In 2007, Japan"s Toshiba Corporation sold 1 million HD DVD digital video recorders in North America, according to Toshiba executives speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Only two days after Warner Bros studio announced the decision to exclusively support the rival Blu-ray format, the company’s spokespeople had a tough presentation to deliver. Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for digital audio and video at Toshiba America Consumer Products, noted that HD DVD players represented 49.3% of the players for high definition discs sold as of December 22, quoting figures from market research firm NPD.
However, the figures don"t include sales of Sony Corporation"s PlayStation 3 game console, which plays Blu-ray discs. Like I said back in October, even though I don’t want it to believe it, the PS3 is the key to Blu-ray winning the HD format war. Blu-ray has consistently beaten HD DVD in the number of discs sold. Two major U.S. studios now support HD DVD, compared to the five supporting Sony"s Blu-ray disc. Warner is the last studio to put out movies in both formats, but will stop publishing HD DVDs in May. "It"s difficult for me to read the comments of the pundits that HD is dead. We"ve been declared dead before," said Sally.