Blu-ray Disc: One million served
By Erik Hanson 
posted Apr 23rd 2007 2:52PM
posted Apr 23rd 2007 2:52PM
The Blu-ray vs HD DVD format war reaches another milestone, with sales of Blu-ray Discs reaching more than one million sold since the format launched less than a year ago. According to Home Media Research, Blu-ray locked up 70% of high-definition movies sales in the first quarter of 2007 (832,530 to 359,300), and account for seven of the top ten best-selling high-def movies. Even on those few titles available in both formats, like The Departed, consumers are buying more Blu-ray than HD DVD versions. HD DVD owners and fans can still point to sales of their format of choice reaching number one at Amazon recently -- as well as early release dates like The Matrix and exclusives like Smokin' Aces -- but with Blu-ray-only Disney releasing big titles like Cars and both Pirates movies in the coming months, the Blu-ray Disc Association won't be stopping the press releases anytime soon.Read - Reuters
Read - Business Wire
Now we wait for the HD-DVD apologists to explain why this is just part of the Sony conspiracy.
I remember a Cnet analyst worte an article about how he thinks Blu-Ray will win out by the end of this year (he wrote it in Dec, I believe) and got crucified by it.
I wonder what he will say right now.
And remember, Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray, (owned by Sony) will do great.
I'll never understand why anti-SONY haters are so damn blind and stupid.
Playstation 3 (as I predicted ) = MARKET PENETRATION of Blur Ray
Blu Ray's potentialy larger storage capacity = PERCEIVED SUPERIORITY which = MARKET PENETRATION
HDDVD simply costs way too much when you consider that for just $500/$600 you can buy a PS3.
Blu-Ray will win the war, thanks to PS3.
It has nothing to do with PS3 or Xbox BR or HD add-ons, nor is it anything to do with the technical abilities of one platform or another... it's down to price and availability of software - and this is where Sonys extensive catalog of movies is killing HD-DVD.
The titles released for HD-DVD so far have been either pretty pathetic, or stuck on those 'combo' discs at a $10-$15 premium (To this day, I still don't understand the logic behind those things)
I tend to agree with this statement. People who bought the PS3 thus far--those that shelled out the big bucks for the machine--are also just as likely to buy more HD movies than the traditional consumer. Those high-end spenders maybe, just maybe started the snowball rolling down the hill for Blu-Ray. After all, the way it's been playing out, with PS3 having only a few AAA titles out the door, what are PS3 consumers to do while they wait? Buy Blu-ray discs, that's what.
I wouldn't have bought either NExt gen DVD player if the PS3 didn't come with it, so now Sony has gotten another Blu-ray customer by using the PS3. Excellent market penetration. If Microsoft wants to compete they need to put an HD player in the elite, make it $500 dollars, suffer some losses, but get people into the HD market without having to make an investment in a $400 box that you might have to trash in two years.
It would help if there were actually MOVIES on HD-DVD. I used to have an HD-DVD player and got rid of it because all the good movies were on Blu-Ray! I'd go to Best Buy and see all the movies I want in the Blu-Ray section, and all the crappy movies on HD-DVD.
Reminds me of Jurassic Park ... "You did say that there would be DINOSAURS on your DINOSAUR TOUR, right?"
@palooz
Jurrassic park will be on HD DVD....
It has everything to do with the ps3. The ps3 is the only bluray player selling, and it's outsold all other HD media players combined.
Diggable for the Blu-Ray fans in the house:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Milestone_One_Million_Blu_Ray_Discs_Sold
Is anyone else way tired of reading about this pissing contest?
Then why reply to it? Sheesh, if you are tired of reading about it go away!
Just because I make a comment about competing standards constantly spinning the PR to one-up each other, I'm supposed to go away?
Last I checked, it said "Comments" not "Non-dissenting viewpoints".
Simmer down.
BlueRay will win due to it's name. It sounds way more leading edge to the average consumer. They almost feel cool saying it :)
-sun
i couldn't give a fuck about all this. i have both formats and am very pleased with both, especially the advanced features that HD DVD has and that Blu ray doesn't(yet) another sony product that has been rushed
whoops, that sounds like i am siding with HD DVD
I don't think the PS3 is going to make or break the format. As is frequently
mentioned on message boards, look at MiniDisc, UMD and MemoryStick formats. Big time write-offs for Sony.
I'm a HD-DVD owner and I wish one format would completely win out. What are the chances, though, of the other side refusing to adopt the other's technology and want to try to do a unified format again?
Mini-disc music and UMD movies failed for one reason: Price. That factor will not affect Blu-Ray, since currently $500 is the going rate for both players (stand alone, or PS3). And, the media here is widely supported.
In my opinion, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war may go the way of DVD-R vs. DVD+R. In the end, all players support both disc types, and no one is the wiser.
Also UMD/MiniDiscs/etc.. were all proprietary formats without much industry backing. Blu-ray has TONS of other companies on it's board from movie studios to drive makers to players to blank media. etc.
Can someone tell me when he changes the record...
"I don't think the PS3 is going to make or break the format. As is frequently
mentioned on message boards, look at MiniDisc, UMD and MemoryStick formats. Big time write-offs for Sony.
I'm a HD-DVD owner and I wish one format would completely win out. What are the chances, though, of the other side refusing to adopt the other's technology and want to try to do a unified format again?"
So, another player-hater, eh? UMD was never meant to be a popular format. You are comparing it to stuff that is mainstream. When Nintendo used cartridges for the Game Boys and DSs, did anyone bash Nintendo? Why should it be any different for UMD? People only hate UMD because they hate Sony. The UMD was designed for use with portable systems because if it were to be used in mainstream systems, the storage capacity would be far too low.
The same basic idea applies to the Memory Stick format. Given the proprietary nature of Memory Stick, it has fared extremely well. This is due to Sony's excellent execution of integrating the format into a wide range of products (Cyber-Shot digital still cameras, HandyCam camcorders, CLIE PDAs, VAIO computers, the PSP, PlayStation 3, and even some of their televisions. There is unification between all of their consumer devices. And again, people only hate Memory Stick because it was made by Sony. I don't see anyone bashing xD, which is pretty much limited to only Fujifilm and Olympus cameras, and nothing else.
For your sake, I hope that Blu-ray Disc wins out (I am a BD user myself) so that you will become disillusioned.
go HD DVD
they were the same price, but now walmart will be selling a stand alone HD-DVD player for $299.00
Exclusive Smokin' Aces? Sony pack your bags.
Oh Sony, ouch, The Matrix, that'll hurt something awful, won't it?
Finally, can they stop stocking on that inferior HD-DVD crap now, it's taking up too much space on the shelves on which good movies could be stocked.
LMAO!!! ur right man xD
Now I been very skeptical but I am going to lean toward blu-ray. Price alone cannot when a format. Once blu-ray is the same price as hd-dvd then what does hd-dvd offer??? There are ridiculous about of exclusives on blu-ray. I am gamer and consider the PS3 a mediocre gaming machine but if and when I get it(when it has more good games)then I will be buying many movies. I don't see how many people can buy it "exclusively" for just games. I don't consider the 360 add on an option considering the "movies."
Are you kidding? The reason it has outsold them is because it plays games. People aren't gauranteed to have bought it for blu-ray. PS3 isn't the reason blu-ray is winning. It is the studio support.
ok fanboys, I know how hard it is for you to use logic and reason (especially Dave) but howabout you relfect on your past BS:
"PS3 will ensure BluRay will win!!!"
one million PS3s......and now one million bluray movies sold. Wow, you were SO right, look at that overwhelming success!! Frakin douchebags.
Actually there is an update to that post. It seems there was a mistranslation and the release mentions both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
Once you've shaken your whole house with PCM uncompressed sound (just watched Casino Royale on BD), there's no going back.
I bought a Xbox 360 HD DVD when it was released but it was just until the PS3 arrived with Blu Ray.
Sold my HD DVD drive and movies and now building up my blue ray collection.
If you think I'm on my own check out ebay and search for HD DVD Xbox 360, you will find a ton of people moving over.
Once you've shaken your whole house with PCM uncompressed sound (just watched Casino Royale on BD), there's no going back.
Except that requires people to buy a receiver capable of doing that... you'd be better off waiting for prices to drop & spending the savings on a superior tv or receiver.
PS3 helps a whole lot for Blu-Ray (I am not completely bias for PS3), because when people look at the two formats, I think they would rather just buy the console that can do more than just movies (like PS2 for DVD's until DVD stand alones were cheapest).
But most of all HD-DVD has one major studio (universal) that isnt much of a great exclusive at this point (Universal hasnt released a HUGE film/series in a while), while Blu-Ray has Disney, Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Tri-Star. Also MGM (granted 4 of those 5 are owned by Sony). You just can't compete. Losing all Disney movies is hard enough.
>I wonder how Downloadable movies compare to the HD-DVD vs Blu-ray War?
DRM is KILLING downloadable movies. and frankly, there's no comparison between 720P downloadable content and 1080P uncompressed sound Blu-ray/HD DVD.
day and night.
I think Microsoft not backing HD-DVD by not having a HD-DVD drive built in its Elite, is probably the final digger.
lol @ DRM killing Downloadable movies, that made me laugh.
Hey, I said it would win over a year ago. How about that..
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this war is just beginning. Claiming that you've won because you've sold 1M discs first or you have sold 100k stand alone players faster is like saying that you've won a marathon because you're ahead after 1 mile.
Things will be really interesting if/when Wal-Mart gets these budget players in.
Oy, just let it end with something....and soon.
Blu-ray Disc: One million ripped off.
It's pretty irresponsible to report that "BluRay has sales locked up" when MOST of the units that have been moved from shelf to consumer were the result of the g*d damn FREE BLURAY MOVIE voucher bundled with PS3's..
Therefore the figure is skewed like just about every wishfully-thought BluRay chest-thumping about 'the format war being over' that Sony and friends do on a weekly basis.
The marketing boneheads at Sony know that "perception is reality" and they really actually think that if they keep getting skewed reports and propaganda in the press that the mouth-breathing masses will actually start to think that BluRay is the one to spend their hard-earned bucks on toward overpriced early-adopted hardware.
I'm not a fan of either - both formats suck and are still on the bleeding edge with the various studios each doing their own thing trying to patch the AACS weaknesses in their own proprietary way, plus
Bottom line: perception is NOT reality when it comes to b.s. format-war reports & propaganda, sales of BOTH formats combined are abysmal, and disc players for both formats need to become compelling enough for joe-mouthbreather-just-bought-an-HDTV to forego a simple DVD player in favor of it, i.e. sub $300 or $250 pricing. Only when the players become compelling enough to buy will the 'war' really heat up.
What about the FIVE FREE HD-DVD vouchers that comes with a new HD-DVD player? Know your facts!
I don't understand what DRM has to do with this. You buy a BD movie, and you play it on your BD player. Only pirates and cheapskates complain when they can't copy the BD. The irony is that these pirates are happy watching compromised sound and picture quality, just so that they can watch that movie that they purchased on their video ipod, or on their suv/mommy van's dvd player.
Format war or not, the bottom line is that you still need to buy a new player if you want to watch a HD movie. And if you want to really enjoy a HD movie, you will need a HD tv and a good receiver that will decode the uncompressed PCM or TrueHD audio.
In the end, I hope consumers will win. This war will hopefully lead to cheaper, but better players, better TV's and better receivers at a lower price. What we're already seeing is a pretty quick drop in prices in the TVs and players, and hopefully we can get to the $150 price point for the players and $500 for the 42" TVs.
Now would be a great tme to shamelessy promote my hdmovies.mobi. Please check it out
Let's set some things straight here..
#1 The 5 free HD-DVD titles are not counted into any disc count. These are only movies SOLD through retail outlets, not given away.
#2 Sony has lumped the Talladega Nights AND Casino Royale (UK) discs in this equation
#3 The 'cheapest" Blu-Ray player is the 20GB PS3 which is now discontinued.
#4 The cheap HD DVD Player is $400 at any retail store. (making the difference $200)
#5 For a format which has close to 4 Million players sold Blu-Ray just recently outsold HD DVD in the amount of titles. Thats pretty damn sad for a format with 20x the amount of players sold when addinf in all the PS3 systems that Sony claims 80% of owners will buy movies from.
The attach rates for Blu-Ray players is VERY VERY low. Sony claimed 80% of of PS3 owners would buy Blu-Ray movies. If that was true they should be up to about 4 Million sold. Currently its at 10-15% and I fully expect that to drop once some decent games for the PS3 arrive. You have to show off your $600 brick somehow, right?
All the 'talk' at CES from Fox was complete rubbish. They currently have delayed 20+ of there titles with no new date in site. Maybe they heard about the $300 HD DVD player and are choosing to back that as well? Same could go for MGM and even Sony, they continue to delay a good chunk of movies they announced at CES
January - March are SLOW months for movie sales. BDA chose to blow their entire load and release a ton of movies, while HD DVD only had 10-14 releases in this time. Yes, of COURSE sales would be higher for Blu-Ray when they released 70+ titles in a 3 months span, duh.
The Matrix is exclusive to HD DVD for the time being. Why? Sony couldn't get there act together about the promised Blu-Java in time, so Warner said 'Screw it' and released it for HD DVD first. The Matrix was promised LAST YEAR for HD DVD but Warner decided to wait a while for Blu-Ray to catch up....and they never did. Enjoy all your crippled standalone players as who knows if your $1000 Samsung unit or $1,200 LG unit will even be able to take advantage of Blu-Java. Atleast Toshiba was smaert enough to include an Ethernet jack on the back of all there HD DVD Players, something that is mandated. Blu-Ray fans will get to enjoy Blood Diamond a whole month early because Warner didn't want to piss off Blu-Ray fans. Why? Because the HD DVD version will have even MORE exclusive features including taking advantage of that Ethernet port (360 owners rejoice!). In June, Sony should HOPEFULLY be releasing there Second Gen Blu-Ray player for $600. At that time the HD-A2 may still be $400, or even cheaper. This combined with a 2 Million Player order by Wal-Mart and you can kiss Blu-Ray GOODBYE.
Fox, where IS all those promised titles you cheerleaded back at CES? Vaporware? Improving security? Becoming Neutral? Who knows.
"If you think I'm on my own check out ebay and search for HD DVD Xbox 360, you will find a ton of people moving over."
Go into any store and see how many PS3's are on the shelves. This will all be decided by whichever put's out the most porn.
porn will NOT be a factor in this disc war. Who the hell buys porn now a days when porn can be found on the net practically for free. This isn't the same as the VHS/BETA days for the porn industry.
@trstanfey
"Actually there is an update to that post. It seems there was a mistranslation and the release mentions both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD."
Actully no, it mentions the Blu-Light, which both Blu-Ray and HD DVD use. It is, 100%, HD DVD player.
I keep on hearing about low attach rates of people buying Blu-ray movies for their PS3 but these people fail to consider two points:
1. Some of those PS3 owners may have bought a standalone blu-ray player.
2. The PS3 has only recently launched in Europe.
I bought my PS3 couple weeks ago and I have already bought 12 Blu-ray movies including Casino Royal and 0 games for it.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
It's also the cheapest BD player out, and until recently was cheaper than any standalone HD DVD player on the market.
I know attachment rates are dismal on the ps3, but it's also sold so many more units that the attachment rate can suck & it still would move more discs.
Cheaper HDDVD players should help that format.
>. This combined with a 2 Million Player order by Wal-Mart and you can kiss Blu-Ray GOODBYE.
are you working for Microsoft somehow??? There is a difference between # of products "shipped" and "sold". frankly, I don't see Walmart Shoppers as early adaptors of next-gen DVDers.
nor do I think they are compulsive shoppers who walked in Walmart and go "Wow, there's a 300 dollars HD-DVD players, let's get it right now"
and this is all not knowing how good the quality is. Frankly, most people have good sense to NOT purchase major electronics at Walmart.
the way this is going. This war will be over in a year or two
@kingofwale
Its been brought up before. Wal-Mart sells electronics cheaper then Best Buy. If someone goes into Wal-Mart, they may buy a HDTV. They then see a HD DVD player and a Blu-Ray player. One being $300, the other being $600. They already know they bought a HDTV, so they buy a HD DVD to go along with it. They will also enjoy HD channels on their TV.
Its sad how so many people here will continue to claim Blu-Ray (and PS3) is so great when I guarantee you 85% that do that don't even own a Blu-Ray capable machine. I do, as well as HD DVD.
Matrix and Indiana Jones
Those two alone are enough to keep me a customer of HD DVD. I have the add-on to the Xbox 360 and purchased probably a dozen HD DVD movies to date and very happy. One exception, the cost on the combo DVD's is a rip-off!
@anthonyl
Combo prices, while high, are only high if you purchase them at Best Buy. They are the SAME price as most Blu-Ray titles put out by Fox, and at least the HD Combo's actually HAVE special features. Purchase them from Amazon and you will pay about $28 for them, while the HD only movies are around $22. Its a $5 difference, not as big as many Blu-Ray fans claim they are.
Universal has already stated 90% of all releases will NOT be Combo, and some of the current Combo's are being re-released to not be (Army of Darkness comes to mind). That point is now moot.
Not everyone will buy the cheaper player.
These people spent a lot of money on HDTV's. They are willing to pay extra for the better technology(Blu Ray).
Why do you think BMW outsells Acura by such a large margin? Acura is much cheaper and has same if not more HorsePower.
BMW=Blu Ray
Acura=HD-DVD
www.lost.eu/4194C
@Giz
If Sony had lumped the free discs into the equation, sales for Blu Ray discs should be more than 1 million ages ago since there were already more than 1 million players sold before the European launch.
HD-DVD might have the Matrix, but not having Disney support will mean that they'll be alienating most families with kids. BluRay with more studio support will have more exclusives in the future, and the disparity will become clearer. When the BD shelf gets 5 times larger than HD-DVD shelf in Best Buy, there will be no contest left.
PS3 is very VERSATILE.
Sony might just have created the perfect storm. This PS3 has decent games, does the online games, HD downloads, music, photos, internet browser, DVD and Bluray. I'm loading Linux soon for MAME action.
I just watched some regular DVD's on it last night. The DVD's looked great. Bluray's look amazing. And the sound, uncompressed audio is awesome.
I got mine for $500. nah, nah, nah nah, nah!
I ordered my first BD today, "Planet Earth". Now all I need is a player...
HD-DVD will cruise to an easy victory.
1.) 75% of all Blu-Ray players on Earth are PS3's which is why the sales figures for discs are skewed.
A lot of those sales are coming from PS3 owners who are just testing out Blu-Ray.
Those same PS3's (which are skewing things) are now failing and collecting dust on store shelves. There is your first nail in the Blu-Ray coffin.
2.) HD-DVD is owning Blu-Ray in actual stand alone player sales(not counting PS3's). Go check the Amazon sales charts to see how well Blu-Ray players are selling. They are failing.
3.) HD-DVD is cheaper and has better picture quality due to the use of the VC-1 codec. Blu-Ray is still using the old MPEG-2 codec for their movies. It is a well known fact that VC-1 owns MPEG-2.
Hmmm....HD-DVD is cheaper and has a better quality picture. I wonder which one will take off once the mass market starts buying these HD players, rather than just PS3 owners, Xbox owners, or videophiles? The answer is HD-DVD obviously.
4.) Walmart will offer cheap HD-DVD players, not in 2008, but in in Q4 2007. So let's see, just in time for Christmas, HD-DVD stand alone players will be selling from between $199 to $299 (depending on what Walmart decides to do) while the cheapest Blu-Ray player will still be the PS3 at $599 (the $499 PS3 is being discontinued). HELLO!!! Is anything sinking in yet?
Also, Walmart controls 40% of all the DVD player sales across the country as it is, so what is going to happen when they basically back HD-DVD with their cheap player?
Think about it.
If you can't think, here is the answer. The studios who don't back HD-DVD now will all of a sudden back it, just like they did when VHS got more popular then Beta. As you know Beta had the studio support early on back then. What happened?
5.) HD-DVD is already the hands down favorite in the European market.
6.) The porn industry is being forced to use HD-DVD due to Blu-Ray not allowing porn makers licenses to use their technology (at least not yet anyway). Does Sony not learn from their previous format disasters?
Everything I just said is fact. These facts add up to the sure death of Blu-Ray.
Go check out the forums at the most popular audio/video forums on Earth, www.avsforums.com , and listen to what people (who know way more than you or I) have to say. They say HD-DVD will be the clear winner by early 2008.
Anything else?
Please help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.
@Tbag
Wow, just wow. How did you manage to come up with so much crap in one post?
1. "75% of all Blu-Ray players on Earth are PS3's which is why the sales figures for discs are skewed.
A lot of those sales are coming from PS3 owners who are just testing out Blu-Ray.
Those same PS3's (which are skewing things) are now failing and collecting dust on store shelves. There is your first nail in the Blu-Ray coffin."
Pure speculation and conjecture. The fact is that Blu-ray discs have been selling in greater numbers compared to HDDVD and continue to do so. You can try to downplay the importance of the PS3 in this war but Blu-ray sales are only going to get better over time as more and more PS3 owners start purchasing discs and stand-alone prices continue to drop. Studios don't care who buys the discs as long as they sell. Looks like this is the first big nail in the HDDVD coffin and it's already been hammered in.
2. "2.) HD-DVD is owning Blu-Ray in actual stand alone player sales(not counting PS3's). Go check the Amazon sales charts to see how well Blu-Ray players are selling. They are failing."
Again, this is pure speculation. Do you have any hard sales data to support this claim? I didn't think so. FYI the last quarterly hardware sales report had Blu-ray and HDDVD stand-alone sales about even and that was when the price difference between the formats was even greater. That doesn't bode well for HDDVD. It shows that content is king.
3. "HD-DVD is cheaper and has better picture quality due to the use of the VC-1 codec. Blu-Ray is still using the old MPEG-2 codec for their movies. It is a well known fact that VC-1 owns MPEG-2.
Hmmm....HD-DVD is cheaper and has a better quality picture. I wonder which one will take off once the mass market starts buying these HD players, rather than just PS3 owners, Xbox owners, or videophiles? The answer is HD-DVD obviously."
That is blatantly false. The codec of choice doesn't make one encode better or worse. All three codecs are capable of great picture quality given their respective threshold for bit-rate. Blu-ray has been using the more advanced AVC codec (in conjunction with VC-1) and has been getting consistently better results compared to HDDVD lately. Most of latest HDDVD VC-1 releases are not very good since they have to keep lowering the bit-rate to fit the film and extras on the 30GB disc. In contrast, check out DejaVu on Blu-ray with VC-1 topping out at 40mbps, which is impossible on HDDVD since it can't even support that high of a bandwidth. This is where Blu-ray's advantage in storage and bandwidth shine. Compare any cross format titles and you'll see they are identical, now of course if they optimized the Blu-ray version without slapping on the same encode then the Blu-ray version would give you better results. Also, look at any Paramount cross format releases which have MPEG2 for Blu-ray and VC-1 for HDDVD and you’ll see they are identical. MPEG2 is great given the proper treatment as can be seen on incredible releases like Black Hawk Down, Crank, and Layer Cake just to mention a few. So, it's a false generalization to say HDDVD has better picture.
4. "Walmart will offer cheap HD-DVD players, not in 2008, but in in Q4 2007. So let's see, just in time for Christmas, HD-DVD stand alone players will be selling from between $199 to $299 (depending on what Walmart decides to do) while the cheapest Blu-Ray player will still be the PS3 at $599 (the $499 PS3 is being discontinued). HELLO!!! Is anything sinking in yet?"
Price isn't everything. Content is king, and the majority of it is on Blu-ray. Blu-ray stand-alones should sell for around $300-$400 come Christmas time. I believe the public will take a quality player from known and trusted brands that gives them more entertainment choice than some no-name inferior quality chinese made player with much less content. Think about it!
5. "HD-DVD is already the hands down favorite in the European market. "
You should check the rankings on some of the european sites, then you won't make such a generalized statement. Also, the PS3 has just been released in Europe and already it's having a profound effect on disc sales. Not to mention Blu-ray stand alone players and a lot of the discs aren't even out in full force yet over there. HDDVD is going to get run down in Europe just like it is in the US.
6. "The porn industry is being forced to use HD-DVD due to Blu-Ray not allowing porn makers licenses to use their technology (at least not yet anyway). Does Sony not learn from their previous format disasters?"
That is another lie. There have been a few titles already released on Blu-ray in Japan with some coming in the US as well. In the end it doesn't matter since this is a moot point in the age of the internet. This isn't Beta vs. VHS.
"Everything I just said is fact. These facts add up to the sure death of Blu-Ray. "
Really? Looks like a bunch of ignorant speculation and conjecture to me. Here are a couple of facts for you. Blu-ray is killing HDDVD in software sales and even more so at B&M stores. Blu-ray shelf space at local retailers here is growing while HDDVD shelf space is either constant or shrinking in size. Blu-ray has the superior and more future proof technology not to mention all the studio and manufacturer support. The only thing HDDVD has is a slight price advantage which so far hasn't meant jack. It's about to get really ugly for HDDVD and come Christmas time it's going to be a total slaughter.
"Go check out the forums at the most popular audio/video forums on Earth, www.avsforums.com , and listen to what people (who know way more than you or I) have to say. They say HD-DVD will be the clear winner by early 2008."
They must be just as ignorant as you then or maybe they have a magical crystal ball. Next time you're at the AVSforum make sure you count how many HDDVD supporters are going neutral or Blu-ray exclusive. It's a common trend over there and I think you might enjoy it.
Anything else?
@Film123
Everything I said is true.
Basically, your rebuttal was "prove it", "cheap players won't matter" (LMFAO), "VC-1 isn't better than MPEG-2"(LMFAO again), and "Blu-ray has a "few" porn movies.
As far as the "prove it" goes (your first 2 rebuttals), I didn't think I had to provide links to common knowledge. Everyone knows the PS3 is failing and that 75% of all Blu-Ray players are PS3's. When I say everyone, I mean actual humans, not Sony zombies like you who can't see the truth.
We need zombies like you around, though, so I can take a shit in a box, write Sony on it, and then sell it to you.
You and your ilk would probably buy it, making me a rich man.
Next time you try to rebut something, do a little more than a few "prove its" and a "no sir". Then again, I guess that is all one can do when trying to rebut the obvious.
Tbag,
You're being a douchebag and you're talking out of your ass. You're doing all the assumption and are more of a Microsoft troll than Films is a Sony fanboy.
@Tbag - Please keep writing - you're hilarious!
A few more comments to add to Films123 well-written rebuttal.
Amazon cannot be used as a benchmark for sales. It's tempting, but you need to keep in mind that it represents a very particular purchasing segment and is not, by any stretch of the imagination, indicative of the overall market. You can easily see, for example, the relative number of sales of TVs bought through Amazon, but that is all you are doing - comparing the TVs bought specifically through Amazon. And frankly, not many people make major purchases like that through Amazon. The same probably goes for Blu-Ray / HD-DVD players. They are still expensive, semi-capital purchases. People would rather buy them brick & mortar where they have better defined customer support and return policies.
I'd also like to comment on the impact of the porn industry. Films123 also nailed this one and it's something that I've been thinking of for some time now. It's fun to laugh and speculate on the porn industry's impact, but there is no reliable modern benchmark to use. In the world of the Internet, the average user can find all the free porn in the world right at there computer. It's amazing... I'm sure most of those reading this site have experienced this first-hand! I think it's a little far-fetched to think that thousands of adopters will drop down several hundreds of dollars to see porn in higher def. It was one thing when the comparison was purchasing magazines at the local store and suddenly there was Beta or VHS and porn came alive. The value added of getting your porn in HD is just not enough to turn the tides (my opinion, of course).
HD-DVD's best shot is in dropping prices (the Walmart announcement is big), but they are still relying mostly on impulse purchases. Again, the Walmart announcement is kind of big, but it assumes the average Walmart shopper is looking to become an early adopter of next gen technology. Not too likely.
It doesn't need to appeal to "the average walmart shopper" ... rather it needs to take advantage of the fact that Walmart is the #2 electronics retailer.
Walmart is partially/mostly responsible for the plummeting price of HDTVs (and the subsequent problems Circuit City, Tweeter and Comp USA are facing), and could replicate this with HD media players. The HD media market is TINY right now, with the biggest obstacles being price (of players), the lack of HDTV penetration in households & this format war.
I'm hoping dual format players drop in price quickly... maybe next year.
For me, it's just like Films123 said: content is king. I really don't give a hoot which format wins, but I know that only two major studios (Universal and Weinstein) are HD DVD only. *Every* other studio is either Blu Ray only or both. So if I buy a Blu Ray player, I know that I can watch movies by any studio except Universal and Weinstein. Sure, Universal makes some good movies, but it seems like a no-brainer to go with the player that's going to give you the most content. Isn't that what it's for in the first place?
Why get a blu ray player then? Why not get a dual format player and it won't matter what happens?
Because I have an HTPC and there's no dual-format drives. And as for stand-alone devices, the only dual-format player only has marginal support for HD-DVD, so why bother?
An HTPC? so what'd prevent you from using 2 separate drives, 1 for bluray and 1 for HDDVD?
Well sure, I could do that, but each drive is $700-$1000. (Barring the Xbox 360 HD DVD, which I don't really like) I'm not going to buy two when one will do most of what I need. If HD DVD ends up winning the war, then I can just switch drives. Like I said, I'm not super partial, but just for the sake of convenience, I side with Blu Ray. If the tide changes substantially later, I'll switch or double up.
this whole format war seems quite silly to me.. id much rather download HD content than invest in more faux chrome accessories and their delicate mirrored Frisbees..
looks like blu-ray is "winning" but i dont care.. my 360 downloads hd movies just fine, ive got no need for the HD-Dvd player.. and if blu ray really wins out i still dont beleive M$ wont kill HD-Dvd and start cranking out blu-ray hardware in all of its products..