RSSHD DVD Sales Double in May
By Ed Oswald | Published June 11, 2007, 3:59 PM
The HD DVD Promotions Group said Monday that its strategy of price cuts seems to be paying off - sales have skyrocketed, it claims.
HD DVD has regained its lead over Blu-ray, now holding 60 percent of all high-definition set-top players sold. In addition, the format was able to set an all-time record for titles sold in May, with 75,000 discs shipped.
In total, the high-definition content market has expanded to a $5.2 million business last week, 31 percent higher than the previous record, which includes sales for both formats.
Price drops are being cited as the reason for much of the rapid uptick in HD DVD. When Toshiba dropped its players from $499 to $399 USD, the company saw a doubling in sales. It has seen a similar doubling with latest price drop.
"Behind the increase in sales for hardware and movies, you're seeing fundamentally lower manufacturing costs and ease of authoring for HD DVD," North American HD DVD Promotional Group chair Craig Kornblau said. "That's the type of model that can scale."
So far 150,000 stand-alone players have been sold, and the format still maintains a 4 to 1 attach rate over Blu-ray.
The XXX industry has embraced HD-DVD, just like they did with VHS over Betamax. We all know what happened to Betamax.
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|That was to be expected - people aren't stupid and choose quality over Sony's garbage.
It won't be long anymore, and Blu-Ray will go the way of Betamax and land on the trash where it belongs.
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|hd this hd that. None of this will matter once smell-o-vision comes out. huzzah!
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|but a smell-o-scope is so much more useful
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|If you think Jack Black is a big star now, just look out.
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|What about reverse fossilization?
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|You fall asleep in a ditch and they start declaring you this and that.......
I was going to eat that mummy.....
I can go all day, I bought all five volumes.
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|"Buddha! Zeus! God! one of you guys do something! . . . Help! Satan! you owe me!!!"
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|Here in Britian, I recently found myself in an electrical store looking at them. The assistant was eager to tell me the HDDVD was the best to buy, and when questioned about the "other" format ... was quick to quote that "ahh thats by sony, you know, the people that made betamax ... its ok but costs more and will probebly fade much like betamax did"
Made me laugh, but with a sales pitch like that im sure the buying public can relate to it.
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|Not according to DaveBG, he says HD-DVD has only sold one player and two movies in Great Britain.
I tend to believe everything he says because he is so knowledgeable and non-biased. I know he has invested in both formats and tested them side by side and decided for himself which format is better.
I've seen pictures of Dave and Steves custom theaters. Wow! The money these guys have spent on this hobby is staggering.
You guys are the best.
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|LMAO.
You're too cruel.
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|Dupe post ... dont know how that happened :(
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|"In addition, the format was able to set an all-time record for titles sold in May, with 75,000 discs shipped."
Wow, that's amazing! Wait, no. It seems like a very low number to me. The article should provide some estimate of how many were sold in the old school DVD format. Otherwise we have no frame of reference against which to measure this staggering record. :)
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|I think "Cruel Intentions 3" sold more than 75,000.:)
Anyway, HD-DVD better use this summer to make a splash. The following *NEW* big movies are from blu-ray studios and could come out this fall: Spidey 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3, Die Hard 4, Ratatouille, Transformers (both formats?).
HD-DVD could counter with: Harry Potter 5, Rush Hour 3. Oy, that's all I can think of. It's a bad time to not have lots of tentpole type movies coming to video.
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|Very good news. Glad HD-DVD is coming out with better titles recently as well, and I'm considering replacing my failing DVD player with an HD-DVD only because I don't feel like buying another "cheap" DVD player that breaks nine months later. Well--I should have listened to my friends--apparently this particular Samsung DVD Player was quite crummy, anyway.
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|Which Samsung did you buy? I grabbed an HD-860 which was $89.00 to replace a Pioneer that took a crap. The same player was $299 when it first came out.
It has an HDMI out that upscales everything to 720p and plays WMA/MP3 etc... I havent found a single thing this player wont play yet. It's one of the only DVD players will play Sony DVD+R's.
I had this plugged into my projector for a while and it looked great, it even has a black level enhancement that seems to help with badly transferred movies that have a lot of dark snow in certain scenes.
This is one of the problems with BD / PS3, the black levels are pretty bad / grey. Maybe a high end non-gaming console BD player would look better but I'm not spending $1000.00 to find out.
Then again I could buy one from Best Buy, keep it for 13 days, than return it with a lot of wear and tear.
If a hybrid player gets down to these prices, it would be great for both formats.
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|can't remember the model at the moment, may post when I get home tonight. Anyway it was the one that plays dvds and rws and such also plays mp3 cds and jpeg dvds, but was on sale last Christmas for $40. Granted it was cheap, but I figured it would last more than 9 months...
...the HD-860 is definately not the model that I bought, as the one I bought was "cheaper". Perhaps I was stupid to buy a cheap player in the first place, I'll admit, but the first HD-DVD players will likely be reliable since they are an indicater of what is to come, and if they were failing by the truckload suddenly Blu-Ray wouldn't look quite as bad...
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|Worked for me. I bought an Onkyo TX-605 and the Toshiba HD-A2. Total cost was $700 and I got 5 free HD-DVDs. Not bad for converting to HD.
I plan to buy a $200 to $300 BluRay player as well once they hit.
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|Pixel,
Is that an HDMI switching receiver or component?
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|HDMI 1.3a switching.
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|Nice. Does it also upscale other inputs to the HDMI output like component or composite / S-Video?
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|yay!!!! no sony fans here!!!
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|Great to hear the better looking format of the two doubled it sales in May. Did it say doubled? It did say doubled.
I guess they doubled thier sales in May according to this article, that's almost twice as much. Double that is.
Did that say a 4 to 1 attach rate over BD? Four to one? Thats almost quadruple. It looks like HD-DVD didnt only double is may sales but it also has a 4 to 1 attach rate over BD.
Looks like Sony can add a few more million in lost BD sales to thier already staggering 2 billion dollar loss with the PS3.
Double sales in May....wow. Quadruple the attach rate of BD.....excellent.
Hollywood's collection of bought BD movies: zero (I use Netflix for Blo-Ray rentals like Casino Royale)
Number of purchased HD-DVD titles: 27 (I don't include the Matrix Trilogy or Video Essentials because those came free with the HD-A2 purchase)
It's a 27 to 1 attach rate at my casa (I'll include Talledega Nights which was a freebie). What's it at your house Steve? That's right, you dont own a BD player or a PS3 or an HD-DVD or a 360. I guess the attach rate is 0 across the board.
So let me get this straight. Sony has approximately 3 million BD players out there and HD-DVD has let's say 200,000 with the 360 add on's included.
If my math is correct, that's a 15 to 1 ratio and BD movie sales are barely 2 to 1 over HD-DVD. Something is wrong here. Steve / Dave / Weller, can you explain this?
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|Nothing's wrong :) PS3 just means very little to the format war. Without it, blu-ray might be dead. With it, they are just slightly in the lead, but its clear HD-DVD owners spend more money.
Just look at www.thedvdwars.com. The HD-DVD top 4 is almost as much money as the Blu-ray top 10.
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|too bad Hollywood has no idea what he is talking about EVER...haha!
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|Hey Metfanant
Yeah, that's too bad. I noticed you are always flooding this forum with your brilliant insight.
Is that you Dave? I' bet it is.
Were you suprised to hear that 15 times as many BD players are on the street as HD-DVD players but movie sales are barely 2 to 1? Of course not, you only spew Sony propaganda trying to convince people it's better.
It's easy to pick on you because you are incredibly stupid.
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|"It's easy to pick on you because you are incredibly stupid."
I think that applies to all the Sony fangirls that post here lol.
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|Oh goody. Another HD vs Blu-Ray topic.
This should be ...
dull/old/tired/overdone/pointless
Take yer pick.
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|Yeah, but hey... just wait for the sony/blu-ray fanboys to jump in. that ought to at least alleviate the dull part... ;-)
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|Lol nah they tend to avoid positive HD-DVD news. If they do post it will most likely be filled with utter and complete BS as usual.
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|I'll take overdone and pointless and a little bit of tired.
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|tehe
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|That leaves me with some extra Dull and Old, guys.
Who's in?
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