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Disney moves toward Blu-Ray DVD

A recent analyst call has Bob Iger explaining why the Walt Disney Company is moving toward the Blu-Ray DVD format and away from the HD-DVD format. High-Def Digest has the call transcript:

We made our bed with Blu-ray because we
believed more in that format for a variety of reasons; some technical
in nature, some due to the fact that it simply had broader support from
a variety of industries, notably the motion picture studios but also
what I’ll call the consumer electronics and the tech industry.

What we are seeing lately is that sales of Blu-ray discs are
outpacing HD discs by at least two to one. As more quality Blu-ray
product comes on the market, which is going to happen, notably with
Pirates on May 22, we actually believe that the difference or the
advantage of Blu-ray is only going to widen.

I guess that’s as clear a sign as we can get from Iger that Disney fans should be investing in Blu-ray. If you plan to switch to Blu-ray when do you think you’ll buy your first player?

2 thoughts on “Disney moves toward Blu-Ray DVD”

  1. Chris Wade

    I will buy a combo HD-DVD & Blue Ray DVD player when the price comes down to about $200 or less. That being said if my DVD payer should die before then I would most likely buy a Blue Ray DVD player to replace it. If my DVD recorder dies I would most likely buy a DVD Recorder to replace it, since there aren’t any affordable Blue Ray DVD recorders out there yet I would not buy one to replace it.

  2. Daniel Hollister

    The trouble is that many people are predicting the demise of Blu-Ray at the moment. Wal-Mart just made an announcement last week saying they are declaring HD-DVD to be the winner and that they will stock NO Blu-Ray players at all. Meanwhile, they also claim that by Christmas, they will have sub-$200 HD-DVD players in stock.

    Since they are the biggest retailer, and that they aren’t even going to stock a single Blu-Ray player, many analysts think that could be the beginning of the end for that format.

    In regards to the DVD sales, the truth is that most Blu-Ray discs aren’t selling well. Casino Royale sold truckloads, but even the #2 Blu-Ray title had a dropoff something like only 10% of the amount of sales as Casino Royale. I don’t think it’s doing all that well.

    Hopefully Disney can leverage the gap..

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