HD DVD defies death as Wal-Mart sells-out of Toshiba’s HD-A3
Filed under: Electronics, High Definition | By: Daniel
Posted on: February 8, 2008 | 37 Comments
It has become widely known that Sony Blu-ray is winning the high definition war, but someone forgot to tell HD DVD this as it defies the slow death of the format and starts selling out of the Toshiba HD-A3 HD-DVD player on Wal-Mart.
The HD-A3 has now been handed to consumer in the masses, this can only help HD DVD, but by how much as Blu-ray keeps outselling its competitor.
VideoScan reports that during the seven days between Jan 7 and Jan 14, Sony Blu-ray has closed the gap by 7% of total discs sold since inception with HD DVD. It looks like the two formats could be at disc sales parity within weeks if this trend continues.
Source: blorge
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To Banjo:
You can say the exact same thing with BD. In fact the ONLY BD 2.0 profile ready player worth getting now is the PS3. All the others are not upgradeable. While HD-DVD has been ready since day1.
“The problem with HD DVD is that there is still only one major manufacturer of HD DVD players and that is Toshiba. No, Venturer does not coun”
You Blu-Ray fanboys are ridiculous. You guys keep saying “HD-DVD is dead, it’s a corpse, give it up…” blah blah blah.
Last time I checked, HD-DVD players are selling really well. HD-DVD movies are selling really well. Yes, Blu-Ray is doing more, but DVD is still outpacing both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD combined, so what does that tell you?
I’ll tell you what it tells you, Blu-Ray lovers… it says that the high-def format won’t hit maturity for another 2-3 years, at best. By that time, ALL computer drives will support read-only access of both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and there will be several HYBRID players on the market.
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are going nowhere, they’ll both be around forever. What surprises me is the “win-lose” mentality that Blu-Ray fanboys have. Take a step back, take a deep breath, and you’ll realize that you’re wrong, and that someday you’ll be buying HD-DVDs…perhaps even Warner Bros HD-DVDs… when they switch back to the format that costs the least to produce.
Duncan, PAY ATTENTION: Consumers have bought more Blu-ray players and titles than HD-DVD. Who knows how you got that backwards with all the news lately.
HD-DVD has pushed back up to 1 sale for every 3 Blu-ray sales in the last week through steep discounting. The discounting is having an effect on Toshiba though as reported by Reuters.
Toshiba is maintaining some sales by slashing prices but at a cost.
“Toshiba, whose products range from washing machines to nuclear power plants, is also fighting losses in its HD DVD player business, he (Executive Vice President Fumio Muraoka) said, without detailing the size of the loss.” Reuters Jan 29, 2008
CORRECTIONS TO MISINFORMATION:
Blu-ray is selling more than HD-DVD not the reverse. Duh!
Blu-ray is more damage resistant due to TDK’s scratch resistant coating. HD-DVD is the same as DVD no protective coating. Check CNET news’ test of the coating which resisted a screwdriver. Check Netflix info that standard DVD/HD-DVDs only last 12 rentals before dying due to scratch damage.
Lastly, Toshiba is fighting losses due to HD-DVD.
Toshiba is maintaining some sales by slashing prices but at a cost.
“Toshiba, whose products range from washing machines to nuclear power plants, is also fighting losses in its HD DVD player business, he (Executive Vice President Fumio Muraoka) said, without detailing the size of the loss.” Reuters Jan 29, 2008
The magic number is still $100 or less. Neither HD DVD or Blue Ray will ever have the penetration that DVD players do until the price equation works. Many family house holds have several TVs around the house all with DVD players hooked up to them. Alot of these tvs are being replaced with HDTVs, but that doesn’t mean the DVD players will be replaced soon.
Take this example. If I buy a new 26″ HDTV for the kitchen at about $600 I am not going to by a $300 dollar blueray player to go with it. The cost ratio to that of the tv is too high.
Maybe I will buy that player for the 50″ tv in the family room, but the other rooms will have to wait.
And what do I do will those disks if they want to be played on the other TVs? I can just see this scenario happening with the wife, “sorry honey we can’t watch that holiday movie in the kitchen while we are making cookies with the kids because it only works in the family room.”
For families price really does really matter.
It still pains me to see so much analysis going on… Relax, people.
In 12-24 months, there will be dual-drives and hybrid players out there, and in about 36 months, those players will be at the magic price point for people to afford.
Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD survive, along with DVD. Win, win, win. For everyone… even for Sony.
A. Moore
Thanks for clarifying. I have both formats so I hope they both stick around for a long time. Shame the shoddier format is winning the race though. Sony seemed to rush Blu Ray out the gates to keep up with the superior format (not in terms of disc capacity granted, but it’s not the size, it’s what you do with it!)
HD DVD is my best friend.