57 replies to this topic

[tonyjg]

Where has the Blu gone ?  It's oh so quiet in 2012 !


Am I the only one here whom is wondering :  where has everyone gone ???   Where are the sales ??   and why is it oh so quiet in 2012 ??

Ok - I can 'blame' so of the quietness on Amazon UK's decision to remove the 'free shipping' - but there's nothing happening locally.  Have we reached that point were we and consumers no longer 'care' ??

The days of seeing a new release around the $30 mark are long gone - with JB now having these prices around the $35 to $37 mark (more on the high side).  Oh - and let us just forget about those 3D prices !!!  Is anyone - even the average Joe - buying them at their high prices ??

It just seems as though we all have somewhat given up.

No real bargains.   No deals.   The last 2 for $20 deal sale was full of that crap that they can't even budge.   (added - even the thread in Whirlpool has gone cold).

Sure - it's only just into 2012... but a few more weeks and we're into March - the 1st Quarter is turning out to be quite a poor one so far.


thoughts ??

[Chopsus]

Agree ... but the entire forum appears to be descending into a scene from Lord of the Flies lately .... I wonder if it;s a sign of impending doom for the AV/HT Sector in Australia?

[yorac]

yorac, on 16 February 2012 - 09:13 PM, said:

no mention of the stunning remaster here...........

don't know why the don't call it the Suckers triple dip version.............

Well given the standard of release shown here, is it a wonder............

[oztheatre]

They keep talking about it picking up again, you know, like it used to... I dont think it will, this is the new market we live in. This is it imo.
I'm flat out so I must be doing something right. But retail in general has been poor for the last year or so.

Did anyone notice the projector GB's put forward end of last year, start of this year? For models that hadn't even been released. No reviews, no demos, just whoosh here you go, prices set, projectors still on their way from china. I've never witnessed that before. That to me is a sign of the times and I think many who sell luxury products are and will do it tough now and in the future.

Don't worry, we only have 10 months or so to live, then it's spontaneous dna upgrade and all that good stuff

[Dork(original)]

I agree,it's piss poor ATM.
Just waiting for Roger Waters "The Wall"
On the whole the music BD is crap.
Paul.

[yorac]

oztheatre, on 17 February 2012 - 07:08 PM, said:

Don't worry, we only have 10 months or so to live, then it's spontaneous dna upgrade and all that good stuff

yorac, on 20 January 2012 - 05:07 PM, said:

Alright finally found a decent coutdown clock here and you can choose colours and size as well...........

[tonyjg]

Chopsus, on 17 February 2012 - 06:44 PM, said:

Agree ... but the entire forum appears to be descending into a scene from Lord of the Flies lately .... I wonder if it;s a sign of impending doom for the AV/HT Sector in Australia?

Each day....  with the 2secs that I have to actually regain some sanity at the office - I would check out DTV Blu-ray to see a stack of new posts / threads.  Nowdays..... it's a ghost town !!! (ok.. the new format might have scared a few away  

Well.... let's see what happens in a few months time........ but I've a dire feeling that the few remaining folk in here might become a tad lonely !

[oztheatre]

yorac, on 17 February 2012 - 07:16 PM, said:

So I gather there won't be any GTG planned for late December? March is much better

[:)]

bit of blu around. just have to look

picked up lady and the tramp short while ago. looking for "the hunter"

looking forward to

whistle blower, contagion, midnight in paris and Drive in the next month.

so yeah still a steady stream but yeah have to keep in mind its now out of christmas and next main release season is us summer mid year

[tonyjg]

:), on 18 February 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

bit of blu around. just have to look
picked up lady and the tramp short while ago. looking for "the hunter"
looking forward to
whistle blower, contagion, midnight in paris and Drive in the next month.
so yeah still a steady stream but yeah have to keep in mind its now out of christmas and next main release season is us summer mid year

Not sure if really you got what I was getting at ................  sure there's the occassional title realease........... but it's quiet in here, quiet in sales, quiet in just general.

The titles that you stated - whilst some are good films - just aren't producing any level of 'excitement' anymore - and the signs are showing in this forum and others.   Sure - we can state that we have just gotten over Xmas - but that was almost 2 mths ago - and US summer is still several months away - if they (retailers) don't keep up the momentum, they may loose 'us' - the customer !

I think that we have been 'spoilt' with some cheap/er prices - and the yo yo pricing that we are seeing now doesn't help sales.  It will be interesting to evaluate this business come the end of 2012.

[:)]

quiet for sure, tony talk to any retailers and will tell you sales after christmas in oz tend to go very quiet to well after easter. people just got too much going on. not everyone are forum tragics like our selves hehe. just a reality we had quite a rush leading upto christmas. just have to be content with the dribble to come and then things ramp up later. world is also keep in mind a bit in hibernation with gfc2 and what not.

[Chopsus]

Tony is right, the number of posts across the forum have dropped significantly.

I wonder if it's related to the forum upgrade.

It can't all be the anti-gay tirades from arextwo that's driven the more family orientated members away can it?

[MLXXX]

Chopsus, on 18 February 2012 - 07:49 AM, said:

Tony is right, the number of posts across the forum have dropped significantly.

I wonder if it's related to the forum upgrade.

Probably. I note the forum upgrade is incomplete:  pre-upgrade threads are hard to read as quoted text is not differentiated from new text. When this will be resolved with a "rebuild" is unclear.

Regarding the price of new Blu-ray releases, leading actors are paid seven figure sums for a single movie. Productions costs are often in the hundreds of millions. At the cinema, adult admission is edging towards the $20 mark.

[Chopsus]

I'm not sure we will see a rebuild ... The move to the new forum software took more than 2 years iirc and it seems the site administrators have lost interest in going much further.

As for prices etc.  as someone who started collecting DVDs I think the current price of a new release is on par with historical prices for the last 15 years .... I think the real reason why things are dying off is that most of the anticipated back catalog releases have now occurred .... There's just not much left to look forward to? Indiana Jones? What else?

[pbouzaid]

I used to lurk here a fair bit, but the reason I don't anymore is a) the new forum format (not a fan), and I have all the movies I want right now.

The only movie I am really hanging out for at the moment is True Lies.

Oh yeah, the lack of free shipping from amazon uk has slowed down my back catalog purchasing big time.

[bernievink]

Gee Folks why so miserable ? there are ups and downs in every trade, and BD is no exception.
As for me between now and early May I have about 10 in my wish-list/pre-order queue.
here are a few to be released soon. Puss in boots, Ferngully, Man from snowy river,
Dragonheart, Happy feet 2, Bodyguard, Volcano and The Muppets.
There is still plenty of more purchases about,
but I am hesitant to buy from France or Germany because of forced subs.
and this invariably leads me to double dip when the same movie finally gets released in Australia.
Regards

Edited by bernievink, 19 February 2012 - 06:50 PM.

[mcduck]

the lack of free shipping from amazon uk is making me wait for movies to be released rather than preordering them 2 at a time
atm in my basket i have the three muskateers and captain america waiting for twilight and sherlock  and then one or two others
but for me the main reason is there aren't many movies that i want to buy

Edited by mcduck, 20 February 2012 - 05:59 AM.

[OakenShield]

Have to agree, there's plenty around, I don't buy from Aus. But have 8 coming from OS due any day now. Plenty I want, the Mrs has a rather extensive list too, just working through them.

Looking forward to Puss in Boots, Happy Feet 2, there are plenty more on the horizon.

I can't justify paying the price asked for here though - special or not, $35 for Breaking Dawn P1 is a joke when I can get it for about $20 delivered o/s

[Chopsus]

We may well be going back to the future - the days when enthusiasts would order virtually everything from OS because there simply wasn't a market here for local distributors to justify importing.

To be honest I think most of us with a serious buying habit do exactly this and whilst it would be nice to have price parity (and we do on many of the ancient titles) it may well be unrealistic to ever expect it to happen .... the market just aint big enough.

On top of all this, many new releases take their sweet time getting here .... I have had Real Steel for nearly a month now and it's not due out here til the end of march.

Edited by Chopsus, 20 February 2012 - 08:24 AM.

[davep]

There hasnt been many releases that have excited me recently and i've actually found myself watching less and less movies at home as im busy with renovations.  Im sure its a cyclical thing and ill get re-enthused down the track.

I emailed Amazon UK a little while ago, delicately expressing my disappointment at the end of free shipping, and asking when it would return.  The response was apologetic, with no plans to reintroduce at this stage, but would pass on my disappointment to sales areas or something.  Anyway, maybe if enough of us do this, it might help

[Chopsus]

davep, on 20 February 2012 - 08:53 AM, said:

I emailed Amazon UK a little while ago, delicately expressing my disappointment at the end of free shipping, and asking when it would return.  The response was apologetic, with no plans to reintroduce at this stage, but would pass on my disappointment to sales areas or something.  Anyway, maybe if enough of us do this, it might help

Have also done so and received (likely) the same response.

[Vieira4]

Not to mention JB had removed the 2 for 30 and 2 for 30 sales and also seem to have upped the price on every blu ray by $5-10 on top of that.  I do not even bother going in there at those prices.

[GaryCook]

I have 13 BD's in my Amazon UK basket, lots of releases on 20/27th February and 7th March.  With no free shipping I reverted to my original process of bundling as many together as I can.  I don't preorder anything as the freight easily wipes out any price advantage from doing so.

I'm not sure whether this is good or bad for Amazon, I probably buy around the same number of BD's per annum, but instead of one order a month it's now one every 3 months or so.  Not preordering probably screws up their initail purchase quantiites, then I screw with them some more by ordering just after release.    That must have some effect on them otherwise they wouldn't have lower preorder prices.  I don't know whether it's enough to entice them into bringing back free shipping for us poor folk out in the colonies.


Cheers
Gary

[cwt]

GaryCook, on 20 February 2012 - 10:34 AM, said:

I have 13 BD's in my Amazon UK basket, lots of releases on 20/27th February and 7th March.  With no free shipping I reverted to my original process of bundling as many together as I can.  I don't preorder anything as the freight easily wipes out any price advantage from doing so.

I'm not sure whether this is good or bad for Amazon, I probably buy around the same number of BD's per annum, but instead of one order a month it's now one every 3 months or so.  Not preordering probably screws up their initail purchase quantiites, then I screw with them some more by ordering just after release. That must have some effect on them otherwise they wouldn't have lower preorder prices.  I don't know whether it's enough to entice them into bringing back free shipping for us poor folk out in the colonies.


Cheers
Gary

Nice move Gary ;just changed my Hugo pre order as it was delayed so took advantage of them separating the other 3 bds ordered and clued them in -

Quote

decided to combine with tintin 3d later to save shipping as free delivery to Australia has ceased

If the prices are higher after release I can wait or rent