Third generation HD DVD players on October 1st?
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Aug 2nd 2007 12:20PM
posted Aug 2nd 2007 12:20PM
There's no doubt that the HD Format war is in full swing, and just when the Blu-ray camp thinks they're going to catch up with HD DVD's full featured players, HD DVD raises the bar. We'll probably have to wait 'till CEDIA to get the official word from Toshiba, but for now Amazon has a few details about the new lineup, which will be available on October 1st and include three models: the HD-A3 ($299), HD-A30($399), and the HD-A35($499). One thing is for sure, this is going to be a completely different war by the time the holiday buying season rolls around.Read -- HD-A3
Read -- HD-A30
Read -- HD-A35
[Via FormatWarCentral]
I really dont think there will be a format winner....the winner will be the device that plays hd-dvd, blu-ray and dvd in one single drive that costs $200...its a few years away, but this war wont end anytime soon
I agree with Brad. Unless HD DVD has a truly horrendous holiday season, especially in the US, both formats are here to stay. My advice to everyone is to learn to live with 'em. This "war" is quickly leaning towards an RW-/+ conclusion where a good majority of hardware will simply read both formats. Done.
I think the "war" bumped up a notch with the HD player for the 360 price drop.
Still rooting for HD DVD :) They do need to get another high profile manafacture in the fold and get Fox to publish on both formats.
Can I ask why you’re rooting for HD-DVD? Both formats support the same audio and video codecs but Blu-ray has a 66% greater capacity which allows higher bit rates to be used with the codecs, thus giving potentially better audio and video quality.
I’m not looking for an argument, I just want to know why someone would support what is patently an inferior format.
Reasons why I support HD DVD:
1) No Region Coding. As an International Person (having lived on both sides of the Atlantic) DVDs have been a pain and I've had to make sure to have region free players.
2) Size is adequate and by implementing required internet connect a 3rd layer can be supported if nessacary bringing the capcity to 51GB.
3) Price. I don't believe $1000 for a DVD Player to be fair, nor $40 for a movie. Overall when I visit Target or Circuit City, HD DVD prices tend to be lower.
4) Format is finished. Don't have to wait for HDi or other features. Blu-ray is not yet complete so people having spent $1000 will have to hope that Sony provides them with a free firmware update (if possible on all models) and doesn't try to force them to buy new hardware (which knowing Sony, they would prefer). I don't put my 'faith' in corporations. Either its delivered or I must accpet the possibility of getting screwed.
Will someone just hurry up and build a decent combo player! Geez! It's killing me.
Yes, build a decent one with a reasonable price. I definitely think there's room in this world for both formats and those combo players make consumers the winner.
Nope. Blu-ray won, I'm afraid.
yea, because no-one sells hd-dvd's anymore, right? Ya know, I've herd of system fanboy's before, but common, format fanboy's? what the F is the point of that?
Showcase showdown after this!
Steve vs. steve
I have my money on steve. or was that Steve?
Too bad Stephen isn't here. :\
"full featured players, hddvd raises the bar"
Where can they go? They already have a small computer there that is software upgradeable. The only thing they could do is add XBMC to these things, but that wouldn't require new hardware.
I wonder what makes these new players better than the old ones....
With bluray, you can add a network port and persistant storage; the HDDVD spec already had those. So really, how are they raising the bar?
I guess part of what they're doing is lowering the bar... the MSRP bar. They also have to keep their product line fresh even there aren't any real updates. The A3 still maxes out at 1080i and the A30 still lacks HQV processing, though I'm not sure if the A35 is a direct replacement for the XA2 or if it's a 4th entry in their line. If the A35 lacks HQV then it looks like it'll just be an A30 + Deep Color which would make it nearly irrelevant.
From here their next movie is to simply refine what they already have. They're likely going to move to a single-chip solution like the Broadcom SoC that was announced at the beginning of the year.
Would love to see faster load times, smaller chassis, analog outs etc.
Not only does there need to be a decent combo player... it needs to be less than the price of buying both individual players. Right now that's around $600 - $700 if you go with an A2 and BDP1200... and closer to $500 if you go w/ a refurb A2 and refurb BDP1000 (which is the route I went). A $500 combo player would satisfy most genuinely interested in home theater... while it might take a $200 combo player to satisfy J6P enough to boost media purchase, which will in turn pull down media prices and increase released titles.
You pretty much nailed it.
This has been going on long enough that I officially don't care anymore.
No freaking kidding.
Blu-Ray currently sells 75% of the media sold today. People need to rally with it, and make HD-DVD a thing of the past. This was we can get some NBC Universal, blu ray content. Blu-ray technology wise is the better format, don't try to save 100$ by going with HD-DVD.
I didn't know Blu-Ray was outselling DVD already.
I figured Sony won the "War" when I heard that pr0n makers were switching to Blu Ray.
Blu-ray only sells 75% of the HD media in weeks that there are no HD-DVD releases. Fact is the sales are currently around 60/40 with Blu-ray in the lead. But HD-DVD sales are showing good growth while Blu-ray disk sales are actually going down.
Something else to think about is that total all HD-DVD and Blu-ray releases have sold only around 3 million disks. A big budget blockbuster can sell 4 million DVD's in its first week of release. Last I heard more Blu-ray disks have been given away as part of free offers then have actually been purchased by consumers. That might have finally changed in the last two or three months but its pretty incredible to think about.
The Amazon Links no longer work
You guys still don't get it do you? You think that if HD DVD has enough players then big companies like Fox will supply discs for both formats, but you're wrong.
Once you support 100% Blu-ray you can't switch to HD-DVD because Blu-ray discs have a higher bandwidth, they hold more, and every disc would have to again be re-mastered to fit on the tiny HD DVD discs, and probably be a two disc set.
Fox and Disney have both announced that to win the format war you must support one format and one format only, they aren't about to switch.
The only company fully supporting HD DVD is Universal... they can't fight the rest of the movie industry.
Anyway why buy a cheap hd dvd player when it will never ever play 50% + of the content out there?
Remember: EVERYONE but Universal is releasing blu-ray discs... enough said.
Last I heard HD DVD has more studios then Blu Ray.
This is so incorrect it's funny.
Most dual-format companies actually use the same encode on both formats, and they look amazing in both, because in the absence of interactivity, 50 GB is overkill. Check out the Matrix in HD DVD - one of the best looking HD films out, that also has lossless audio and the in-movie-experince all running at once. No bandwidth or storage problem there.
Right now, the only reason 50 GB discs get anywhere near full is when MPEG2 (old, inefficent compression) and LPCM are used - they're bit hogs! Using AVC and VC-1, with TrueHD audio, you don't need 50 GB, period.
If you're going to be a fanboy, at least educate yourself so you don't look so bad.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody...."
"Fox and Disney have both announced that to win the format war you must support one format and one format only..."
And we all know Fox and Disney are NEVER wrong...
rofl, so true
50GB is NOT overkill...it is needed...
It is true that studios have not begun taking advantage of the extra space yet, but that 50GB leaves a lot of space to jack up the bit rate with those advanced video codecs, leaving current releases in the dust in terms of PQ...
More is certainly better in this case. Maybe less is good enough for you, but in the future, if you want the best PQ, your going to have to go Blu...until then enjoy the benefits of both formats.
The 50gb size is needed not for video PQ but for those PCM tracks, due to BD's not requiring support for all audio codecs.
The jump in bandwidth from hddvd to bluray isn't that significant.
The amount of space on the 2 disks will eventually cause Blu-Ray to win. Look at the market place everyone wants more space. Prime example 30gig ipod $250 80gig ipod $350 both play the same content one is going to become too small for the average consumer over the next couple of years. What's an extra $100 for more then double the space. Not a Blu-Ray or HD DVD fan boy just a #'s don't lie kinda guy.
"Look at the market place everyone wants more space. Prime example 30gig ipod $250 80gig ipod $350 both play the same content one is going to become too small for the average consumer over the next couple of years."
Bad example. The most popular ipod is 4gb. I'm certain that the 30 gig ipod has outsold the 60 or 80.
"What's an extra $100 for more then double the space."
If you don't need the space, that $100 can go elsewhere... like $100 worth of music. Or if you don't have that $100, it's the difference between having whatever you want or not. I'm not saying the disc size isn't an advantage for bluray but it's really a minor one and plays a very small role in bluray's lead right now.
I can't even fill up my 30 GB ipod. I use it as a USB HDD because of all the space left over.
@Rick Wilson-- Please tell he how a higher disc capacity will win the war? Can you please tell me how many current BR movies are actually using the DL BD 50 discs?
How come Disney put out the Pirates of the Carribean on two separate discs if a DL 50gb disc would suffice?
Fact is, capacity is not the measuring stick of this war. And so what if it's a two disc set on HD DVD? It's still cheaper to remanufacture on HD DVD discs.
I think you need to take a step back and educate yourself on both technologies. Fact is, both have (BR and HD DVD) the same PQ, different video codecs but same quality. AQ is also the same, Dolby TrueHD and PCM lossless (both lossless audio). The only thing keeping up the BR group is the PS3.
And please -- you talk about studio this and studio that-- check the relased titles internationally, HD DVD has released more titles vs BR world wide, in the U.S. alone --there is probably a difference of 10 released movies from BR. Studios won't matter, what will matter is how much the studios will make.. it's a race to see who can sell the cheapest hardware. Once hardware is there, software will follow. More software, more money for the studios. And don't forget that there are studios that are nuetral but favor one side. Good example is Warner, look at their releases.. Do you see Matrix on BR? Want to know why--because HD DVD was the mature format.
@ Andrew: Pron wil win the format war? Double check on that. The pron industry clearly supports the HD DVD group-- they have tons of releases. Only pron I've seen on BR is 1 --and it's from Japan. Check how many pron titles there are on HD DVD.
These third gens have plenty of room for improvement including : design, style, 24p support, USB functionality, 7.1 analogs, 5.1 analogs, DTS-HD MA encoder, load times, etc.
Oh and for you capacity nut-huggers out there, if capacity is so important then, you may want to search this site for a 51gb TL disc from Toshiba. No word on using them yet, since the 30gb DL disc work just fine on HD DVDs.
The Porn industry isn't going to decide the fate of either of these formats... I would love another format to come along so all the HD-DVD dipshits and Blu-Ray fanboys would quit there whinning... AVS is so full of BS on either side of the fence it makes me want to puke! ;) Ah, if you want free porn content it is all ove the net.....
It's untrue that the PS3 is the only thing supporting Blu-ray today. Even with the pricing differences, the standalone share is still only 60/40 for HD-DVD. If the PS3 did not exist, the companies of the Blu-ray group would simply subsidize their players as Toshiba is doing with theirs to get the pricing closer. The standalone ratios would swing dramatically the other way. It's quite simple. Toshiba has no choice but to heavily subsidize their players...
I haven't gotten any HD player yet. I do not own a HDTV. However I will tell you this: I am going to get a 360 HD-DVD player ASAP for the following reasons:
1) I can use it on my computer. Yes I do have a BenQ FP241W which has 1080p and an HDMI port but the software is whats really important - PowerDVD Ultra and subsequent players will kick the pants off of standalone players.
2) Price. $180 for HD-DVD vs. over $400 or so for Blu-Ray? Its a no-brainer....
3) Titles. Yes there are way more studios supporting Blu-Ray. But as a geek I am concerned with the following titles and the following (sry albeit *latest*) titles only: Heroes season 1, the Matrix collection, and 300. 300 is on both formats, but heroes and the matrix are as of now exclusive to HD-DVD. Oh yeah and did I forget the Bourne movies? Those kick ass. Guess I'll be missing out on all the Disney classics (is there really a difference between DVD and Blu-Ray for an *animated* work???), some crappy romantic comedies, Spiderman (the latest ones suck and the original got old after watching it 6534354 times), and the Pirates of the Carribean movies (digital download FTW off iTunes - HD is coming there sooner or later and you know it!) Maybe there are a couple others in there but seriously give me a break, OK? Heroes and the Matrix, 'nuff said.
4) Sony sucks. I refuse to buy another Sony product after all their fiascos lately, namely the laptop batteries, the CD rootkits, I just don't trust that company any more.
5) 5 free movies with purchase. Yes I will only really watch 3 of them (Seabiscuit, constantine, and lara croft) but its a fantastic value and a great way to start my collection. If you seriously expect Sony to treat their customers in such a generous fashion, I think you seriously need a visit from my friend, Mr. Reality.
As for quality - they are the same, essentially. End of story. People who think they need bigger discs are actually compensating for *something*...
I would have gotten a combo player but I mean seriously: the LG combo internal PC drive on Newegg is $1k. I can get a seperate HD-DVD player AND a seperate Blu-Ray player for about $300 less at the VERY least.
As for who will actually win - I do see HD-DVD winning, for the pure reason that it is cheaper. People will walk into Best Buy and Circuit City after Thanksgiving this year and see that HD-DVD is much cheaper, gives free movies (yes I know the current offer expires Sept. 30, but I expect Toshiba to have the offer again over the holidays), and has the EXACT SAME PICTURE QUALITY (can't exactly hear an audio quality difference in a noisy store...). As for everyone who thinks that the PS3 will determine the market? The PS3 sucks. It's sold very, very poorly in the states in comparison to the other consoles, plus as a stand-alone player is more expensive now than other stand-alone players, PLUS families will want a Wii more. Everything is cheaper than Sony crap now and during the holidays. The kids who are young enough to still like Disney movies (know any 12-year olds who like Bambi anymore?) won't care or realize the differences between Blu-Ray and DVD, the older kids will want HD-DVD (have you seen the advertisements? KEWL EXPLOSIONS FTW!), and all in all Sony is going to get slaughtered in the end this holiday season. At the very worst the format war will continue on into Holdiays 2008. Blockbuster's opinion isn't worth anything anymore - people either buy or Netflix nowadays, and Blockbuster will go ahead and start renting HD-DVD movies again after this holiday season once it sees the sales numbers. The other movie studios will also start switching back, and sooner or later, Sony will eventually admit defeat because the only people with Blu-Ray drives will be the 5 million suckers who got a PS3 in the end in comparison to the 150 million or so who were smart cheapos who went HD-DVD.
And did I mention disc rot btw on Blu-Ray, and not on HD-DVD?
Wow... well done. Let's start at the beginning. Disk-rot? Not an issue for Blu-ray. Maybe a handful of discs had an issue, but that's it, and they were immediatley replaced. It does not exist as a problem today.
HD-DVD combo disc have huge problems to this day. "300" - the biggest title in quite some time was released in combo form (only) for HD-DVD and it's giving many people problems. Unlike the isolated rot issues, the combo's have and continue to give people problems. Whoops! When given the option of HD-DVD combo, or Blu-ray, I go with the cheaper and more reliable Blu-ray.
Finally, Blu-ray is not Sony! Panasonic owns as much of the IP in Blu-ray as Sony, so you are hating Blu-ray for the wrong reasons. If you don't like Sony, let them fail in the market place as you're so sure they will. But if you have to hate a CE company, why not just ignore the one you thinks charges too much, and focus on the truly dangerous one. Toshiba is the only consumer electronic company that I know of that's ever sold weapons technology to the Soviet Union! You want to support them?!
And to save everyone the time, let me just say here and now that any company, publication, or individual that dares speak a negative (or even neutral) word about HD-DVD is irrelevant, biased, and on their way out of business. So sayeth the HD-DVD flock.
(BTW, I'm a PS3 and HD-A1 owner, but blind, unsupported fanboyism annoys me to no end so I call it like I see it.)
"I can use it on my computer. Yes I do have a BenQ FP241W which has 1080p and an HDMI port but the software is whats really important - PowerDVD Ultra and subsequent players will kick the pants off of standalone players."
What makes powerdvd > standalones in your opinion? I'm intrigued.
I bought the add on primarily because even though at the time I was going to buy a standalone (changed my mind but may get one anyway) I figured if I traveled I could bring the drive with my laptop and play movies (in my hotel room, instead of on the plane but still...)
@ h0mi
they don't say in any of the feature lists for the 360 player as to which of the audio formats etc the player will decode. thats because there is no decoding module in the drive and also why the drive is USB - its up to the software players properly decode the audio and video etc. Which means that with the right software you should be able to get Dolby TrueHD audio for example, a feature that most budget standalones don't support now and might not in the future if there are no firmware upgrades for example. It also means that the software players will be able to give you 1080p right from the start if your computer monitor supports it, the cheaper Toshiba HD-DVD models only support 1080i.
In short, software players should give you better flexibility and upgradeability and allow you to not lock into a specific feature set too early like you would on a standalone.
@Chris: Really? So, you actually believe if PS3 never came out with a BR player this would still be going on? I think you need to keep in touch with WickedPhoenixs' friend, Mr. Reality.
Compare the hardware sales of BR standalones and HD DVD standalones-- not the PS3.
MD -
the HD DVD camp published numbers on stand alone sales in June. It was 60% HD-DVD and 40% Blu-ray (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070611/aqm077.html?.v=9).
So yes, HD-DVD has sold more stand alone units. But given the huge (at the time) price difference, that's not an impressive ratio at all!
What I'm saying is that if the PS3 did not exist, the Blu-ray CE companies would be subsidized their players so the pricing was similar to HD-DVD players. It's a smart move by Toshiba to subsidize, but they have to do it because they don't have an equivalent to the PS3.
That's my "reality" of how things would be in the PS3 didn't exist. The Blu-ray group would not simply give up and keep the players prices high enough to make profit (which they are now)
@Chris: I see your point. And that's why it's great for us consumers. However, it seems the majority of the posters here are clueless of what's going on. My apologies for going out on a tangent-- FUD really irks me.
Hey guys,
I'm from the future. It's funny how Sony loves to repeat things. Bluray was a bigger flop than betamax-- bail out while you still can.
p.s. i'm not lying
And to add, if we did not have this war going on then we wouldn't have these prices. Eventually, the BR CEs would've given up-- it would be too much of a loss to subsidize a $1200 player. IMO.
Both formats offer essentially the same PQ and AQ.
Both release formats are easily available on Netflix and Blockbuster.com.
Both formats are NOT the same price. The HD-DVD XBox add-on (assuming you already have some spec'd hardware) is, hands-down, the most affordable pathway to HD content. Come on, for $150 (and you get 5 HD-DVDs for free), there is really no contest at the moment when it comes to price.
Don't have HDCP or you are worried about the "what if" scenarios about the permanence of HD-DVD (which is pointless because both formats are not going anywhere), then just use products like AnyDVD-HD and archive the files to the hardrive.
I would like to have both formats, but BR is non-starter at the current price point.
Whoever thinks that a disc with a higher storage capacity will win the format war because more info can be stored on one disc is mistaken. Movie studios don't want a single disc for movies and extras because then they can't justify a higher price. No one will pay $50-60 for one season of a TV show on a single disc. They will pay for a 5-6 disc set because of the perceived notion of paying for $10 a disc as a good bargain. Also, studios like to release multiple editions of a movie with higher disc count thus justifying a higher price (ie. LOTR).
When PS3 come out with more games I expect Blu-ray movies sales will slump up into xmas
The geek in me wants to go HD now, even though I can't afford the bigazz TV. I'd like to start buying movies in HD, not DVD, so I won't have to re-buy them later. So that makes the Xbox drive very attractive: less than two hundred and runs on my pc.
Problem is, I'll someday want to watch movies on my future big tv and I hate making computers network or stream. Of course that big Apple monitor sure is nice...
PS3 would work better as a tv player for me, and the games would look good, too, not to mention dvd upscaling and possible DVR. I would buy a PS3 for those functions alone. Of course I could just buy the Xbox 360 at that point, but maybe by then it'll be PS3 ftw.. Just thinking outloud.
I am the guy that LOVES cheap stuff. But just because i like to get a bargain, doesnt mean i go in blindly buying cheap stuff at random. But as far as blu-ray and hd-dvd, they both "look" exactly THE SAME. I own an xbox 360 and i am planning to get a ps3(when better games come out and/or a REAL price drop occurs). I'm thinking of buying the $180 hd-dvd player for X360 cause of the price, but if blu-ray "wins" the format war, my hd-dvd player would be pretty much worthless. Guess i'll wait a few more months(hopefully) for a clearcut winner and start buyin some hi def movies.
I think the format war was pretty much won when Blockbuster announced they would ONLY carry Bluray....
As any consumer on the planet, what you going to buy? a format where you can go rent stuff for, or you going to buy something nobody will rent titles for? Hopefully theres enough people out there old enough to remember going into video stores and asking "you have beta?" and hearing the magic words...."sorry, we only stock VHS titles for rent"
Gawd i feel old. But even then i had a VHS so i wasn't totally daft. LOL!
Seriously however....Bluray is the way. HD-DVD is just going to be another dead format. Even if there will be dual format burners/readers and home units.... eventually it will all be for nothing as there will be less and less HD-DVD as more and more people see the light.
It's funny that a dead format have plans on making third generation players.
And as far as I know, BB or Target have not gone BR exlcusive.
BB annouced that they will carry BR in all their locations however, in their testing locations of about 200+, they will continue to carry HD DVD. A spokesperson from BB said they will be watching consumer trends and supply HD DVD based on consumer demands.
As for Target, Sony dished out the money to pay for end caps for their BR players. So what ! A $500 player at a store that sells $50 DVD players and $5 DVDs. They will also continue to sell HD DVD software along with their BR counterpart.
It's funny how articles and fanboys try to spin things. I don't like FUD, just facts. I'll wait till the holidays to get a BR player. Right now I'm leaning towards a PS3 due to it's price and capabilites. I currently have a Toshiba XA2 and about 30+ HD DVD movies in my collection, I think it's time to start building my BR collection.
@wickedpheonix:
You are just plain wrong about PS3 sales compared to other consoles. Wii is the top-selling console but irrelevant to the HD war. PS3 (supporting BluRay) is competing with the XBox360 (supporting HD-DVD as an add-on). Go check sales rankings on Amazon and you'll see the PS3 is outselling the 360. Also, if you compare sales by month since the console launch dates (the 360 came out a year earlier), you'll see that the PS3 has done as well as the 360 did during its first year. The difference is that the 360 had a "killer app" (Gears of War) to move it and had no competing current-gen consoles during its first year. Yet the PS3, having to compete with both XBox360 and the Wii, and not having a large game catalog (their just now coming), has sold as well as the 360 did in its first year. Also, the 360 is more expensive when you add the HD-DVD player to it (BluRay is included with the PD3).
here are the numbers for May: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/116711.asp
as you can see, Amazon is not the be all end all for total sales, and rather represents a small portion of the market. In fact I would think that most people would want to see the picture quality and such in a store first rather than buying blindly online.
And as a Joe Schmo Consumer I don't have to buy a 360 HD-DVD drive with my 360 if I don't want to, whereas I am forced to make such a purchase and spend extra money on a Blu-Ray player with a 360. And oh yeah, if you see my original post I mentioned that I'm not getting a 360 to use with it, and that I'm using it with my PC. So yeah, it really is $180.
And the Xbox 360 is going to get a price cut this month swinging sales back the other way. So what. Monthly sales don't matter at all, they're like stocks: they fluctuate. The only thing that really matters is total sales, in which Xbox 360 is currently better than the PS3. And it doesn't matter in terms of relative to its launch date - more people have 360's than PS3s, period. That also means that the 360 HD-DVD player will look like a very nice addition to most people's home theaters this holiday season and will sell more.
Im sorry but when the head of sony europe say that a madonalds cost the same in the us as it does in the UK. That put me off PS3's completly i also know a lot of die hard playstation fans who have now bought 360's if somthing goes wrong with my 360 i just pop out the HDD and take it back to the shop. With sony and nintendo i have to send the machine away to get the data transfered and the console fixed. Also Fact The xbox has an upgradable HDD and downloadable HD Films. Why would i want to pay for a playstation that 1 i cant download films 2 i cant upgrade easily 3 has less games period. You PS3 fanboys must admit that once a blueray player comes in at under $600 people will probably buy them instead of PS3's Also most of the studios currently supporting Blu ray said it was time limited that means that by the begging of next year nearly all deals are off. I would rather have a 360 and an apple tv that gives me loads of HD content than a PS3 for the same price. Also point of note my 360 looks good on any HD TV or computer monitor and projector. My friends PS3 doesnt its like seeing your mates PC when he has all the latest Hard ware and the games look awesome then you run them on your 2 year old machine and they look crap. Thats what its like with a PS3 you have to have a TV that supports 1080p with my xbox 360 they look good whatever the TV. Do you know the cost of a TV that supports 1080p £1300 i paid £400 for mine and it supports 720 fine and looks good doing it. Also the 360 is the only system that will allow you to get not just half life 2 halo 3 and PGR4 its the only system that you will get the full GTA 4 experience on Exclusive content means that by the time Xbox fans complete it they will get the next episode exclusive on the Xbox. The 3 best selling series ever have been maden, Halo, GTA the only system you get those on will be the 360 fact. Also what doe it say for the Xbox 360 when things like assasins creed and resi evil 5 which where PS3 exclusives are now being released on the XBOX 360. That must say somthing about the 360 doing well. Also fact from november to June between 75% and 80% of all software sales for the the new gen where on the 360 what does that say. You release a machine to sell software not consoles. The 360 outstripped the Wii and the PS3 with double their combinded software sales. The 360 is still selling I have spoken to 100 students this week and they are all going to buy 360's for their flats some of which have only started playing games because of the nintendo WII. That say to me that as the wii bring people in and they want to move up they buy the 360 not the PS3 and for me that say the XBOX is doing somthing right. Also if i have movies on my PC i can play them through my XBOX using media centerits so easy. Also 82% of video rendered for game adverts for cross platform games is done on a 360 the publishers love it new gamers love even sony fanboys find it hard to resist the price tag and the games of the 360. 1 Place to play the 3 best selling frachise games of all time i would say that this holiday will belong to the 360 .
It may have matched sales in america but not in europe even though the 360 has had problems people in europe still want the 360. Also software sales are still lagging for the PS3 behind the 360 and the wii. Although i think sony is doing well to try to catch up information i have from one of the companys that controls the patents is that the next gen of HD DVD players will only be between $150 and $199 also im sure we will see the 360 break the magic $199 price point and it will do it before sony. Also some of the companys supporting Blu ray have started to make HD players this does not sound like a win for blu ray. Also The adult film idustry is supporting HD DVD and maybe you lot where to young to remember Beta max it lost because the Adult movie industry went with VHS. The adult film industry may again decide this one as between 1/3 and 1/2 of all DVDs sold are adult movies. You also never awnswered my comments on the fact that there is more downloadable HD movie content on XBOX than there is on PS3 now be honest the download market for the 360 is huge. Another point to note is that not all Blu ray PC drives work with VIsta some struggle greatly no native support you see.
It may have matched sales in america but not in europe even though the 360 has had problems people in europe still want the 360. Also software sales are still lagging for the PS3 behind the 360 and the wii. Although i think sony is doing well to try to catch up information i have from one of the companys that controls the patents is that the next gen of HD DVD players will only be between $150 and $199 also im sure we will see the 360 break the magic $199 price point and it will do it before sony. Also some of the companys supporting Blu ray have started to make HD players this does not sound like a win for blu ray. Also The adult film idustry is supporting HD DVD and maybe you lot where to young to remember Beta max it lost because the Adult movie industry went with VHS. The adult film industry may again decide this one as between 1/3 and 1/2 of all DVDs sold are adult movies. You also never awnswered my comments on the fact that there is more downloadable HD movie content on XBOX than there is on PS3 now be honest the download market for the 360 is huge. Another point to note is that not all Blu ray PC drives work with VIsta some struggle greatly no native support you see.
Here’s a shocker for you: The GameBoy Advance sold more units in April than PlayStation 3. The GBA sold 84,000 units while the PS3 sold only 82,000 units. The latest numbers from the NPD Group show that the DS and Wii are still the best selling consoles, with 471,000 and 360,000 units sold, respectively. The PS2 came in third with 194,000 units sold, followed by the PSP at 183,00 and the Xbox 360 at 171,000 units sold. The PS3 was beaten by pretty much every console besides the GameCube, and it’s hard to see how things can get worse for Sony’s new console these days.
These figure come from a website.
Even if the PS3 had doubled sales it still behind the 360
To me that says it still lagging behind
your rebuttle
Sales of PS3 in june from
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2007/07/npds_six-month_sales_figures_out_showing_strong_growth_for_game_industry.html
Troy Wolverton passed along sales figures to me from the NPD Group for the first six months of U.S. game industry sales in 2007. Clearly the Nintendo Wii is running away with the game and it is responsible for some fantastic growth figures.
Here are some interesting figures. Console hardware sales were up 98 percent. Portable game hardware was up 27 percent; console software was up 21 percent; portable game software was up 35 percent; and video game accessories were up 56 percent.
Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD, told Troy that this is the most robust first half in the game industry since 2000. In June, the Nintendo Wii sold 382,000 units; the Xbox 360 sold 198,400, and the Sony PlayStation 3 sold 98,500.
The top five games of the year so far are Pokemon Diamond for the Nintendo DS; Wii Play with the remote; Pokemond Pearl for the DS; God of War II for the PlayStation 2; and Guitar Hero II for the PS 2.
The top five games of June are Mario Party 8 for the Wii; Wii Play with remote; Pokemon Diamond for the DS; Pokemon Pearl for the DS; and Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360.
The six-month sales in the U.S. are as follows: 2.1 million for the Wii; 760,000 for the PlayStation 3, and 1.2 million for the Xbox 360.
Update: a note from Sony: Based on preliminary internal data, PS3 sales have increased by more than 135% at the company’s top five retailers since the new $499 price was announced two weeks ago on July 9. During this same two-week period, total PlayStation hardware sales have increased by 161%, software by 15% and peripherals by 60%.
That looks like a small increase but not a massive increase overall if i sell 1 game then a week later sell 1000 my sales go up 1000% but ive still only sold 1001 games. That is definatley a problem your reaserch has no evidence but i have provided you evidence that the XBOX i still out doing the PS3.
The fact is that from a buiness angel for storage and cost per GB stored HDDVD is the better option. And being as HD DVD RW can store more than some of the current tape backups i would rather pay for a conversion of my current DVD drives in my servers to HD DVD cost $25 Per drive plus labour. Also With disney now signing deals with micrsoft and micrsoft already talking to fox and toshiba talking with paramount it looks like HD DVD will soon be offering a lot more titles. Romours are also bound that all Weta films will soon be exclusive to the XBOX download service and HD DVD. That includes Lord of the Rings. At the moment in not even going to buy a player there is no point the vast amount of LCD tvs don't support 1080P and that means that the quality is not that noticable its really only for those with a 50 inch tv and i aint buying one of them when there quality change isnt that great and i warn you know when you by a HD tv and the HD content is not supported on all programs all other programs look crap and for me thats a big problem HD is just away of selling us more crap we dont need.
@wickedpheonix:
I think you missed my point. You mentioned PS3 doing poorly relative to other consoles. It has matched the 360 in total units sold relative to its launch date. Also, the May sales figures are stale. They predate E3, the PS3 price cut, and acknowledgment of the XBox360 $1 Billion Red Ring of Death (RRoD) problem. If you do a search, you can find multiple reports that PS3 sales have more than doubled since mid-July.
I hope HD-DVD emerges victorious for the simple reason that SONY NEVER discounts! In this case, their "you'll pay our premium every time" policy will kill both them AND their format. The masses are not going to pay $500+ for a DVD player, period.
If these people had half a brain, they would be heavily discounting Blu-Ray players and media. There would be no question at that point that Blu-Ray would win. But it's not going to happen. These dolts are going to try and extract their luxury premium at a cost of market share.
So, the so-called format war will continue. As said before, what will be the "killer app" for any HD format will be dual-format players that are both inexpensive and can utilize all the features of both formats.
Seriously, somebody needs to bet the farm to end this format war.
Toshiba: Price those players ridiculously cheap. Also make HD-DVD standard in every Toshiba computer you sell. Maybe make a deal with one of your partners to bundle your players with HD TV's.
Sony: OMFG! Talk about vertical consolidation. Price those players to move, bundle them with your TV's and give away movies from studios you own! If only Sony owned a shipping company to deliver it to your door..
Can someone please tell me why I'm supposed to care about this HD DVD crap or this Blu-Ray crap? My DVD's are just fine and don't cost me a flippin arm and a leg. (Oooooh Hi-Def!!! How many of you followers can actually "see" the difference and how many are going along because someone "told you" that there is a difference? These companies and the people who follow them so religiously need a new hobby or life.
Alexis, I don't have the time (or interest, frankly) to dissect all of your posts and address every one of your comments. Skimming through your first post, you seem to be mistaken or uninformed on a number of issues. As a few examples:
There are already BluRay players below $600 and they have been around before the PS3 sales increase (after the price cut). For example, go to BestBuy.com and you can find one under $500.
It's great that it is so easy to have your XBox360 serviced. Considering that about 30% of them are defective due to a design flaw (read:RRoD), that makes dealing with Microsoft's $1 Billion fiasco much easier.
The PS3 also has an upgradable HDD. The difference is that you aren't forced to buy a proprietary HDD, like with the XBox360. In fact, you can upgrade the PS3 with any off-the-shelf 2.5" SATA HDD.
Regarding your friend's PS3 not looking good on his HDTV, it sounds like he needs to do a firmware update. You can set the available resolutions you want the PS3 to display, including NTSC, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p.
Call me a fanboy if you like. The fact is that I simply prefer the PS3 over the 360. I think it is a better designed console. It is less expensive than the 360 for me (I want BluRay and need WiFi). Also, based on the designs of the consoles and Sony and Microsoft's history in the console business, I have greater confidence that the PS3 will still be in production a few years for now. As for games, the PS3's game catalog is growing quickly with good games. Both consoles have their exclusives but I don't think they'll make a big difference in the long run.