Microsoft announces external HD-DVD drive for Xbox 360

[Shifty Geezer]

So how can we expect a high "gotta get the HD version" percentage?

these figures come from a film enthusaist site, do they not? So they repesent a rough idea of what the visitors, movie buffs, are intending to do. Not many are keen to upgrade existing titles. Not that surprising. Looks like they didn't have an option for 'upgrade just a few favourite titles' which I think a lot of people would consider. Have they done a poll on buying HD versions of new titles?

 

[Phil]

IMO, I think what we're seeing in this poll is reflected by many consumers uncertinty of when that new medium is coming, what exactly the benefits are and which one of the two is ultimately going to be the one that lives on (HD-DVD or Blu-Ray). Having spoken to a few people that are video/hifi/music enthusiasts but don't frequent the web often, it seems clear to me that many still have no idea about the advantages of each medium. It will be interesting to see how these polls change when people will actually have seen the difference in the shop and can compare from a personal point of view, rather than joining in on the speculation through forums as we are doing here.

 

[seismologist]

you could probably get similar results asking people if they plan to upgrade to 1080p

but I contend that it doesn't matter what people think they want.. it's coming anyway.

 

[expletive]

Have they done a poll on buying HD versions of new titles?

Not that i could find, the only other mildly relevant poll was "Do you own a DVD player?", to which 97% responded 'yes'.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Well the poll asks if you would replace a movie you currently own, with a HD version.

Who the hell is going to do that? 25% is actually pretty good I would think. 75% of the people would stick to buying the HD versions of new movies, or movies that are not already in their collection.

Consumers are not going to be interested in paying more money for the same piece of media that they already thought they 'owned', especially when it looks exactly the same, a little plastic disc. So to have 25% say they would upgrade their existing DVD is high, probably reflective of the audience of that site though.

In the real world I woul imagine so,around 10% of consumers would be interested in replacing their DVD collection, and presumably throwing away or selling their DVD's. Probably they would have to keep them for BC with their existing DVD player, which means you have 2 of everything which is also not gonna happen mainstream.

 

[expletive]

Well the poll asks if you would replace a movie you currently own, with a HD version.

Who the hell is going to do that? 25% is actually pretty good I would think. 75% of the people would stick to buying the HD versions of new movies, or movies that are not already in their collection.

Consumers are not going to be interested in paying more money for the same piece of media that they already thought they 'owned', especially when it looks exactly the same, a little plastic disc. So to have 25% say they would upgrade their existing DVD is high, probably reflective of the audience of that site though.

Technically its only 14%, with an additional 11% wavering on price. Considering the audience, i think 86% is actually on the low side for movie-buffs.

I think what this poll *could* point to is that the people most likely to get into an improved HD movie format will be basing their decision on only the NEW content available for it, not a back catalog of titles. (the obvious exception being the 'killer app' movies like HP, LOTR, SW)

 

[mckmas8808]

Technically its only 14%, with an additional 11% wavering on price. Considering the audience, i think 86% is actually on the low side for movie-buffs.

I think what this poll *could* point to is that the people most likely to get into an improved HD movie format will be basing their decision on only the NEW content available for it, not a back catalog of titles. (the obvious exception being the 'killer app' movies like HP, LOTR, SW)

Is that really a bad thing? Like you said the big movies people are going to rebuy anyway, but movies like "Honey I Shunk the Kids" probably won't have a high HD resell rate.

 

[expletive]

Is that really a bad thing? Like you said the big movies people are going to rebuy anyway, but movies like "Honey I Shunk the Kids" probably won't have a high HD resell rate.

Well its not a GOOD thing because if theyre not going to buy old movies, then the amount of titles left for them is very small. A person is much more liekly to buy the hardware if theres 100 titles available, but if they arenot considering old movies, then that number shrinks drastically. No software definitely huts hardware sales.

Look at the release announcements for BR and HD-DVD, now take out all the back catalog announcements, that doesnt leave a lot left, and what is left isnt very compelling is it?

 

[mckmas8808]

Look at the release announcements for BR and HD-DVD, now take out all the back catalog announcements, that doesnt leave a lot left, and what is left isnt very compelling is it?

Well you just said...

(the obvious exception being the 'killer app' movies like HP, LOTR, SW)

I guess question is what's killer app and how many movies will that contain?

 

[expletive]

Well you just said...



I guess question is what's killer app and how many movies will that contain?

Yes i think that those are an exception and people will re-buy the 'biggies' but you still need to get them into the hardware. I dont think people are going to go out and spend $400 on a player just to watch a small amount of new movies plus the handful of killer apps. The only point i was making is that those movies, imo, are immune from the 'i wont rebuy' idea. Theyll help drive hardware sales but i dont think that "10 titles in 2006" is much different than "10 titles and harry potter" in terms of people committing to one of these formats and going out and dropping $400 on a new player.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes i think that those are an exception and people will re-buy the 'biggies' but you still need to get them into the hardware. I dont think people are going to go out and spend $400 on a player just to watch a small amount of new movies plus the handful of killer apps.

Which to me is where the PS3's benefit comes in. Anyone with a PS3 is going to have a BluRay player. They might not go out and buy an HD player to only watch for a few new titles, but once the machine's sitting there I expect a fair few people to buy (for themselves or as presents) HD versions of favourite titles. that's how it'll be for my friends, those that have HDTVs. Buy a PS3 because they like console gaming, and get a few HD movies to watch on it, possibly always buying HD versions of new titles if they're not stupidly priced. A friend sometimes pops into Woolworths in an afternoon to buy a DVD to watch while coding at work, and that grows his collection in a way HD won't replace. For me, I'll be buying HD movies when i have PS3 even if I don't have an HD set by then, because it'll mean when I do get an HD set I'll be able to watch them in HD glory. But then I didn't buy many VHS tapes as I was waiting for a more permanent format, and I don't buy many DVDs as I'd like an HD format. Actually in the main I'm haning on for video on demand, and only get a few discs for 'vital' films. With some forward looking, all these hard-copies will eventually be so much landfill. why not just cut to the chase and get an international movie collection where every film is available to every house? I wonder if these CE companies invested their efforts in developing networking technologies instead of player technologies, we'd be alot closer to that or not?

 

[cthellis42]

That's it, I [/i]pause the movie to answer my cell, go read IMPORTANT email every once a while during the movie, or lookup some info on actors (as if it couldn't wait until the end of movie). I do that on DVD, go to my PC on the other room, or answer the cell on the coffee table, don't see some of those functions being interwowen to the device playing the movie making my life that much easier or fascinating...

Oh no, it doesn't really. Not yet. Nor is web-browsing or getting your email on your cell phone, but that hasn't stopped it from getting rolled in en masse. It's all a stepwise progression, and while we roll our eyes at it and think nothing of it now, what happens a few years down the line when we've gotten used to it? Who the hell ever expected they'd want a CAMERA in their damn PHONE?! That transition hasn't taken long at all to be extremely common in implementation, AND bring along with it a host of privacy issues and re-thinking previous situations we've taken for granted.

Keep in mind people watch movies more than once and just about any time past the first you're going to pay less attention to the movie (having seen it before) and more attention to things about the movie. Commentary is now expected of films, and what is that but a whole films' worth of random extra info ABOUT the film?

It's after the movie, that I will check the extras and actor infor etc. using the disc interface.

Correction. It's likely to be heavily used every time you watch the movie after the first. And heck, what with the shrinking timetables for home video releases, you may well appreciate it the first time you watch it at home, too, if you already saw it in the theater. (I'm using the informal "you" here, not meaning you specifically.)

 

[expletive]

Which to me is where the PS3's benefit comes in. Anyone with a PS3 is going to have a BluRay player. They might not go out and buy an HD player to only watch for a few new titles, but once the machine's sitting there I expect a fair few people to buy (for themselves or as presents) HD versions of favourite titles. that's how it'll be for my friends, those that have HDTVs. Buy a PS3 because they like console gaming, and get a few HD movies to watch on it, possibly always buying HD versions of new titles if they're not stupidly priced. A friend sometimes pops into Woolworths in an afternoon to buy a DVD to watch while coding at work, and that grows his collection in a way HD won't replace. For me, I'll be buying HD movies when i have PS3 even if I don't have an HD set by then, because it'll mean when I do get an HD set I'll be able to watch them in HD glory. But then I didn't buy many VHS tapes as I was waiting for a more permanent format, and I don't buy many DVDs as I'd like an HD format. Actually in the main I'm haning on for video on demand, and only get a few discs for 'vital' films. With some forward looking, all these hard-copies will eventually be so much landfill. why not just cut to the chase and get an international movie collection where every film is available to every house? I wonder if these CE companies invested their efforts in developing networking technologies instead of player technologies, we'd be alot closer to that or not?

Yes i agree, and imo, its a 2 part question:

1. What is the standard CE "problems" for adoption of these formats.
2. How much do PS3, 360, Vista, change THAT equation

Its confusing becuase some of this dicussion has been disagreement over what the basic CE adoption issues are, so if you cant agree on those as a basis, then its very difficult to have productive discussion on the impact of the consoles and Vista.

 

[cthellis42]

For me, I'll be buying HD movies when i have PS3 even if I don't have an HD set by then, because it'll mean when I do get an HD set I'll be able to watch them in HD glory.

Silly Geezer... why buy them earlier when they're more expensive? It's not like they'll be running out of them.

 

[expletive]

Silly Geezer... why buy them earlier when they're more expensive? It's not like they'll be running out of them.

Well i think when people buy new movies, its not to keep them in the plastic on the shelf, its to watch them in relatively short order. So the reason why someone wouldnt wait is because they want the movie NOW. What shifty is saying is taht hes willing to pay somewhat of a premium to 'future proof' his 'impulse' optical movie purchases. At least i think thats waht hes saying.

 

[cthellis42]

Heh. You don't have to tell ME! I've owned Laserdisks well before owning the player, and most times collect console games before I can actually play them...

It just seemed like a good place to toss in a snarky remark.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Silly Geezer... why buy them earlier when they're more expensive? It's not like they'll be running out of them.

eg. When Spiderman 3 is released, rather than buy the DVD and then a couple of years buy the BRD, I'll likely buy the BRD, watch it on the PS3 on the SDTV, and then when I get an SED 50" monster or whatever, have only paid once for the disk. That is of course assuming the BRD doesn't cost like 2x as much as the DVD. Otherwise it'll be cheaper to get the DVD, then the BRD years later when it's cheap.

 

[expletive]

eg. When Spiderman 3 is released, rather than buy the DVD and then a couple of years buy the BRD, I'll likely buy the BRD, watch it on the PS3 on the SDTV, and then when I get an SED 50" monster or whatever, have only paid once for the disk. That is of course assuming the BRD doesn't cost like 2x as much as the DVD. Otherwise it'll be cheaper to get the DVD, then the BRD years later when it's cheap.

I wonder what the magic # will be for markup between SD and HD for the average consumer. That is, at what point does the premium for the HD version become an issue for the consumer deciding between both....

 

[Deepak]

I blame CG for Hollywood's downslide.
.Sis

Err! Don't let Laa Yosh read that....:smile:

 

[mckmas8808]

I wonder what the magic # will be for markup between SD and HD for the average consumer. That is, at what point does the premium for the HD version become an issue for the consumer deciding between both....

I would say anything over $30. I mean lets be honest people brought UMDs even though they had less content and you couldn't play them on more than one kind of device for $30.