The Latest Poll on Blu-Ray? Takeup is Tepid

“More Americans own dedicated HD-DVD players than a Blu-ray player, at least according to the results of a Harris poll released late on Thursday.  Although the HD-DVD format died in Feb. 2008, 11 percent of the consumers surveyed by Harris own an HD-DVD player, versus 7 percent who own a dedicated Blu-ray player. If game consoles are combined, however, the position reverses: 9 percent own a Blu-ray-capable Sony PlayStation 3, versus 3 percent who said they own an HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360.

Sony, for its part, claims 11 million Blu-ray devices are in American homes, executives said at a press conference Thursday night describing new BD-Live features. BD sales grew 400 percent during the first quarter, compared to a year ago, said Mike Abary, Sony’s senior vice president for information technology products and audio. Abary did not reveal the actual sales numbers, however.

Harris also polled consumers on their preferences and buying habits. There, the numbers tend to favor standard-definition DVDs, with consumers stating that they purchased six standard-format DVDs in the last six months compared to a disc in a high-def format.

The Harris poll apparently did not take into account the growth on video-on-demand services, which encompass both SD and HD video formats.”     Story at PCmag

Slumdog Retail Copies Missing Special Features (at Sachem)

“A few weeks it was reported that FOX was planning to remove the special features from the rental versions of its DVDs. Understandably, this upset a lot of people, including DVD retailers themselves. For consumers, the idea that there would be two separate versions of a DVD out there, on top of the double dips, special super editions,etc was a bit much.  On the retailer side, it promised to create a lot more work for everyone involved.”

It now appears consumers are getting screwed in a completely unforeseen way: People purchasing DVDs from Amazon and Midwest Tapes are finding that the special features advertised on the back of the box are nowhere to be found.  This has happened at Sachem Library, and we will undoubtedly be handling patron complaints and confusion about this issue now that they are circulating.   Full Story

Warner To Release Never Before Available DVDs

“Warner Bros has produced over 6,800 theatrical films, but only 1,200 or so titles are available on DVD.  The studio has announced that they are opening their movie vault, through a new website WarnerArchive.com.  The  site is an on-demand manufacturing operation where dvds cost $19.95, and will be shipped with cover art within five days of purchase.  150 titles are available now with 20 to be released each month.      Full Story

Blu-ray’s Fuzzy Future

Despite brisk sales of The Dark Knight on blu-ray, there is little to be happy for Sony’s high-def format at the moment.  Standard DVD software and hardware sales continue to dominate the newer format, and even as more people start to adopt Blu-ray players, greater challenges are arising in the form of easily available high-def streaming content from Netflix and other providers.   Story at NYT