Thursday, Apr 26th 2007 by Chris Scott Barr
Worth Reading?
+2 [4 votes]
So we know that over 1 million Blu-ray disks have been sold, but how many HD DVDs have been sold? Turns out they’re not far behind.
According to the official numbers there have been 998,059 HD DVDs sold thus far. Combine that with the fact that some HD DVD players are being sold for close to $300, I’d say Blu-ray still has a long way to go before they can declare victory.
But on the other hand Sony is now able to get blue laser diodes for $8 a pop. This means that they will “potentially” be able to drop prices on Blu-ray players sometime this year. At the end of the day, the score still seems tied between the two formats.
Sony’s Blue Laser Diodes Down to $8 - PS3 and BD Player Price Cuts Soon?
[via gizmodo]
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you forget to mention that HD DVD had a three to four month advantage on blu ray. the fact that blue ray has sold more than HD in less time speaks for itself.
I’m not quite sure where you get your numbers, but I got mine from Home Media Magazine, the people who actually conducted the market research survey to which you are referencing. And while they report similar numbers (937,500 for HD DVD and 1.2 million for Blu Ray), these numbers do not hold quite as much significance as you seem to be assigning them.
1) Blu Ray was released in October 2006, while HD DVD was released in April 2006, giving HD DVD a six month head start.
2) 2007 Q1 sales are, in fact, more revealing of current trends: 359,300 HD DVDs were sold from January to March, while 832,530 Blu-ray units were sold. Let me emphasize the significance of these figures: over the course of only three months, the Blu Ray sold almost as many discs as HD DVD sold over the course of an entire year.
So it appears that, no matter how much you skew the numbers, HD DVD is indeed further behind Blu Ray than you would like to think.
Sony has a pretty good strategy going here(for movies); they know fanboys like myself are going to buy the next gen system(ps3) but they are keeping the games very limeted so that ps3 owners, myself included, will suplement the game famine with blue ray movies, which are gorgeous. It is the big picture here and you don’t get too much bigger than movies(poor gamers, for now). sda-asia.com claims that 1.3 million ps3 have been sold(far less than the other game systems), that is 1.3 million Blue Ray players sold. Blue Ray is in a good position, it has my vote because I got one with my ps3, but also because program and data sizes will only continue to grow and the bigger the format is now the longer it will be before I have to upgrade again, VHS,DVD,Blue Ray,?????. Believe me I was releaved that the Xbox 360 Elite did not have a HD-DVD player. I do however wish my Xbox 360 had an HD-DVD player so I could see the difference.
You’re actually missing the true significance of those figures. That’s a whopping grand total of slightly more than 2 million High-Def discs sold total, spread across numerous titles, released over the course of a full year. Most popular DVDs beat that number quite handily in their first week of release (Phantom Menace sold 5 million in the first two days and 12 million in the first five, and it’s the most critically panned Star Wars film).
The DVD format caught on because it was needed. VHS quality degrades over time, tapes get eaten by VCRs, and there’s always the old problem of kids putting PB&J sandwiches in the casette slot. DVDs required only one upgrade: Buy a DVD player to play them on. With the advent of the PS2, that became a reality for much of the US, where a large percentage of the population lives from one paycheck to the next, and being able to buy one DVD and a device to play them wouldn’t run you more than $300. There isn’t any possible way to get the cost to upgrade to either HD format for anywhere near that price, as the cheapest players are still running around $500, and to see any benefit you’ve still got to go out and drop nearly $1000 on a new HDTV. DVD worked with your old TV, regardless of how old and beat up it was.
Yes, there are afluent families and single kids fresh out of college who are willing and able to drop that kind of cash just to upgrade their format, but it’s just not there for the masses yet, whereas people who were barely scraping by could usually manage to save up enough to buy the kids an inexpensive game console and a couple of movies to play on it.
Well, i was comparing the picture quality, very closer… and I thing the best is HD DVD, obviously, BluRay, is winning maybe, but I’m sure the real cause, is that sony is selling the PS3 with the Bluray drive. Now, Microsoft is selling the Hd dvd dor the Xbox360, the price is very low, RightNow is starting the figth!!..
Bluray got more gigas on his space, but HD DVD is the best for pictures…
So, anyone thinks, that someone could win to MICROSOFT ???????, please!!! jajajajajajajja.
HD DVD is the BEST!!!!!!!!!