Publishers say screw it, choose both in HD DVD vs Blu-ray war
Sick of the endless tug-o-war, publishers are choosing to release titles in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, at least until the next dealmaker comes along.
A few recently released titles are debuting for HD DVD and Blu-ray at the same time. That includes Universal’s Wilson’s War, and Warner Bros’ I Am Legend, and it points toward a smoldering frustration publishers are feeling as they try to reach the largest audience possible.
Taking a look at the latest NPD numbers, it’s easy to see why. In mid January 2008 Blu-ray enjoyed a 92.53% market share, according to DVDTown, but a single week of statistics doesn’t make a strong trend and HD DVD bounced back the following week. Take a look at the charts below.
It’s important to note though, that sales figures from Amazon.com aren’t included.
Increasingly, the best solution seems to be hybrid disc players that accommodate both formats. Or, from a publisher’s perspective – release titles for both camps.
Toshiba responded to the sales blip by saying “as you may have seen, there are attempts being made to portray NPD’s weekly sales tracking figures for next generation DVD as a trend. We want to remind you and make clear that it is not accurate to make long term assumptions based on one week of sales – a cautionary point that NPD has made as well. The facts are that during the week that is being singled out, both Blu-ray disc players and software were being given away for free with the purchase of 1080p TVs,” according to HDDVD.com.
“It is also important to note that the instant rebate promotions that had previously netted Toshiba’s players’ MSRP’s to $199 and $249 had actually ended on Jan. 5th – causing an increase in HD DVD’s MSRP back to $299 and $399 during that same week. Since Toshiba’s retail price move on Jan. 13th to $149 / $199 – Toshiba is seeing very positive sales trends at retail. This reinforces the fact that price is a significant driver of sales.”
Related Posts:
February 4th, 2008
yes, HD has bounced back, but it is important to remember that at the end of last year, HD had a strong hold on the market. Now Blu-ray holds over 60% of the market, and the fact that now universal is releasing films in booth formats is a victory to Blu. We know that Warner will be releasing movies stricly on Blu-ray later this year so the fact that I Am Legend will be available on both formats doesn’t mean any thing because it will be on of the last films from Warner to do so. Their is no indication that studios will be switching to dual. That is unless it is the one remaning studio that HD has left, Paramount, and their are rumors surficing that they will be releasing at least Transformers on Blu-ray. Either way, no matter how u look at it, all Implications point to the fall of HD, and the rise to victory to the Blu-ray camp.
February 5th, 2008
Where did you see Universal releasing Blu-ray discs? Or a statement from Paramount about doing the same?
Universal’s VP of digital media came out to say his company is solidly behind HD DVD, and that interview has been reprinted at many sites.
February 5th, 2008
Blu-ray is 63% of the market share in N. America.
In the rest of the world Blu-Ray holds 93% of the market share.
Americans fell for the slick marketing propaganda that Microsoft and toshiba spewed out for the holiday season rush.
Now, HD-DVD is dead.
The End.
February 5th, 2008
Aren’t those standalone hardware figures? They don’t include PS3, which is a Blu-ray player also, and probably the future-proof and versatile. I’m sure a lot of people are buying that as opposed to a standalone player. If you add even half the amount of PS3 sales to the mix, it blows HD-DVD out of the water.
Look at the software side, Blu-ray is enjoying a comfortable 3:1 lead over HD-DVD in software sales every week, which is what ultimately matters most. Content matters to consumers, and content sales matter to studios and retailers. That’s why over the past few weeks, several studios and retailers across Europe has sided with Blu-ray.
Face it, Blu-ray is winning and HD-DVD is on life support. Pretty soon Toshiba will start giving away HD-DVD players for $50 at gas stations to keep it alive and it will still sell less than Blu-ray in both hardware and software. By the end of this year, most people will have made their decision to go Blu.
HD-DVD & co. needs to stop trying to prolong the inevitable, and accept their defeat.
February 5th, 2008
this format war has been going back and forth for about two years now. when it first started both formats were expensive and buggy. normal for this type of technology. but after two years you would think it is all straightened out. wrong. as it stands now their are still many players that have not met all of their manufacturers hardware specifications. i could make a list but it is too lengthy. but i will say that all of these players are made by the blu-ray disk assoc. manufacturers. both these formats have been tested by professionals and are shown to have exceptional picture and sound. so i ask you would you rather buy a hd-dvd with completed hardware standards for $150 or a blu-ray with incomplete hardware standards for $350. i’m sure there are a lot of the young crowd that have a ps3 that are on these forums raving about them. but who wants a gaming machine sitting in their living room. especially if they don’t play games. it is time for a decision on which format makes more sense. only one {hd-dvd} has priced itself where the average consumer can or will adopt it. if they don’t want this hi def technology to die on the vine-blu-ray had better get on the stick and get their hardware up-to-date and their prices down to match the competetion.
February 5th, 2008
to superdynamite,
it is not hd-dvd that is doing the slick advertising-it is blu-ray. many of the players that blu-ray has on the market today have incomplete hardware standards and will need to be replaced so that the owner will be able to enjoy all the features that were specified by blu-ray disk assoc. of course you don’t mention that. i suggest to anyone buying a hi-def player do a lot of research before buying either one. then they will see that there is no reason for the huge price disparity between hd-dvd and blu-ray
February 5th, 2008
to greg, alias superdynamite,
it was not hd-dvd that is doing the slick advertising. it is blu-ray. they are selling their players with incomplete hardware. and then they tell the early adopters that they should have known better. well we are past the stage of early adopters and they are still selling blu-ray players without meeting their own hardware standards. so who is doing the slick advertising?
February 5th, 2008
to greg alias superdynamite,
it is not toshiba that is doing the slick advertising it is blu-ray. they have been selling players with incomplete hardware standards and continue to sell them today. this is very misleading to the public. to all people-do your own research before buying into either format.
February 5th, 2008
Wow holy blu-ray FUD. Why so much motivation to continue blasting HD-DVD if it’s already dead and buried? Suddenly I’m filled with hope.
February 5th, 2008
I’d like very much a confirmation of
“A few recently released titles are debuting for HD DVD and Blu-ray at the same time. That includes Universal’s Wilson’s War, and Warner Bros’ I Am Legend, and it points toward a smoldering frustration publishers are feeling as they try to reach the largest audience possible.”
I would love that to happen, it just seems unlikely that you would be the first to know if Uni was going Neutral :)
(and trust me -THAT- would be a killing blow for HD DVD, even before the finalized switch of Warner)
February 5th, 2008
So, taking Toshiba’s party line a bit too seriously are we? Not one studio has declared they’re going to go to, or go back to, releasing both formats at the same time. Warner just dumped HD-DVD. A near death-blow to HD-DVD.
And now you buy the party line from Toshiba that things aren’t as bad as they look, and that studios have decided to go back to releasing in both formats?
As much as it pains HD-DVD fans, that’s simply not the case. ANd Blorge.com is falling for Toshiba desperate propaganda.
February 5th, 2008
Who cares who’s doing the “slick” advertising..they’re both trying to market a product to the public, why not???
“Incomplete standards”.. make your minds up.. either the PS 3 is giving a “false” lead to Blu-Ray over HD-DVD by virtue of it’s huge numbers or it’s not.. if it’s the major seller of Blu-ray by a country mile and not stand alone players then it also means that the 99% of Blu-ray machines out there are fully up to the “finished” spec.. so which is it..??? either A) It does’nt count as a Blu-ray machine.. and clearly Warner believe it does.. or B) The majority of Blu-ray players out there are full spec.. Good luck trying to answer that one.. oh and I’m a dual format owner.. and not as so often gets spouted “drinking the kool aid”..
February 5th, 2008
Ridiculous reporting. (1) Universal has not announced Blu-Ray releases (2) the graph shows portrays only stand-alone players and not the PS3 (3) the recovery by HD-DVd was largely driven by Toshiba slashing prices (no mention of this?) (4) Blu-Ray stand-alone sales were elevated the previous week by bundles (give aways) with TV’s (5) No one is advocating consumers go dual format, unless they were previously buying HD-DVD only (6) the real measure of the “war” is media sales, and there Blu-Ray is holding more than 80% of the sales for the last 3 weeks (7) the war really is over and HD-DVD lost….get on with your lives.
February 5th, 2008
i think what this title was getting a is why should the consumer lose out on any formatt?
should the studios just produce in both! why not ?there would be no extra cost because there will be revenue from hd dvd and bluray.
high def video would take off a lot quicker if there was no choice to make.
February 5th, 2008
“sales figures from Amazon.com aren’t included”
Considering how well HD DVD hardwares sells on Amazon it’s just incredible that the world’s 2nd largest retailer’s numbers are excluded.
How can anyone make much of numbers which have such a glaring hole in them?
February 6th, 2008
at my local video store their blue-ray section 3 times the videos their hd-dvd section has. But friday and saturday their are only 3 or 4 hd-dvd`s left on the shelf! so i ask and are told you should have gone blue ray, only 7 of them are rented.
February 6th, 2008
at my local video store their blue-ray section 3 times the videos their hd-dvd section has. But friday and saturday their are only 3 or 4 hd-dvd`s left on the shelf! so i ask and are told you should have gone blue ray, only 7 of them are rented.
February 6th, 2008
sparkfarmer: That’s because Blu-Ray owners are BUYING movies, while HD-DVD owners don’t want to invest themselves more deeply in the format.
February 6th, 2008
One factor that I have seen no one publish is the total number of disks being manufactured and sold in each format.
Blu-ray is selling more movies but is also selling blu-ray disks in the form of PS3 games. When you add in computer recordable disks as well (blu-ray is beating the pants off of HD-DVD in PCs) the results should be interesting.
The Blu-ray firms that back the format made a wise choice. They are posting great sales without relying solely on movies.
My area of expertise is in computing. The reason Blu-ray is winning in this field is very simple – higher capacity, higher read/write speeds, and scratch resistance. Unfortunately, you can only find 1x HD-DVD recorders and disks which is killing the format for PCs (1x or 36 Mbps is over 4 times as slow as a 16x or 176 Mbps DVD player). Meanwhile Blu-ray is selling 4x disks (144 Mbps) and 6x (216 Mbps) recorders already.
P.S. first comment by Janny “…at the end of last year, HD-DVD had a strong hold on the market.” WHAT? HD-DVD only managed to match Blu-ray stand-alone player sales at the end of the year in the United States alone. Blu-ray was still selling more movie disks (not counting Blu-ray games, PS3s and Blu-ray PC media which also sold more).
February 7th, 2008
Yeah.
February 7th, 2008
You’re a complete idiot.
I Am Legend is Warner’s LAST HD DVD title for day and date release.
From that point on, all their day and date releases are Blu-ray exclusive.
That will include Speed Racer, 10,000 BC, The Dark Knight and Harry Potter 6.
Universal only has Wilson’s War penned for HD DVD release.
Content providers have picked sides. Paramount/Dreamworks was neutral and they chose HD DVD.
Time Warner (HBO, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros) were neutral and they have chosen Blu-ray.
I’ve never seen such a load of bollocks.
February 7th, 2008
It is interesting that all the “dual” format HD burner drives for PCs will read but not burn HD-DVD disks. Another interesting thing is that they read and burn Blu-ray disks at high speed (4x or 6x) while perform slower on their read-only function of HD-DVD.
These new “dual format” burners (which don’t burn HD-DVD disks) are obviously made with Blu-ray primary usage in mind. You can watch movies and burn your data to Blu-ray disks for storage.
The HD-DVD read-only function seems to be an add-on to allow for the hold-out by Paramount and Universal in releasing their films in Blu-ray as well.
Wow! Two companies forcing the PC industry to create drives (dual format Blu-ray/HD-DVD) that will accomodate them for movie watching purposes alone! I wonder how much this is costing us in drive pricing.
February 8th, 2008
The only reason why universal and paramount still support HDDVD is because they need to sold their HDDVD movies already produced.
They wont go to BLURAY, until sold out their HDDVD movies, even retailers would angry if this go to quickly, thats the reason warner still support HDDVD for the next 4 months, they have HDDVD stock need to sell.
Also thats the reason why HDDVD players and movies start drop in price, and 50% off promotions, its a clearance sale.
BLURAY will be the only format for sale this christmas