HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[Lotus]

HD-DVD has days to do something.

Will they?

It's really hard to say.

[kkozma]

Originally Posted by Lotus

HD-DVD has days to do something.

Will they?

It's really hard to say.

I'm assuming by your silence that you no longer have the same level of optomism about MS buying a stuido or two that you did a few days back?

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by kkozma

I'm assuming by your silence that you no longer have the same level of optomism about MS buying a stuido or two that you did a few days back?

MS is real interested in the Studio they're after. That will take time. Right now the HD-DVD PRG doesn't have that luxery.

As for the big studios that they're after to make a move.

They need to do something and fast.

[gstarr]

The HD and Blu Ray players are like ink jet printers. The cost of the players or printers mean close to nothing compared to the amount of money you will spend on ink or software.

In any other business field they would view Toshiba dropping prices as the last act of a desperate company. Only desperate companies cut the price of a machine that is already much lower than the competition. Some people here need to take a business course.

Blu-ray Dominates Disc Sales Chart Post-Warner Announcement
Thu Jan 17, 2008 at 03:00 PM ET
Tags: Disc Sales, Industry Trends (all tags)

The Blu-ray camp took a decisive lead in disc sales for the week ending January 13th, the first full week following Warner's announcement that it would abandon its HD DVD support.

Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD in overall disc sales by a factor of nearly 2:1 since the start of 2007. While it's too soon to tell whether Warner's announcement had a direct effect on Blu-ray's stronger-than-ever disc sales lead, HD DVD had been holding steady with a relatively strong 39% share of high-def disc sales through the last weeks of the 2007 holiday shopping season. That has now dropped considerably in the last 2 weeks, with Blu Ray outselling HD by an 85% to 15% differential. I may be premature, but it appears the consumer has just shouted out its choice.

Home Media Magazine is reporting that of the top ten high-def discs sold on either format, not a single HD DVD disc made the list, with the top-selling HD DVD disc ('The Kingdom') moving only one tenth as many units as the best selling Blu-ray title, '3:10 to Yuma.'

The not-so-funny thing about it all, as Apple has long ago discovered, most people care far more about cost than they do about quality. I would bet that most people will still buy their progressive dvd players and most of the others will say they are very satisfied with the Anchor or REON chipset machines that output at 1080i to 1080p.

Maybe all the current Hi Def discs lose in the end. I guess we have to wait until the dust clears, as even Netflix says its Hi-Def rentals account for only 0.3% of their rental busniess. Ouch! I guess that speaks to how few people own HD and Blu Ray players and their desire to pay a dollar or two more for a rental.


Greg

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by gstarr

In any other business field they would view Toshiba dropping prices as the last act of a desperate company. Only desperate companies cut the price of a machine that is already much lower than the competition. Some people here need to take a business course.

The problem with the article you quote is that person didn't take any business courses.

BD did win 85:15. BD didn't get a boost in sales, but HD-DVD saw a giant drop in sales. The writer thought that meant that consumers had made a decision.

Not really. It's a direct result of the WB announcement and HD-DVD owners not wanting to invest anymore money into a loser. All the recent sales figures show is that the BDA did what they wanted: They killed HD-DVD.

Right now this war is over unless Toshiba and MS come up with something quickly.

[glocksout]

Are you honestly reporting on a rumor? One that has been vehemently denied by Warner on more than one occasion.

And Lotus keeps going on with the Fox rumor when Fox rejects that one as well.

The original author that posted the rumor removed any mention of it when he posted the full article on his personal blog. It's not true and reporting on it only harms the journalistic integrity of AVRev.