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HD DVD winning standalones, but Blu-ray winning with the help of PS3

Last week, the European HD DVD Promotional Group proudly stated that it had a 74 percent market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The figure was regarding the split of dedicated players, which did not include the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive.

Following the HD DVD camp’s announcement, the Blu-ray team fired back with its own hefty set of figures. Taking into account PlayStation 3 and PC drive sales, Blu-ray Disc Association European Promotions Committee says that Blu-ray Disc makes up for almost 95% of all next generation hardware sales in Europe this year, reports Pocket-lint.

Of course, none of the numbers thrown around by either side of the format battle are perfect. For one, not all of those who purchase a PlayStation 3 will necessarily be buyers of Blu-ray movies, while all who purchase a standalone HD DVD player did so for the sole purpose of playing movies.

"This is simply because those who buy a standalone player are interested solely in buying and watching movies and other video content, whereas those with HD drives built into games consoles are primarily interested in games," said Steve Nickerson, senior vice president at Warner Bros high definition media. Warner currently supports both high-def formats.

"These figures are especially important because the standalone player market is by far the biggest driver of movie sales in the long-term," Nickerson adds.

On the North American front, HD DVD Promotional Group took the opportunity at the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) Home Media Expo 2007 to pound its chest by announcing its hardware sales were up 37 percent from Q1 to Q2 2007, while software sales experienced a 20 percent increase in growth.

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PS3s do matter
By Chaser on 7/19/2007 11:09:13 AM , Rating: 3
Which camp is using the most fuzzy math? The drowning HD-DVD world. To say its unfair to not count PS3s whatsoever is pretty wishful but not very realistic. But to be fair it's also wrong to count them all too. If someone has a PS3 with an HDTV I think he/she might choose to rent a BR movie sometime. And while they are visiting Blockbuster they might pick up a PS3 game to rent also since both will conveniently work on one device.

I think some of you have the logic backwards. Sure many consumers may not be inclined to buy a PS3 strictly for movie viewing (although thats quite a bargain) people would be inclined to take advantage of the second greatest feature of the PS3: Watching a BR movie! I certainly have. What a deal that is :)

I also believe it's pretty safe to say the computer camp will prefer the disk format with the highest capacity? Size matters there one would think. And I really don't care about the triple sided ultra layered future announcements from HD DVD.

Lastly, all the nay-sayers that were demanding a PS3 price cut: The same sources that projected the 60GB price cut are now are projecting a price cut for the 80GB PS3 as well. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=...

As far as this wonderful new $299.00 HD DVD player thats giving HD-DVD another breath of air: how long do you think it will be before a standalone BR player's price won't be cut as well? Blue laser diodes and other BR player production costs are coming down.




RE: PS3s do matter
By Chaser on 7/19/2007 11:13:06 AM , Rating: 2
Fair...not unfair. Sorry.


RE: PS3s do matter
By mdogs444 on 7/19/2007 11:15:15 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
As far as this wonderful new $299.00 HD DVD player thats giving HD-DVD another breath of air: how long do you think it will be before a standalone BR player's price won't be cut as well? Blue laser diodes and other BR player production costs are coming down.


You tell me. Even if BD drops its player down to $399 from $499, the fact is that HD is still $100 cheaper.


RE: PS3s do matter
By Chaser on 7/19/2007 11:45:40 AM , Rating: 1
Whoopty do.


RE: PS3s do matter
By mdogs444 on 7/19/2007 12:27:21 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly. So with BD costing at least 100 more, what is there to sway consumers to buy it? Seeing as how there is no difference in the quality, there is no reason..


RE: PS3s do matter
By Chaser on 7/19/2007 1:38:35 PM , Rating: 1
True. They are insignificantly vastly similar in specs. Other than their names.

Oh wait one has lower capacity. Certainly a minuscule feature today. I think there are more too. Naw.


RE: PS3s do matter
By mdogs444 on 7/19/2007 2:47:52 PM , Rating: 2
The capacity makes no difference on the movie, and the average consumer doesnt even know how much fits on a standard DVD much less an HD/BD DVD.


RE: PS3s do matter
By Chaser on 7/19/2007 3:34:58 PM , Rating: 3
If you are going to react to my thread please read all the posts before you chime in.

As I said before for the next PC disk storage medium capacity undeniably does matter a good deal.

And for the movie viewer/renter/buyer more capacity COULD mean things like more content, features, quality, languages, camera angles, director cuts, alternate endings, whatever. In other words even for those dumb movie viewers bigger obviously can be better.

But the whole idea is to upgrade from DVD right? But you'd prefer the format with 20GBs less capacity. Enjoy.


RE: PS3s do matter
By mdogs444 on 7/19/2007 4:19:12 PM , Rating: 2
For watching movies, i could careless if it came on a 12gb disc. as long as its HD quality.

I personally do use blank CD's & DVD's to store data. I make music cd's and movies, but thats about it. I have several external 500gb HD's that ill use for data storage. I guess right now, i just dont see the absolute need for a 30gb storage disc or a 50gb storage disc. Either is fine as longa s it serves the purpose.


RE: PS3s do matter
By Timeless on 7/19/2007 2:52:14 PM , Rating: 2
When two players are around the same price range or $100 apart from one another, I would think the consumers would start looking at the movies. The one with the better movies will win out the crowd. No one will buy a player that doesn't have a lot of titles that they want. It's all up to preference after that. Just my thoughts.


DVD
By Shoal07 on 7/19/2007 9:15:25 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
These figures are especially important because the standalone player market is by far the biggest driver of movie sales in the long-term


PS2 and the DVD format would disagree.




RE: DVD
By mdogs444 on 7/19/2007 9:22:47 AM , Rating: 1
I dont see what the PS2 has to do with the DVD format. The DVD format was already mainstream and popular prior to the PS2 and Xbox consoles coming on out DVD media. Also, Home standalone DVD players were already cheap and mainstream before DVD-R/RW Optical & Home Recorders became affordable and mainstream.

Movie buyers are not just gamers, in fact that would actually be a small percentage as a whole of movie buyers.


RE: DVD
By Exodus220 on 7/19/2007 9:54:37 AM , Rating: 2
I think he was trying to imply that the PS2 helped propel the DVD format forward. Fortunately for DVD there was not a competing format...unless you want to count VHS but it was easy to see who was going to win that imaginary fight. When the PS2 came out DVD players were still expensive compared to todays standards. I think they were still around $150+ for a player, but the huge popularity of the PS2 helped to expand the format and may have also aided in the lowering of prices. I loved my PS2 as a DVD player, but I must admit it was not the reason I bought one.


RE: DVD
By modestninja on 7/19/2007 11:14:32 AM , Rating: 3
The PS2 was a horrible DVD player. In a sense it did propel the format forward though... The people I knew that used theirs as a DVD player soon found out how poorly it did that job and bought a stand alone player.


RE: DVD
By killerroach on 7/19/2007 12:38:21 PM , Rating: 3
It may have been a horrible DVD player... but it was also a fact that it made for a very consumer-accessible way of viewing DVD movies, in particular in the Japanese market (you probably remember the stories about how, for a while, the best-selling "software" for the PS2 at launch was a DVD of "The Matrix").

Personally, the hardware sales mean absolutely nothing at this point, and the software sales, while meaning a bit more, still mean pretty much nothing. It's like two amoebas arguing over which is the biggest. Neither has enough momentum to really make the next leap forward and, unless some major studio switches camps, it's quite possible that both could end up as failed formats.


RE: DVD
By TomZ on 7/19/2007 1:13:07 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
It's like two amoebas arguing over which is the biggest.

I nominate that quote for a spot on the bottom of the DT pages!


RE: DVD
By gsellis on 7/19/2007 10:32:09 AM , Rating: 1
I have never used our PS2 player as a DVD player. Not when I get optical digital audio from my regular player.


RE: DVD
By DCstewieG on 7/19/2007 12:40:32 PM , Rating: 2
Uh, the PS2 had optical digital audio.


well...
By Gul Westfale on 7/19/2007 9:51:17 AM , Rating: 2
... as long as these two are still fighting over who is winning there ios no clear winner.

and as long as there is no clear winner i'm not going to invest in either format; unless someone really soon makes a PC blu-ray/HD DVD combo burner for a hundred bucks. but i'm not holding my breath.




RE: well...
By AlexWade on 7/19/2007 10:14:14 AM , Rating: 2
Rumor has it that Samsung's universal player is going to cost $550, less than a PS3 (once all the 60GB PS3 are sold out). If true, and that is still debatable, then HD DVD or Blu-Ray ain't going anywhere. The Samsung player will sell, then cheaper universals will come out because the Samsung player is popular, and then we will look back and wonder why the "fanbois" even bothered and we will laugh at them. They will both be around until the next stupid format war. TMany many people are waiting for a reasonably priced universal player. Once that happens, HD DVD and Blu-Ray will really take off.


RE: well...
By mdogs444 on 7/19/2007 10:29:28 AM , Rating: 2
This may happen.......down the road. But the day i spend $550 for a DVD player will never come.