HD DVD losing the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war all over the planet
By Sean P. Aune
While most HD DVD vs Blu-ray news has been focused on what’s happening in the United States, things aren’t so bright for HD DVD elsewhere in the world either.
According to a report by AFP, a survey of 2,300 electronics stores was conducted in Japan between October and December 2007, and the results were bleak or HD DVD. The study focused only on DVD recorders as opposed to players, but even in that category, Blu-ray outsold HD DVD by a 9-to-1 margin.
In October, high definition recorders only accounted for 6.1 percent of sales, but that number went as high as 35 percent for the last two months of 2007. Of the recorders sold, Blu-ray made up 90% of the sales, leaving the Toshiba-backed HD DVD format far behind in the dust of the Sony-backed format.
In Australia, Blu-ray currently enjoys a HD market share of 95.2%, in Europe, despite an early lead, Blu-ray movies are outselling HD DVDs in a 3-to-1 ratio.
The evidence continues to mount that HD DVD just can’t catch a break anywhere in the world, and one has to wonder how much longer Toshiba can continue to try to get the format to catch on in the wake of departing studios such as Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema. The recent price drop on all of Toshiba’s players, it can be viewed as they are either trying to gain momentum again, or it may be a “fire sale” to clear out inventory.
It would seem buying an HD DVD player at this point would be akin to just buying a really nice upconverting DVD player. Mind you, this comes from someone who already admitted to having purchased an HD DVD player.
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Stumble It!
January 20th, 2008
Wow its not has bad as before, a few months ago Japan’s lead was 10 to 1, and now its only 9 to 1! Its not great, but its improving, I still have some hope left for HD DVD, im trying to get into Digital Downloads, since HD DVD probably won’t win, and I don’t want to buy a Blu Ray player.
January 20th, 2008
Mehar, you are a retard. HD-DVD has no hope at all and the situation in Japan is far worse than it was a few months ago because as well as being bitch slapped in standalone player sales HD-DVD also has to contend with the PS3. Just last month 205,895 of them were sold in Japan. There are less than 1m HD-DVD players of all types in the entire world after being on sale for nearly 2 years yet over 2m PS3’s were sold just last month.
BluRay was already winning because of the PS3, the loss of Warner just sped things up.
HD-DVD were losing when they had Warner, how the hell can you think they have a chance now they have lost them?
January 20th, 2008
Hey, I never made a insulting remark about you, I never said HD DVD was gonna spring back, I just said I have some hope that something will be done, i.e. Storage, etc. And no 2M PS3’s were not sold last month, only 1 million or so were sold. And you never know, something may happen, someone might switch, you should never rule anything out. Remember the UMD? It was loosing studio and manufactuer support faster then HD DVD, yet a few smart moves from Sony brought it back on track.
And if you think EVERY SINGLE PS3 OWNER, watches Blu Ray movies, then you Igor, are a retard.
January 21st, 2008
I’ll have to second Igor in that you’re a retard, Mehar. According to vgchartz, the most conservative source that I’m aware of, PS3 sold 2 million units last month. Here’s a hint: There exist many countries other than yours. Wow.
January 21st, 2008
Can’t you Igor and Mehar co-exist? Look at what LG’s been doing, making Blu-ray and HD-DVD drives rather than separate.
January 21st, 2008
I really don’t want to have to buy a dual player, Agentace. No sir. And I wonder how much trouble it is for LG to make them, they might not like it either. I for one will be happy when the war is finally over. Blu-ray rolls off the tounge far better anyway.
January 21st, 2008
Dr.Geo, Im gonna add you to the retard list, the PS3 sold 2.5 million consoles LAST YEAR not last month.
Heres a hint: Not everyone wants a PS3
January 21st, 2008
Mehar, What does it matter to you? I thought you were concentrating on digital downloads? Also, not buying Blu-Ray because HD-DVD is going to lose, doesn’t make any sense. Unless you’re trying to be anti Sony, which makes less sense still. Especially if blu-ray becomes the new ’standard DVD player.’
This also goes further than movies. I’m happy Blu-ray is likely to win purely because it is the better format. If I had a dollar for every time someone quoted VG Chartz on here… Stop quoting console (PS3) sales, it has helped but it isn’t the be all and end all of this format war.
January 21st, 2008
No its not like that, the reason im not going Blu is because I don’t wanna buy a player that dosen’t have the latest profile, I will only get a Blu Ray if I get a PS3. But the thing is, a TON of Blu Ray movies are going to see rereleases, why? Because the older releses aren’t taking advantage of the newer profiles, so its pointless for someone who owns HD DVD to get it at this point. The only reason I argued was because Igor decided to make personal attacks over nothing.