Posted on 01/04/2002 6:28:09 PM PST by SamAdams76
By industry accounts, DVD players were the hottest-selling item of the holiday-shopping season and will soon spell the death of the ubiquitous VCR.
Last year marked the biggest price decline for DVD players since the devices debuted for about $500 in 1997. And 2002 may prove to be another bumper year despite worries about the U.S. economy, analysts said.
The appeal of DVD players is quickly eroding the grip VCRs once had on the home entertainment front. Consumers are finding DVDs to be more versatile than videotapes because of their compatibility with computers and gaming consoles.
"I really don't feel sorry for videotapes,'' said college student Albert Shew as he browsed the Virgin Megastore in New York's busy Times Square. "They've got to go, as DVDs are much better. They've got excellent quality, features and are getting cheaper.''
The surging interest in DVD technology has been fueled by retailers and movie studios, which make more money on DVDs than videos because they carry higher margins.
Retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City and movie rental chain Blockbuster are expected to have cashed in big from their holiday sales of DVD players, many priced below $100.
The penetration of DVD players, including those found on PCs, was expected to reach about 36 percent of U.S households by the end of 2001, according to Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research.
For 2002, Adams estimates that DVD prevalence in U.S. homes will climb to 54.5 percent. "The really more profound thing is not so much the penetration, but the fact that half of revenues from sales of movies to consumers in 2001 came from DVDs,'' he said.
In 2000, DVDs had accounted for about 32 percent of home movie sales in the United States, Adams said.
As for the price, the average cost of a DVD player in 2001 dropped to $158 from $202 a year earlier, according to estimates from eBrain Market Research.
For 2002, eBrain forecasts the average price for a DVD player to fall to $146, with the cost likely to drop by about $10 dollars through to 2005. But with the latest sales, the price seems to be dropping faster than anticipated.
Analysts attribute much of the price decline to a surge in DVD penetration, which in turn is helping lower the costs per unit for manufacturers.
In one big show of how the DVD craze is taking root, Blockbuster plans to rid itself of about 25 percent of its tape library to make room for the fast-growing DVD discs.
Karen Raskopf, a spokeswoman for Dallas-based Blockbuster, said the rental chain even ventured out to sell DVD players priced at $99 over the holidays, going head-to-head with other low-priced offers from big electronics retailers.
"Our sales of DVD players were beyond our expectations,'' Raskopf said.
The company, the largest movie rental chain with nearly 7,900 stores worldwide, has also been giving away free Philips DVD players to customers who buy a $199 DVD rental card.
Currently, DVDs account for about 30 percent of rentals at Blockbuster, with the rest still coming from videotapes. But by 2003, the chain expects DVDs to account for half of rentals.
I had owned a VCR for 15 years and during that entire time, I purchased only seven VCR movies. In the year since getting my DVD player, I have purchased or received as gifts close to thirty titles, as well as upgrading 5 of the 7 movies I already had on VCR.
Not only are the prices of a DVD player affordable, but the DVD's themselves are priced well too. You can get a full opera for about $30 with subtitles in five different languages. Or a current release movie for about $15 or $20.
DVD's play well on computers too!
Premature predictions. Look, they said the same thing about 8 track tape players and Osborne computers, both still immensely popular!
I know, to audio/videophiles, that isn't of huge importance, as the sound quality, and video quality rate much much higher. However, for us technological ruffians still clinging to cassette tape players in our cars, and using Televisions bought from yard sales for about $100... Well, there isn't much appeal to the DVD format.
The only reason I would want one is for the extended content on DVDs. (Deleted scenes, Making of the movie, etc.) I'd never want one for the audio/video quality alone.
Is that what they teach in colleges nowadays, Albert? How to feel or not feel sorry for inanimate objects?
What part of the Smokey Mountains do u live in? {8^\
Eventually, the total VCR market will be parents and grandparents with rooms full of home movies.
Agreed. For example, I have someone tape the Sopranos for me - couldn't happen if we both only had DVD players. (I'm too cheap to get HBO because the Sopranos would be about the only thing I would watch - and I haven't even had time to watch the ones that were taped for me yet.)
Plus my kids have a bunch of tapes and the video store still has most kids stuff on tape - so I still have both a DVD and VCR (and too many remotes).
You mean you don't rewind your rental DVDs? Philistine!
I do have a question though about formats of dvd movies if anyone knows. If the choice of movie formats is full screen, letterbox, and anamorphic widescreen - which is the best choice? I'm not quite sure what anamorphic widescreen is, and I've heard different opinions on whether it was a good or bad format.
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