Blu-ray Disc News: Blu-ray Disc

Showing posts with label Blu-ray Disc. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Blu-ray Disc. Show all posts

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Blu-ray Disc Pricing Becoming More Standardized

blu-ray_logo 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Nielson Videoscan Blu-ray vs. DVD Results for Week Ending 8/3/2008

Another week, another set of stats comparing Blu-ray disc sales to DVD sales. (Honestly, wasn't it much more fun to look at the graphs of BD trouncing HD DVD than to look at graphs of DVDs continuing dominance?)

Comparing Blu-ray sales data to total DVD sales data is no easy task, however. The sheer volume of DVDs available in the retail market makes it nearly impossible to hypothesize with any accuracy how many total DVD discs are sold in any given week. Thus, 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 week in the double digits for Blu-ray. More impressive even is the huge jump from the previous week.

Source: Nielson VideoScan via www.homemediamagazine.com

With no AAA day-and-date releases last week, Blu-ray’s strength was in the sheer volume of releases on the format, with only a 4:1 advantage of the top title over the 12th title by volume. In terms of sales vs. DVD, Paramount’s catalog BD releases did exceptionally well, taking the top 4 spots, all of which did over 60% of their sales volume on Blu-ray.

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