I'm not convinced that Blu-ray will ever be as successful as DVD.
I believe that the players are still too expensive, the media costs too much, and there isn't enough of a jump in quality between DVD and Blu-ray to force people to jump to the new format. Plus, streaming video is slowly but surely becoming a force in the entertainment space.
There's another issue holding Blu-ray back: it's not portable. Unlike DVD, you can't bring Blu-ray with you. And you certainly can't run into Blockbuster, pick up a Blu-ray movie, and play it in your car to keep the kids quiet on a road trip. That's been a contributing factor to DVD's staying power.
Until now.
Though it went largely unnoticed, Panasonic announced last week that it was bringing an in-car Blu-ray player to store shelves. The two-part system also features a "7-inch display, GPS, a CD/DVD player, Bluetooth, a 40GB hard drive, and iPod/iPhone compatibility." So far, no price has been announced.
It's an important step forward for the format.
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If you've been following The Digital Home, you know that I said on numerous occasions that Google needed to bring professional content to YouTube.
Well, it has done just that.
Google announced last week that YouTube will now feature television shows and films from Crackle, CBS (publisher of CNET News), MGM, Lionsgate, Starz, and others. The company claims there are now thousands of shows and hundreds of films available on the site. The videos feature pre-roll ads, as well as in-stream commercials, similar to Hulu. All the content is currently limited to U.S. viewers, but Google hopes to open it up to international viewers in the future.
Though Google has dabbled in professional content via partnerships with Seth MacFarlane and film studios in the past, this is the first meaningful step it has taken to make YouTube more reliant upon professional content. It's about time.
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Blockbuster and TiVo announced a deal Wednesday that will make between 5,000 and 10,000 films available to TiVo users. Customers will be able to rent ($4) or buy ($20) films, including current major titles. It's about time: Netflix and Amazon's on-demand services are already available on TiVo. Netflix offers approximately 12,000 older and less compelling titles on the box, but Netflix users don't need to pay anything beyond their monthly fee to access movies on the DVR. Those who want to use Amazon's service, which already offers most of the films Blockbuster will stream, pay about the same rental fees as Blockbuster will charge.
I've called Blockbuster to task on its late release of contemporary technology, but I wanted to give the company a chance to respond, so I discussed what I consider Blockbuster's shortcomings with its newly installed senior vice president of digital entertainment, Kevin Lewis.
Lewis contends that his company is more than just a movie rental chain. He says Blockbuster is an entertainment retailer, which is why it wanted to make its service available to TiVo users.
"We are the only entertainment retailer with the ability to serve you a movie where you want, when you want it, how you want," Lewis said. "Whether it's at one of our stores, through virtual kiosks, or via downloads on a box like the TiVo, we can provide you with the most robust service." He told me that unlike Netflix, Amazon, and any other competitor, Blockbuster has the opportunity to service its customers across multiple channels, making its deal with TiVo all the more compelling.
"We recognize that our consumers don't act the same way every time because their needs are different," Lewis said. "Because of that, we plan to go wherever the consumer goes. And although Netflix and Amazon are already on the TiVo box, when we get there, users will know that we're the only company of the three that can offer them a movie no matter how they want it. Our competitors don't have that multi-channel capability. It's our special sauce."
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Blu-ray U.S. disc sales have tripled in the past year, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, but there's a slight problem--Blu-ray sales are still lower than where film studios would like them to be, and there's no indication that Blu-ray sales will top DVD sales anytime soon.
The studios blame Blu-ray's performance on the economy, and claim that if we were enjoying better economic times, the format's sales would be higher.
But there's one person, Bill Mechanic, a film producer and former Fox Filmed Entertainment chief, who believes there's more to this story.
"I think it's one part recession, but there are bigger factors," Mechanic told The Wrap in an interview. "That's a misreading of consumer behavior as well as a misreading of the economic environment. It's devalued the libraries."
"If you can buy 'Titanic' for $4.99," Mechanic continued, "[consumers will say] 'Well, wait a minute...'" when they consider buying another film on Blu-ray at a substantially higher price.
"There's no rhyme or reason of what I see in the market place in terms of pricing," Mechanic said.
He has a point. Even on Amazon.com, where Blu-ray movies are usually priced at their cheapest level, there's a major difference between DVD pricing and Blu-ray pricing. In fact, an older film like "Independence Day" is currently being offered on DVD for $14.99 and on Blu-ray for $25.99. A DVD of a new film, "The Dark Knight," is retailing for $14.99 on the site, while its Blu-ray counterpart is going for $23.99.
It sure looks like DVD pricing is holding Blu-ray back.
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Lite-On might be releasing a $150 Blu-ray player at some point in 2009, recent rumors suggest. There's not much more information available now, but I don't think it seems out of the question to expect Lite-On or another firm like Memorex to release a player for that price sometime during the year.
But is $150 the sweet spot for Blu-ray players? For those who want Blu-ray anyway they can have it, that might be perfect. But for others, $150 is still a steep price tag for a device that would conceivably offer less quality than other, more expensive Blu-ray players on the market.
And as I consider a $150 Blu-ray player, I find myself in the latter grouping. It's not that a $150 Blu-ray player doesn't appeal to me. But for that price, I'm not getting enough that would make me want to spend the money.
For me, the perfect price tag for a Blu-ray player at this juncture, given the economy and the format's shortcomings, is $100.
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Apple announced today that it has not only become the world's most popular TV programming store, thanks to 200 million unit sales of TV shows, but that all four of the major networks--CBS, Fox, ABC, and NBC--are offering high-definition content on the iTunes store.
"We've got an incredible fall 2008 TV lineup with over 70 prime time comedies and dramas, including many of the most popular shows on TV in stunning HD," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet services. "With over 200 million episodes sold, iTunes customers have proven they love watching television on their computer, iPod, iPhone and TV with Apple TV."
If Apple is the world's leading store for buying TV shows and the world's largest music retailer, how can Blu-ray and it's measly 8 percent market share, expect to compete with Apple's freight train as it starts to pick up steam in the movie space?
I contacted Apple for its latest movie sales figures, but the company didn't provide any. Because of that, I'm forced to consider the fact that as of this past January, it had sold 7 million films on iTunes after 15 months of availability. Consider the fact that Blu-ray hit the 7 million-units-sold mark after 18 months, and it's quite obvious that people are ready and willing to download films instead of buying an expensive player and media to go with it.
... Read moreShould you buy The Godfather on Blu-ray? I'll tell you in my latest video.
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Ars Technica has an interesting story up today detailing the Association Against Audiovisual Piracy's analysis of P2P traffic of illegal movie downloads in France between November 2007 and June 2008, which found that more people than ever are illegally downloading some of the top domestic and foreign films.
The organization found that 90 percent of all P2P downloads came from the most popular films in theaters and that a "daily average of 450,000 downloads (in December, it was 536,000 per day), and a monthly average of over 14 million downloads" was witnessed.
Allegedly stunned by the gall of all those awful pirates, the organization felt it was necessary to send one of its hacks out to make a statement detailing how appalled it was at the information it obtained. But no one saw this one coming.
"We are facing a major phenomenon that can endanger the film industry and audiovisual industries. We did not expect such figures," ALPA director Frederic Delacroix said in a statement to the AFP.
Wow. Hold your horses for a minute here. This piracy problem can "endanger the film industry?" This should probably be filed under the "dumbest things I've heard all month heading."
If piracy kills the film industry and suddenly theaters from across the globe are closing up shop, I'll be the first to laugh, and I'll bet I won't even be laughing the loudest.
... Read moreAfter playing through Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, it became quite clear to me that video games have supplanted film as entertainment leaders. The game shines on so many levels, it's difficult to recount them all here. But perhaps more than anything, it allowed me to become a part of an environment that goes above and beyond anything I've ever experienced in a movie.
And after playing through this instant classic, I can't help but wonder if the video game industry has finally realized that it commands mainstream attention and must favor a new type of gaming that creates unprecedented entertainment value.
I'm a firm believer that video games have replaced movies as the de facto leader in entertainment. Games offer greater entertainment value, usually have better stories, and generally appeal to people far more than any movie currently in theaters.
The way I see it, movies are the next logical entertainment vehicle. ... Read more
This weekend was a major time for both the video game and film industry. Whether you sat at home playing Grand Theft Auto IV or decided to head down to your local theater and check out Iron Man, you had choices to make. And it's that choice -- video game or movie -- that has been setting the movie industry's profits ablaze and creating an entertainment environment that could be turned upside down.
Now I know what you're thinking -- "the movie industry is as mainstream as you can get and the video game business is still a niche." Sure, some may espouse those beliefs, but this past week has shown that games like GTA IV are capable of competing at the same level with major movies and become a mainstream focus in this industry.
In other words, the outdated notion that the video game industry is for the geeks and the film industry is for everyone else, simply doesn't hold water anymore. Instead, we're currently knee-deep in an environment that's not only welcoming to the video game industry, but has proven to be damning to the film business.
And I, for one, couldn't be more ecstatic about it.
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