DVD sales waning, Blu-ray still too risky as holiday gift idea |
Something interesting happened the other day.
I was talking to a friend and the subject of whether to buy Blu-ray or DVD came up. We’ll get to my answer shortly, but this got me thinking: will that be on the minds of casual technology shoppers this holiday? The friend I’m thinking of isn’t what very geeky, so I’m sure there are people like that.
This holiday season there are some killer DVD deals out there. If you want to build on your DVD collection or buy DVDs as gifts for friends, family and fellow workers it’s an exciting time to be shopping. Yes, even with these troubling economic times:
But studios are facing a scarier fact: perhaps consumers are losing interest in buying DVDs. One particularly bleak spot is the sales of Blu-ray, which was intended to spur consumers to buy expensive DVD players to match their new HDTVs, then replace their libraries with expensive new Blu-ray discs so they could get better picture quality than from standard DVDs. But sales of players have been slow, and sales of the discs haven’t been much better.
While we have a library of over 600 movies, very few are in Blu-ray or the now-defunct HD-DVD format. I’m not and have never been as optimistic about Blu-ray. Let’s face it, DVD will be here for awhile.
Don’t get me wrong, from a quality standpoint, there is no better at home video fix than Blu-ray, but with compelling services like Vudu available offering more HD titles in 1080p than even on Blu-ray, you have to wonder how long the format is going to last.
Blu-ray as a holiday gift? Tread carefully
Back to my friend asking me about buying Blu-ray as a gift for a family member. I suggested to buy the DVD version instead. Here are the reasons I outlined to choose DVD over Blu-ray this holiday season:
- Blu-ray is best at 1080p TV and despite prices plummeting, most people still don’t own 1080p-capable TVs. You might as well buy the DVD version if it won’t be watched at 1080p. Buying Blu-ray for TV sets that are at lower resolutions is a waste.
- Blu-ray selection is still too anemic compared to DVD, particularly if you enjoy watching old TV shows. Take the complete series of Get Smart for example which I recently bought for $109 at Best Buy. The other day I saw a Blu-ray 4-set of movies selling for $90! Let’s see, 66 hours of content vs. 8 for close to the same price?
- Too expensive. Every time I think about buying a Blu-ray movie, I have a hard time justifying the prices. $25-35 for one movie? Sure, you get it at the best quality ever, but unless it’s a movie you’re going to watch many, many times over, you might as well get 2 or 3 DVD movies for the same price.
- Too risky. The chance of the Blu-ray format making it another couple years is not very good. If you want to build a library in Blu-ray it better be with a collector’s mindset.
If the person you’re shopping for has a 1080p-capable TV — and if you don’t know, just ask them (if they don’t know chances are very good they don’t) — and IF the person has a PS3 or standalone Blu-ray player. If they don’t have the equipment already and/or don’t plan to upgrade, buy the DVD version instead. If they are 1080p equipped, Talk to them about the type of movies they like and how they feel about their Blu-ray player.
If you asked me what I’d rather have: one Blu-ray disc or a TV season on DVD, I’d choose the latter 9 times out of 10. Again, it’s not that I don’t like Blu-ray, because I think the quality is awesome, but I’d rather watch 65 hours of Get Smart than 8 hours of movies I’ll probably only watch once or twice at a higher resolution.
My last Blu-ray purchase is pictured atop this post. Space Ace (paid same price: $29.99 at Best Buy) is a cool interactive game (Don Bluth along the lines of Dragon’s Lair), digitally remastered in HD. It’s a better version than what was in the arcades. These are the kind of great Blu-ray gifts.
Did this post make you go hmm?
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I agree with a lot of what you are put here but there are a few points that I question
- firstly if you have a 40″ (or higher) 720p set then the difference between SD and HD is very noticeable indeed. Of course many are choosing an up-scaling DVD player which help bridge the gap in a lot of situations. I agree than BD at 1080p is going to be the best experience, but from personal experience even 720p on a reasonably sized screen is still eye-poppingly good !
- BD to become a collectors item - come on give it a chance. It’s only been around about 18 months. As more and more people buy HD hardware then the number of BD sales should increase. As sales increase the price pf BD will fall (I agree that the price is just too much for many)
- don’t just focus on Picture Quality in the HD era. For movie fans BD provide so much more in terms of the full movie experience. Yes I know we are probably in the minority, but still this is a massive point that a lot of people just breeze over. For me a 3 hour movie can contain perhaps 15+ hours more of quality material regarding the movie which starts to make the $30 price tag a little more acceptable.
- the biggest threat I see to BD sales is from online rental firms, both digital downloads / streaming and physical discs. As the price remains high I’ve turned to love film (I’m in the UK) and this allows me to rent 3 movies (the disc itself) for £5.99 per month. As services such as PS3 Network, Apple TV and XBLive continue to expand their own libraries I can see me turning to digital downloads to get my movie fix. I would then only buy the disc if it was a movie I was really after.
I have a hefty library of DVDs, but bought most of these on a whim a few years ago - now I’m going through a process of checking to see
a) which ones I really want to keep?
b) of the ones I really want to keep could this be part of a box-set?
c) how does the DVD version upscale?
From this exercise I’m hoping to streamline my DVD collection, getting rid of movies that I really now have no interest in (the what was I thinking category), potentially buying a boxset or two to replace individual discs and finally thinking about the BD version of some.
See my own thoughts on the matter [signature link]
Comment by monkeyleader — November 26, 2008 @ 9:39 pm PST
monkeyleader - thanks for taking time to comment. I’d never heard of Lovefilm before (sort of a UK version of Netflix, it seems, yes?). Did you check my post (linked above) about VUDU? They are already eating the Blu-ray lunch. Tons of flicks available in 1080p. I’m not sure if it’s a US/Canada-only thing, it probably is.
I agree with your comment on extras. Space Ace is an extras extravaganza (check it out). I don’t measure only the movie as content, I do look at what else is there to consider the value. Thing is though they still come back as more pricey than they should by comparison of DVD, which usually has a bunch of extras too.
Comment by TDavid — November 27, 2008 @ 1:20 am PST
I vote on a gift subscription to Netflix instead for any movie loving friends. Especially when you’re at home with your family and don’t feel like going out to grab a favourite movie.
Comment by creativeherb — November 27, 2008 @ 9:10 am PST
I cannot believe it but I am still yet to see anything running in High definition so I cannot comment on how good or bad it is. I notice now, certainly in the UK, blue ray is really being pushed. We have a similar thing to your Netflix and they are now offering blue ray on any available titles which makes the whole thing more tempting.
Having said that, my TV does not support full HD and therefore I cannot justify buying a whole new system to achieve a somewhat better picture.
Comment by CC — November 28, 2008 @ 2:32 am PST
Another issue: The Blu-ray you buy might not work in your giftee’s player. The industry has done a rotten job on standards, and manufacturers are weary of doing “firmware” upgrades that accommodate new approaches to making the discs. For example, Fox’s James Bond Blu-rays had problems on numerous players. I own the notorious Samsung BD-P1200 player, which spits back every third Blu-ray I try to play. HD DVD used to bill itself as “the only market-ready high def format.” Still, Blu-ray is worth the bother.
Comment by Glenn A — December 17, 2008 @ 1:04 am PST
i have got quiet a good deal on the dvds i have bought as christmas presents this year, blue ray has not seemed worth it
Comment by Luke Slomka — December 22, 2008 @ 8:55 am PST
Even though are pros with Blu Ray, many of us still use DVD. This is more user friendly than any other.
Comment by Cher — March 4, 2009 @ 10:52 pm PST
People need to realise that Blu-Ray may have beaten off HD-DVD….but it will NOT beat DVD. Not ever. Blu-Ray will forever be a format that sits happily alongside DVD as an enthusiast’s format only, while the mass market folks will still be happy to embrace cheap DVD’s, and will do for many years yet. That point where HD media overtakes sales of SD media will not happen in the lifetime of Blu-Ray. Independent market analysts predicted this even before the credit crunch…so now, in a global recession, all talk of Blu-Ray outselling DVD in a couple of years is utter fantasy….one put forth by the companies with a vested interest in the format.
Take a typical punter like myself. I own all six incarnations of Star Trek (29 SEASONS of TV) and all ten movies….that alone cost me several thousands of English pounds. It will be a cold day in HELL before I consign them to the scrapheap and replace them with Blu-Ray box sets. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to afford that. Star Trek is just a tiny percentage of my DVD collection. I also own many other sci-fi series on DVD, like all TEN SEASONS of Stargate SG-1. No way on god’s earth am I prepared to double dip. I double dipped with the upgrade from VHS to DVD because the tapes were wearing out with use and you couldn’t buy new VHS machines if you wanted to. DVD’s do not wear out with use, the quality is still impressive (even more so when upscaled) and I will be able to buy a new DVD player whenever I want. The mass public upgrade from VHS to DVD was the last of its kind. You may want to dream about the same happening for BD, but don’t hold your breath. And I write this in mid-2009…..a long time after the first post, and well into the life of the humble Blu-Ray disc.
I can understand Blu-Ray fans wanting the public to jump on board, as it will make your HD movies cheaper, but that isn’t my problem. It was you that chose to back a fledgling format….not me. As I said, it will be an enthusiast’s format….like Laserdisc….it will never dominate the market. DVD will be the market leader when whatever follows the BD makes its debut. I guarantee you that.
Comment by Matthew — May 28, 2009 @ 5:25 pm PST