HD DVD players achieve 750 000 sold units
The HD DVD Promotional Group today announced that over 750,000 players have been sold to date. That’s significantly more than the introductory year of the DVD. In that format’s first year, just over 300,000 DVD players were sold. However, it falls significantly behind Blu-ray Disc players. The HD DVD group cites retailer reports. The 750,000 unit mark includes sales of standalone HD DVD players as well as the HD DVD add-on to the Xbox 360, which until recently was the least expensive device to play the high-def format.
According to the HD DVD Promotional Group, standalone players have outsold standalone Blu-ray devices, which excludes the Playstation 3. The Digital Entertainment Group agrees, reporting that standalone Blu-ray player sales have not even reached 200,000 units yet. However, when the PS3 is factored in, Blu-ray dwarfs its competitor. According to the Financial Times, PS3 lifetime sales have reached 3.7 million units. This has led to Blu-ray movies consistently outselling HD DVD titles, usually at a monthly rate of two-to-one.
Source: TG Daily
Comments(41)
Only 3.7 million PS3 units sold? That’s bad news for Sony.
I have the Toshiba HDDVD player. It rocks, man. Transformers in HD is an incredible experience. Off topic, R5 of The Kingdom is out in Russian, German, but when is the English version coming? I would think it will be out by the end of the day.
I hope all this competition brings down the prices of standalone players. They’re way too high for my money
I bought mine for $98 US dollars at Walmart on November 2nd at a secret early Black-Friday four-hour sale. The Sony Blu-Ray players are like $399. Just look for a sale.
definately Sony’s ps3 trump card worked out or else hd dvd would have killed them in standalone one on one battle
HDDVD rocks so hard, it’s too bad it’s bargain bin stuff now, under 100 bux for a player = finished. And what a shame, my 360 hddvd player kicks so much butt, and the movies look so incredible. But I guess people like the easy to wreck BluRay (easy to wreck cuz the data is written so close to the surface of the disc). Personally I think Blu RAy sucks, you only get 480 and 1080 resolution out of them, try and run at say 1280*1024 or 720p and you’ll get 480p cuz the discs only work in those two resolutions. Blu Ray blows, but people still buy it anyways, and most people, who don’t have 1080p tv, have 720p tv’s and have no idea that they are NOT watching high def, they are watching 480p when they watch bluray movies.
I really hope HD wins, but me thinks it already over.
im still waiting for the prices to drop
@7
Same here, I’ll get a BD player when it will be a lot cheaper.
I recommend to everyone NOT to buy a HD player, not because they are not good (their GREAT) but because in 2 or 3 years everyone will use BDs by that time.
It’s sad that we can’t have both but that’s the true, Blue-Ray Players will win.
Dont waste your money on hd-dvd crap. Everyone knows that blu-ray has over 170 supporters and almost the whole industry behind them. They will dominate from 2009 and on. The paramount deal lasts 18 months and it just hurts and confuse the consumers.
Does biiiitches got $150 million from thosiba and hd-dvd group.
ps3 is the trojan horse and sales are up 250% now. FACT ! Just look at pcworld.com numbers are accurate.
HD = High dividends. I understand the quality is better but who wants to pay 30 bucks for a movie that is almost 20 years old. Theyll try anything to suck money from consumers.
It’s not over until the fat lady sings.
3.7 million units for PS3 is pretty poor, but it’s the advantage Sony’s inferior format needs. Blu Ray is simply upscaled Mpeg 2.The basis for DVD. HD-DVD uses vc1 a brand new codec.(actually Windows HD with new name)As already mentioned it’s more versitile and employs 720p as well as 480p and 1080p. Not so with Blu ray.
@ TRON: You know if that TOSHIBA can play .mkv or .mp4 x264 encoded files natively or can be made to by changing the firmware? Thanks.
B-Ray will die… don’t buy this sh*te, bc this is SONY
@11 – They’ve actually begun using VC1 on Bluray discs now, so they’re not as bad quality (still not as good as hddvd tho) as they were before as mpeg encodes. And still, for some reason, even with the VC1 codec being used, they STILL won’t run in anything but 480i/p and 1080i/p. I bet if consumers by and large knew this they would avoid bluray like the plague; most people’s hd tv’s are 720p or 1366*768, not too many with straight up 1080 sets yet, unless you’re using 40+ inch or larger there is no use for 1080 anyways.
I sold my ps3 six months ago cuz it sucked and so does it’s games and bluray. Only advantage it’s got over 360 is that it doesnt have massive problems like overheating and freezing up like the 360 has been hit with (red ring of death anyone?)
1080p for tv’s will be a standard soon enough. Just look at today’s market so many new tv’s are now in 1080p with minimal increase in prices.
People who are saying that PS3 is trash, your going to end up getting one even if it is again for the second time b/c its made for the future. Big companies expect the regular stupid consumer to buy whats in/hot now, not whats in later. Like Microsoft, they are making a killing right now with their xbox360 and rightfully so. I am a proud owner of the 360 Elite but I’m not stupid enough to believe that it’ll own the PS3 forever.
In 2 years or so they will have finally started max’ing out all the abilities of the xbox 360 as far as games go. Meanwhile the PS3 will be right there but with more room for improvement. It’s a easy evolution to believe in. Right now this battle HD-DVD vs BlueRay DVD is just like when DVD’s became mainstream and started pushing CD’s as the minimal little brother that can hold less but yet still have a lot of purpose. PC games are already hitting the need to be dual layered. It’s only a matter of time when dual layered won’t be enough. And that is when PS3 will own.
#6 …you only get 480 and 1080 resolution out of them
That was a ps3, not a blu-ray, problem, and it has already been fixed (in May) with firmware 1.80.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070524-sonys-newest-update-adds-720p-blu-ray-support-and-upscaling-capabilities.html
@TRON you can find the English version here The.Kingdom.R5.LINE.XviD-ASTEROiDS
http://www.moviex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=71227
Tracker URL:http://www.moviex.info:2710/xihjgtyx86brnjeu1f70xywml76cn06k/
maybe you guys don’t understand this, but in any “format war” the winner is always the one with more capacity and with more players (consoles included) the dvd won in the past even though it’s price, now it’s time to the blue-ray, even if it wouldn’t win now (which is false, because its already a winner) it would win later…
guys, try stay with the “format war” topic and leave the console wars for other topic…
these number will dounle with the current promotions HD have. they sell like cupcakes on amazon
sony lost numerous times. to vhs, to ipod just a few to mention so it be this time.
btw, walmart say HD DVD so no need to talk about who win since there is a winner already.
the only reason the fights lasted this long is cuz paramount was bought out for a year and a half. After that we’ll see transformers and such on blu-ray (probably the extended imax cut which is nowhere to be found on dvd or hd-dvd)
i also don’t understand why the hd ppl say that they can count the xbox360 as an hd-dvd player but when comparing numbers they are like, no, you can’t count the ps3 as a blu-ray player.
And if they use the excuse that ‘ppl don’t know ps3 is a blu-ray player because of surveys’ i also think thats total crap. they prolly surveyed 100 hicks in a backwater town that don’t even know what hd in ANY format is.
so now walmart is a technology power house lol
If either side was smart, they’d drop the price of bare-bones players and sell them at a loss just to get more of them in the field, then recoup the losses on the sales of movies.
This is so stupid and deceptive, first they say it only includes stand alones, then still add the 360 addons to the equation to get 750,000 thats rubbish stand alones are UNDER 500,000 the add on CAN’T work without the 360 it is NOT a stand alone
by that logic alone they should add the ps3 as a standalone..
BTW that is a lie or dated information about ps3 sales ww its >7 million sold already…
HD DVD is dead fokes
its almost completely dead world wide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH7S_Nwb8fU this is verry funny also
@24
I do agree with you, HD DVD is almost dead world wide. Even from the beginning…..
It appears HDDVD was only popular in the USA (where most internet statistics come from)
I have YET to see a HDDVD movies being stocked on shelf at any major electronics outlets in Australia, Asian Countries (china, Hong kong japan) and in Western Europe.
If ya ask them if they got any HDDVD Movies, they will go “we can order it in for you however we don’t stock them.”
i rather download a god
hddvdrip and connect my pc to my tv.
I guess thats is the reason i am hear anyway.
At the moment the main people with the HD players are early adopters, people who just want the next toy.
The HD war won’t be settled until it moves into the mainstream, and that is where HD-DVD may just swing it. For Americans it has the fact the players are cheap and for Europeans it has the lack of region restrictions. Region encoding on bluray is crazy and does nothing but push people to HD-DVD or piracy.
@25
I live in the North of England and HD-DVD is on sale everywhere that blu-ray is.
HMV, WhSmith, Virgin and all the other big names have them side by side.
Also for the person who said the add-on can’t work without a 360, you can connect it to a PC. This is what I intend to do alongside a Blu-Ray drive so i’m fully covered.
Just install one of this in your PC and you are safe for now.
HD DVD & Blu-ray
http://www.recordere.dk/indhold/articlefiles/1264-LG%20Super%20multi%20Blue.jpg
if they were to included ps3 then they should include xbox360 systems, because the hd dvd player is a addon. there could be plenty of people waiting for the price to drop to grab one. then your screwed in that concept. xbox360 sales vs ps3 sales. i’m sure there is no argument there.
Console wars suck but I’m glad that the tides have turned pretty hard on the xbox (stopgap console) kids
their boasting and gloating ended a few weeks back I believe.
I’m glad there’s a sign of life from HD DVD as it’ll only mean competition and better releases from both camps.
Actually … they have sold 6.36M according to vgchartz.com Thats 6.3 million sold , Blue ray players not including ones that where sold just as a blue ray player.. lol so id imagine where somwhere around 7 million, Hd should just give up.,. yeah paramount will hold for a bit but it gettting pretty clear who the winner is
i can’t believe people actually bicker over this bs.
@27
The lack of region control is actually the reason that most production companies choose blue ray over HD DVD. Most sell their distribution rights to other companies out of the states. Its just a better business model for them to not get involved in international distribution (marketing depts, distribution channels, etc). This sucks for the consumer, but saves companies a ton of money so….
@30
they are counting the hd dvd 360 addon into their count above. You simply can’t count on every x360 sold into the mix because not all of those buying a 360 get the addon. However, you can count all of the ps3 in the blue ray camp simply because it has the player built in. Also, anyone buying a ps3 this year is getting 5 free movies, so they are pushing the system as a blue ray player in addition to a gaming platform.
I think both formats look spectacular. They’re getting cheap enough to just own both anyway and buy the disc on the format you want. Then if its exclusive, who cares. With the sales of both doing decent/well who’s to say they both don’t just last until the new format with IMAX quality or whatever is next.
I mean, we have multi game systems, I can see there easily being 2 movie systems that just last. Not to mention its not all that bad for the consumer, when the prices are low enough for each system and everyone to have both, hopefully it’ll keep Blu-Ray / HD-DVD disc prices cheaper.
I hope Paramount got enough money to compensate the loss they will make the next year for choosing only HD DVD. Thank God for the Spielberg exception, otherwise I don’t know what interesting HD release I will have to miss from them the coming year.
It’s like the DVD burner I remember all those people running into the shops to buy one for 600$ and one year later you where able to buy it for 70 $
They are making up to 400% profit on those things at the moment …no way that I will become a victim of this corporate stink.
Next year people will throw that stuff at you for discount prices.
Burning data on to hd/blueray is a waste of time anyway rather store it on hard drive …without scratches and read errors. And HD movies are just good for those with giant screens…20″ is still enough for me.
I have a 52″ 1080p television and I’m format neutral (and proud of it). The very first time I saw and HD picture I was sold. All I care about is having all my entertainment content in high def, not which format or codec is used. Anyone who has compared HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will tell you the picture quality between them is identical. Add to that the fact that multi format standalone players will eventually become the norm during 2008, and drop in price as more manufacturers build them, and you begin to see why the format war is so irrelevant. The one and only good thing about this war is the competition, which drives down prices for us consumers. Arguing about which format is better makes about as much sense as arguing over whether DTS is better than Dolby Digital. Sheesh…
In the UK you get five free HD-DVD’s in a mail in promotion when you buy the Add-On, I believe the Toshiba player may have done something similar.
I think both sides are guilty of fudging the numbers. Microsoft putting Add-On’s in the total players sold and Sony putting Blu-Ray PS3 games in with the movies to boost figures.
This whole thing will be settled by China and Porn, whatever player is knocked out for pennies in the east and you can watch grot on it will be victorious.
SONY should DIAF.
I hate Sony. I hate Blu-Ray.Oh, and the PS3? A disaster in Europe, and that’s a bigger market than the U.S.!
HD-DVD already has a 51 GB disc, so as of now they have the most storage space.
In North America, HD-DVD players are already under US$200 mark, at Wal-Mart, Costco etc…. expect them to drop further ’round Xmas.
Sony already controls too much content(after buying MGM and Columbia/Tristar, as well as a bunch of record companies)… if they’re allowed to own distribution as well, the consumers are screwed. TOO MUCH POWER in one single company! Remember DAT? Remember SCMS? Remember the insane limitations for MiniDisc?
Die, Sony, you are nothing but a bloated Godzilla!
Why would anyone give a f%$k about a multimedia container? Get yourself a HTPC, plug it to your TV set and download movies in any codec/format/resolution you wish…