Now we race to get Ultra-HD TV

Wondering.. where this will end up. I think Ultra-HD resolution is more relevant for Ultra-Large Size TVs. I don't think that it will make much sense to make Ultra-HD TVs in 40-50 inch range. Not for now.. I am guessing that this is one of few last opportunity for Sony to come back in TV market where they lost big time to Samsung. They lost to Samsung not on quality but I guess more on price/performance ratio. Same will apply for these Ultra-HD TV launch. It is expected to be really highly priced. However, if they price it really Ultra-High-Price.

While pricing it, they should think about gaining customer confidence and changing their Ultra-High-Price TVs perception to good value for money TV. This good value for money perception is currently owned by Samsung and I am sure they will do everything to keep it that way. Sooner or later, Samsung will also launch these Ultra-HD 4K TVs. Sony has very short window of opportunity where they can think about customers instead of thinking their own profit and loss. Even though, there is no guarantee of Sony's turnaround but still there is some chance which has showed up after long time.

I am not planning to go and get these Ultra-HD TVs anytime soon. Though after watching them it may change. Though, again.. I am not sure how much content will be available for these 4K TVs. Only up-scaling is not going to justify higher resolution. They will have to come up with better Blu-rays. It is their chance to revive slowing down Blu-Ray disc sales which internet streaming is killing day by day. You can get 4K content on internet as well but it is going to need real fat pipe or some buffering and hence significant lag.

But then there is even bigger problem on disc based as they might need player upgrade which can be even more slower. This entire ecosystem is so messed up.. I wish that we had Gig Ethernet at home just like we have telephone line.. that would have solved most of these streaming bottlenecks and we could easily switch to complete streaming based solution rather transporting these discs all the places..


Sony to debut TVs with ultra-HD

Diagonal measure will be 84 inches, with ‘4K’ resolution

By Peter Svensson

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Highdefinition TVs roughly quadrupled the resolution of the sets that came before them. Now, the industry is poised to do it again. By December, U.S. stores will sell a TV set with four times the resolution of today’s best HDTVs, Sony said Wednesday. The set will measure 84 inches on the diagonal, making the screen area four times as large as the common 42-inch set.

Executives said Sony will reveal the price of the set next week. There is, for now, very little video content available that can take advantage of the higher resolution. With some work and know-how, a computer connected to the set can display video in the ultra-HD “4K” resolution.
The set will also do its best to “upscale” TV, DVD and Blu-ray movies, so they look better.

Phil Molyneux, chief operating officer of Sony Electronics, said the situation was no different from the launch of the cassette tape, the CD or the DVD.

“We always get this question when we launch beautiful new technology: Where’s the content?” Molyneux told journalists at an event in New York. “Did we bring the content to market? Yes, we did.”

The resolution of the set is 3,840 by 2,160 pixels. It’s known as “4K” because it has nearly 4,000 pixels on the horizontal edge. That compares with 1,920 by 1,080 pixels in “1080p” sets. More pixels allow TV makers to make bigger screens without compromising sharpness.

Sony makes digital projectors operating at 4K resolution for movie theaters.

The TV industry has been looking for a technology that will get consumers to upgrade their HDTV sets. Sales are slumping after an initial wave of upgrades from standard-definition sets, and 3-D sets attract only a small number of consumers.

Apple has slowly been quadrupling the resolution of its devices, starting with the iPhone 4 two years ago. This year, it released iPads and MacBooks with ultrahigh- resolution screens.

---

SONY VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sony’s new ultra-HD 4K TV sets with resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels are scheduled to be in stores by December. Prices will be announced next week.

Will Netflix come out of this mess?

I think Netflix needs to take some corrective actions before they plunge too deep in financial mess. Actually lot of it was already projected due to expansions in newer markets. What is new is slow growth rate of new subscribers and bigger attrition of DVD-by-mail business.

In my view they should do following tactical initiatives while they continue to focus on bigger grander vision of providing entire world with all the possible media streams..

1. New Class of Subscribers - Get more subscribers in College campus by limiting not only number of simultaneous streams any account can view but also, limit the number of different locations simultaneous or otherwise.. That should stop account sharing in college campus and will force lot of new subscribers. $10/month is not a big deal for college grads it is just that it is so easy to share Netflix account it simply doesn't make any sense to pay. Disclaimer: this is based on the rumors I have heard. I haven't actually seen it yet. They can easily do it by minor enhancements on tracking IP address of clients and possibly some other ways as well.. 
2. Roam-ability - It is big bummer that when you travel, you can't watch Netflix as you are outside US. They should give some kind of ability to select portable devices of users to be able to view content while traveling outside US. They can charge little bit of premium for it or not.. At least I won't mind paying few extra bucks if they let me watch it on my laptop while I am travelling international. Though, I don't know how many users will care about this feature.. but definitely, it will remove big pain point for many. 
3. They need to stop treating DVD by mail as second class citizen in their company. It was their foundation and still is a great cash cow for them. Nobody treats your "Present" so bad for the sake of better "Future". As long as it doesn't generate loss for them, they should continue to push it harder. I would still love to have DVD by mail service. It was so convenient and you could watch lot more and better movies at better quality without worrying about internet speed or while traveling or camping or anything..  Netflix is in Media Streaming business.. they shouldn't care about Physical Media.. They did grave mistake of first offering streaming for free to DVD by mail customers and then start charging it separately. At least I can't understand it.. They could have created separate category of Premium streaming or some other category.. They could have stopped adding more content in this free version of streaming to push their premium Streaming version or they could have simply hiked prices like a dollar or two.. but that was ridiculous thing they did.. okay.. it was done.. but still before they go to graveyard.. they can rectify and come up with better DVD by mail plus streaming option with mid point pricing of yesterdays and today.. 

Netflix is great company and in all probability they will survive this storm. I can't predict if this is right time to buy their stock or sell. But they will be there for sure.. Question is, will they thrive like old days or just survive and grow slowly to be ultimately eaten up by some other big fish..

STOCK PLUNGES

Investors punish Netflix’s Q2 results

Subscriber growth less than projected, outlook may point to losses

By Troy Wolverton

twolverton@mercurynews.com 

LOS GATOS — Netflix’s stock plunged more than 16 percent in late trading Tuesday after the company posted weak subscriber growth and warned of future losses that call into question analysts’ forecasts for next year.

As part of its second-quarter report, which included a 91 percent drop in earnings, the Los Gatos company warned that it may not meet its previously stated goal of adding 7 million new U.S. streaming video subscribers this year, after adding a paltry 530,000 new subscribers in the second quarter. The company also warned that it might post losses in both its third and fourth quarters thanks to a costly international expansion of its streaming video business.

Thanks to those losses, Netflix’s bottom line is likely to finish somewhere around break even for the year, said Michael Pachter, a financial analyst with Wedbush Securities. Meanwhile, the company continues to lose subscribers to its DVD-by-mail business, which provides the bulk of its profits.

Combine those two factors, and it’s unlikely that the company will meet Wall Street’s expectations of a $2.13 per-share profit for next year, Pachter said. And if it can’t hit that target, its price has to come down, he said.

In after-hours trading, Netflix’s stock was down $13.39, or 16.7 percent, to $67.

“It’s becoming clear to people that $2 (profit) figure is fricking wrong,” Pachter said. “The company is overvalued. That’s why it’s down.”

The online movie company announced Tuesday it earned $6.2 million, or 11 cents a share, in its most recent quarter. That was down sharply from the $68.2 million, or $1.26 a share it earned in the same period a year earlier.

---

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES ARCHIVES

Netflix profit fell 91 percent in the quarter, and it warned it may fall short of the 7 million new streaming customers it had projected for the year.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But it was up from the first quarter, when the company posted a loss of $4.6 million, or 8 cents a share, a rare trip into the red for Netflix. 

The company’s sales in the second quarter were up 13 percent from the year-ago period to $889.2 million. 

The results topped Wall Street’s expectations. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting the company to earn 5 cents a share in the quarter on sales of $888.9 million. 

But the company clearly faced challenges. Its international business posted an $89 million segment loss in the quarter, helping to bring down its overall results. Netflix also continued to shed DVD subscribers. The total number of DVD customers fell to 9.2 million by the end of the quarter, down 850,000 from the previous period. The company has lost about 5.8 million DVD customers since last summer, when it raised prices as much as 60 percent and announced — and then canceled — a move to rename and spin off that business. 

Despite those subscriber losses, Netflix’s DVD business posted a $133.8 million segment profit in the quarter. The U.S. streaming business, which now has 23.9 million customers, posted an $83.1 million profit. 

Netflix doesn’t include technology, development or administrative costs when it calculates the segment profits of its business divisions. If those costs are included, Netflix’s U.S. streaming business would probably show a minuscule profit, if it was able to show one at all, Pachter said. 

Netflix forecast that it would add 1 million to 1.8 million U.S. streaming subscribers in the third quarter but said that it would have to hit the top of that range to be on target for its annual goal. 

In a statement, CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer David Wells touted the company’s return to profitability in the second quarter, noting that Netflix’s results exceeded the guidance they gave last quarter. They also argued that the company’s international expansion, which led to the company’s loss in the first quarter and could lead to losses in the next two quarters, is the best thing for Netflix’s long-term business. 

“We have enormous challenges ahead, and no doubt will have further ups and downs as we pioneer Internet television,” Hastings and Wells said in the statement. We are making progress in every market we serve, and see a oncein- a-generation opportunity ahead to build the world’s most popular TV show and movie service.” 

In the current period, the company expects its bottom line to range from a loss of $6 million, or 10 cents a share, to a profit of $8 million, or 14 cents a share. It forecast sales ranging from $890 million to $911 million. Before the report, analysts had forecast that Netflix would earn 11 cents a share in the third quarter on sales of $905.9 million. 

Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285. 

DVD Rental Wait Time to double

In my view, these types of policies are basically suicidal for movie studios.. Ultimately making DVD/Blu-Ray Disc somewhat similar to antique pieces like Floppy Disks.. If they really want to increase Disc based sales then studios should reduce price and also offer more features or options to customers.

One of the feature which I would really like to have it is to own the content rather than discs itself. Content's format and resolution may keep on changing but when I go and buy movie I should be granted license to own the content and possibly guarantee to own or upgrade to better version of resolution or type of delivery. Also, some kind of guarantee against disk breakage or scratches on it.. Add some or all of these features and you will get confidence of customers back in buying and owning discs and hopefully add few more years or decades to Disc business..

These type of patch working and further harassing customers is not going to help studios.. I can bet that even with this measure, next year there is going to be decline in disc business...

Here is the news clip from our local Mercury News:

Warner doubles DVD rental wait time

Studio to announce change to 2-month interval at CES

By Michael Liedtke

Associated Press

Prepare to have your patience tested if you prefer to rent DVDs rather than buy them. In a precedent other major movie studios are likely to follow, Warner Bros. is poised to announce that its latest DVD releases won’t be made available to rental outlets until nearly two months after the discs can be bought in stores and websites. A person familiar with the matter explained the new rules to The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes won’t be announced until Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The new restriction will double a 28-day delay on DVD rentals that Warner Bros. reached with Netflix’s video subscription service two years ago. After that breakthrough, several other movie studios adopted similar moratoriums, although many DVD releases still remain available to rent on the same day they go on sale in stores.

Sales plunge

The increased wait for DVD rentals exposes the competitive tensions that are shaking up home entertainment. In the past seven years, movie studios have seen U.S. sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs fall by a third — from $10.3 billion to roughly $7 billion. Netflix’s growing popularity in the past decade helped put a major dent in one of the movie studios’ biggest moneymakers — because its service enables people to watch as many mail-delivered discs as they want for a flat monthly fee.

DVD rentals didn’t hurt studios much before Netflix existed because the market was dominated by Blockbuster. That chain charged consumers for every title taken off their shelves and shared revenue with the studios.

To make matters worse for studios, Redbox’s concept of renting DVDs — from kiosks set up in thousands of stores — gave movie lovers another cheap and convenient way to avoid buying the discs. Coinstar’s Redbox had been renting the DVDs for just $1 a day until recently raising the price to $1.20.

Redbox resists

Netflix conceded to Warner Bros.’ demands for the 56-day rental delay to ensure that it can still buy the discs at a discount. Netflix expects to suffer a loss this year, largely because its own U.S. price increases backfired in 2011 and triggered far more customer cancellations than management anticipated.

It doesn’t appear Redbox is going to bend to Warner Bros.’ will. “The current agreement Coinstar has with Warner Bros. is to receive movie titles 28 days after their release,” Coinstar spokeswoman Marci Maule said in a written statement. “No revised agreements are in place.”

Redbox could conceivably rent Warner Bros. DVDs on its own timetable by buying thousands of discs from stores, although that hardball tactic would drive up its expenses.

In a late October conference call with analysts, Coinstar CEO Paul Davis raised the possibility of finding “workarounds” if Warner Bros. or other movie studios tried to impose further delays on DVD rentals.

Netflix’s cooperation with Warner Bros. and Coinstar’s resistance underscore the different priorities of the two services.

In many ways, Netflix is just keeping its DVD-bymail service on life support and leaving it up to each customer to decide when to pull the plug. Meanwhile, the company is pouring most of its money and energy into building up its service that delivers movies, TV shows and a growing amount of original programming to TVs and other devices with high-speed Internet connections.

Streaming future

Investors also see Internet video as the key to Netflix’s future, although they became less confident about the company’s decisionmaking after last year’s U.S. price increases drove away hordes of customers. The backlash caused Netflix’s stock to drop by more than 60 percent during calendar 2011.

The shares have gotten off to a hot start this year, rising 25 percent during the first trading days on positive news about subscribers’ Internet video viewership and takeover speculation. The stock rose $6.99 Friday to finish the week at $86.29, its highest closing price in nearly two months.

In contrast, DVD rentals remain Redbox’s financial lifeblood, although it, too, is looking to expand into Internet video streaming. For now, Redbox probably can’t afford the potential customer alienation that would come with additional delays in the availability of new DVD releases. But having to pay more for DVDs will squeeze profit margins. Either way, it might not bode well for Coinstar’s stock. Coinstar shares shed $2.39, or 5.5 percent, to close Friday at $40.98.

The increased wait for DVD rentals exposes the competitive tensions that are shaking up home entertainment. In the past seven years, movie studios have seen U.S. sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs fall by a third — from$10.3 billion to roughly $7 billion.