Thor, Star Wars Releases Lift Disappointing Blu-ray Sales

[Guest]

Blu-ray has lost quite a bit of traction in consumer interest with streaming media capturing most of the attention these days.

Thor, Star Wars Releases Lift Disappointing Blu-ray Sales : Read more

 

[xsamitt]

1St

 

[giovanni86]

Keep dropping those prices on blue-ray movies and i will keep snatching them up. Just saw a deal at fry's for some mediocre movies but you can't beat two for 12 bucks =D. Anything around 10-13 buck range is around where i go crazy for movies and end up spending $80 when all i wanted to do was buy 2 i walk out with like 6-8 hahaha. Compulsiveness.

 

[CaedenV]

$80 is a bit much for star wars in my opinion. We tried a Star Wars marathon a year ago, and it was such a painful experience that we only got through the the first of the originals. 1-3 just have such terrible actors, and 4-6 are just dated beyond help. And now with the BD release you can see too much detail, and it makes the originals look very bad. Great story though, I just cannot wait for them to be redone with a better director/cast some time in the future far far away...

Anywho, back on topic; As many remember during the BD/HDDVD war we had Morgan Freeman touting his streaming web service, as well as Netflix with it's beginnings of a streaming service, and the question in the back of our minds was "will BD/HDDVD be the last physical media release?" And it is looking more and more that way.
Also, the jump from VHS to DVD was nothing short of ground breaking, and became cheap very quickly, as well as there being a fairly strong economy with a bright outlook at the time. Also theaters were seedy gross places infested with pimple ridden teenagers. Besides, there were no other options available.
Theaters are still infested with teenagers, but they (the teens and the facilities) tend to be much cleaner, and the overall theater experience is much improved as they compete with the home theater experience. Plus you have DVD which still looks OK on a 720p screen, especially when you have a good up-scaler. Plus there are various streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and the almighty torrent. BD simply has a ton of competition, and the rumors of the high end moving to 2K and 4K in the next few years doesn't help either.

 

[omac1a]

I didn't buy Star Wars because of the idiotic tinkering that George Lucas did with it. If he had included the originals in with the Blu Ray then I would have bought it. As it stands, the movies he is trying to sell are NOT the movies I grew up with. I have spent thousands over the years on Star Wars comics, action figures (NOT DOLLS!) and other paraphernalia. All because I love Star Wars.

 

[Alsone]

Players and discs need to be cheaper.

 

[Guest]

Exactly what omac1a said.

I have SW on VHS, LaserDisc (Ep 4-5-6) and DVD (1-6) and was eagerly looking forward to the 9 disc BD edition.

I pre-ordered it on Amazon, until I read about the "Nooooooooooo" Vader crying like a baby addition (among several other stupid changes) and promptly cancelled my pre-order.

One of the reasons BD hasnt taken off so well could also be the "region encoding" issue.

Region free DVD players are a dime a dozen where I live.

Region Free BD players are very rare and prohibitively expensive (3 times the price of locked players). Region locking BD releases means I cant buy BD's from the cheapest source like I can with DVDs and instead have to buy expensive discs due to region issues.

 

[drwho1]

I own so many movies that is hard to keep track.
But I can say that most are DVD's, the image of them on my Plasma TV are just as good as when I play the few BD movies that I have.

There isn't enough difference to justify the HUGE price difference between this 2 formats.

Like someone mentioned, some BD's are just DVD transfers with NO image improvement whatsoever which should be a shame for movie studios.

 

[reggieray]

Why buy movies? Unlike music, after I watch a movie (several times at most) I don't want to watch it again. If I do years later I can rent it. I have better things to use my money on, like food and shelter.

 

[nebun]

Blu-ray movies are overpriced....i don't understand why?...the movies is shot in hd, how hard is it to give it to the customers in Blu-ray for that same price as the regular dvd?.....greed

 

[jn77]

A couple of points here: 1. Blu Ray is still over priced 5 years later 2. Consumers are like cattle, they see $10 a month for streaming service and they are like oohhhh thats not bad........ until they are purchasing 10 different streaming services, cable each month, internet each month, a cell phone each month, and then all of a sudden they wonder where all their money is going and why they are so poor.... Long Term, just buy that stupid blu ray disk and not pay out each month for nothing.

 

[Guest]

Buying movies is pointless anyways, especially now that you can just rent from RedBox for $1. The only time I buy a movie is when it's REALLY good, and sadly, those are few these days.

 

[reggieray]

Another reason not to build a big collection of movies is because within 10-20 years they will have changed the format again and you basically wasted all of it. If your going to invest in something make sure it can be passed onto to loved ones (kids). Easy to say but there are things that can last generations.

 

[col_krismiss]

[citation][nom]reggieray[/nom]Another reason not to build a big collection of movies is because within 10-20 years they will have changed the format again and you basically wasted all of it. If your going to invest in something make sure it can be passed onto to loved ones (kids). Easy to say but there are things that can last generations.[/citation]

How much is that device you're typing on and how quickly did it become irrelevant? I can almost promise that there is nothing in your house that kids will want in 10 or 20 years except maybe musical instruments. I have recently finally gotten a blu-ray player and am loving it. I got the Star Wars collection and overall love them too, though I have to admit the ewoks having pupils is terrifying, but overall (imo) the transition to blu-ray is successful and almost makes me feel like im watching them for the first time again (the originals, anyway). Though I admit that after a while the newness of the blu-ray to me will wear off like it did with dvds, but also like dvds, I will become accustomed to it and when I go back to an older format, it might hurt my eyes, lol.

So I have purchased those deals where you get the dvd and digital copy with the blu-ray, and (at least with movies made for HD) I can definitely see the quality improvement. Its not necessarily with the resolution though. What my eye finds appealing is the refresh rates of newer TVs, (120Hz or 240Hz) that really makes blu-ray shine and look good, and from what I can tell with these blu-ray\dvd combo deals, that is what isnt maintained in DVDs

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]omac1a[/nom]I didn't buy Star Wars because of the idiotic tinkering that George Lucas did with it. If he had included the originals in with the Blu Ray then I would have bought it. As it stands, the movies he is trying to sell are NOT the movies I grew up with. I have spent thousands over the years on Star Wars comics, action figures (NOT DOLLS!) and other paraphernalia. All because I love Star Wars.[/citation]Yeah, I refuse to buy the Bluray version thanks to that doddering old fool's ceaseless tinkering. Next time he remasters it for Holodisc format, I hear he's going to digitally replace C-3PO with Jar Jar Binks Jr.

"Mesa speaks TONSA langeeges!"

 

[inthere]

[citation][nom]reggieray[/nom]Another reason not to build a big collection of movies is because within 10-20 years they will have changed the format again and you basically wasted all of it. If your going to invest in something make sure it can be passed onto to loved ones (kids). Easy to say but there are things that can last generations.from what I can tell with these blu-ray\dvd combo deals, that is what isnt maintained in DVDs[/citation]
[/citation]

So get rid of your TV and wait 20 years for the super HD Holographic one. It's obviously a waste of money if you get one now.

 

[phatboe]

I refuse to invest in BD until the 1) remove that shitty region locking crap and 2) start supporting Linux and other alternative OSes. It's a shame too case I have a laptop with a BD drive on it and have yet to put it to use.

 

[reggieray]

[citation][nom]inthere[/nom][/citation] So get rid of your TV and wait 20 years for the super HD Holographic one. It's obviously a waste of money if you get one now.[/citation]
You missed the point. I am talking about spending thousands to make your own local movie store and it sits there and slowly becomes trash.

 

[reggieray]

[citation][nom]col_krismiss[/nom]How much is that device you're typing on and how quickly did it become irrelevant? I can almost promise that there is nothing in your house that kids will want in 10 or 20 years except maybe musical instruments.
Musical instruments, quality furniture, high quality kitchen knives, guns, high quality cookware. are a few.

 

[reggieray]

[citation][nom]col_krismiss[/nom]How much is that device you're typing on and how quickly did it become irrelevant? I can almost promise that there is nothing in your house that kids will want in 10 or 20 years except maybe musical instruments.
Oh yeah and then there are good quality oil paintings and then my customized Victory Hammer 8 Ball that they will fight over.