DVD pricing hurts Blu-ray movie sales?

[Randomus]

I just posted the article DVD pricing hurts Blu-ray movie sales?.

Although Blu-ray movie sales have tripled since the same time period in 2008, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, movie studios still aren't happy with the amount of Blu-ray Discs sold so...

Read the full article here:  [http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15549-DVD-pricing-hurts-Blu-ray-movie-sales.html](http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15549-DVD-pricing-hurts-Blu-ray-movie-sales.html)

Feel free to add your comments below. 

Please note that the reactions from the complete site will be synched below.

[CDan]

Maybe they should try actually releasing some catalog films on BD if they want to sell something. There are still many times more DVDs released each week than BD.

[Ramza]

I see I’m not the only who made that reasoning.

Why buy a Blu-Ray of an old movie? Your Blu-Ray player can still upscale a DVD fine. It’s not real HD, but far from the screen your eyes will have a hard time noticing a difference.

Blu-Ray’s futur is with the new movies being released, not the old ones. Movie directors know their movie will be released in HD now, so they will take that into account as well when shooting scenes.

[ferd]

I was just walking through the Blu-ray aisle at Target Store this afternoon, and the new movies were $29.99. Some older ones were $24.99 and there was a home movie of a trip to the Himalayas or something, taken with some guy’s hand-held video camera for $19.99. No wonder nobody wants to buy them.

[guest]

If Titatnic is $4.99 on DVD then the BluRay should be $9.99. These corporate execs still don’t understand the concept of volume. Why sell one item for $20 when you can sell 10 for $10?

[shaolin007]

@Dave

The reason why is because they calculate what price and quantity will get them the most profit. Selling more doesn’t necessarily mean more profits. There is a point in the curve where more is bad just like less is bad.

[guest]

Old movies look better on bluray too. People seem to forget that the source is film, and that dvd’s are compressed. I’ve got a few older movies on bluray and they look great on bluray.

The problem is, the dvd’s from old movies are in the bargain bin at walmart for 4.99. Then they try to sell the bluray for 20 or 30. To me bluray is worth 5 more dollars per disc, maybe 10 on the odd disc I really want. By offering the dvd’s so cheap, their outpricing themselves on bluray. VHS tapes weren’t this cheap when DVD’s came out. DVD’s are stupidly cheap now (on old releases), it’ll be hard for bluray to compete with that.

[franz99]

The compression use on DVD-video is MPEG-2: the best one ever made by the Fraunhoffer Institute !
All the other compressions used these days on Blu-Ray are
MORE DESTRUCTIVE than MPEG-2.
So my choice is to stay on DVD for along time … until eventually things evolve.

And I am not talking about all the good movies and documentaries that you do NOT find on Blu-ray …

[guest]

To say that older movies look better in blu-ray is nonsense. The movies were not film in HD, and nor have they been remastered to take advantage of HD. Studios are not releasing catalogue titles because blu-ray isn’t selling - not to mention the fact that putting out a blu-ray version is an expensive process. People are going to wait and wait until the price is as low as DVD before they buy hi-def, as the actual benefit just isn’t worth it. I’ve said it before but it’s going to take YEARS before hi-def to take off (whether it is then blu-ray or something else is another debate).

[Some_Random_Guy]

As the owner of a blu-ray player, I’ll tell you the one thing that makes me reconsider every time I think abut dropping $20 on a Blu-ray: compatibility.

If I buy a new Blu-ray, I can watch it in high-definition, but it must be on my living room TV. However, if I want to watch it in my bedroom, at my girlfriend’s place, at my parents’ house, or at the houses of any friends or relatives, I have to rent or buy the DVD. And that DVD will at least be upscaled in my living room.

The one thing that would make me buy more Blu-rays is including a DVD version in the same package. None of this “Digital Copy”, DRM-riddled crap. It’s not hard to do - they make standard double Blu-ray cases. I think just a week ago I saw a commercial for some Disney movie where they finally did that, and they should keep it up.

[ivid]

I disagree and I am a broadcast engineer and work with these formats. Actually MPEG4, VC-1 are very good codecs and formats, AVCHD is fantastic ! I wish all BR’s used AVCHD.

[ivid]

Of course any movie will look better in Blu Ray. 35mm is pretty much HD when you scan it at 2K. Any film, old or new, can be scanned to HD with the same results. If the movie was filmed in HD then it may loook a little better but some purists will argue the opposite.
Studios stagger the release of their classics over the lifertime of the formats, they did with DVD. Look how long Star Wars took to come out on DVD.
I agree, prices need to drop but HD in general is getting cheaper pretty fast and becoming common place (meaning soo you won’t be able to buy a TV that cannot display HD resolution).

[franz99]

Thanks ivid for your opinion !

So I will stay with DVD only for the second reason:
" all the good movies and documentaries that you do NOT find on Blu-ray …"

[Crabbyappleton]

Yeah! Why not Blu-ray/ DVD discs? Oh, I forgot, people wont pay 30 bucks for a DVD. Might as well sell them separate. Never mind…

[Anthony1uk]

For the people that say old films on Blu-Ray look no better than DVD, are these people that have actually watched some old films on Blu-Ray, or are they just speculating?

I have watched, just off the top of my head, The Omega Man, The Searchers and Adventures of Robin Hood in Hidef and they look superb and its like night and day differences from the DVD, which I also have owned.

[ferd]

Do you put the screen on top of your head and look at yourself in the mirror, or what?
(Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)

[BitRate]

People aren’t buying into Blu-ray because they don’t want to spend $$$ on replacing the DVD titles they already have. I have a 42" HDTV and don’t care about Blu-ray right now as it makes no economic sense. My Pioneer DV 410 does a great job upscaling DVD tiles via HDMI.

[Primo_1]

I mow have both blueray wirter on my PC & standalone for TV, have now also purchassed older titles upscaled to HD, these titles are alot better visual, as well as audio, I’m all for the Blueray, keep it coming.

[Hypnosis4U2NV]

Bring Blu-Ray down to a rspectable level $20 and then Ill bite… Ill bite even more when you could make affordable backups. I hate to bring up a dead format, but I have a few HD DVD titles that actually the DVD version on the flip side of the disc… Why cant Blu-Ray do this?

[ivid]

If you like documentaries, have you seen Planet Earth on Blu Ray or HD DVD ? Jaw dropping fantastic. It may change your mind…