Blu-Ray leads HD-DVD

Andy298

Andy298

Andy298

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Well it is console related, kind of :)

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/111179/bluray-nabs-70-per-cent-of-highdef-movie-market.html

Blu-ray took 70 per cent of the market for high-definition movie titles in the first quarter of 2007, easily outselling the rival HD DVD format, according to figures just released by the trade magazine, Home Media.
Its dominance reflects a rapid turnaround in fortunes: in January HD DVD was in front. Blu-ray took the lead in February and by March three out of every four discs sold was Blu-ray. Its new-found dominance can be attributed in large part to the release in the US and Japan late last year of Sony's PlayStation 3 games console, which includes a Blu-ray drive. By contrast Microsoft only offers an HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 console as an optional add-on.
Eight of the top ten selling titles in the first quarter were Blu-ray, led by Casino Royale. The Departed, which won Martin Scorsese a belated best director Oscar, was second. The file was one of the few big-name titles to be released on both formats, and the HD DVD version was third in the list.
Combined sales for the quarter reached 1.2 million, over half the total number of 2.14 million sold since HD DVD launched in April 2006 and Blu-ray two months later.
'All this data points to the irrefutable facts that the consumers are voting with their dollars and adopting the revolutionary technology of the Blu-ray Disc,' Bob Chapek, president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, told Home Media. 'With such beloved titles as Pirates of the Caribbean on the horizon, these numbers will only do one thing: grow.'
Blu-ray is backed by a majority of the major movie studios. Only Paramount and Warner support both while Universal is alone in eschewing Blu-ray in favour of HD DVD only releases. Home Media notes that as a result Blu-ray player owners have a stronger selection of movies to choose from.
Andy Parsons, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association's US Promotion Committee said in a statement that forthcoming Blu-ray releases will maintain Blu-ray's advantage.
'It's exactly what we've said all along would happen - the strong support for Blu-ray among movie studio and equipment manufacturers means that consumers have more choices when it comes to players and titles,' he said. 'And they're choosing Blu-ray by an ever-increasing margin.'
Frank Simonis, the Blu-ray Disc Association's European chairman, predicted last month that Blu-ray will replace DVD within the three years.
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The frequent 'Blu-Ray leads HD race, no wait now HD-DVD leads HD race' stories don't really mean anything to me.

It will be decided if and when the average consumer decides to move to HD content, which may not be for another 2 or 3 years.

The average man on the street doesn't even have a HDTV yet and for the time being at least is perfectly happy with both the quality and price of normal DVDs.
 
it's also not just about who comes on top in any month, its about total sales to date which no one seems to look at. HD-DVD will have been selling titles for longer than blu-ray as the ps3 is the first player. Blu-ray customers are playing catch-up with their collections, buying the console and then a couple of BD's if they are into HD content. People with HD-DVD drives have already done this and are just buying any new releases they want.
 
the strong support for Blu-ray among movie studio and equipment manufacturers means that consumers have more choices when it comes to players and titles
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Looking at that article, I though HD-DVD had more, cheaper players?
 
O noes here we go again...

Even though a pile of hd-players give away 3-4 coupons for HD-Disks. And Entre Wal-Mart going to flood the market with cheap HD-players

Well what’s the point of the blu-ray movie stand is twice the size of hd-dvd :D
 
Skyfall said:
Looking at that article, I though HD-DVD had more, cheaper players?
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Aye it does. With Samsung announcing they've got a standalone hd-dvd and Dual format player coming out (they were blu-ray exclusive) and with a host of Chinese firms coming out with hd-dvd players for the end of the year it will be interesting to see what happens.

What's interesting is there are about 100,000 stand alone hd-dvd players in the US compared to about 1.9 million PS3s (there have been virtually no stand alone blu-ray players sold) yet between Jan. 1 and March 31 blu-ray discs only outsold hd-dvd 2:1 (http://www.cepro.com/news/editorial/18327.html) and in total 1.2 million Blu-ray Discs and about 937,500 HD DVDs have been sold. This shows that the non gaming movie fans have chosen hd-dvd and these are the people buying movies.

If the Walmart announcement comes to fruition (2 million hd-dvds bought for christmas to sell c. $199) sales could soon spin around again (and again and again) and the format war could go on a while longer.
 
Dutch Guy said:
Does that include the hundreds of thousands of free copies they gave away?
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Nope because they where not sold. They didn't include taladega nights given away neither.
 
HD media sales are completely irrelevant until the general public start buying them. The sales at the moment for both formats are miniscule.
 
A long drawn out battle is only bad for the consumer. Ideally you want one format to fold in the coming year, not likely but would be better.
 
Interesting what a day makes:

HD-DVD Movie Sales Only 2k Behind Blu-ray
Most recent sales data shows formats almost neck and neck.
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http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/783/783545p1.html

Today, HD-DVD's representatives from Webersh & Wick public relations wrote to IGN Gear directly with updated HD-DVD news. According to their figures, HD-DVD movie sales lag only 2,000 units behind Blu-ray with 998,059 units sold. The firm points out that pre-orders of Planet Earth and The Matrix Trilogy will propel HD-DVD over the million-mark quite shortly. Representatives also stated that hardware sales have continued with strength in April, maintaining a 4 to 1 margin over Blu-ray.
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PS3 wasnt even the 1st BR player in Europe let alone US and japan (japan has a br recorder also for the last year or two on commercial release)

I would agree that total sales is a better indicator but if the numbers just above are correct I would read that as BR outselling HD-DVD by a significant amount in a much shorter time (the majority of 900k units of hddvd discs could have been sold well before br discs were commonly availabe - this might not be true Im just suggesting its possible those figures could make hd-dvd look an even worse option)

It doesnt look like CR is the only title that sells so well on BR - some releases on both formats sell considerably better on BR also (for instance The Departed which is a dual release) but this was discussed in another thread somewhere around here

To be honest I am currently buying both formats - depending on the encoding /quality of transfer from reviews and audio options - but given a choice I would go with BR if everything else is equal (personally think internet based content is a gimmick - but who knows)

The "war" will last a considerable time longer but at least the highstreet shops are starting to display both types of disc prominantly
 
I have to say, I have a PS3 and looking at the price of the HD-DVDs on sale is pretty shocking.

Even though most BD discs can be had for 17-20 £ online, when you see the average HD-DVD disc is 14-18 then it's slightly depressing, and no wonder many people have gone with HD-DVD.

I'm happy with Blu-Ray (although the lack of new releases is downright criminal) but if the price doesn't start levelling out then it could just lead to an eventual slide to HD-DVD (if it won't already) :)
 
EVH said:
I'm happy with Blu-Ray (although the lack of new releases is downright criminal) but if the price doesn't start levelling out then it could just lead to an eventual slide to HD-DVD (if it won't already) :)
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Betamax vs VHS all over again, not the first time the cheapest instead of the best one wins.
 
At the moment, the rates involved are pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...f-disc-adoption-rates-dont-really-matter.html

HD-DVD has some advantages, it's cheaper (both players and discs), and can be manufactured on standard DVD lines with few modifications.

Blu-ray has the capacity edge and the PS3 to drive sales, but requires major investment by content producers to actually make the discs.

What I want to see is a hybrid player, hopefully people will realise the current licencing situation surrounding those is a load of customer unfriendly hogwash....
 
Dutch Guy said:
Betamax vs VHS all over again, not the first time the cheapest instead of the best one wins.
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but to be fair, there isnt really a best one this time round. afaik they both use pretty much the same video codecs etc and the only thing making them different is the manufacturing cost and also capacity of the disks which seem to be increasing on both hd-dvd and blue ray anyway
 
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At this point in time for both media types, it is all down to big movies releases. Because sales are still fairly low one big movies release and you get a big sales spike for that format. Until High definition movies are constantly in the top 20 sales its far to early to say.
Only thing i can see is that Blu-ray have a number of big releases coming out in the next few months more so than HD-DVD in my opinion. Pirates of the Caribbean will push sales for Blu-ray.
 
The HD-DVD to Blu-Ray comparison showed HD-DVD's looking better in a few ways, pretty minor mainly sharpness/brightness differences.

So it's not a case of cheapest vs best.
 
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