Blu-Ray early lead on HD-DVD down under
By Gareth Powell
In Australia Blu-Ray as a high definition DVD format has galloped into an early lead by having JB HiFi, one of the major chains of home electronic stores (72 in all), state that it would only stock Blu-Ray and will definitely not stock the opposing HD-DVD.
Australians are a fairly outspoken bunch. Thus at the launch the press was told that in Australia ‘people don’t give a rat’s arse about product.’
These golden words — golden if you are backing Blu-Ray — came from the marketing director of JB HiFi, Scott Browning, at the official Australian launch of the Blu-Ray high-definition DVD format. What consumers want, he further explained, was ‘experience’ — and Blu-Ray high-definition movies and games will offer that, according to him, in spades.
There are 30-odd movies and music titles available right now so you can have that Blu-Ray experience. That is if you like such intellectual fodder as Mission: Impossible III, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Twenty more — do not look for culture here — will be available next month.
JB HiFi has taken the unusual step of stating it will stock only Blu-ray hardware and software. No HD-DVD. And it expects Blu-Ray to take up 10 percent of JB shelf space by the end of the year.
To back up this Australian-type announcement came Michael Hoog, a US-based Blu-ray Disc Association executive. He claimed Blu-Ray is inherently superior to HD-DVD due to its larger disc capacity (50GB on a dual-layer disc), its 48 megabits per second data delivery, and the backing of eight of the nine major movie studios — against two or three for HD DVD.
He claimed 18 of the current top 20 movies on disk were available on Blu-ray in the US, against only four on HD-DVD. Like all visiting fire people he was astounded at the technology take-up in Australia. Probably expected to be greeted by Aussies playing didgeridoos. Typical Aussies who could not give a rat’s arse about product. His or anyone else’s.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 6:40 am
under
Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
Stumble It!
February 14th, 2007
Such a sly underhand and anti-consumer move (but so typical of the Blu-ray crew).
HD-DVD is the equal (and often superior to) anything the Blu-ray side can offer in PQ or SQ (no matter what the irrelevant spec numbers might infer).
February 14th, 2007
…….of course, the people ‘giving a rats arse’ about this might just be this fool’s customers who might well resent being gouged at double the price for the same ‘experience’ as they can get on HD-DVD.
What a jerk.
March 16th, 2007
Damn. I want HD DVD to win, yet I currently do most of my SD DVD shopping at JB Hi-Fi. So this news sucks!