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Analyst predicts beginning of the end for DVD
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 27 December, 2007
Michael Nathanson, analyst for Bernstein Research, is predicting the demise of the DVD as the dominant vehicle for consumer video. His prediction comes as DVD sales are down more than 4% for the year according to data from Nielsen VideoScan. Nathanson believes retailers will soon start reducing shelf space dedicated to DVDs as a vacuum is created which will need to be filled by the winner ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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usndoc
Newbie
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28. December 2007 @ 13:27 |
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I think we need to separate two concepts:
1. New MEDIA format
2. New VIDEO format.
DVD -> HD/BluRay is a VIDEO FORMAT conversion. Whether that change will spell the doom of DVD (VIDEO FORMAT) is to be seen, depending on customer demand.
HOWEVER: I think we should consider MEDIA format changes. To say "DVDs are on their way out" do we mean MEDIA or VIDEO? I think that if there is a more durable MEDIA then DVDs (MEDIA) will expire. BLURAY and HD are pretty much on the same TYPE of medium. So if the MEDIA will deteriorate in 10 years, then HD and BLURAY will follow.
Anyone want to chime in on the new possible FORMATS? Yes, LASERDISC was a FORMAT and a VIDEO change, both at the same time. (Anyone want to buy a bunch of Laserdiscs?)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. December 2007 @ 13:28
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varnull
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28. December 2007 @ 14:23 |
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Actually Laserdisk was only a media change. The output was standard pal/ntsc a/v output the same as the philips vcr's of the era. Fair enough it had optional subtitles/audio choices and stillframe, but the output was either UHF rf or composite video and audio. Some ntsc models also had RGB output, which was useful if you wanted to play North American disks in Europe and had a monitor which had the inputs (some grundig and philips tv's)
The same can actually be said of dvd. Most low end models only output composite video/audio and will directly replace a vcr.
The change is with HD setups, where the output is actually different and requires different viewing hardware as well. More expense for consumers who are facing the onset of a depression.
I think dvd will be with us for many years to come, and these 2 HD formats will probably never gain the major market share before they are replaced with "the next new thing"
So enough of this "analysts predict" BS.. vhs tape is still with us and regardless of the years the CD has been around you can still buy audio cassettes on the high street. Millions of people have a large investment in the dvd format and are not going to rush out to spend £1000 on a completely new setup on a whim.
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OhCrap
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28. December 2007 @ 14:59 |
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Originally posted by tester22:
And standard DVD is here to stay! Granted that the production of the DVDs will eventually cease, players are sure to stick around for the obvious reason. I love DVD and don't and won't plan on replacing many of my DVDs with an HD version.
Oh............Blu-ray AND HD-DVD are here to stay boys and girls. There will NOT be a winner. The outcome will absolutely be dual-format players. It's amazing that so many dilute themselves into thinking that "yeah, sure, if HD-DVD prevails then Sony will just stop manufacturing and start making ALL the movies they've already made in blu-ray, in HD-DVD" Yeah right. Anyone who believes this...........please...........stay out of the driver's seat of a car because your sensibility can't be trusted.
I agree with that 100%, that's is one of the smartest things I've heard on this site. Honestly all this bickering over a format winner is crap.
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OhCrap
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28. December 2007 @ 15:12 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by tester22:
"yeah, sure, if HD-DVD prevails then Sony will just stop manufacturing and start making ALL the movies they've already made in blu-ray, in HD-DVD"
I can't imagine how you can think this. Imagine if format-X's sales skyrocketed. The remaining studios who are supporting format-Y or are dual format would most definitely jump to make format-Xs, it only makes sense to make a product that sells.
Well in reality, one is not out selling the other by a large margin. So your point is pointless. The only reason people get into heated conversations about these formats is because they feel like they have invested heavily in one or the other and no one likes to see their team lose.
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varnull
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28. December 2007 @ 15:16 |
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I have a sony vhs recorder. (hahaha) The thing is.. Sony haven't had one domestic media format adopted by consumers and manufacturers across the board. They are way too greedy with manufacturing licenses...
We will all be sitting here in 10 years watching out streamed HD content wondering what all the fuss about disk formats was all about.
(don't say U-Matic.. it was 1. professional.. 2. invented by Grundig.)
Anybody remember the competitor for Laserdisk? Also disk based... both lost out to tape, even though the quality was lower.. you could record whatever you wanted on it.. The only good thing coming out of this disk format madness is the price of standalone dvd recorders is falling rapidly.
As more people are able to record from broadcast on dvd they will.. and reject the HD playback only formats.
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usndoc
Newbie
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28. December 2007 @ 16:09 |
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All I can say is the folks on the Laserdisc side didn't copy protect (nor should they have). I have transferred all of my Laserdiscs to DVD media (by playing the S video into a video capture board. Granted its just NTSC but the quality was entirely acceptable. I just had to edit out the "change sides" notice. There should be no reason we cannot perpetuate what we own. Cassette tapes were the first medium to allow LPs and other records to be mixed and copied.
PS In case any one wants to know, Toshiba makes one heck of a PAL DVD player that generates excellent NTSC quality. I found this more acceptable than the software that was supposed to change formats, but did so less acceptably.
Bottom line is: eventually we will distribute video as we now do music to everyone who wants to buy it. (And.. no silly workarounds for something like DRM that is kindergarten easy to bypass). And there will be no computers/TVs. Going all digital in 2009 will promote the possibility of the "file" and the "playing device." The media will be moot.
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Member
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28. December 2007 @ 16:30 |
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I don't know why a decrease of 4% during this period is a milestone for the end of the dvd era. Maths and probability theories don't are in conjuction with this item. They try to convince us that we're insains. Perosnally after readind the post in question I'm going once a while to the toilet and see if in my face there' s a sign stating jackass. On the oher hand there's no reference about the dvd players to be incorporated to other devices excep stand alone dvd playres. Finaly nobody feels that in this moment families own more than two or three stand alone players except those who are part of pc's, laptops, cars, camcorders, etc. How many a house has to own? I doubt the provided numbers. Somebody want to put deep his hands in our pockets. That's why I' ll stick to DVD industry for the next seven years. Punto e basta!
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duke8888
Junior Member
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28. December 2007 @ 20:08 |
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Its going to take about two years before they decide a winner on the format so that they can drain the consumer of his money.
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ematrix
Junior Member
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28. December 2007 @ 20:34 |
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Tester22... it's not that your opinion has no merit, which actually has since you offer valid statements, and nobody is disputing nor rejecting them, the point is that you're being disrespectful to others in the process without any provocation nor reason to do so.
Back to the subject, nobody is disputing that HD DVD / Blu-Ray offers an improvement in audiovisual quality compared to DVD, but what we're saying is that such improvement isn't enough to justify buying the same movies again at even higher prices than we did (and still do) for them in DVD format, specially when you can achieve similar results (not equal) viewing current DVD titles throw upscaling DVD players.
Finally and to my defense it really doesn't matter if i looked up this information, the fact is that it doesn't matter the time and date of invention of every format, but what matters it the time and date in which such formats became availible to consumers, per example development of Blu-Ray and HD DVD began in the early 2000s (2000-2002) but it wasn't until spring 2006 that both HD DVD / Blu-Ray players and titles became availible to consumers, therefore both formats have been around publicly for a year.
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sciascia
Junior Member
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28. December 2007 @ 23:39 |
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Think of this, if there were going to be no clear winner, there would be no sides taken by major movie studios, they'd just produce the same movies for both formats. This is not the case, and eventually it is completely realistic to believe that one will become the standard format over the other. It is too expensive to press the same movie on two different formats, eventually the movie studios will stick to one format, and the other will die off. Think VHS vs. Betamax, or more recently, DVD versus DIVX.
Also, try not to be so rude with your retorts, it really compromises the validity of your opinions when you reply with such anger and self justification.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. December 2007 @ 23:44
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red2tango
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29. December 2007 @ 04:14 |
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Originally posted by edlonwlf:
Blu - Ray vs HD DVD huh ..... that sounds like a similiar "war" that happened a while back between Sony (of course) and everyone else.
Beta vs VHS ...... Guess sony didn't learn.
learn what?they're winning...your point?
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JRude
Junior Member
1 product review
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29. December 2007 @ 16:32 |
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FIRST! I am not market driven. I watch movies! Old ones, new ones, documentaries. I have 10+ year old DVD's that work fine. I have VHS tapes over 20 years old that play fine. I have Backup discs YEARS old that play fine. I think some of you people read too much fluff and believe new technology is always the answer. It's a CHOICE! I can embrace them all. But I sure don't want to invest in thousands of $$$'s to ''upgrade'' either my media format or or my PC. Too much control comes with each new ''upgrade''. It is intended. DOWNLOAD a DRM flic or music that plays on one platform? NOT! I can bypass the controls, but why should I have to? It's going to get worse. Guaranteed. I have THOUSANDS of DVD's...they ain't dead yet! If I'm watching a DVD or fossil VHS I do not notice the resolution once into the content. As it should be. A crap flic in Blu-Ray or HD is a crap film. Only thing dead is the minds of too many consumers. So all you young bucks clamor and spout. But watch your back with with each new ''upgrade''! Have a reasonable day. It's all we can expect. The rest is a gift.
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AfterDawn Addict
6 product reviews
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29. December 2007 @ 18:08 |
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The fact is that DVD sales are going down but not just because consumers are not buying them the fact is that the copy protection is easy to break so people copy these things. Which means the cost of DVD's actually gone down to buy but people rather spend less than $5 to rent go home burn and then take back and watch at their own pleasure.
HD DVD and BLU-Ray will see the same trends as well simple and sad but true.
My 2cents.
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ematrix
Junior Member
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29. December 2007 @ 19:38 |
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WELL SAID JRUDE!
Borhan9... adding to what I said before, that's also why the best would be to make a significant reduction on retail prices for DVD / HD DVD / Blu-Ray movies, which would allow consumers to buy more movies rather than rip them, bacause ripping and burning DVD movies is cheap, fast and easy, and for those who care only for the main movie, just need to rent it and make a copy.
Not so with HD discs, which can sometimes be difficult (specially if contains BD+) and indeed it's time consuming to rip and burn them, since takes much more gigs to store them on a hard drive, and finally place the content on a blank disc. Currently the prices for HD burners and media is very expensive, granted that in the future such prices will lower, but for the time being you better off buying the original stuff rather than ripping and burning HD films.
Consider that they haven't surpass 56x for CD-R and 20x for DVD-R, and even those burning speeds aren't ideal if you wish reliable results, because even technology has its limitations, and in the case of discs they can only achieve a maximum velocity, before reaching an unstable performance, even to the point of risking permanent damage to your equipment.
Also is easy and not much time consuming to convert a ripped DVD into a version that fits on a portable media player like iPod. No emerging format, be it a video store like Amazon's Unbox, or Xbox Live, or Netflix's streaming rental service, or HD DVD or Blu-ray, not even VHS on its 2 decades of life had such vast catalogue of films and TV shows like DVD does currently... which leads to my final observation.
HD DVD / Blu-Ray is merely an upgrade from DVD, not a new media and video format like DVD was against VHS. Everybody surely has their own DVD movies and TV series collection, which could go from hundreds to thousands of titles, no wonder why most consumers don't feel the rush to replace their DVD titles to even more overpriced HD DVD / Blu-Ray titles, nor spending thousands of $$$'s to upgrade all their equipment, merely because of an audiovisual improvement, there should be more than that, specially when they expect us to pay full price again for a movie we already own.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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30. December 2007 @ 12:51 |
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Maybe sales are down because of piracy...
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laddyboy
AfterDawn Addict
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30. December 2007 @ 13:23 |
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Cinema movie theater ticket sales were stagnant this year. Theater revenues were up only because ticket prices were inceased. Actual tickets sold were the same over last year. Is this due to theater viewing being on the decline as a technology/way of life or due to the fact that there was little available for viewing this year that moviegoers wanted to see? Also what's happened to DVD rentals? Could it be more people are just using BBO and NF for movie watching and not purchasing? I know I only buy titles that I want to keep to view repeatedly and those are mostly HD DVD now. That doesn't include many films of the ones released over the year. I pick up a lot of used ones for $3 - $4 at BB and Hollywood. Are those included as sales, or are just new DVDs counted as sales?
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nopcbs
Junior Member
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30. December 2007 @ 19:43 |
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I suppose you can say that this is the begining of the end for the DVD format, but it is going to be a very lingering death. Look at the prices of DVD movies and look at the prices of cooresponding HD-DVD or Blu-ray versions. Then look at the quality of most ports of recent to older movies from DVD to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. The roughly 2X price differential is simply not worth it. With newer films, especially those shot in HD, the differential is much more justified, but the cost is still simply too high for people to buy as many HD format movies as the buy in DVD format. When the price comes down to very near that of the DVD format for new movies, then you will see the HD formats supplant the DVD. Not until.
The HD-DVD disks that are DVD on one side are a great idea making the buy sorta future proof. Wish all the HD-DVD disks were like that.
I don't buy the video on demand supplanting disk-based distribution in the near term. The bandwidth is simply not there and the interface is clunky.
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hermes_vb
Senior Member
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31. December 2007 @ 00:23 |
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Analysts predict...Blah Blah Blah. Who cares what so called expterts say nowadays. They are often wrong or not 100% sure about their predictions. So what's the point?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 31. December 2007 @ 12:35
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Yoohoo2G
Junior Member
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31. December 2007 @ 02:27 |
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I agree with #1 & #2. This prediction is kinda bullcrap. First of all, not even 90% of American household own a HDTV yet (I talked to this video rental store owner in my area, he's just started to have Blu-Ray DVD for rent and he told me that 80% of his customers was not even aware what Blu-Ray is) Secondly, the quality of Blu-Ray or HD DVD is not a big leap over DVD. Thirdly, the price of these 2 is still expensive. And finally, if you own either one player, the movie you like might not come out on the format of the DVD player that you own but come out on the format of the other.
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Mez
AfterDawn Addict
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31. December 2007 @ 15:52 |
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Oh yhea! The guy made a prediction! He was cleaver enough not to put in any meaningful details. I guess you start to die the day you are born. What will hasten the death will be fair prices on the product. Right now only people that don't mind paying double for the same movie will buy them. The great predictor didn't take into account the fact the US is in a mild recession and the movie industry put out mostly junk this year. Only new tiny growing markets like the MP3 and HD DVD industry showed a gain this year.
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Sazaziel
Junior Member
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1. January 2008 @ 10:51 |
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DVD sales are down because most people prefer to watch movies through download able services or on the internet. We have to realize that they aren't talking about DVD sales as a whole. They are really talking about the purchases of a new release etc. Other than that many people still buy lower priced or used DVDs at $10 or less on a daily basis. My guess is that due to the lower or budget price that those sales don't count as a whole because they consider it a loss of profit.
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