HD DVD casualty report: over 1m players, recorders, and drives lost to the format war
by Ryan Block 
posted Feb 19th 2008 at 4:03AM
At all curious to find out just how rare that HD DVD player of yours really is? Well, we hate to tell you, but it's probably not rare enough to fetch anything special on eBay in a couple of years -- but still every bit rare (read: discontinued) enough to justify taking up space in your home theater. The numbers, according to Nishida-san, at this morning's press conference:- Xbox 360 drives (worldwide) - 300k
- PCs with HD DVD (worldwide) - 300k
- US - 600k units
- Europe - 100k units
- Japan - 30,000 units
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 19th 2008 4:06AM
Add to that my HD DVD copies of:
Serenity
Superman II: Richard Donner's Cut
Batman Begins
Oh, well...
Matt B @ Feb 19th 2008 8:40AM
http://i26.tinypic.com/21jc7pf.gif
Student Driver @ Feb 19th 2008 1:51PM
So, I guess this redefines "EPIC FAIL."
Jimbo @ Feb 19th 2008 4:07AM
better get your math straight.
830k
Andrew @ Feb 19th 2008 11:27AM
You do, too...
According to Nishida-san, president of Toshiba, it's 730,000 units worldwide. Engadget (conveniently?) forgot to mention that the 300,000 Xbox add-ons were specifically grouped under the 600,000 players in the US, according to Nishida-san.
US 600k + EU 100k + JP 30k = 730k worldwide
tom @ Feb 19th 2008 8:43AM
Actually, keep those handy, sooner or later, those chinese may bring their bootleg china high def disc to the West. I heard the format is similar to HD-DVD
Jimbo @ Feb 20th 2008 9:38AM
My math was right. Engadget had posted some numbers and made a typo. I was just pointing it out, but Engadget changed their numbers again, making my post irrelevant.
No biggie, but that's why my above post seems out of place now.
Jonathan Worrel @ Feb 19th 2008 2:07PM
1.3 million souls lost, including my $99 Toshiba HD-A2 from Wal-Mart with 5 free movies. EPIC PHAIL!
LONG LIVE MY LAUNCH DAY PS3!
boiwithnolife @ Feb 19th 2008 4:07AM
830,000?
Chris @ Feb 19th 2008 4:07AM
You knew the risks.
KC @ Feb 19th 2008 5:47AM
The risks? Just think about how much Toshiba risked. How many millions of dollars spent on R&D, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, etc, just to sell one million players. That's not even counting the machines used to stamp the new HD-DVD disks, or the machines used to produce the blank media.
I know they can recoup some money from the sale of movies, even then, most of them were given away for free. 5 movies for every machine sold is 5 million HD-DVD movies given away.
I wonder if anyone has done an analysis for how much Toshiba has actually lost from this war?
Izzy @ Feb 19th 2008 7:33AM
@KC
QQ
AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 19th 2008 4:09AM
So Ryan, are you going to take Thomas Ricker's insensitive picture of the Enola Gay on the other post or what?
AJ in the East Bay @ Feb 19th 2008 4:09AM
"take" as in "remove"...
Ryan Block @ Feb 19th 2008 4:12AM
Sorry, it stays. (FYI: I made it, so blame me if you must.)
Elevator @ Feb 19th 2008 4:15AM
Aww, too soon AJ?
I think its funny.
Not everything needs to bee 100% politically correct. It's all in good fun as a joke.
Keep it.
Jon @ Feb 19th 2008 4:18AM
Figures. It was Ryan Block who made the incredibly bad taste picture.
Homeboy @ Feb 19th 2008 4:51AM
I want to bring life into the woman's head by kissing it.
KayRazy Ken Kutaragi @ Feb 19th 2008 9:51AM
Get over yourself. Insensitive picture, have you any Kleneex for those tears?
Give me a break. I am half Japanese and I lived in Japan, and my Mom is from Kyushu which I believe is pretty close to ground zero for one of the cities that were hit.
Get over WWII. Japan WAS the aggressor in WWII. Japan raped ALL of SE Asia starting in 1933. Japan attacked Pearl. And Japan showed just how fanantical and bloody the invasion of the homeland would be when the US invaded Iwo Jima.
Dropping Little Boy and Fat Man SAVED countless millions of US and JAPANESE lives.
Now Japan and the US are close Allies and Japan owns our living rooms.
A big WAH goes out to you sir.
h.solo @ Feb 20th 2008 12:42AM
What a douche.
ctribbey @ Feb 19th 2008 4:14AM
Everyone should just be glad they threw in the towel now, instead of fighting a losing battle. Though what exactly did they get for that $2.7 million Super Bowl ad?
It bears saying again: the PS3 having Blu-ray playback, while Xbox 360 required a separate add-on for HD DVD, was just killer. And when the HD DVD camp had a chance to make noise (Paramount/DreamWorks) they barely made a whimper.
One question still has to be answered: what are all the BD and HD fanboys going to do with their free time, now that the war is over?
Winters @ Feb 19th 2008 4:38AM
> One question still has to be answered: what are all the BD and HD fanboys going to do with their free time, now that the war is over?
Hopefully sack all those extra PR staff and reduce costs so we can all enjoy cheaper movies and actually move on. As much as two formats was hindering the HD battle, high costs are going to do it even more when people dont see the benefit of upgrading the DVD's yet.
Scott @ Feb 19th 2008 6:34PM
If you think Sony will let the price drop, you're dreaming. They've been trying to get one of their junky, proprietary formats to succeed for years and they'll milk it for all it's worth.
x20mar @ Feb 19th 2008 4:14AM
I got myself an xbox 360 HD-DVD drive, but I ever got round to getting any HD-DVDs, I feel kinda lucky for some reason.
Maybe I should start going round shops and buying cheap HD-DVDS...
Alan Strangis @ Feb 19th 2008 9:16AM
That's what I'm gonna do. The 360 add-on was a gift, as were most of my HD-DVDs. I don't mind stockpiling a few - especially since most of the HDs I have are combo discs :)
It'll get me through until a decently priced standalone BR player comes out that is 2.0 compatible (and has IR - hear me Sony - I would have bought a PS3 if you put IR in it - seriously, what is this 1985?).
Karan @ Feb 19th 2008 6:34PM
PS3 has bluetooth - what is this, 2002? Get over not having IR.
Karan @ Feb 19th 2008 6:42PM
lucky you spent $200 on something you've never used? funny definition, if you ask me...
Leader Desslok @ Feb 20th 2008 3:30AM
Hey Alan. Nyko makes a usb IR adapter for the PS3 (that even comes with a spiffy remote for FREE!) I got mine for about $12 US. Better start looking for a new excuse.
Naveed @ Feb 19th 2008 4:19AM
no big deal for early adopters, most early adopters can afford to adopt again if they didnt buy both players in the first place (makes me wonder if there are any studies on what percentage of highdef player owners bought bothe Bluray and HD-dvd).
I was rooting for HD-dvd a month ago, but this is why I bought a drive that plays both formats. So i guess my drive is useful and collectible.
Joe @ Feb 19th 2008 4:31AM
of the 600,000 in the us 300,000 were from the 360 hd dvd drive
Paul @ Feb 19th 2008 8:28AM
From what it sound like, it's not 600k total american players. It looks like 300k 360 drives and 600k standalone players.
Aditya @ Feb 19th 2008 4:37AM
May Sony rot in hell for this. After the Betamax debacle, they were determined this time around to ensure they got the studios on their side, even if it means paying them off. Now that they have the HD format MONOPOLY, get ready for $50 movies
Elevator @ Feb 19th 2008 4:46AM
Stop talking, you are ignorant.
It's not a monopoly. Were you yelling "monopoly" at Philips yesterday and for the past 9 years? You should have according to your logic, they put DIVX in the ground. (DIVX is the HD-DVD of years past)
You also should yell at the founders of VHS for creating a monopoly after putting beta-max in the dirt.
Your thoughts are best left in your head.
Econsense @ Feb 19th 2008 4:55AM
I am so tired of these stupid monopoly comments. Didn't you people at least take an econ course somewhere? Yes, sony is gonna jack up the price for blu-rays to 50 dollars, no wait, why stop at 50, why not make it 500, or a 1000 dollars a movie, because you know, if you have a monopoly, you can charge any price you want, and people will still buy it, thats totally how it works. Personally, I'll be used to paying 50 dollars a movie, cause I was paying 50 dollars a movie during all those years DVD had a monopoly......oh wait....
Vega @ Feb 19th 2008 4:56AM
OK, this is the most uninformed post I've read today.
1. Bluray is the older format. The spec were agreed upon in 2002 by the Bluray consortium, consisting of: Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Sony, Thomson, LG, Hitachi, Sharp and Samsung. The group was later joined by Dell, Apple and HP (HP switched to HDDVD in 2005). So Bluray was the standard most of the industry agreed upon early on.
2. By the victory of one format prices are going to FALL, not rise. Two competing formats resulted in most consumers remaining on the fence and not buying into either technology. Now that the war is over, buying bluray is no longer a risk for consumers ---> Higher demand, competing manufacturers (just witness the members of Bluray consortium), higher disc production volumes, lower prices etc...
Just remember, prices for DVD players and movies came down without a competing format.
pbase @ Feb 19th 2008 6:12AM
And let's not forget that there actually is still competition for blu-ray, regular DVD's. I don't remember who conducted the poll, but it determined that most polled said that they don't feel any rush to go get a blu-ray player, as they're perfectly happy with DVD's for the time being.
That's understandable, considering that in order to really appreciate the new format you'll need a high-definition TV, which are still rather expensive even compared to tube models of the same screen size.
marty @ Feb 21st 2008 8:11PM
How exactly can a monopoly happen when you have different firms making/marketing players and disks. You will have the same number (eventually) of distributors for the disks as you do for dvd a similar number of firms selling the players I cannot see a monopoly market. As for the firms getting together and setting a price, well that is illegal here in Australia and most likely in many other countries too. To say this is a monolpoly market as there is one format is crazy. It would be the same as saying that a petrol company has a monopoly as Unleaded is the dominant or a Car company because all cars have an engine and 4 wheels. The mono part means one, but one company not one format. Competition will lower the price over time, and if you look at many post-grad marketing analysis on consume goods, the quickest decline in price on goods in recent time came from DVD's. Most marketing guru's funnily enough point to the level of feirce competition forcing the price of DVD's down so fast as the reason that a DVD successor became necessary so soon. Remember the above these companies that, through fierce competition forced DVD prices down in record time are the exact same companies that will be marketing Blu Ray going forward. The companies do not care what they have spent in the past on development, that has been spent and no actions now will get that back. What they are interested in is what can make them the most going forward and as history has shown, the marketing departments at these companies are not patient and just want to secure as much money as fast as they can even if it brings an early end to a format like DVD through market saturation and greatly reduced prices.
aitorbk @ Feb 19th 2008 4:44AM
At last they have realized that they were loosing. So much for all the folks that insisted in saying that the PS3 did not count as a player...
My guess is that the PS3 is going to be sold at an increased rate...
Grant @ Feb 20th 2008 9:50AM
Could it be that mickeysoft / copysoft (ms) got it WRONG again?!! No..!!
As soon as we heard Apple backed Bluray and therefore ms backed the competitor HD, could we see the outcome or what?! Lol. Love it.
Hell but ms's professional pride must be all but non-existent. What HAVE they got right in the last 10 years? Yeesh.
Keith @ Feb 19th 2008 10:26AM
The spec was agreed upon in 2002? Then how come they kept making changes to the specs, essentially making any older players obsolete?
Homeboy @ Feb 19th 2008 5:01AM
Since Toshiba has already spent a fortune on R&D I would have loved if they had kept the format alive for data storage with cheaper discs and drive. You know, cash in a few coins or so, rather than throwing everything in the bin.
ender @ Feb 19th 2008 10:49PM
My SDVD player died this weekend and I purposely picked up an HD player because it was cheap and does a great job of upconverting until Blu-Ray gets stable and cheap. Plus now I'll get a few bargain basement cheap HD movies. I feel bad for anyone who got it under the pretense on finally "taking the plundge" though.
Version 1.0 @ Feb 19th 2008 6:24AM
PHEWH! good thing i made the right purchase... Sure would hate to be one of those 1.3 million people...
Azumi @ Feb 19th 2008 6:30AM
@Ryan, could you please recheck your numbers?
During the press conference, Toshiba said they had sold: "600,000 players in the US -- 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 730,000 units worldwide."
Therefore, it appears that the standalone players sold in the US (excluding the X360 add-on) were 300,000 -- and not 600K like you reported in your story.
Ryan Block @ Feb 19th 2008 11:58AM
Sorry, the numbers in this post are updated and accurate to the best info we have right now. Will bring the live coverage in line!
IndiaTech @ Feb 19th 2008 6:56AM
McCoy looks at the Star Trek HD-DVD box set.
McCoy "It is Dead, Jim"
John B @ Feb 19th 2008 10:07AM
Really? Has it suddenly stopped working in your HD DVD player? :P
Mike @ Feb 19th 2008 7:21AM
Well, that was fun. Now can we freeze the format and have a BR player for $200, please? I don't want a PS3 or a Samsung player that was obsolete months ago.
Mack Swift @ Feb 19th 2008 7:26AM
Class action lawsuit time
Patrick @ Feb 19th 2008 10:37AM
class action lawsuit... FOR WHAT???!??
yeah, sucks they lost but get real. did toshiba make you buy the player? no. did early adopters know there was a format war? probably, but if you didn't that's really your own fault (or best buy's - god i love blaming them). did toshiba intentionally defraud anyone? nope.
listen, i bought into hd-dvd (blu-ray too, but in the last month) and i really wanted the format to win. but it didn't. guess what i'm going to do - i'm going to stock up on hd-dvd movies that will be in the inevitable firesale on ebay and be happy with it. not really a whole lot i can do. i knew there was inherant risk, i took it and, didn't come out on top. so be it. is that toshiba's fault?
hey listen, if you're really serious about that class action lawsuit, how about you sue engadget too? they gave coverage to hd-dvd and didn't protect us! how about the nfl? they let commercials pertaining to hd-dvd be aired. hmm... hd-dvd's have plastic, which are made from oil. let's sue bush too! i bet he had something to do with this to help out his texas cronies!
sheesh.