A salesperson told me Blu-ray players are outselling HD-DVD 6 to 1 but this was not what deecided me. That is if you include Playstation 3 sales but there is no way to know if a PS3 is being purchased for Blu-ray or gaming. 150,000 stand alone HD-DVD players have been sold v 100,000 stand alone Blu-ray players. |
Unlike, Beta v VHS there will be universal players that do both formats. Walmart's percentage of the market is huge. As for Walmart's customers not being market makers just remember Joe Six Pack chose VHS over the higher picture quality Beta. Don't forget the international market's influence on if one format comes out on top. Personally, I expect the high def disc market to be a niche product like LaserDisc, SACD, and DVD-A. Many can't tell that much difference between a regular DVD and high def discs. You need a 1080p set to get the most out of Blu-ray/HD-DVD. The penetration of HDTV much less 1080p displays is still fairly low. Joe Six Pack hasn't likely even run Avia/DVE on his HDTV much less had it calibrated. Then he's still watching so much SD on his HDTV that standard DVD looks really good in comparison. |
Playstation 3 is the only Playstation that can be a Blu-ray player. Wii is outselling PS3 right now by 4 to 1. Xbox 360 is the Xbox that you can add an external HD-DVD player to. Research firm Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) revealed that there are 1.5 million Blu-ray players in the U.S., compared to only 300,000 HD DVD players. But while the HD DVD hardware base is a nearly equal split of set-top boxes and Xbox 360 HD DVD players, the Blu-ray camp is divided up into 1.4 million PlayStation 3 systems and 100,000 set-top boxes.Blu-ray Disc Beating HD DVD...Thanks to the PS3 |
"actually you can tell if ps 3's are being sold for gaming or blu ray... just look at sales of the actual movies... then you can tell who is beating who..." That doesn't really work either. If every gamer bought just one title to check it out that is a heck of a lot of sales. So far, sales swing back and forth based on who has the hot titles being release. Now if titles were being released on both formats and we could see those numbers. |
blu-ray is a work in progress sounds like a compliment to me because it hasnt reached its potential yet and hd dvd is pretty much as far as it can go... Those of us of a cynical nature tend to see works in progress as frequently ending up as vaporware. I appreciate everyone that chimed in to let me know my time line memory sucks. |
Blu-ray has a lot of potential, they haven't even finished hashing out the standards for it, but HD-DVD is pretty much fully available now. A HD-DVD player is a not too different from a standard DVD player. You can pick up a regular DVD player from China in Target for $30 these days. CD was audio only so adding video took a bit more for the manufacturers' leap to DVD. Now with HD-DVD all that is needed to step from a reg. DVDP is a different laser and higher resolution. It isn't anywhere near the leap CDPs to DVDPs was. I remember 15 years ago when DVD players came with free movies too. It was hardly the signal of the end for DVD players. 25 years ago the Chinese CE manufacturing wasn't a force at all. Factor that into how long it took the CD technology to come down in price. I would also take into account that the CD paved the way for acceptance of the silver disc as a media. DVD didn't have to overcome that unknown media hurdle. Someone somewhere else suggested that if HD-DVD gets down to $150 or less people will be buying them to up-convert all the standard DVDs they already own and can readily rent and they won't care if at $150 it loses the format war. |
"Its interesting to note that neither Target or Costco now have an hd dvd player for sale online but both have BD players." You might want to double check availablity at Costco on-line. |
The thing about 150 million though- thats more myth than reality. Nobody is saying that anyone specific paid anything--in other words, nobody is saying we paid this much money. Toshiba doesnt have 150 million dollars to pay a studio with as an FYI. While, I agree that the $150 million came out of the Blu-ray PR dept and has been denied by Microsoft, and MS involvement has been withdrawn by the press, and unsubstantiated in regards to Toshiba. I disagree that Toshiba doesn't have the money. Toshiba has a lot of intellectual properties in DVD and it is estimated that those royalties are worth a billion dollars a year. |
Newsday and the LA Times are now reporting a big check was written to Target for their Blu-ray deal. They are also reporting a bidding war for Warner Bros. to go exclusive. Retailers also have contributed to the recent jockeying. Target Corp., the nation's second-largest retailer, announced in July that it would sell only Blu-ray players. Its decision followed a bidding war in which Sony and three studio partners reportedly paid Target what one rival described as a "jaw-dropping" sum for prominent display of its hardware at the end of sales aisles. It will continue to sell the HD DVD drive for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 game console and HD DVD movies.Newsday link |
