HD DVD box SOLD OUT at Walmart.com in HD DVD vs Blu-ray war
Amidst all of the predictions about HD DVD’s death, Toshiba’s HD-A3 is sliding into consumer hands en masse. Walmart.com is sold out.
Searching for the HD-A3 on Walmart.com (not an affiliate link) tonight I saw “OUT OF STOCK” in the upper right.
That’s not to say that HD DVD’s death knells were uncalled for, VideoScan reports that “during the first two weeks of January, Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD by more than a 2:1 margin,” according to High-Def Digest.”
“More interestingly, VideoScan’s numbers indicate that during the seven days between Jan 7 and Jan 14, Blu-ray managed to close the gap of total discs sold since inception with HD DVD by over seven percentage points, suggesting that if the current trend continues, the two formats could be at disc sales parity within weeks.”
UPDATE: Information quoted above is outdated, from January 2007. Here is more current information from ITWire:
According to NPD figures, HD DVD put up a respectable fight in the holiday shopping season month of December 2007, managing to capture nearly 40% of standalone HD player sales compared to a trifle more than 60% for Blu-ray standalone players. In the first week of January, the much cheaper HD DVD standalone players (48.83%) almost matched it with standalone Blu-ray players (51.17%) – the raw figures were 14,558 HD DVD players and 15,257 Blu-ray players. Then came the Warner Bros announcement.
But, Toshiba’s price cut may be paying off as retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon discount the player, bringing it even closer to the magic $100 mark. If the number of consumers who own an HD DVD player continues to grow, it will be difficult for studios to ignore the potential sales dollars.
In other price cuts, on the heels of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 HD DVD price drop to $129, Amazon lowered the price even more to $119.99 (not an affiliate link).
Amazon.com reviewer Wayne “Omegafiler” makes these points about the Xbox HD DVD drive:
Pros:
* Cheapest HD-DVD solution if you have an XBox 360
* Easy to setup
* Accepts IR from your universal remote via the Xbox
* Great picture quality
* Includes Microsoft Remote and free King-Kong HD-DVD
* UPDATE: HDMI Output (with Xbox 360 Elite Only)
Cons:
* Only outputs 1080i via Component (VGA required for 1080p)
* VGA output has limitations, both due to Xbox and/or your TV
* Can’t take advantage of HD-DVD improved audio quality formats
Bottom line, if you have an Xbox 360, and have a HD TV, you’ve gotta pick one of these up. You just can’t go wrong for a $200 entry-level HD player!
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February 7th, 2008
OMG. Your’e kidding me right. They’re sold out because WalMart is not ordering more. Gimme a break…who writes this garbage?
February 7th, 2008
It’s worth noting the newer 360 Pro/Premium consoles also have a HDMI port and can output 1080p
February 8th, 2008
They sold out because it was a great deal… hd-dvd lives on.
February 8th, 2008
hd dvd is going to zzzzzzzzzzz…….. what were we talking about ohhh hd dv…..zzzzzzz kmm kmm there still making units lol hd dvd is dead and the smart ones know it no studio support = RIP.
February 8th, 2008
I believe Blu-ray players will be too expensive to catch on before the HD media is replaced with portable flash memory. Remember digital tape players?
February 8th, 2008
Muppets!
That High-Def Digest quote is obviously from January 2007.
Blu-Ray is already in the lead on SI numbers. How can they be ahead already, selling more and yet have the gap closing?
Never mind researching articles – how about just giving what you write a sense check!
February 8th, 2008
Holy Erroneous Information, Batman! The disc sales data you’re citing from High-Def Digest comes from an article back on Feb 01, 2007! Much has changed since then, to say the least.
February 8th, 2008
your highdefdigest link is from a news article from feb 1st 2007, not 2008. slow down in your zeal to post pro hd dvd news
February 8th, 2008
McGran, Rob, JJ: point well taken. I’ve updated the article.
February 8th, 2008
you blu-ray fans can say all you want but as of today hd-dvd has a complete format and reasonable prices-blu-ray on the other hand has an incomplete format and high prices.
so you tell me- which is the better format!!!!
February 8th, 2008
S’funny how the same old stat – immediately after the Warner announcement & before the recent HD DVD price cuts – gets thrown around as if it were an honest reflection of actual & genuine ‘sales’.
You’ll note that no later stats (which would take account of the HD DVD price cuts) has managed to be leaked out
(really odd that one, huh)?
NPD did go on to explain that many of those at first glance greater Blu-ray standalone sales were if fact free Blu-ray profile 1.0 players given away with 3 brands of HD TV.
Blu-ray is a game console format.
Pretending this means it is cracking the a/v mass-market is just laughable.
Blu-ray has won nothing and there is no reason at all why HD DVD should stop doing anything.
This war is far from over.
February 8th, 2008
What happens when Toshiba sells 100 million players? Then what. Lets say, since they are made in China anyway, that they break the $100 mark and they sell 100 million. Then what?
I am sort of kidding about the 100 million, but just thought I would throw that out there.
Do you think then the studios will take notice?
February 8th, 2008
Your “updated” figures are misleading, too. You now list figures in early January of 2008 to show that HD DVD wasn’t far behind Blu-ray, conveniently leaving out that since then Blu-ray has outsold the other side by greater than 5 to 1.
You also fail to point out that HD DVD’s “narrow” loss to Blu-ray in December and January was a complete turnaround from most of 2007, where HD DVD had been winning.
This article is extremely slanted, and you show that you have no credibility.
February 8th, 2008
to ba,
for crying out loud. why don’t you just put in your own numbers. you’re not going to be happy until then!!! waa,waa,waa,waaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
February 8th, 2008
i think that the consumer is starting to have its say!
so far its been the moviebuff against the gamers
but now its shifting to the masses,
dont forget ps3 is the only full spec bluplayer and thats only if its upgraded on the net.yet not everyone has access to the net so out the box hd dvd is your best choice,full spec all compatible with awesome upscaling for the price.
February 8th, 2008
It’s telling that the bda claims supremacy based on individual disk “sales” (ignoring the fact they’re including the free movies bundled wtih the ps3 as “sales”) while the hd dvd camp talks about hardware, where the real measure of success lays. hd dvd is doing fine as this article is proving. once china and walmart get their heads together, bluray is officially done. but expect to see more “bluray movies sales” hype, as hype is all they have.
February 10th, 2008
After reading his blogs for the past few days, I’ve concluded that Matt Jansen is a desperate HD-DVD fanboy trying his best keep hope alive for this dying format through posting useless positive news about it.