CES 2009: Digital Entertainment Group Celebrates

DEG, the Digital Entertainment Group hosted their annual awards show tonight at CES. With good growth in Blu-ray and DVD, the group had reason to celebrate.

As far as retailers, it wasn't hard to guess who they would honor. Software retailer went to Amazon.com, while hardware retailer of the year went to Best Buy. Considering that there isn't much competition on a national scale, Best Buy was pretty predictable.

As for Best in Show, Warner Home Video's The Dark Knight won, with Blu-ray and DVD sales records with combined first-week global sales, including rental, of 13.5 million units.

With manufacturers and movie studios as members of DEG, which covers both DVD and Blu-ray, you could see why this group had lots to celebrate this past year, even as the rest of the industry struggles. When times are tough, people stay home and watch movies.

First Blu-ray/DVD Debuts

What could possible push the sales of Blu-ray harder into the positive numbers is debuting in Japan. The world's first hybrid Blu-ray/DVD movie is going to be released (in Japan) on February 18th.  One of the benefits of the dearly deceased HD DVD was the ability produce hybrids. This new technology was shown playing on a Sony Playstation3.

Some folks might be holding off on buying either a DVD or Blu-ray of a movie is that they're waiting until they actually buy a new player. They know they're going to buy a Blu-ray player soon, but until they do, do they buy DVD, or wait until they get the player and buy Blu?

The only bad thing about this new hybrid technology is the title they've chosen for their first demonstration . . .

Survey: How much more will you pay?

Studios: Your Blu-ray pricing is making the discs unsaleable! I love home theater. And I own a Blu-ray player. So, when Pixar's Wall-E came out on disc, I headed down to Wal-Mart on launch day to pick up the movie on Blu-ray. But when I saw the ginormous price disparity between the DVD and the Blu-ray, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I am NOT going to spend $19.99 more for the Blu-ray experience. Not...gon....doit. So, how much more would YOU pay for a Blu-ray? I'm thinking a $5 premium over DVD is fair.--John Sciacca

As Falls Hollywood . . .

Most of the nation is looking at Wall Street, Capital Hill, and Detroit, but our eyes are on Hollywood. As the economy tanks, people tend to look to the entertainment world to create a diversion.

A report in the New York Times shows exactly how the movie business is being effected by the economic downturn. Movie tickets are going up, but the real Hollywood dollars have long depended on DVD sales. Surprisingly, as more and more people stay home, those sales aren't increasing.

Sales of DVDs are down by 4 percent, mostly coming in October, when the economy was the bleakest.

According to the NYT story . . .

Smackdown: DVR vs. DVD

Since getting your DVR, have your DVD viewing habits changed? A new study from Knowledge Networks Inc. found that DVRs aren't cutting into TV watching — they're cutting into DVD watching.

The study, reported at The Canadian Press, found that 90% of people surveyed watched TV during prime time hours, though 19% have DVRs. "Increased DVR usage seems to come at the expense of watching purchased video," said David Tice, director of The Home Technology Monitor at Knowledge Networks, who noted that DVD sales have been falling for several years.

The study has more interesting results.

Playboy Stripping Down on DVD

It's a well-known industry "secret" that the adult film industry has been responsible for much of the growth of new formats. First VHS and then DVD, the mainstream industry owes a lot to the adult sector.

However, in a strange twist, the floundering Playboy empire is planning to exit the DVD business over the next few months, concentrating on digital downloads instead.

"We will continue to deliver more of our content digitally, using our assets across multiple distribution platforms and adding more a la carte offerings," CEO Christie Hefner (from an SEC filing) wrote in a memo to employees. "Given the declines in the DVD market, we will exit that business in phases over a few months to concentrate on selling that content online."

Here's some reasons for the ditching of DVD, even as other adult studios commit to Blu-ray.

RealNetworks' RealDVD Ripper

RealNetworks — remember, they're the ones who tried to offer AAC music downloads that would play on your iPod product until they got shutdown — is back with a new product. RealDVD. This may or may not be legal in the eyes of Hollywood, but they're trying to appease the MPAA gods.

This $30 package lets you make one copy, following the "personal use" theory, of a DVD. The digital copy will get have even more DRM (Digital Rights Management)  than the original, and up to five more PC's can be authorized to view that disc, but it ain't free.  Each additional Windows machine will cost you $20.

Here's the interesting part.

John Mellencamp's High-resolution DVD

John Mellencamp's latest album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom is coming out in an interesting format included with the usual CD release. (And downloads available from hearmusic.com. Use the code LDLF8 for two free cuts.) The new release will come as a CD and DVD package.  What's the big deal?

Colorizing Still Around -- "Forbidden Zone" on DVD

How come we don't know about this cult classic? Legend films is releasing Forbidden Zone on DVD and on-demand digital download — now in color!  Who knew they were still colorizing films?  How fun is that?

Forbidden Zone was directed by Richard Elfman, and the music is by Danny Elfman, with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo — Danny also has a star billing.  Hmmm.  Directed by Elfman, music by and starring Elfman. Interesting . . .

Shocking DVD Copying Numbers

We've all read the stories about DVD piracy, and how horrible it is, blah, blah, blah. No one we know is illegally copying DVDs, right? Wrong! A new report called the Consumer Home Piracy survey done by Futuresource Consulting had rather shocking results. A similar study was done in 2007 which allows for easy comparison of the trend.

If you and I aren't copying DVDs, who is?