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Digital downloads don’t threaten optical media

In a strange turn of events, many bloggers are touting iTunes as the killer of Blu-ray Disc. It seems the majority of these people were HD DVD supports in December, and the rest are Steve Jobs. Why the sudden change in tune?

iMovie isn’t anything new, video-on-demand has been around for over a decade. Time Warner was boasting last year about how big their VOD business was and one executive even declared optical media dead. Funny, DVD actually did better than expected last year.

Why are comparisons even being made with Blu-ray Disc anyway? The iTunes movies are not high-def. Some are, but they’re only available to AppleTV Take 2 owners. VOD is in high-def with cable providers. AppleTV is also a rental service. People kept buying VHS and DVD even though Blockbuster was renting movies. Online rentals have been available for a couple years as well. People buy movies to collect them, you don’t collect movies on a hard drive.

Some people point to music to support their case. They saw CD is in a slump. This is true, but some argue that there isn’t music worth buying right now. The fact that music is essentially free online also hurts the music industry, something the movie industry is fighting with all their might.

But why are so many HD DVD fans dropping their support of high-quality movies in 1080p with lossless audio to now support poor-quality video downloads? The best-quality AppleTV only movies are 720p highly-compressed video files with low-bitrate Dolby Digital audio, and most aren’t even in surround sound. Were they not thouroughly impressed with HD DVD’s quality?

What do you think? Will video downloads replace physical media, or will it supplement it?

Blu-ray reaches to new heights

Lions Gate’s recent film 3:10 to Yuma didn’t do remarkably better than Universal’s The Kingdom at the box office, but the week following Warner’s Blu-ray announcement it did over ten times better on high-def. This is according to Home Media Magazine citing VideoScan numbers. In fact, Blu-ray did so much better than HD DVD in the first full week of 2008 that the format took 85% of the high-def market. Not one HD DVD made it to the top ten for the week.

This makes a new record for Blu-ray, and certainly feeds the fires of the BD fanboy camp. To be sure, it was definitely not a great week for the HD DVD fanboys.

If sales like this continue, it will look like a cold, dark 2008 for Toshiba.

50% off select Blu-ray & HD DVD’s at Amazon

I should have posted about this earlier, but the sale is still going, so here we go!

Amazon is currently offering discounts of up to 50% of select Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD titles. Check out the sale by clicking on the links below.

50% off select Blu-ray Disc titles
50% off select HD DVD titles

An end date for this promotion has not been listed, so get em while they’re hot!

Win 100 free Blu-ray Discs or HD DVD’s

In other related news, Amazon.com is also running a few high definition giveaway contests this month. These contests, dubbed the “Blu-ray Grand Giveaway” and the “HD DVD Grand Giveaway”, will reward 60 lucky entrants with a free high definition player along with 100 high definition titles. No purchase is necessary to enter the contest, so click on the links below to sign up and be entered into the giveaways!

Amazon.com 2008 Blu-ray Grand Giveaway
Amazon.com 2008 HD DVD Grand Giveaway

iTunes movie downloads supported by every major studio

It seems like a lot of HD DVD ex-patriots are now trumpeting digital download. As the largest internet download service, iTunes has garnered the support of every major Hollywood studio for their new movie download service. This is interesting considering the television download service was recently stunned when NBC Universal backed out of their agreement.

It isn’t high-def, but it does come with 5.1 audio (also not high-resolution). The download price is ridiculous though at $3.99-$4.99 per title. When you can get new releases for $1.00 at most grocery stores through a service like Redbox, this cost is too high for my tastes. You do keep the title for 30 days, but you do only get to watch it in a 24 hour period before it is unplayable. Somewhat restrictive - why can’t you just play it as many times as you want within the 30 day period?

Regardless, it seems as if AppleTV will have a second wind with this service. AppleTV take 2 is the same box as the original AppleTV but has a new firmware allowing direct access to the internet, whereas before it played through your computer. It is not clear to me if you can upgrade any current AppleTVs with the new firmware.

UPDATE: HD rentals are available, but only to AppleTV owners. Standard-def rentals can be played on your laptop, computer, etc.

The Downfall of HD DVD: comedy video

With Warner announcing a move to Blu-ray exclusivity and the Blu-ray Disc format dominating the spotlight at CES 2008, someone decided to throw together a clip from the Hitler movie ‘Downfall’ and add subtitles that deal with the Blu-ray/HD DVD “war”.

I thought that this parody video was pretty funny, you might too. Check it out in the embedded video below.

I wonder if the Toshiba execs reacted anything like this?

Trans World approves of Warner move

If you haven’t heard of Trans World Entertainment, perhaps you’ve heard of the retail stores they own: f.y.e., Suncoast, Wherehouse and Second Spin. Home Media Magazine (who is now pushing for HD DVD to give up) is reporting Jim Litwak, president and COO of Trans World, is enthusiastic about the future of Blu-ray Disc.

“Finally, the customer has an understanding of where this business is going to go and will not be confused,” Litwak exclaims. If these retailers push the format forward, their consumer will definitely know how to upgrade to high-def. He continues, “Blu-ray becomes the new DVD format, which is particularly exciting. We like that a lot.”

If this trend continues in other retailers, I’m not sure theres anything Toshiba can do to mount a comeback.

Universal’s commitment to HD DVD has ended

It is still unclear what this really means, but Daily Variety confirmed that Universal’s HD DVD commitment has ended. This doesn’t mean Universal is going to drop HD DVD and neither does it mean that they’re going to start supporting Blu-ray, but they are free to do it if they wish.

Following up on my last post , Variety has also confirmed that Paramount does have an escape clause in their HD DVD agreement.

Paramount has stated they intend to continue support for HD DVD, but that does cleverly leave room for them to rejoin Blu-ray without lying. Paramount’s HD DVD agreement extends throughout the year unless they exercise their escape clause. Universal is committed to upcoming HD DVD promotions, so don’t expect them to announce anything until that commitment ends.

It will be interesting to see what the retails do in the wake of the big news. Last year Blockbuster chose Blu-ray for their US stores, and Target chose Blu-ray for the holiday season (at CES, Philips mentioned Target was going exclusive but that is unconfirmed). Kep an eye out.