Swag Bag Giveaway Full Details
What do you have to do to get in on this? It’s actually pretty easy! Here’s the details.
Register at rgbfilter.com/register, then send us an email at show@rgbfilter.com with ‘giveaway’ in the subject, and include your user name somewhere as well. Of course, if you’re already a registered user, then just drop us the email. The deadline for entries is Monday Oct. 13th 2008 at midnight Eastern, and winners will be announced in the following episode.
1 Batman – The Killing Joke Remastered, and signed – Brian Bolland
1 Bodycount signed – Kevin Eastman
1 Evil Dead Musical pack
– XL What the F*#K Was That t-shirt
– 1 Evil Dead Musical novelty axe
1 Hoverboy prize pack
– Hoverboy #1 signed
– Hoverboy DVD signed
1 x Aliens Predator Pack
– Birth of the Hybrid diorama
– Cpl. Hicks figure.
2 x Hypothesis Archival Prints
2 x United Free Worlds Pack
– United Free Worlds #1
– United Free Worlds t-shirts XL
Each of the above packs include a copy of the pro-gaming documentary Frag.
That makes for a grand total of 10 Swag Bags.
So what are you waiting for?
Those two Hypothesis prints are worth more than all the rest put together, natch! 8)
They’re GOLD, Jerry!!!
As a PS3 fanboy can i say that your breakdown of blu ray wasnt nuanced and tedious as i would have liked 😀
LOL! Wait till this week’s show. The Iron Man Blu-Ray disc thing is funny. 😀
(and those Hypothesis prints are mint!)
iron man on blu ray was the first to prompt me for an additional content download… that was neat… however back to your guy’s rant, i agree that HDDVD losing does not mean blu ray won, however your not addressing the meat and potatoes about the players…
as i said, ya didnt look at the gray areas… how much do you expect 3rd party manufacturers to eat cost price of blu ray machines, when at the end of the day it couldnt possibly offer what the PS3 can (well… okay it can make your logitech harmony remote a bit more usefull but thats another rant)
my conclusion with that is that im surprised there are companies beyond sony making these machines, since it makes like ZERO sense
i in no way advocate monopolies, just breaking down the reality of it is all…
That’s all well and good, but the harsh reality of it is: No format ever really succeeds until they hit a certain price point, which is historically ~$200. But for some reason, Blu-Ray doesn’t wanna cowtow to tradition, so it’s stuck in this endless cycle of “I’m not buying it because it’s too expensive” vs. “We’re not selling any, so the price can’t come down.” If they really want to become the defacto medium of choice, they need to price the payers and movies competitively to DVD (or at least upscaling players, which routinely live in the sub-$100 zone).
That said, I still firmly believe that hardware-based media like DVDs and Blu-Ray are a lame duck; like we said on the show, with all the online and OTA options available to got your HD content, many of which cost ~$5, why would you invest upwards of $400 for JUST ONE movie!? Seems silly.
~No format ever really succeeds until they hit a certain price point, which is historically ~$200. But for some reason, Blu-Ray doesn’t wanna cowtow to tradition~
Im not arguing this however im filling in the rest of the blanks, the best blu ray player, on the market, is the PS3, even home theater enthusiasts have been buying them up… As for the other manufacturers, would you like to be the one in one of their R&D teams trying to figure out how it makes sense to sell these units at a loss WHILE trying to justify to the consumer that paying the same price for an equally performing system that also happens to have an upgradeable HD, wifi and next gen gaming is just liberal poppycock?
Im not saying its right, im saying thats how it is… And not mentioning the PS3 in affordable blu ray solutions isnt magically going to make this fact go away…
~I still firmly believe that hardware-based media like DVDs and Blu-Ray are a lame duck;~
for nerds like us, i agree, however downloadable HD content, for the masses, is not mainstream yet, nor will it be for the next few years…
~many of which cost ~$5, why would you invest upwards of —>$400ONE
goddammit… character limits suck >:(
Totally agree…if you were gonna buy a Blu Ray player right now, you’d be a fool to buy anything but a PS3. I’m just sayin’ the industry standard re. pricing right now is ridiculous, and while the PS3 is the wisest choice, not everyone will want a full-on video game system for $375 when they can just wait and get an Blu-Ray for sub-$200 probably by next Xmas. Better choice or not, PS3 is still mad pricey and will likely never be the device of choice for people who just want to watch movies.
Lame duck: Yes, youre right…for now. But I think (and Doug agrees) the the Blu Ray disc could very well be be the last hardware movie medium we ever see. Not definite, obviously….but potentially.
I dont see another physical format after blu ray either, I guess i had a bazillion alarms in my brain go off when this wasnt adressed in the rant: there are now about 15 million PS3’s sold worldwide, thats a blu ray market like it or not
Well, i have to disagree that “that’s a blu ray market like it or not”, because blu ray movie sales are actually stagnant overall. EngadgetHD has been covering this pretty well…
hey im just adressing the white elephant in the room that is the PS3 factor in regards to affordable players, as for blu ray sales, that doesnt surprise me as most are still content with standard dvd, just keeping things fair and balanced is all
to expect blu ray sales to not start picking up would be dissing mr. favreau though and lordy knows we cant have that
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=UhtlSFdqya4
:unsure:
~the PS3 factor in regards to affordable players~
While the PS3 is the best value for the money because it includes a Blu-Ray player, I would hit the brakes pretty hard before calling it “affordable”. The 80gb version is still $399…that’s a pretty steep price tag for any home theatre add-on, “good value for the money” or otherwise 🙂
sure if your a cheapass (joke) 😀
what im saying is, do you know how many blu ray players, made by sony themselves (hows that for irony), that cant hold the PS3’s jockstrap in regards to simple blu ray playback, yet are priced considerably higher…
$400 is not cheap for a simple player, I agree… but given the logistics as to how everything panned out, its not surprising… and here is where we all agree that they created quite the “wtf” environment for the HD format…
I’m late to the party, but I agree with froggybootknocker. It isn’t useful or predictively relevant to analyse Blu-ray adoption without considering the PS3 front-and-centre.
And I think you’re both wrong in putting an OVER emphasis on the PS3. 😀
I gotta back up a moment and quote froggy:
“You’re not addressing the meat and potatoes about the players…”
It’s not me that’s not considering it. PS3 owners aren’t ALL considering it. NPD did a study a while ago that showed that only half of PS3 owners were aware of its HD capabilities (just in DISPLAY capabilities), and that out of that half, a minority were making use of it – and even less using it as a playback device. Other studies have backed that up, and shown that owners are becoming more aware, but it’s still a minority. Only one survey by an industy booster group that contradicts everyone else says 87% of PS3 users are using it to watch BR movies. A statement that is easily proven false by the fact that overall, since HD-DVD folded, BR market share shrunk.
Blu Ray adoption is WAY below Sony’s own prediction of 50% of the video market by this time. Overall BR is still hovering at 8-12% of DVD.
There ARE titles like Iron Man that see 20% or more of their sales on BR, but new releases of non effects driven films hover around 5%. That’s basically the State Of the Video Sales Union today.
It’s clear that the PS3 is a bit of a factor for geek friendly films like Iron Man (and expect even higher numbers for Dark Knight), but if the but for films like Superbad or Knocked Up, not so much.
Other numbers that can’t be ignored in BR adoption (and I’d argue more significant than the number of PS3s out ther) include the fact that as of now, HDTV penetration in N. America is somewhere around 35%, and just about 20% in Europe. As long as 2/3 of the people are watching standard def, you’re never going to be able to convince them that they need HD – if they’re even aware of it- let alone a particular delivery mechanism such as BR.
I don’t know about Japan’s numbers, but Japan is already talking about rolling out Ultra HDTV (4 times 1080p resolution) sometime over the next 7-8 years so I can’t even fathom that. 😀
All that combined with a huge growth in both free and for pay online services (Netflix’s Roku, Hulu, TiVo online integration, XBLM, VUDU, etc) that are seeing major growth and backing from TV and film studios, not to mention the HD offerings from Sat and Cable providers, are leading to less dependence on physical formats.
And despite the joke about ‘cheapass’, the $200 mark is a magic number that consumers, in general, understand, and is more relevant than the PS3 itself.
This isn’t meant as a knock on the PS3, but BR purchasing decisions don’t start and end with the PS3. If that were true, Iron Man would have sold 5 million BR copies on day one.
Given all the above, I guess that BR will probably surpass DVD but it’s going to be a matter of years, and by that point we’ll all be able to access HD content more easily online, making physical formats in general less prevalent.
People will figure out that their PS3s can play Blu-ray soon enough. You can’t just count on stupidity for your analysis, plus it’s an exception you only apply to the PS3. Plenty of people have DVD players and yet hardly rent anything, or even nothing. The same thing will happen with Blu-ray — to take a factor like ‘are aware of/rent Blu-ray titles’ and to apply that metric to the PS3, and then hard sales figures to every other kind of device, is to use different yardsticks and of course the result will be fairly meaningless. The only rational way I see to look at it is pure installed players, and of course the # of rentals/purchases on which you have a point. But any analysis that discards the PS3 figures out of hand simply because they are combo devices, is necessarily biased. Eventually somebody is going to inform these people that they can play Blu-ray devices — they may even just be an easy marketing campaign away from realising it, so it’s an installed base that you can’t reasonably ignore if you want to actually predict anything, which is the whole ballgame.
I’m gussing you didn’t really read what I wrote, because it’s not even what I’m taking about.
I’ll leave it at that.
Ummm … I read the whole thing, but stomp off in a pique if you wish. 8)
Not stomping off in a pique. Just leaving a conversation that seems destined to be stuck in a “PS3 rox0rz for BR movies” vs “Evidence suggests otherwise” loop.
The ‘whole ballgame’ is about BR movies and where that FORMAT will be in 4 years, and the PS3 isn’t the only factor (well, to anyone being rational).
the PS3 isnt the only factor but its the major factor, you dont adress that unless pressed, I think its the blazee almost coughing “oh yeah and blue ray has the PS3” afterthought/footnote that you are stapling to your debate, you might as well not mention it at all 😛
I think it’s a factor, but with 15 million PS3s sold and dismal BR MOVIE performance outside of certain genre films, it’s clearly less of a factor than Sony, the BR Consortium and most industry analysts thought it would be by this point. A 50% expectation has turned into a 10% reality for BR movies. What do you want me to say? “Rah rah PS3” when there’s nothing to be ‘rah rah’ about?
I’m sorry for pointing this out, and have no idea why you and Laroquod continue to get your panties in a bunch over it.
With the insecure economy right now a lot of pundits are predicting much slower HDTV sales this holiday.
Do you think that HDTV market penetration plays a >, < or about = role in BR adoption as the PS3? Do you think the growth of digital delivery will have a positive or negative effect on BR film distribution, and how much so, and in what time frame? From the general tone of this conversation, all I'm hearing is "PS3 is teh sav10rz of BR" with nothing to back that up, except "PS3 iz an BR playah", but somehow I'm getting constantly hammered with "missing the big picture" and "bias" etc. ad nauseum. NONE of what I've said is a qualitative judgment of the PS3. It's all quantitative effect of the device on the larger picture. This is starting to feel like IMDb now... [biggrin]
Well what im getting my panties in a bunch over is that in the initial video you are talking about the sale of blu ray movies kinda being ho hum
– which yourself and I talked about after HD bowed out, was going to be the case
no beef with that
its the “no cheap blu ray options” schpiel, which id totally agree if this was bizarro land where the PS3 doesnt exist
when
without the existence of the PS3, pricing for blu ray machines wouldnt be so wtf!
you are leaving an important part out of the equation
yes you mention it, but you might as well said mr. t underoos in its place as it had just about as much impact on your conclusion as the PS3 had, which is fucked!
The “no cheap options schpiel” is completely accurate.
Sub $200 is what gets a LOT of consumers (maybe not geeks or fanboys, but the majority of people) to sit up and take notice. It’s THE magic number. $299 makes a difference as well, but not nearly as much as $199.
That’s just one of those golden truths of the consumer electronics market.
The PS3, at twice the price, does not fit into the category. Neither do Mr. T Underoos. I think they’re going for about $350 on ebay. 😀
ps: im fully aware that phrases like “you might as well not mention it at all” flies in the face of me not believing in absolutes, just consider that another nuance…
my brain hurts 🙁
LOLZ!
~The “no cheap options schpiel” is completely accurate.~
its accurate as a standalone statement but not as a stance!
~Sub $200 is what gets a LOT of consumers (maybe not geeks or fanboys, but the majority of people) to sit up and take notice. It’s THE magic number. $299 makes a difference as well, but not nearly as much as $199. ~
I dont argue this nor have I ever argued this, if you go back to my initial postings I said that how much do you expect other manufacturers to eat the cost price of blu ray machines when they have to compete with the PS3…????
I know some of you guys would be content with a $200 dollar player but lets bring this argument (for once with the spelled out conditions) that the PS3 does not exist, you are shopping for a blu ray player and the clerk tells you “for another $200 bucks you can get a better one, that has an upgradeable harddrive, wifi and can act as a media center for all of your existing content!… oh and it also enables you to get your next gen gaming on!”
I dunno about you, but id go for option B
This is a royal shit sandwich sony has created for itself, hedging its own bets while shooting itself in both feet, it aint right, but thats the reality of it
Now if you want to debate the pro’s and con’s, do some vertical arrow cost benefits as to if its good or bad, thats another debate, im just saying, once again, that you are debating the cost of blu ray players, while disregarding the white elephant in the room, that now has diarhea 😀
Let me start with: “I don’t care what you would go for.”
The average consumer wouldn’t pick option B. They’ll wait until BR hits $200 over buying a system in which they have no interest in it’s main function.
That’s a point I don’t see as debatable or flexible, so consider it a stance on my part. The added benefits of the PS3 might make it much more acceptable to a lot of people at $299 as opposed to $199, but that remains to be seen. As long as it sits at $399 it’s not something consumers who are NOT interested in console gaming are going to touch.
I DON’T expect other manufacturers to eat the costs. They’re gonna do the best they can for their products, but they’re not going to sell them at a loss (especially if they’re not also a studio owner).
In other words, the PS3 will become the elephant in the room when it’s price is acceptable enough to BE such. Until then it’s a game console. I think all the numbers are showing that, too.
BTW: Funnily enough, I just saw this quote from Steve Jobs: Straight from El Jobso’s mouth at today’s notebook keynote: “Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.”
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-a-bag-of-hurt/
Even more funny: When I went to copy that quote I accidentally hit the link for ‘takes off’, and saw this from Friday:
“Sony’s BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray player sinks below $200”
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/09/21/sonys-bdp-s300-1080p-blu-ray-player-sinks-below-200/
THAT’S what will get BR into more homes, not the PS3. 😀
Well I totally agree with Jobs on *that*. DRM-wise Blu-ray is a giant load of crap but then so was HD-DVD and the new flashcard media device Toshiba has said they are working on instead of joining Blu-ray — that’s going to be even worse.
~I DON’T expect other manufacturers to eat the costs. They’re gonna do the best they can for their products, but they’re not going to sell them at a loss (especially if they’re not also a studio owner).~
DING DING FUCKING DING! EXACTLY!
and thats why the options for affordable blu ray were slim next to none, which is why i took exception to begin with, and the PS3 has a lot to do with other manufacturers apprehension as well
as for the affordable blu ray player, its no surprise its sony… and it took them long enough, but thats what you get when you have a format peddler also trying to duke it out in the console war
i think this whole debate could have been better wrapped up if not for my need for drama, for that i apologize…
It would have helped if I had actually spelled out my position re: the magic price point earlier. “Cheap” as it stands in the video is pretty undefined.
~In other words, the PS3 will become the elephant in the room when it’s price is acceptable enough to BE such. Until then it’s a game console. I think all the numbers are showing that, too~
having stepped into multiple freshly built home theater rooms with the PS3 being the centerpiece whose features are NOT used whatsoever for gaming ill just have to disagree based on personnal observations
As a personal observation: Freshly built home theatre rooms aren’t the norm. 😀
I’m just saying.
LOL very true…