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Blog: Hardware Blu-ray Adoption Gaining Steam in Japan
Stephen Kamizuru (Blog) - September 11, 2008 10:46 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 22 comment(s) - last by Fireshade.. on Sep 16 at 8:45 AM
11.6% of survey respondents own a Blu-ray disc recorder

Kakaku, a Japanese price comparison website, surveyed Japanese consumers' intention to purchase a Blu-ray Disc recorder. The company conducted the survey via the internet among registered Kakaku users from Aug 18 to August 28 and received 4,978 responses. The survey was summarized and analyzed on Asian technology news site TechOn.

According to the survey, respondents who currently own a Blu-ray Disc recorder accounted for 11.6%, more than 10% of all the respondents. Of those who did not own a Blu-ray Disc recorder at the time of the survey, a total of respondents who "wish to buy one" (16.7%) and "consider buying one" (39.0%) surpassed 50% of all the respondents. Roughly 31.5% of respondents stated they "have no intention to buy one"

Asked when they bought a Blu-ray Disc recorder, more than 60% of the respondents who own a Blu-ray Disc recorder said "within the last six months."  The end of the high definition format war in February and the appearance of lower priced Blu-ray Disc recorders appear to have been enough to convince these consumers to take the plunge. Respondents who bought a Blu-ray Disc recorder "more than six months but less than a year ago" made up 27.4% of respondents.

To the question why they bought a Blu-ray Disc recorder, 68.5% of all respondents said, "to store digital broadcasts with high video quality." Also, 44.2% said, "To enjoy high-definition movies and content," followed by the answer, "Because the next-generation DVD format has been standardized to Blu-ray Disc" (40.2%).

On the other side of the coin people who responded they have no intention to buy a Blu-ray Disc Recorder were asked why and 58.8% said, "Because Blu-ray Disc recorders are pricey." Those who said, "Because Blu-ray media is expensive," made up the next largest portion at 46.5%. Those results indicate that prices of Blu-ray Disc products are still acting as a barrier for further Blu-ray adoption

Although Blu-ray adoption is gaining momentum in Japan the final barrier for mass market adoption appears to be price. It remains to be seen if future price drops in all Blu-ray related products will be enough to convince all Japanese consumers they should have a Blu-Ray Disc recorder in their homes.

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Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By therealnickdanger on 9/11/2008 11:15:20 AM , Rating: 5
I originally supported HD-DVD and built up a healthy collection, but then I saw a great deal on the Samsung UP5000, so I went "purple", but now I have a couple LG BH200s (awesome player, better than the Samsung IMO). The thing is, I have only bought a handful of BDs. Between Comcast VOD, Live rentals, Netflix, and Redbox, I find it really hard to buy physical media now. BD should not be more than $25... it's just asking too much. I haven't bought a disc in about 6 months now and I don't miss it.

:(




RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By kattanna on 9/11/2008 12:17:26 PM , Rating: 2
when we starting using netflix years ago, we stopped buying DVD's. We will pick up those really rare ones that are trully great like batman or the lord of the rings movies. but by and large thats really only a couple dvd's a year anymore.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By FITCamaro on 9/11/2008 1:07:52 PM , Rating: 2
You can pick up some movies for $15. At that price I'll buy. I have netflix as well but I still buy movies that I really like.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By therealnickdanger on 9/11/2008 1:36:39 PM , Rating: 5
Yeah, I generally am on the lookout for sub-$20 Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, unfortunately many of them are either bad transfers or just bad movies in general. I'm sure I'll break out my wallet for Star Wars, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones (not the 4th one), Alien quadrilogy, Iron Man, big epics like that, Pixar films, etc...

The reality is that there are SO MANY movies that should be on Blu-Ray right now in order to push the media forward and lower prices, but they keep giving us "Scary Movie 8" and "The Ultimate Van Damme Collection" for $39.99. It's bull****.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By FITCamaro on 9/11/2008 2:34:43 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah I'm wondering where the f*ck Star Wars is on HD. And I've held off on buying LoTR as well (I wasn't a huge fan but they were good movies). And Iron Man will definitely be a Blu-ray purchase.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By therealnickdanger on 9/11/2008 3:21:02 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure what the hold up is with SW-HD. IIRC, Lucas has already remastered the original trilogy in 1080p (including subsequent special effects). The new trilogy was all filmed/rendered at 1080p as well. I'm sure that he's just waiting for a certain level of market saturation before unleashing the sexology, but Blu-Ray won't last very long without good reasons to get it!

What I found most interesting when the original Star Trek series was brought to HD-DVD, it was "easy" enough to restore and remaster the film stock at 1080p, but all of the rotoscoped effects used in the series I guess just looked horrendously bad alongside the higher resolution - which is why they re-fashioned the effects digitally. A similar problem exists with the Star Trek movies as well as the Next Generation series, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. All the effects are 480i video, so there is a ridiculous amount of effects that simply stick out horribly compared to the 1080p film transfers of the live action. So I can understand why we must wait for those...

Iron Man is going to be so amazing... again... Doesn't it come out next week? OK, just checked, September 30th!!! So do I fight the urge to buy it immediately or wait until I can get it for <$20? :(


By FITCamaro on 9/11/2008 4:38:39 PM , Rating: 3
Yeah honestly I can't wait for modern, high def versions of effects from TNG, DS9, and Voyager(actually Voyager wasn't bad).

What'd really be nice is if someone redid all the Babylon 5 effects and re-released them. I have all the seasons on DVD and while I still love the show, its almost pathetic how bad some of the effects are. I mean you can clearly see the pixelation in all of the ships. And its funny to constantly see the same clip of a Starfury going by the station multiple times per episode and across multiple episodes because they didn't have the budget to do a new shot.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By sigilscience on 9/12/2008 11:16:05 PM , Rating: 2
There wasn't any Rotoscoping in Star Trek AFAIK. Star WARS used some for light sabre effects, but ST was pretty much all model based.


By GaryJohnson on 9/13/2008 3:24:33 AM , Rating: 2
The transporters, phasers, explosion, and various other sparkly, flashy, & beamy effects would have all had to been rotoscoping I think.


By Fireshade on 9/16/2008 8:45:46 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
[...] unleashing the sexology [...]

Hah... something else came to mind when reading this ;)
Let's call it a hexology to avoid misunderstandings :)
"Quadrilogy" is the odd one out, since thes numberings are usually greek-derived.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By mmntech on 9/12/2008 10:49:45 PM , Rating: 2
I wouldn't hold my breath for Star Wars. Look how long it took the original trilogy to come out on DVD. It took seven years for the special editions to be released.
Lord of the Rings is supposedly coming soon. Right now, there's not vary many decent movies coming out on BD. The price too has held my back for buying more. I'd rather spend my money on games since they're going to entertain me for more than a couple of hours every once in a while.


By FITCamaro on 9/15/2008 8:28:11 AM , Rating: 2
I picked up Terminator 2 and The Fugitive over the weekend. What sucks with Terminator 2 is that while on the DVD version they have both the theatrical and extended versions of the movie on one disc, the Blu-ray with 6 times the space only has the theatrical one. Great.


By omnicronx on 9/15/2008 9:23:04 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The reality is that there are SO MANY movies that should be on Blu-Ray right now in order to push the media forward and lower prices
Yes because I am sure that Movie execs are thinking, lets make more money by not selling BD movies.. A hell of a lot more goes into publishing a BD movie than a DVD. The reason you are probably seeing the 'bad' movies is because many of them (at least the ones I have seen) are shot with all digital cameras which are much easier to transfer to BD.

Don't get me wrong, Movie Studios are artificially keeping prices high to keep up their margins, but good movies not being released has nothing to do with this. Releasing good movies equals more sales, regardless of the price.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By Kefner on 9/12/2008 10:40:07 AM , Rating: 2
Yea, I usually pay between 12 and 15 bucks for Blu-ray movies (new, in the shrink wrap). Thanks eBay!


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By someguy123 on 9/11/2008 5:40:58 PM , Rating: 2
you must be using quite a small TV or don't care that much about the quality then. I'm not saying this in a derogatory way. all of those sources look quite a bit worse (especially netflix downloads) compared to blu-ray. to be honest it's annoying watching comcast's VODs because they compress the signal so heavily I can really see the compression on my 50" screen in scenes with moderate/high movement.

the real reason I haven't bought many blu-ray movies is because there aren't really any worth buying. only one I can name off the top of my head is no country for old men.


By therealnickdanger on 9/11/2008 10:41:59 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
the real reason I haven't bought many blu-ray movies is because there aren't really any worth buying. only one I can name off the top of my head is no country for old men.

If you read my post again, you'll see that's my reason as well - I said nothing about screen size. I've been taking my Enzite, my screen size is just fine... :P

Given the price of Blu-Ray discs, I've resorted to only buying movies I love only IF they also have the most pristine video and audio transfers possible... and only if they are under $20 - although I have been known to spend up to $25. So my selection is pretty small. However, Netflix has Blu-Ray rentals for all the sh*tty movies, so I don't really mind having a small collection.


RE: Blu-Ray beat HD-DVD... but...?
By ajfink on 9/15/2008 4:38:04 PM , Rating: 1
I have to honestly say that it is the cost of Blu-Ray media over DVD that still has me buying DVDs occasionally rather than all Blu-Ray. I still even buy some occasional HD-DVD movies since that player works just fine as well, the quality is as good, and they're a whole lot cheaper now that it's a "defunct" format.

$30 for a single movie? You've got to be shitting me. Often they even cost more.

High-def isn't the cutting edge anymore, and as a consumer I'm disappointed its still being priced like it is.


Duh?
By FITCamaro on 9/11/2008 11:05:25 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
According to the survey, respondents who currently own a Blu-ray Disc recorder accounted for 11.6%, more than 10% of all the respondents.


I'm glad that was clarified. Wouldn't have realized that 11.6 > 10 otherwise.




Heh
By FITCamaro on 9/11/2008 10:53:56 AM , Rating: 2
By the title I'm guessing this got published too early or someone forgot to change it. Nice guys. :)




RE: Heh
By FITCamaro on 9/11/2008 10:54:25 AM , Rating: 2
And for the record this is the title right now.

quote:
[DONE TIER3 ARTICLE] Blu-ray Adoption Gaining Steam in Japan


blu ray recorder?
By mm2587 on