Warner Backs Blu-Ray. End Times For HD-DVD?

[bah]

Neither format is well established and the PS3 makes up the vast majority of Blu-ray players sold.

Whichever format wins, those ps3 sales will be nothing compared to mass uptake of cheap players.

Of course if there are more PS3s out there than there are HD-DVD or Blu-ray standalone players, then Blu ray is going to look like its well ahead in both player sales and movie rental/sales.

Using that early lead as the deciding factor doesn't seem to make much sense to me. I think it has more to do with BD+.

[F9zDark]

Neither format is well established and the PS3 makes up the vast majority of Blu-ray players sold.

Whichever format wins, those ps3 sales will be nothing compared to mass uptake of cheap players.

Of course if there are more PS3s out there than there are HD-DVD or Blu-ray standalone players, then Blu ray is going to look like its well ahead in both player sales and movie rental/sales.

Using that early lead as the deciding factor doesn't seem to make much sense to me. I think it has more to do with BD+.

I don't know, but this post seems to indicate that Blu-Ray is well established. And those are standalone sales.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81072

[Shrygue]

Here's something, I went to the shopping centre and I walked into a store selling films in BD and HD-DVD disks. I look at the shelves and see that the films in BD format are almost gone the other shelf with the HD-DVDs still had many disks on it. I go to 10 other stores on that day and see the same result from the first one, Blu-Ray disks are selling more than HD-DVDs.

So there's my cut on this, Blu-Ray is beating HD-DVD senseless in sales.

[bah]

I don't know, but this post seems to indicate that Blu-Ray is well established. And those are standalone sales.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81072

By standalone I guess you dont mean 'not including PS3 sales'.

TO quote your linked article:

"Like the HD DVD camp’s recent claims, the figure encompasses both Blu-ray-capable gaming devices and Blu-ray set-top players."

"Still, the 2.7 million sold is a clear achievement over the HD DVD side, which pushed its installment base to 750,000 units following widespread holiday retail sales, notably including $99-priced players at Wal-Mart and Best Buy"

And an article that it links to:

"Although clearly enjoying a sales surge, HD DVD players still trail Blu-ray hardware sales, as the Blu-ray-capable PlayStation 3 has sold 2 million units in North America."

Meaning not including the PS3, HD-DVD has sold 50,000 units more....?

When standalone (non gaming console with movie playback) sales are taken into account the playing figures seem more balanced.

I'm 1/2 playing devils advocate here and half just wanting cheaper burnable media and a format with less DRM.

I don't own either and probably wont for a fair while, high capacity burnable media would lead me to buy a burner though.

Sony threw a large chunk of their financial fortunes behind Blu-ray, the fact that the ps3 with all its gaming hardware was the cheapest BR player for a long time proves that. The fact that there are more BR playback devices at this point shouldn't be surprising nor re-assuring for the BR camp.

I still feel that at a point where a gaming console holds the majority of a video medium's market share (and only one side of the format 'war' has that force/advantage behind it), judging a winner based on the sales of its media is premature/unwise.
Especially when more studios are releasing more movies for BR.

I accept it looks like HD-DVD will now die, I'm just saying as an impartial observer it seems that it's not due to the merits of each format to the consumer.
What else is new I guess.

EDIT (Just have this compulsion to play devils advocate): Better data protection also?: "The structure of HD-DVDs is similar to traditional DVDs, with the data layer protected by layers of substrate of each side. The structure of Blu-ray discs is more similar to CDs, with the information stored directly beneath the surface. Early Blu-ray discs were easily damaged, but a protective layer was developed and made Blu-ray discs more reliable." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_media_preservation

[F9zDark]

All I know, from the evidence, is that Blu-Ray has sold far more movies than HD-DVD and has much better support in Hollywood and elsewhere than HD-DVD.

Whether or not its because one is better than the other, who knows. People slate Blu-Ray as the next Beta-Max, however, truth be told, Beta-Max was superior than VHS, but VHS has much better support from the companies that mattered (and had support from the Porn industry, which isn't such a factor now with downloadable movies, often, for much cheaper than buying a disc.)

If HD-DVD does last another year, maybe things will look up for it. But in all honesty I hope not. As I have said since the dawn of this format war, the consumers are the ones that screwed in the end.

Lets for a second, imagine that all Xbox360 owners bought the HD-DVD addon and bought 2 movies each. Thats 300 dollars buying into HD-DVD per person (roughly). At 12 million consoles thats 3,600,000,000 dollars spent on HD-DVD. Assuming that HD-DVD does fail, thats alot of money earned by the HD-DVD camp that none of those people will ever see again or even get their money's worth.

[Shadowblind]

All I know, from the evidence, is that Blu-Ray has sold far more movies than HD-DVD and has much better support in Hollywood and elsewhere than HD-DVD.

Whether or not its because one is better than the other, who knows. People slate Blu-Ray as the next Beta-Max, however, truth be told, Beta-Max was superior than VHS, but VHS has much better support from the companies that mattered (and had support from the Porn industry, which isn't such a factor now with downloadable movies, often, for much cheaper than buying a disc.)

If HD-DVD does last another year, maybe things will look up for it. But in all honesty I hope not. As I have said since the dawn of this format war, the consumers are the ones that screwed in the end.

Lets for a second, imagine that all Xbox360 owners bought the HD-DVD addon and bought 2 movies each. Thats 300 dollars buying into HD-DVD per person (roughly). At 12 million consoles thats 3,600,000,000 dollars spent on HD-DVD. Assuming that HD-DVD does fail, thats alot of money earned by the HD-DVD camp that none of those people will ever see again or even get their money's worth.

When it comes to stand alone players, there really isn't much difference in sales. Neither are selling well in the least. But the PS3 plays a major role in Blu-Ray too, which, from a gaming standpoint may not be selling so great, but from a Hi-Def player standpoint its selling amazingly.

PS: There are about 18 million 360 owners out there

[Accordion]

The latest chart from Toshiba showed a very slight advantage for stand alone HD-DVD players when compared to stand alone Blu-Ray players. Unfortunately Toshiba seemed proud of reaching nearly 1 million units sold[USA… i think]

Of course the PS3 was not included in these figures, which is very odd when anyone with interest in supporting Blu-ray will know that the PS3 is the best player you can buy and also completely future proof in terms of Blu-ray specification [it has a hard drive, internet access, etc]

[DCergo]

The latest chart from Toshiba showed a very slight advantage for stand alone HD-DVD players when compared to stand alone Blu-Ray players. Unfortunately Toshiba seemed proud of reaching nearly 1 million units sold[USA… i think]

Of course the PS3 was not included in these figures, which is very odd when anyone with interest in supporting Blu-ray will know that the PS3 is the best player you can buy and also completely future proof in terms of Blu-ray specification [it has a hard drive, internet access, etc]

Toshiba is spinning (as usual) their press release in their favor. Their figures include a razor thin advantage only up to December 22. It completely falls apart December 22 - January 1st where standalone sales of Blu-ray players pulled ahead significantly. They don't want you to know this

And of course, they never figure the PS3s in their sales comparisons, but are happy to include the 360 addons and consumer drives (laptops, etc) in their figures.

[jamotto]

It completely falls apart December 22 - January 1st where standalone sales of Blu-ray players pulled ahead significantly.

Do you have the link where it says that?

In other news engadgethd has posted this.

The Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is preparing to use a get out clause in its HD DVD exclusivity deal, and go back to Blu-ray

Paramount following Warner out the HD DVD door?

[irongiant]

HDDVD is dead, end of story.

Paramount are strongly rumoured to be announcing dropping HDDVD and moving to Blu Ray, they have a get out clause in their deal with HDDVD and it appears Dreamworks have the same. Which will leave just Universal and there's no way their shareholders will allow them to stay HDDVD exclusive, in fact their deal allows them to release on Blu Ray at anytime.

It's no coincidence that during the Microsoft conference at CES there was no mention whatsoever of HDDVD, apparently before the Warner decision they had around 30% of their presentation dedicated to HDDVD and it's relationship with the 360. The format not getting a mention whatsoever is another nail in it's coffin.

Target stores across the US are now quietly increasing their Blu Ray displays and minimizing the HDDVD sections. As for all the comments about the PS3 being the main reason for Blu Ray sales, so what, do you think the movie studios could care less? Even with the dirt cheap HDDVD players on the shelves the latest sales data shows Blu Ray standalone players outselling them. Anyone who doesn't realise that the PS2 gave the DVD format a big boost, especially in Japan, is niave to say the least.