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Originally Posted by Derb
Added The Sopranos: Season Six, Part One for HD DVD & Blu-Ray. Studio List updated.
Added The Architect for HD DVD & Blu-ray. Studio List updated.
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All well & good that you're posting the hi-def optical disk releases, but who's buying 'em and the players, given an installed base of 30-million HDTVs worldwide(Reuters 9/17/06)?
Reality check: local Best Buy store had two big shelves of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray disks on display for sale, but I saw no one at all looking at them, and they appeared to be gathering dust end of last week. Last two days, Fry's had ads in the Orange County(CA) Register as did the L.A. Times; the former with a total of 13 hi-def optical disks on sale for $14.99, the latter with 6 Blu-Ray-only titles for the same price. Included were HD-DVD titles such as Terminator and The Italian Job. I believe the original MSRP on all these titles was $25-plus. This says it all. In addition, assuming you purchase most of these titles and have a portable DVD player or some such ancillary standard DVD medium, exactly what benefit are they for such use? Also, reports are that Hollywood Video is going to test-market in-store hi-def disk rentals since they can't seem to sell 'em.
Any wonder why the retailers are hollering about slow sales of these hi-def optical products(Reuters 9/17/06)? Just can't imagine why the regular Blu-Ray players at $999 to $1299 MSRP aren't flying off the shelves.
Perhaps all of this will shake up the manufacturers and the movie studios to fix the quality on these disks and offer players at prices attractive to the mass market. Otherwise, we've got another D-VHS on our hands for sure and we're going to be stuck with the old standard DVD technology for far longer than we should. It's time to move on.
Enjoy!
Milt R. Smith
mrsmith2002@yahoo.com