Toshiba are to cut the estimated year end estimated sales of HD-DVD players by 44% it has emerged, lowering sales expectations from 1.8million standalone devices to 1 million in the US. Speaking about the impact on global sales, Toshiba's Yoshihide Fujii said, “Obviously we are going to have to lower our previous global estimate”.
On the other side of the format wars, Blu-ray chiefs have said that standalone players will increase sixfold this year, with expected sales of 600,000. Convergence is the key in this war, with Toshiba expected to introduce HD-DVD drives in all new laptops in 2008, while Sony includes a Blu-ray player in every PS3 console.
Sony’s Randy Waynick was keen to promote the formats exclusive titles to an audience in San Francisco saying Out of the top 20 blockbusters “there were 14 or 15 that were exclusive to Blu-ray”.
News source: BBC News
On the other side of the format wars, Blu-ray chiefs have said that standalone players will increase sixfold this year, with expected sales of 600,000. Convergence is the key in this war, with Toshiba expected to introduce HD-DVD drives in all new laptops in 2008, while Sony includes a Blu-ray player in every PS3 console.
Sony’s Randy Waynick was keen to promote the formats exclusive titles to an audience in San Francisco saying Out of the top 20 blockbusters “there were 14 or 15 that were exclusive to Blu-ray”.
News source: BBC News
I'll tell you one thing though, Planet Earth in Blu-Ray has blown my socks off. I spent $13 extra on the blu-ray version than the DVD version and man, what a difference.
I fully support Blu-Ray.
And I have seen various commercials in the US "available in HD-DVD."
But it would blow your socks off on HD-DVD as well. Either way, I'm as enthusiastic about it as you are. It's simply stunning.
Whether they have HD-DVD or Blu-Ray... Come Xmas, Planet Earth is going to be my generic gift of choice for all of those that have an HD player.
Perhaps you missed this.... They expect to 1 million HD DVD standalones .... and Sony expects to sell 600,000 Blu-Ray
standalones (and they haven't lowered theirs yet
That looks to me like HD DVD is going to do better.
I just wish both formats would go away in favour of something that isn't infested with DRM nonsense.
Ex ****ing actly. No sense wasting your money on a format that might die. This is the betamax/vhs nonsense once again. I'll also be waiting since there is no reason to buy it, regular DVDs are still available full force and I have a PVR for recording off of TV, so I can wait a long time.
BD estimates now 600,000.
RTFA. HD-DVD is still predicted to win.
And 600,000 is for the US. Blu-ray is doing much better in Europe I believe, especially after 1 million PS3s have been sold.
BD estimates now 600,000.
RTFA. HD-DVD is still predicted to win.
YOU might want to re-read the article. That's 600k *SONY* Blu-ray players.
You forget that Panasonic, Samsung, Pioneer, Philips are all shipping Blu-ray players right now as well.
Toshiba as of now is the ONLY HD DVD player producer.
Plus Toshiba has only shipped about 150k players for the year. They have a LONG way to go to even reach one million. I suppose they could give them away at McDonald's. Buy a Happy Meal, get a Toshiba HD DVD player.
Wrong! The XBox 360 also can play HD-DVD media. And seeing how the XBox 360 is outselling the PS3 by a pretty wide margin (11M vs. 5.5M respectively), it looks like HD-DVD still has an edge for now. But then again, I still believe the Blu-Ray will emerge victorious, especially once Apple starts including Blu-ray into their computers (yeah, they're part of the Blu-Ray consortium).
Wrong! The XBox 360 also can play HD-DVD media. And seeing how the XBox 360 is outselling the PS3 by a pretty wide margin (11M vs. 5.5M respectively), it looks like HD-DVD still has an edge for now.
Yes but only if people actually buy the HD-DVD add on. With the PS3 you automatically have Blu-Ray.
Now you base your feelings on watching both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions right? Since you have the capability to play both right?
Can you explain "a more solid format". Blu-Ray specifications are not even done yet. This is why a lot of movies are waiting for the release. How can a format with lack of specifications and standards be a more solid format?
The specs are done (JAVA and BD+). It's Warner who's waiting for the players to hit the market (and spend as little money as possible).
Fox has to re-author their discs for BD+.
As far as MOVIE playback goes, BD is solid, more solid than HD DVD which has already hit a capacity wall, and the latest Universal releases looking nothing more than enhanced DVD titles.
Blu-ray should win because its better!
Quality is down the shooter - just re-encodes to make SD turn into HD, or more of an EHD rather than true HD. The real experience will come when producers make ONLY HD releases, until then its just a new toy.
Blu-ray has a few things goin for them over HD-DVD... but pricewise, HD-DVD seems much more friendly and has more titles out for it (least in my parousing)
One thing is certain - if you get a PS3 your blu-ray experience will not be shunted early, as the PS3 needs blu-ray to live... HD-DVD adapters could be left in the cold down the road, as the only use for HD-DVD is to watch movies.
Bluray isn't even true HD, so I don't see why anyone would waste their money on it.
Everyone keeps comparing this to VHS/Betamax but I don't think that's anywhere near the comparison to make. I wasn't around as a consumer during that "war" but my understanding was the difference between the two was quality and quantity. Betamax provided better quality video but only for 2 hours, whereas VHS could stretch up to 6 hours.
I'd see this format more as a DVD-R and DVD+R type war. They both provide a new, similar feature but in ever so slightly different ways. When that first started out, my brothers -R burned dvds didn't work on all of our DVD players and eventually we just started using my +R burner which did. Now every drive available is a combo drive and every disc burned in either format plays in all our players.
While the LG combo player was hailed as a "no-lose" situation it, for all intents and purposes, just prolonged the war because other manufacturers will have to provide their own combo-players just to stay in the market. A proliference of combo players mean eventually we'll live in a world where you can buy any version of a movie and it'll work fine. Almost like buying the Spiderman DVD, the Spiderman Superbit DVD, the Spiderman Special Two-Disc Edition DVD, etc.
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