RSSHD DVD Makes American Pitch to European Consumers
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published March 15, 2007, 5:35 PM
With claims that Toshiba's HD-E1 HD DVD player was the first on the market for the European consumer just last November (claims that a BetaNews reader tonight pointed out was wrong; see update below), and Sony's European edition of the PlayStation 3 with built-in Blu-ray player only emerging from its long launch delay a week from tomorrow, the Toshiba-backed format is already well ahead in the European market. Taiwanese industry analysts (on behalf of parts suppliers for high-def players) estimate HD DVD has already captured an 85% market share in Europe in just the first four months.
Now HD DVD supporters are working to cement the format's presence in the European mindset. Today, those supporters announced the formation of that continent's edition of the HD DVD Promotional Group, to be led by Toshiba, Microsoft, Universal, and French movie producer Studio Canal.
But the new group's European Web site, touting "the look and sound of perfect," doesn't look all that European, especially with only English and German language editions available thus far. A widescreen video opens with nighttime helicopter shots of the skyline not over London or Berlin but Manhattan; and the voice of that great American announcer Don LaFontaine brings the viewer into the realm of great movie trailers with his trademark opening tag line, "In a world..."
From there, LaFontaine promises an action-filled experience in "a world that's kung-ier, fu-ier, and a world that you control. Just push a button to switch camera angles, or push a button to go behind the scenes. Everything so interactive, so...per-r-rfect." (He gets paid well for this job.)
Elsewhere on the site, a video clip shows high-definition players being demonstrated under a "Today Show" banner by another fellow who might not be too familiar to Europeans, Al Roker. And a selection of HD DVD movie trailers leads off with that Mediterranean classic, "Miami Vice."
It's almost as if the studios were using this opportunity to promote America itself to third-world nations.
But the truth is that the European version of the HD DVD promotional site is actually a direct copy of the American version. An "International" version does exist, although it appears more geared toward the Asian market.
If the European Commission still had concerns about the HD DVD and Blu-ray coalitions making too much of an effort to snag consumers in its member countries, some of those concerns might not have been allayed today if the European group had actually produced a Euro-centric edition of its site.
Last July, the EC began an inquiry into whether the cooperation between manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sony, and studios which support their formats such as Universal and 20th Century-Fox, respectively, are intentionally engineering a duopoly through exclusive contracts that would lock out any other potential, high-def competitors. To commissioners, the whole high-def format dispute makes so little sense that it could only be part of someone's plan.
Since that time, European industry analysts have knocked holes in the EC's theory, arguing that the only likely outcome to the format battle is the eventual persistence of a single, hybrid format - one which neither side in the battle actually wants, nor would both sides have willingly colluded with one another to achieve, but which both sides may have to accept. Little has been heard from the EC on this subject since.
With Sony's PS3 having more than leveled the playing field for both formats in North America, and by many estimates having tipped the scales in Blu-ray's favor, it may be way too early for the new European HD DVD group to proclaim victory there - or, more likely, to have Don LaFontaine proclaim it on their behalf.
CORRECTION 9:30 pm March 15, 2007 - Two analysts' reports we'd used for substantiating our statistics for this report said that Toshiba's HD-E1 was the first high-def player available in the European market. While some expected that to become true back in November, one of our readers (see comments below) pointed out that this was erroneous, so we decided to check it out.
And it turns out our reader, Paul Skinner, was right. Samsung's BDP-1000 player, originally slated for European release in mid-September, then mid-October, ended up being released on store shelves on November 7, on the same day the first Blu-ray Disc-based movies were made available - not the first week of December. The HD-E1, meanwhile, was released in Europe on November 15, eight days later. Even then, we learned, the unit was available only in limited numbers, and ended up having its Australian release delayed until January.
So we stand corrected. But that's fine, since one way or the other, we got the facts. Thanks, Paul.
It's a French press release from CeBit 2007.....
jeudi 15 mars 2007
CeBIT 2007, que du bon à venir !
Petit coup de booster pour ceux qui ont pris le risque de franchir le pas de la HD et plus spécifiquement du HD DVD, sachez qu'une conférence de presse du groupe de promotion Européen du HD DVD (alliance de constructeurs comme TOSHIBA, MICROSOFT et d'éditeurs vidéo tels qu'UNIVERSAL, STUDIO CANAL etc) vient d'avoir lieu au CeBIT.
Le résultat affiche de beaux espoirs avec l'annonce de l'arrivée prochaine (en mai 2007) d'un nouveau lecteur de moyenne gamme TOSHIBA, le HD EP10 (sortie HDMI 1.2a en 1080p, positionné à 699€), l'annonce de SAMSUNG rejoignant le groupe (et donc produisant désormais aussi des HD DVD) et surtout le fait qu'une 100taine de titres seront disponibles en HD DVD en Europe d'ici la fin du premier trimestre 2007.
Plus de 600 titres HD DVD sont attendus d'ici NOEL prochain à travers l'Europe... à rajouter au catalogue déjà accessible aux USA !
De plus, l'interactivité iHD devrait être de plus en plus sollicitée (ex MIAMI VICE U-Control, exclusivité US) ainsi que la connexion internet pour des synchronisations ou uploads de contenus interactifs.
L'optimisme est donc au beau fixe, surtout que les chiffres de vente softs sont plutôt bons en Europe.
Malgré tout, il faut attendre l'arrivée de la PS3 et la sortie des titres BD d'éditeurs comme DISNEY ou autres pour savoir si cette tendance continuera ou pas...
http://www.worldinhd.com...ebit_2007_que.html#more
- The bit bold high-lighted bit says "SAMSUNG's announcement of joining the group (and therefore now also producing HD DVD)".
So there's another hardware manufacturer (after LG) spending out hard cash to jump off of the 'BD exclusive ship' they were on and into producing hardware for both formats, who else this year, I wonder?
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|Hahaha... 3 years.
I personally think that HD-DVD will be the next generation "home burner" solution. Currently, SD (DVD5) blank discs are very cheap and im not seeing much decline in the dual layer (DVD9) prices. I believe we will see cheaper single layer HD-DVD discs. At least im not expecting that Blue-ray is able to produce these discs any cheaper than HD-DVD, since they have the advantage of using already existing DVD production lines(?).
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|Why? GB is even more important with data storage.
HD-DVD = 15GB/30GB
Blu-Ray =25GB/50GB
Sorry, aint gonna happen... Blu-Ray is already reasonably well established in the PC data storage sector...
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|Ray you are just so obviously fooling yourself.
Neither format is "established" in PCs yet.
BD burners are outrageously expensive....and DL BD discs cost a fortune (better burn them real slow and avoid coasters!).
We await the "significantly cheaper than the BD competition" HD-DVD PC burners.
(Which I expect to work with the 51gb TL disc too btw.......so if capacity is really your big concern it's got to be HD-DVD then, right?
Sure it is.)
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|The format that will win, is the one that is easy--No proprietary hardware or software to run it. Sony is notorious as is Apple for trying to corner markets. That is why both are struggling with only diehard, fanatical fans to support them.
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|The BD side just made yet another laughable statement - BD to replace SD DVD in 3 years.
How ridiculous do their (already ludicrous and credibility-free) PR shills have to get?
The truth is that Europe & the UK are buying HD-DVD.
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20070308PD200.html
Of course the stats will alter with PS3.....
......but (as in the USA) by nothing like enough to either knock HD-DVD out of this 'war' nor to actually call anything a 'win'.
Both high def formats combined are just 0.5% of the total DVD retail movie disc market, as shown in this decent article which has comments from Vito Mandato from Paramount (a dual format studio so possibly a less biased source than many?)
http://www.videobusiness.../article/CA6422896.html
This 'war' is a long long way from over - it'll be years until that's settled - never-mind absurd & idiotic claims of BD replacing SD DVD in 3 years!?
It may even end up with some form of co-existance - inexpensive HD-DVD players & PC burners to tie up the a/v market & PS3 to be BD's proprietary format just a UMD is to PSP?
......and it's still very possible neither format escapes the niche at all.
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|Well, I think that the worst nightmares of the majors and industry come true. It seems that the world will divide into two separate markets (HD DVD in Europe and BR in America and Japan). What is quite surprising the industry overslept the lesson given by the case of DVD-Audio and SACD (only HDCD is moderately popular in Europe, where I live) which cannot dominate the market for a decade.
Some people can doubt if such division is possible for a long time. My answer is yes, it can be divided this way. I live in Europe, but I used to live in Japan. Mini Discs are unpopular in Europe, moderately popular in the States and incredibly popular in Japan, however, the Japanese market is smaller than the European one.
Anyway, what does not mean for Europeans? It means that the pirated copies of HD DVD will circulate since the protection of this kind of discs was broken, newer processors will be able to recode films overnight and the bandwidth of ADSL will grow. My equipment is not high-end but I would need around 18 hours for ripping and recoding a 1080 HD DVD film to H.264 (with Nero Recode), 36 hours for upload and 9 for download. These numbers will surely decrease (do you remember Gordon Moore and his law?). I remember the time when I coded "Elton John live in Australia" to mp3. It was around a decade ago and my Cyrix 166 based computer needed 5 hours of so, now I am able to do the same to Ogg Vorbis (Lancer compilation) - which is much better codec - in less than a minute.
When I add that the law is not so restrictive as in America (have you ever heard about the Pirate Bay? do you think it would be possible in the States?). It means that Europe will be the source of pirated content for the rest of the world.
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|Don't believe the hype, I can speak for Europe, and say that HD-DVD sales are also very weak, at the moment, Blu-Ray has the edge, and with the PS3 launch next week, Blu-Ray in Europe will decimate HD-DVD as it's done over the pond...
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|Hey, I thought Blu-Ray already won this format war, no?
I'll wait until the price falls a lot further. A lot, lot further.
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|More Europeans than Americans ... but thanks to big government, big taxes and every over European fault, we have less disposable income to throw at a high definition player that isn't needed yet.
"It's almost as if the studios were using this opportunity to promote America itself to third-world nations." I like how Europe is third world!
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|I think the point is that the HD DVD Promotions group is treating Europe like the third-world in a sense by advertising *itself* rather than the format.
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|"With Toshiba's HD-E1 HD DVD player being the first on the market for the European consumer just last November"
Nope. That's just wrong.
http://www.comet.co.uk/c...e/product.do?sku=362166
Blueray was first in the UK at least.
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|Blu-ray was there first, but HD DVD has over 80% of the market.
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|Paul, when you're right, you're right. I checked out some enthusiasts' blogs written by people who went to the stores themselves to see the launches first hand. And indeed, BDP-1000 hit the shelves on November 7 - later than Samsung wanted, but still ahead of Toshiba by eight days.
As you can see, I made the correction above. I'm quite happy when one of our readers is smarter than the people who compile the statistics we cite - one way or the other, we eventually find the truth. And in this case, you helped us do just that, Paul, and I thank you. And I stand corrected.
-SF3
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|??? You really believe this?
There are now considerably more Blu-Ray movies and players out there, and media is outselling HD-DVD 3:1 on both Amazon US and Amazon UK..
In addition stores in the us are planning on cutting back on HD-DVD stocks, due to dropping demand..
http://www.nypost.com/se...lou_lumenick.htm?page=1
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|Top man.
Nice to have someone on here who is prepared to actually listen to commenters and say sorry if they're wrong.
Nice one.
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|Sorry to have to say this, because it feels like I'm now taking sides, but:
The PS3 isn't out in Europe yet, and that could, and probably will increase the BlueRay quota over the next few months, as it did and is continuing to do in America.
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|Do you really believe the NY Post??? Sony is frustrated and very worried right now. Naturally, they'll pay anybody and do anything they can to report on the imminent demise of HD DVD as much as they can. Just look at all of the bullcrap claims they (and FOX) have been making lately. This is no different. HD DVD and Blu-ray are a tiny, tiny percentage of the market right now. To predict the death of either format right now is laughable.
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|Yeah, I can see all the fanfare and line ups already in Europe. It's going to sell through the roof!! ;-P
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|Nevertheless, it will still do a significant dent to HD-DVD's lead. As someone stated above, it won't make either of them a winner, as High Definition sales are still pathetically low.
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|Sony desperate? Sound like you are, when you have to resort to suggesting NY Post are taking back handers from Sony...
You do have libel in your country I believe, lets hope they don't read this...
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|hey cram it in ur a$$. lets start this out right first the ps3 sucks and is too xpensive and remeber umd? oh ya cram it down our throats and we wont buy it. i own a xbox 360 (kicks ps3 a$$) and the hddvd addon and i love it my friend bought a ps3 and we got the same tv's (42 inch samsung plasma and dont ask about 1080p cause it dont matter)and he runs hdmi and i got vga. and he says that hddvd looks better and i seen it and its true. and hddvd has better features.
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|You know the button with the little dot on it, it's called a full stop (or a period if you're a yank) and it goes at the end of sentences.
Try using a few.
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|...And people think I'm wasting my time on the computer. I bet they don't know the Brits call a period a full stop ;-)
But this war is far from over. Yea, Blu Ray is currently outselling HD-DVD but look at the sh*t Blu Ray is putting out. Sony would release a remake of Waterworld they're so desperate. That's not to say HD-DVD shouldn't watch their backs. If they sit idle for too long Blu Ray will ultimately gain the upper hand. Universal being on HD-DVD's side will do no good if they aren't producing any quality films. And the same goes for Columbia. They're going to have to do more than produce the romantic comedy crap they're so hot for right now.
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