HD DVD Outpacing All Next-Gen Formats in Sales Growth

At the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) Home Media Expo 2007, the North American HD DVD Promotional Group yesterday announced that overall HD DVD hardware sales were up 37 percent from Q1 to Q2 2007, while software sales experienced a 20 percent increase in growth. The data is based on NPD reports, Nielsen Netratings reports and point of sale data from the studios. During the same time-frame, overall Blu-ray hardware sales saw a 27 percent decline from Q1 to Q2, and Blu-ray software sales were down 5 percent.

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[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Lol.

HD-DVD is dead! Wow!

Looks to me like theres plenty of life left in both formats. Which actually pisses me off. I just want to watch HD movies without being screwed by the losing format.

BluRay lose! So I can get a $150-200 HD player!!!!11

[SuperSaiyan4]

I can buy all the movies I want on HD-DVD even T2 is coming to HD-DVD! And the quality will be seriously far better than the abosolute horrid grainy blu-ray version that I got rid of!

http://xploitedcinema.com/c...

They sell imported versions from Europe that are on HD-DVD where in other countries its on blu-ray.

Lots of Harry Potter fans out there and guess what, its on HD-DVD only and at present so is The Matrix...Oh and Lord Of The Rings will be HD-DVD only as well.

[shysun]

I have T2 on Blu-ray...it looks awesome.

[xfrgtr]

HDDVD IS DEAD,Harry potter will be on both format in the US at the end of the year,LOTR will be on BD too,liar.
Blu-ray Association hits back at HD DVD sales claims.The Blu-ray Disc Association European Promotions Committee has hit back at HD DVD’s figures in yet another tit-for-tat argument over which format is winning the format war, and who is the best at making the numbers work for them.

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association European Promotions Committee, it says that this claim is “misleading and misrepresentative” of the real and clear market trends in Europe, before admitting that HD DVD “does have sales advantage for several reasons”.

Where is has a gripe however, is that the HD DVD figures fail to include the European PC drive sales or Sony’s PlayStation 3 console.

According to the BDA European Promotions Committee including these would mean that Blu-ray Disc accounts for almost 95% of all next generation hardware sales in Europe this year.

[cdzie1]

Anyone that includes the phrase “HD DVD is dead” (and there are many) in a reply completely shows their ignorance.

HD DVD is gaining market share (away from Blu-ray, I might add) and there are new movies being announced almost daily. Toshiba is just starting to put HD DVD in laptops and there are more surprises on the way.

I’m not saying HD DVD will win or that Blu-ray will lose, but HD DVD is gaining momentum quickly.

[binard328]

Which one is it? HD-DVD or Blu-Ray? It seems that every week there's an article on this crap. "Blu-Ray killing HD-DVD!" "HD-DVD spanks Blu-Ray!" What the hell?!

[Kratosnake]

it's really no use beating at this anymore.

Blu-ray will outsell HD-DVD this holiday season... and I have a strong feeling that Universal, the only remaining excuslive supporter of HD-DVD, will announce their neutrality either by the holiday season, or early 2008.

Blu-ray is clearly dominant and only ignorant consumers are choosing HD-DVD over Blu-ray.

Blu-ray has:
Better capacity
Better studio support (by far)
Better copy-protection technology (very important for companies)

[ALI G]

errrrrrrrr...there is only 2 format including HD DVD

anyway well done HD DVD...COEMPTION is always better, force the other formate to improve and try outperform it.i prefer HD DVD for movies for it interactively while blue-ray as storage solution

@expy:you have point,which is many studio backing blue-ray but HD DVD had more titles relased last quarter than blue-ray .thanks mainly to universal studio.

[cuco33]

do some research... it was even noted on here that a 3rd main participant entered the HD battle. it's popular for those asian foreign flicks like in india. but this round is still a battle between hd dvd or bluray

nice to see that my assumptions that the format war is FAAAAAAAAAAR from over. digital distribution also plays a role as it holds back from those looking to rent HD movies without owning and chosing hd dvd or bluray (i am one of those. good to know i can rent and download HD movies via my xbox360 and soon, eventually, on the ps3)

[Mr VideoGames]

what now SONY FATBOYS eat my shorts

[Expy]

IT doesn't matter is sales increase or not, support for HD-DVD is almost non-existant, too bad consummers, especially in the U.S. are highly misinformed or have lack of information. They are putting money into hardware that has almost no industry support.

[rubarb23]

But if consumers are supporting one product even though it doesn't have much support, shouldn't the studios take notice and react to the consumer's demand?
i for one think both formats are great, i'm just waiting for one to die so i can get the one that is left and not get burned.

[THE_JUDGE]

HD-DVD is leaving out number of Blu-ray players and giving numbers of HD-DVD's based on free give away's. We all know independent numbers show Blu-ray winning in every country.

[omansteveo]

Are you serious Wal-Mart gives away 2 Blu-ray movies with a PS3 and you get five free anyways from sony thats 7 movies! i bet the blu-ray camp is counting those trust me

[MarioFromTexas]

Why do we keep getting this HDDVD crap. Blu ray will get all the movies while hddvd will only get 30 percent. Look at the movies sales chart and blu ray is selling 5 -1 movies so who do you think will continue to get support.

[PS3n360]

neither format gets all the movies. Universal is hddvd only. so no bluray and the other studios are split between bluray exclusive and multi format like WB. i agree with most sane people that it doesnt matter which wins just as long as one wins soon. I have the HDDVD add-on (dont laugh) and will get a PS3 this summer (dont laugh) so it doesnt matter to me.

[Dragonopolis]

Do you want to buy a HiDef movie player that has only one exclusive maker (Universal) or do you want one that has several. If Universal never goes Blu-ray, I can handle upscaling DVD versions of One Studio than several.

Face it, HD DVD is a joke. I remember the same thing happening to Betamax and Betamax was obviously better than the VCR and you didn't need some tech site to notice the difference. HD DVD isn't any better than Blu-ray picture and sound quality wise is about even - HD DVD is just cheaper. Cheaper is not always better.

I remember my dad going through this when he was trying to decide on getting a betamax player. There was massive evidence that Betamax had a better picture, sound, and was smaller in size and there was a huge loyal following (just like HD DVD) but who one the war? VCR. Why?

VCR won the war not on technology but because it had the most Hollywood/Rental support.

Now, there is even less of a difference between the two rivals. Blu-ray has the most Exclusive support and has the most overall support by Hollywood.

More power to you if you spent $200 for the add-on just to play Universal discs natively. Yea I know there is other HD DVD support but they support Blu-ray as well so these studios really don't count. Me I'll keep my money and just use my tv to upscale Universal's Movies. It's not as good but hey its still better than standard def and for HD I'll stick with Blu-ray.

Eventually Universal is going to cave in anyways. Not because of competition, because Hollywood is Blu-ray.

Its never good to be the odd man out.

[cdzie1]

For those who think Universal is close to going neutral:

"The numbers are clear -- HD DVD is steadily gaining momentum and market share," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment

[aiphanes]

We all know the PS3 is not saleing very well..sold out at some places. You get 5 free bluray movies...

HD-DVD is just trying to hold on and using viral marketing to push their product. The picture and audio quality is about the same for both formats, until you encode especially for bluray and you can have higher bitrates for the video...but most movie studies are encoding at the lowest common denomincator which is HD-DVD.

HD-DVD has only sold about 200,000 units...there are over 4 million PS3 and 150,000 standalone bluray units.

Bluray is king...there is no way you can spin it otherwise.

And by christmas there will be both HD-DVD and bluray standalone units that will be priced below $300.

Once universal goes multi format...then it is all over for HD-DVD.

[THAMMER1]

This is a big issue. LOL

[Apocalypse Shadow]

to get people to buy it,then there is a problem.

sony dropped the price because production picked up for blue laser diodes.more ps3s,more drive add-ons for pc and more stand alones.

but toshiba dropped because they were losing.and as stated earlier,sony has more support for bluray.

sure you're going to sell at bargain prices,but your bottom line means you make no money.and other companies will not drop their hd-dvd players.

this fall when all those mega hit sony films that are exclusive come out on bluray,hd-dvd will be in trouble.especially with walmart support for bluray.

toshiba won't be laughing anymore.and so will the fanboys who only supported hd-dvd because microsoft supported hd-dvd.but microsoft didn't RELEASE ONE COMMERCIAL FOR THE 360 ADD-ON.how do you support something and don't advertise for it?

[Odion]

the PS3 doesn't count in the long run cause they already did that study that showed only 13% used their console for movie playback

[PS3n360]

oops caps! 13% of 4 million is 520,000 now add that to the 150,000 standalones and you have 670,000 bluray movie watchers compared to the 200,000 standalone hddvd watchers. Damn and i am a hddvd supporter but that doesnt sound good for me. The positive side of all this is that if only one format existed we would be paying $1000 for the player still. Competition is great and when a winner emerges we will only have to shell out $100 for a player. So no real losers from a consumers standpoint. Cheers to that!
WTF what did i say to disagree with?

[The Karate Kid]

Yes they are 100% correct. They are #1 in sales growth because they aint been selling crap all year long lol. Hardware is up because why?? The players drop to 300 bucks lol. Software sales are growing because they aint been selling lol. Its great to go from selling 10 movies a week to 14 movies a week. While Blu-Ray is selling 50 - 60 movies a week constantly. Blu-Ray is still out selling HD-DVD. WIth the PS3 dropping in price and almost sold out ***EVERYWHERE*** Blu-Ray will continue to grow and expand.

[SquallSK]

No exact numbers like always .. all that mean jack ,if blu-ray is still selling more movies ..

[gnothe1]

for me I like the HD-DVD better than blu ray!! an I know everybody has different opinions, but TO ME HD-DVD's picture looks better than blue ray!! my copy of king kong HD-DVD looks better than my Blu ray copy of ghost rider, also my HD-DVD copy Ant bully looks better than my Blu ray copy of Happily never after. so for me HD-DVD looks better. you can say its not true all you want but I'm going by what I SEE not what I HEAR!!

[kewlkat007]

BD have much more support. It's almost seem like, nobody ever supported HD-DVD, even though I think it has the better features, and network connectivity, while BD has more space.

For some reason HD-DVD is not going away quietly. Early on, HD-DVD always had the price advantage because it is cheaper from a manufacturing POV. So the biggest thing HD-DVD have going for it is the Bonus features BD doesn't have and the price. As well as the stand alone saturation of the Toshiba players, if not counting PS3.

Somehow, I do not think they are using those Pros, to their advantage, plus they had like a year start. But in all truth, it comes down to the studio support, that's it. If consumers continue to buy HD-DVD's for whatever reasons, maybe it might sway studios, to support both. Now imagine if MS had put an HD-DVD drive into the 360's, then the PS3 Trojan, would have no edge, in any way.

Well, there would of been more stand alones bought, like currently and the saturation of 10 million xbox 360 owners, that might potentially buy HD movies would of been an edge. So, tough call. Just like a console needs games, HD-DVD needs more studio support to have a chance in the long run. Right now, the HD movie market is so damn small it's not so much a big deal. People continue to swallow DVD's.

I don't even own a DVD collection. Somehow, I know something like this was going to happen so didn't want to start one, plus I download and stream a lot. Once I get my 1080P LCD HDTV, and this format stuff is done with, I'll start to build a collection, unlike people that are on their 3rd time rebuilding their movie collection.

VHS-->DVD
DVD-->HD-DVD...some how I don't think consumers will be in a rush, like it was from VHS to DVD. This time you need to also purchase a HDTV to see the benefits, not just the player.

[Fighter]

When will Star Wars HD on Blu-ray come out? It will most likely seal the deal for the format wars.

[Huddymonster]

Like someone had stated earlier even if the ps3 is used as a movie players by only 13% of the the systems that is still half a million which easily out does the small stand alone market.

I am sorry but I am not saying either is better quality all Blu-Ray has is more space and HD-dvd has more features. However how can anyone in their right mind support HD-DVD when all the major studios except universal supports Blu-ray. Its like eliminating your own choices.

It is far more likely that Universal will eventually go Blu-ray then all the other studios going neutral. Also BLockbuster will not want to admit they are wrong either.

I just dont understand HD-DVD supporters.

[XxZxX]

still not enough dont you think? 200% dropped 5%+20% is still 175% more than HD-DVD. 27% declined hardware sales is not that bad since they discounted PS3. It just basically how you put it. Next thing you know, Blu-ray annonuced Blu-ray sales is 175% more than HD-DVD.

[Kyur4ThePain]

if we exclude the top selling HD-DVD player?
That's effectively what they're doing here.

Saying the PS3 isn't used as a Blu-Ray player is as dumb as me saying an HD-DVD player is bought only to watch regular DVDs.

[cdzie1]

As an HD DVD fan, I was level headed when I read this news. It does not mean that HD DVD is winning or Blu-ray is losing. PS3 is a huge factor in the next-gen format war right now, will it be in the future? Who knows…

But what this data does tell us is that HD DVD did a good job at expanding its business in the 2nd Quarter and Blu-ray sales were slightly down. Frankly, HD DVD needed this because they got a pretty good whooping in the first quarter.

We’ll see… Hopefully the HD DVD group has learned from its mistakes and successes and will continue delivering a good value for the consumer.

[Dragonopolis]

So if HD DVD is propriety, how is this any different than Blu-ray. First answer usually is some Sony hate comment.

The fact is most of these HD DVD articles are just Sony bashing. If you hate Sony so much by another blu-ray player from another manufacturer.

These HD DVD articles turn out to be Sony bashing the comments and even the articles sound immature and ignorant.

It doesn't matter which HD disc is more Proprietary than another. If it has the slightest proprietary technology in it - its Proprietary. If your argument is based on that then you shouldn't be buy any HD disc format.

Blu-ray is the future - Hollywood has made its decision. You want to blow an extra $200 just to play a very small selection of exlusive HD DVD studio support - More power to ya. However, in my opinion, even though HD DVD is cheaper buy the amount of native support available doesn't justify the costs.

[FeralPhoenix]

Obviously "some" are going to use this to bash Sony, just as "some" PS3 fans use it to say PS3 is better than the competition for including it. End result= Its a matter of preference. Also other than owning a PS3 that came with a Blu-ray movie included (TD) I haven't really been compelled to choose either side in this format war.....maybe because I own too many DVD's and I will NOT choose until there's a definite winner soon, also I question either format being the outright winner with initial success of digital distribution and more & more companies announcing plans for such service.

So what I gather from all this is that really neither format looks like an outright winner, I mean hell with all Blu-ray's studio support it still looks like HD DVD have "enough" support that those who choose standalone players more often than not choose HD DVD brand, I think the price obviously attracts them along with features and you never know maybe they think its possible more movie studio's might support both in the future. Also the wierd part is that although Blu-ray has the majority of Blu-ray support it only has about 20-30 more titles offered than HD-DVD and that seems like the studio's themselves aren't giving their best support for Blu-ray since there a few hundred available for both formats, 20-30 titles is not a huge gap to the avg consumer it will look relatively equal amount of movies available, especailly in stores when you only see 40-50 titles on the store shelf for both.

[Bloodmask]

HDDVD =Toshiba. Not Microsoft.

Microsoft could care less who wins. They are pushing for digital distribution.

[Skillet_135]

I agree with you. But the flame war is started because 360 fanboys jump every chance they get to bash the PS3. (don't get all upset PS3 fanboys do the exact same thing)