of the Week for Aug. 31- Sep. 6, 2008

 

Presented again by popular demand, here are some of the best deals from retailers and online etailers for Blu-ray disc movies and players for the week.  In-store specials are generally good Sunday-Saturday unless otherwise noted. 

Amazon.com:

• 45% off MSRP on Blu-ray movie bundles
• 8 Blu-ray Titles for $80 with purchase of the Sony BDP-S300 ($339.99), PS3 ($399.99), or the brand new BDP-S350 ($360.25) Blu-ray players -- the 8 titles are:
  • Black Hawk Down
  • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
  • Dogma
  • A Few Good Men
  • Gattaca
  • Life of Brian
  • Resident Evil: Apocalypse
  • The Fifth Element
• Samsung BD-P1500 BonusView Blu-ray player on sale for $299.96
• Sony BDP-S350 BonusView (BD-Live updateable) player on sale for $221.89
• Panasonic DMP-BD50 BD-Live Blu-ray player now instock and for sale at $496.18
• Panasonic SC-BT100 BonusView Blu-ray HTIB on sale for $781.95

Best Buy:

• Insignia (Funai) BonusView Blu-0ray Disc player on sale for $249.99 – also get another $100 off with purchase of an Insignia 1080p HDTV
• Titles on sale for $14.99 each:
• Enter the Dragon
• A Clockwork Orange
• Alexander Revisited
• Swordfish
• March of the Penguins
• The Aviator
• The Fugitive
• Titles on sale for $19.99 each:
• Step Up 2: The Streets
• The Scorpion King 2
• Shoot ‘Em Up
• Troy
• 300
• 16 Blocks
• We Are Marshall
• Ocean’s 13
• Pan’s Labyrinth

Frys.com:

• Select Blu-ray Disc titles on sale for $14.99 as a labor day special (sale likely ends 9/1):
• Robocop
• A Bridge Too Far
• Man on Fire
• Cast Away
• Windtalkers
• The Sand Pebbles
• The Longest Day
• The Hills Have Eyes 2
• The Usual Suspects
• Edward Scissorhands
• Courage Under Fire
• Independence Day
• Kiss of the Dragon
• Eragon
• Wall Street
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• The Day After Tomorrow
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Mrs. Doubtfire
• Me, Myself, and Irene
• Entrapment

Target:

• Free $10 Target Giftcard w/ purchase of any of the following PS3 games:
• NCAA Football ‘09
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘09
• Madden NFL ‘09

Circuit City:

• Samsung BD-P1500 BonusView player on sale for $349.99
• Titles: on sale for $14.99 each:
• The Aviator
• Bullitt
• Enter the Dragon
• March of the Penguins
• The Fugitive
• Swordfish
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• The Punisher
• The Shining
• The Devil’s Rejects
• Stargate

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NPD Group Releases July, 2008 U.S. Console Sales Numbers

 

NPD has released their console sales numbers for the U.S., for July, 2008.  The next-gen console sales for the month were:

XBox 360: 204,800 

PS3: 224,900

Wii: 555,000

Nintendo continues to slaughter everything in its path with the phenomenal success of its Wii console.  While Sony’s sales fell from the excellent month they had in June, they still managed to once again beat Microsoft’s offering even in their home territory.  Next month may finally change that trend, with the XBox 360s lowered pricing, but just how large of an effect that is having remains to be seen.

The above graph shows how well each of the three next-gen systems sold in the U.S. so far in 2008.

Nintendo’s sales continue to soar, but its also noteworthy that the PS3 is starting to finally pull away from the XBox 360 in the U.S.

Still, the XBox 360 has been out a year longer than the other consoles, so here is a chart that shows the total U.S. sales of the consoles over their lifetimes.

The Wii’s line has obviously overtaken the XBox 360’s, while the PS3 continues to sell somewhat better than the 360, but isn’t making up the huge ground needed to overtake it in sales since inception.

As many people have been asking me about worldwide sales numbers, I'll go ahead and provide a screengrab from VGChartz below.  While VGChartz' data is certainly interesting to look at, it must be noted that they have a smaller sample of data to work from than the NPD data for the U.S., and that they have to attempt to extrapolate data worldwide.  As such, it must be assumed that the data is somewhat less accurate than the NPD data.

Worldwide sales definitely shows an even bigger trend for the Wii's dominance and the slowing sales of the Xbox 360.  The PS3 is now only 25% the XBox 360 in worldwide sales, and could be beating it by the end of the year if the latest trends continue.

It’s possible, of course, that the latest round of price drops for the XBox 360 will improve that system’s dwindling fortunes, but then again, its also possible – given Microsoft’s track record – that next year will mark the release of another new system for the company.  Either way, fun to watch.

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Disney Announces Upcoming Platinum Titles

 

While Disney is just now gearing up for the big push of their latest “Platinum Collection” release, Sleeping Beauty (due on Oct. 7), they have gone ahead and set the next two years worth of titles.

The “platinum collection” are a set of 14 (15 if you count Fantasia 2000 which will be released alongside the original film) of Disney’s best classic animation titles that are released at a rate of two a year on a seven year cycle, with the titles going out of print after each run and being placed “back in the vault.”  Each release is considered an event by Disney, and each title is treated to an exceptional set of bonus features, along with a new transfer, and often a full restoration of the original film elements.

Sleeping Beauty will be the first platinum collection title to be released on Blu-ray, and will receive a tremendous set of features, including BonusView PiP and BD-Live online features that utilize the very latest features available on the Blu-ray format.

Now, the New York Times is reporting that Disney has officially announced their next two years’ worth of releases, including Pinocchhio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, and Beauty and the Beast.

Although Disney didn’t give specific release dates for all the films to the New York Times, the films are expected to be released as follows:

• Pinocchio: Mar. 3 or 10, 2009
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Oct. 6, 2009
• Fantasia and Fantasia 2000: Mar. 2, 2010
• Beauty and the Beast: Oct. 5, 2010

Although the titles weren’t announced, the next two films in the platinum collection due for re-issue are The Lion King and Aladdin, so hopefully those will be out in 2011, though one or the other may get pushed in order to push up Bambi or Cinderella, in order not to release 3 1990s classics back-to-back.

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Nielson Videoscan Blu-ray vs. DVD Results for Weeks Ending 8/17 and 8/24/2008

 

Yay!  More charts!  Okay, maybe I’m just OCD, but whatever.

Methodology: Due to the disparity between the number of DVDs available vs. Blu-ray Discs available, Nielson VideoScan has chosen to compare only the Top 20 selling DVDs to the Top 20 Blu-ray Discs to track Blu-ray vs. DVD sales.  While this method results in interesting results for comparing the top selling discs on both formats, it is inherently biased towards Blu-ray as it is comparing an equal number of titles on both formats.  Whilst Blu-ray has over 700 titles released in the U.S., DVD has tens of thousands of released titles.

Taking a look at week ending 8/17 first:

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

While both Blu-ray and DVD sales were down double-digit percentages since the previous week, Blu-ray’s 8% marketshare isn’t too exciting.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

An overall unimpressive week, with no major new releases.  Neither chart has any major surprises.

For week ending 8/24/08:

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Well, that’s just embarrassing.  Though Blu-ray sales were up 14% from the previous week, only getting 6% up against DVD for the week is a new low.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

Street Kings won the week, followed by Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which also did a very impressive 17.42% of its first week sales on Blu-ray.  See, there’s a silver lining… I suppose.

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I’m Back… Again!

 

Well, just weeks after coming back from the last absence, my notebook completely died, and took all my data along with it.  I’m back on a temporary desktop and will be posting a lot of make-up news over the next few days.  Already the Blu-ray title database and Blu-ray player firmware update pages are updated.  If you have a Sony BD player, be sure to check out the firmware update page as major updates have just been released for most models.

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Blu-ray Deals of the Week for Aug. 10- Aug. 16, 2008

 

Presented again by popular demand, here are some of the best deals from retailers and online etailers for Blu-ray disc movies and players for the week.  In-store specials are generally good Sunday-Saturday unless otherwise noted. 

Amazon.com:

• 45% off MSRP on Blu-ray movie bundles
• 8 Blu-ray Titles for $80 with purchase of the Sony BDP-S300 ($339.99), PS3 ($399.99), or the brand new BDP-S350 ($360.25) Blu-ray players -- the 8 titles are:
  • Black Hawk Down
  • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
  • Dogma
  • A Few Good Men
  • Gattaca
  • Life of Brian
  • Resident Evil: Apocalypse
  • The Fifth Element
• Samsung BD-P1500 BonusView Blu-ray player on sale for $311.57
• Panasonic DMP-BD50 BD-Live Blu-ray player now instock and for sale at $599.99
• Panasonic SC-BT100 BonusView Blu-ray HTIB on sale for $813.57

Best Buy:

• A Few Good Men, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, Layer Cake, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Resident Evil – on sale for $19.99 each

Target:

• Buy 2 Get 1 Free on Select Blu-ray disc titles – available titles:
  • Surf’s Up
  • Superbad
  • The Fifth Element
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  • Casino Royale
  • The PAtriot
  • Spiderman 3
  • Black Hawk Down

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