HDDVD tries to ressurect with $3M Superbowl ad
During next week’s Super Bowl, viewers will be treated to an HD DVD commercial, but won’t see any mention of the competing Blu-ray format. The ad will feature Toshiba’s three lowest-priced players, the HD-A3, A30, and A35, and is the biggest advertising move for any high-def disc medium to date, reports Home Media Magazine. According to industry reports, the 30-second TV spot is expected to run Toshiba nearly $3 million. It is a crucial move that Toshiba hopes will bring consumers to HD DVD instead of Blu-ray, which has a significant early lead in the format war.
“It has always been our strategy to reach HDTV owners, using advertising on football is just one vehicle,” said Toshiba to Home Media. Within the last part of 2007, an estimated two million people bought an HDTV specifically because of the Super Bowl. A 30-second advertising slot during the game this year is estimated to cost $2.7 million. The Blu-ray Disc Association will not be represented during the huge sporting event because it was not able to create an ad in time, according to the magazine. BDA spokesperson Andy Parsons put down the move by saying, “Running a Super Bowl ad is not likely to convince consumers that HD DVD will win the format war.” And he’s right, this fight is most likely over: hail the Blu-Ray, new king!
Source: PC World, TG Daily
Comments(87)
I still think it will be blue-ray who will win the battle
and that’s what being said in this post, maybe i should read it fully next time before replying
After having done a comparison of HDDVD vs. Blu-Ray of the same title, I don’t know how anyone could choose HDDVD.
Blu_ray is soooo sharp and rich. It’s like looking out a window.
yeah most of you guys are just jumping the blu-ray bandwagon, whereas 6 months ago you guys would have said the opposite when HD-DVD seemed to take the poise for teh win.
I think HDDVD would benifit if the current players didn’t look like 1980s VCR players!
and @3,
Your “comparison” is hardly definitive.
Bluray has more disc space and more studios suporting, plus the PS3 installment base… HD-DVD should just retire and prevent people from wasting money on one HD-DVD player that would probably have no support by the end of this year. then what?
Blue-ray FTW!
Wow, so BR has more disk space…where do I sign up. (Roll Eyes)
i dont like the new formats….i bought a blu ray and tried it in my divx standalone player and it didnt do anything?
i thought it is meant to be a better dvd than normal dvd?
Yeah daniel, and the vast majority of studio support. Bet don’t let those pesky facts get in the way when you want to come across as the smartass that knows best.
I don’t think it currently matters who wins, normal DVDs will be the standard for some time after the war is over.
@9
You need a BR player to play BR discs, just has you need a HDDVD player to play HDDVD discs and yes, the newer formats are better than standard DVDs
@10,
Did I mention anything about studio support? No I didn’t did I.
Am I the only person who has both blu-ray and hddvd at home and prefers the hddvd experience?
That said, I could bet the majority of those praising blu-ray here have not experienced both formats.
gawd cant they just die so there be piece and a single format before the next digital media revolution…
if they cant even unite in a format for distribution they will never be able to stop piracy, as its obviously the online distribution way people prefer.
@3 you’re hardly going to notice the difference between HD scene rip (fitting onto 4.3GB DVD) and BluRay from normal viewing distance.
Microsoft will do something sneaky like give free HD DVD players laced with a highly addictive form of heroin to babies
lol at no. 16
but its true MS is very interested in prolonging the bluray vs hddvd battle… they want to be king once digital downloading become more popular. a physical distribution system would hinder that…
i hate sony have done for a long time so its a bitter pill to accept then as the leaders of the hidef future
here’s a game to play, watch casino royale and count the sony backed companies and products
do u remember this from 2001 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/03/entertainment/main713661.shtml
so buy a hd-dvd player download bluray content convert and burn to hd-dvd vola everybody’s happy
@6 Halcyon,
Not to mention the more draconian DRM, which what the studios really care about.
You dont understand whats going on If you just go to BluRay becauase its ahead. If anyone remembers HD DVD beat BluRay to the market by almost a month and most people bought one and HD DVD was ahead for almost a year and then it was even. Whos to say that wont happen again?
I personally have both but Ive always leaned towards HD DVD.
HDDVD will make a comeback. Sony going to lose. They have a bad teack record HAHAHhA LONG LIVE HDDVD LOL
the sooner this format war is over the better! then i can start buying more blu ray lol, i have a ps3 in my house and download most things so there no point in hddvd for me… hddvd is good in its own right but blu ray has the potential and its bastard DRM which most companies will go for which sucks!
I have it on good authority that Nintendo plan to adopt HDDVD to the new generation of Wii, and also will make available a plug and play chip of some sort to enable the present generation to play HD-DVD.
VHS killed the Betamax! History will repeat itself, just the names and the technology have changed, It’s Blu-ray vs HD-DVD.
HD DVD IS A WASTE OF EVERYONES TIME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB2e7pfZmGA
^look at the truth!!
Would love seeing HDDVD win, just for the hell of it.
i have both hddvd and blu ray…i’ve compared 2 movies and i cant tell the difference on a 1080 lcd…maybe there is a difference in quality but it has to be too small to notice it…to be honest i wouldnt mind if one format just won so everything would be released on 1 format
@26 I find it very fitting that a video titled the downfall of HD DVD is 320×240 resolution, using a crappy codec (flash video) and at a horribly low bitrate.
Anyone who says the video quality of either HD-DVD or blu-ray is better is an idiot. 90% of movies are using the same bitrates and codecs at the moment so their is absolutely no difference. Personally I am happy blu-ray won because I want to buy a PS3 soon for MGS4/GTA4 and I get a bonus cheap future proof high definition disc player.
don’t support them, just stay with blu-ray ftw!
@28
It’s so nice to hear a honest comment.
whatever, anything by Sony will not entering my house!
how pitiful!
I’m not a Sony fan either, but it looks like HD-DVD will suffer. The whole Superbowl Ad thing is just a knee-jerk reaction, and will probably backfire. Consumers can sense desperation a mile off (Look at the recent Sony PS3 debacle!)
As for which is better, I couldn’t give a flying fukk at a rolling doughnut. Regardless of the improved picture quality, I’m still perfectly happy with DVD, and the difference in quality between DVD and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD isn’t significant enough to cause me to shell out money.
Finally, having seen those terrible displays at my electronics store, where they try to compare an intentionally blurred DVD image with a sharp Blu-Ray image, all I get is the sense of more desperation from both sides to sell their products. – Blu-Ray may be winning the war, but it’s over such a small consumer market that it is all a bit pointless.
@20 : It won’t happen because Blu Ray has 70 % exclusivity on all Hollywood release and therefore HD DVD can’t sell more due do that alone.
How is that so hard to understand ? Ir doesn’t matter if HD DVD outsold BR for a month or so , Blu Ray has been on top for the last several months and it will continue in that way with more and more major studios announcing that they are going BR exclusive.HD DVD won’t make a comeback unless they can get company like Warner Bro to switch sides but it won’t happen.There are more chances that Paramount (and the others who are still in the HD DVD camp) will switch side to BR instead because that’s where the bigger portion of the market is and therefore more $$$ for them.
Logic guys , logic……..
@35 Trell: “I’m not a Sony fan either, but it looks like HD-DVD will suffer. The whole Superbowl Ad thing is just a knee-jerk reaction, and will probably backfire. Consumers can sense desperation a mile off”
I’m not so sure about that. It’s aimed at american consumers and they got a combined IQ of half a dead goldfish.
@25 bLinx: “It’s Blu-ray vs HD-DVD”
Thanks for clearing that up, It was so confusing…
It was obvious from the moment Sony put blu-ray in the PS3 it was going to win. It was funny watching everyone saying blu-ray=betamax and claiming hd-dvd would win because it was backed by the porn industry. Sony aren’t as stupid as they were in betamax days and had many other big companies backing the standard. Porn industry is irrelevant now the internet is here and who wants to watch hi def porn anyway?
I’ll just wait to see which one will get extint in the market and then i’ll get one of both, otherwise it’s almost gambling..
But i’d love hddvd to win the battle, just for fun
HDDVD isn’t close to being dead. The news was carefully spun around CES with Warner and Universal(?) rapidly pulling their support for HDDVD and feeding it into the blogopsphere. The result is thousands of articles titled “is hddvd dead?” and that is the point.
http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/007137.php
I hate both formats. But I hate hddvd a bit less because encryption is not mandatory. With BR, AACS is mandatory, or so I have been led to believe.
hail the DVD-R where we can put 720p HD rips! $30 a disc for BD already tells me enough.
DIAF Martin
Come on guys Toshiba and Sony builed a cell do you really think that is really matter who is gonna win to them (same codecs and bitrates)? Today, I would’t be surprised that they working together on some kind of new super hi-def format and earn tons of $, because today is all in $ and nothing else matters!
the phrase “throwing good money after bad” springs to mind. If i were them i’d throw a huge party with that money. Most people in the know realise the Blu-Ray has already won, so why are they bothering?
i hate blu-ray…but..i love my ps3…in a way, i am helping blu-ray in the war tho..:(
HD-DVD
Better movement than Blu-Ray.
More Extras than Blu-Ray.
Cheaper movies and players.
Compatibility since we dont have versions like Blu-Ray.
Better burn process thus an HD-DVD disc can get damaged a lot harder than Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray
More disc space.
More movie studios than HD-DVD.
Many brands to choose from.
These are the plus of each format guys. Each person picks what he likes more.
right now i think the problem is that delaying HDDVD death will only cause problems to their costumers, making them believe they still have a chance just to make them buy HDDVD players to make some “last minute” cash, but in the end those will be the ones to “suffer” the consequences…
honestly i don’t care which format wins, but the fact is there are already more BR players because of the ps3 and to someone who wants to watch a hd movie and already has a ps3 why would they want to spend more money on a new player? and to someone who hasn’t neither, buying a ps3 is tempting (like it or not)
Toshiba should’ve give their format a cooler name; then everyone would like it better.
The GreenRay Rules!!!!! That’s JVC’s format!
They need to show the (huge?) price difference between the products, otherwise they will never get the support of the public.
Does this really matter to us as Isn’t this a scene-sharing website?
I don’t care who wins to be honest, as long as i can download HD stuff from here (from HD-DVD or Blu-Ray sources) and watch it back on my HDTV through my PS3 I’m happy.
I think Blu-Ray will win just because of the amount of data that can be put on the disc as HD and BR has practicaly no differance in quality.
HD might become the next pc disc instead of BR beause it will be cheaper for disc’s the price of BR disc’s are crazy but atleast the writers have come down in price quite a bit.
Also I am sure they will bring out a BR / HD player which is what I am waiting for then if one does under I can still play the other wihtout wasting my money on a box that is useless.
I hate all things blue ray i’ll stick to what i have just now.If i want to look out the window then i will.
Also next gen discs cost £10 a peice where as i can get 100 dvd5s for that price its just an expence i don’t really need oh great the picture is sharper oh great i can fit 5 full length films on 1 disc oh great theres going to be 15 gig of usless dvd extras oh great sounds amazing i’ll stick to my older dvd player and dvd5’s for at least a few years yet and when it all gets that little bit cheaper i’ll be so much happier.
it would be funny if you’ve heard at the end of the ad this commercial is sponsered by Blu-Ray Disc
“It is a crucial move that Toshiba hopes will bring consumers to HD DVD instead of Blu-ray, which has a significant early lead in the format war.”
This is false HDDVD was out way before Blu-ray and had a lead but Blu-ray overtook it almost instantly and has been raeping it nonstop
@ 18
Good luck with that. You would be buying your HD DVD writer from where exactly? AFAIK, one has yet to be released. Correct me if I’m wrong but Toshiba only released details of the 1st HD DVD writer this month and I don’t remember seeing a launch date.
@ 53
The only way you will be able to watch (non legal) downloaded HD content from your PS3 (without streaming from a PC) is to convert it to an MPEG and either burn to and play from a DVDR/DVD DL or copy to the HDD. I have seen a PS3 play a 6GB mpeg file.
well i say only that i dont need none i just download all the 720p i want and i see them on my 40″ lcd thx to my macbook
…. the optical discs will die soon , the future is streaming thru internet is easier is cheaper and more efficently , just see qtrax the legal p2p , yes it s not perfect but a first step in the new era ….. no optical discs… i think they will be used only to backup data…
Sony (Blu-ray) is playing it so dirty !!!
Sony payd Warner much more then $3M dollars to go Blu-ray only!!
I hope that the consumers are smart enough to get a HD-DVD instead of Blu-ray, because blu-ray disks (films) would be much more expensive then HD-DVD disks !
Sorry for my bad english
goggoog HDDVD : D
@dh3x: where do you think those 720p are coming from?
damn the sheer stupidity in the comments in here baffle even me sometimes.. “all the studios support X so it must be good” gimme a break and think for yourself, for once.
i can’t believe people support the format that has regioncodes, a currently uncrackable protection (bd+) just because “it has currently more space”. look more than a month abroad please
Blu-Ray has won…I mean seriously…all you ‘HD-DVD’ fanatics need to face it. Who knows more about the industry? Random pimply geeked piraters, or the multi-billion dollar film industry that makes the movies you all steal? Disney and Warner Bros are the two biggest producers out there, and they are Blu-Ray exclusive. When those ‘half the IQ of a dead goldfish Americans’ as one of you ’second world tea-baggers’ put it, go out to buy an HD format…are they going to buy it on their own accord, or are they going to listen to the salesperson that says…”don’t invest in this format,it only has two studios backing it and Blu-Ray has the rest.”? Let’s not forget either…Blu-Ray is killing HD-DVD around the world and movie studios release their movies to those markets. Are those multi-billion dollar studios going to sell according to the smaller US market, or the format that the rest of the free world is using? Hmm…where the money is of course.
Blu-ray!!!!! but i agree with you @60, what about renting, flash drives from a movie store, that can be played anywere on a pc, mac , players. flash drives now get bigger and bigger. i think they will not using any kind of this media in 10+ year from now.. Computers in future , will look like the new macbook Air ! Dont you think? no any kind of media roms
it will be better.
Blu-Ray will die like DVD-R(not +) died long time ago.
Why not just give the money to some charity organization?
bye bye HDDVD…
btw…i dont know where you people live or shop…HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs cost the same.
Blu-ray for the win!
your a sucker if you bought HD
what the hell r u talking about, DVD-R s are everywhere?!!!u probably are still using VHS and cassette tapes for your content.BURN!!!!!!
Sad thing is that HDTV is now old news in Japan. They have had it since 1991. Now they are starting to move to Super HDTV. But all the manufacturers have agreed to stick us with the old technology so they can really milk the market. Kind of like how cd burners were kept off the market for 10 years or so. I guess BLU-RAY and HDDVD will both disappear when super HDTV hits here 10 rears from now. And they wonder why normal law-abiding ppl download pirate vids.
Id rather HD win, not sure at this stage though.
This is Toshiba’s last hurrah, maybe it will be successful maybe it won’t. We’ll find out eventually.
#61
SONY payed FOX 170$ million to stay on their side. Due to MANY manufacturing issues with Blu-Ray discs FOX wanted to go HD-DVD exclusive but SONY bought them off. Did they also buy off Warner ? Most possibly.
#64
SONY hasnt EVER managed to pass not even 1 of their proposed Media formats. They LOST the Betamax war, they LOST the Mini-disc war and a few more. Now they just want to win and they are doing it by buying out everything that stands in their way. The only thing good about SONY is that they have More MONEY than Toshiba and they also get support from Samsung , Panasonic , Sharp and virtually every other Brand out there that makes Blu-Ray players. So in a few words dont think for a minute that Most Movie Studios took SONYs side because Blu-Ray is better, they did it because SONY bought them off.
@64 it’s nice to know first-world asshats like you can so easily parrot everything you read and watch. i mean really… that’s what you’re doing, yer just reciting all the same ol’ crap saturating teh internet and tv. if you really were smart, you’d wait. see how it played out. who knows? maybe HD will win in the end (i hope). maybe BD. i don’t know. the next guy doesn’t know. even the companies don’t know for sure. so sit down and shut yer pie-hole polly. ’cause the last time i checked that so-called first-world country of yours has the highest rate of believing everything the media and anyone wearing blue shirts and khakis spoon feeds it. in my books that’s not smart. it’s just cross eyed, mouth breathin’ stupid.
i agree with those who’ll continue to use established formats until prices and whatnot come down. it’s working fine now, why invite more headaches? besides this is scene, as long as there’s stuff to rip and post or downld and burn i’m happy.
Now I like HD-DVD and what they are trying to do is great!! But I do feel that the time comes when you need to admit defeat and cut your losses.. not throw a further $3 MILLION dollars towards a product thats loosing out big time.
HD-DVD all the way!,more consumer friendly and easily ripped. boycott blue-ray now.
I have two HD-DVD addon drives, one for my Xbox 360, and one for my PC. Obviously, I would prefer HD-DVD not die, but things are not looking so good right now.
All the HD-DVD industry has to do to win this war right now is to release a low cost burner and blank disks. More power to the people buys the consumer edge. Think about the protected Apple Mac format Vs the open IBM PC format in the 1980s. Or think how MS leads the OS world – window$ is so easy to pirate. Yo ho.
Blu-ray is not good for consumers, so why do you like it Martin? Are Sony paying you ad cash? lol…
I agree with Calforba, if HD-DVD exploits it’s consumer-friendliness it will win, easily.
what i like to think is the whole disk format is dead(been around sins the 80 more or less. sins the then a new cheaper mass storge as arived . the 1 tara hard drive so i say……….. Long live stand alone HiDif (might i add you) video hard-drive players. so any format hddvd BR dix vob or any other format you got out there these suckers can play it. plus you can update them to take on new codec files just for latter newer codecs , so you are all ways up to date. llater
@75
Plain SD DVDs are great but for TVs up to 42inches. Anything above that and you get to see why HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are better. Even if you do get a top performing upsampling player still screens of 55inches and up wont have the best possible quality. Besides with the prices of HD-DVD getting as low as 99$ in some occations why even buy an upsampling dvd player ?
Bottom line , those who have 55+inch TV sets should get a next gen HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player.
chinese are making their own CH-DVD (based on HD-DVD), guess these standalone players will be compatible with HDDVD, with price 10$…, oh bye bye Blue-rray
I think opinion from Michael Collins is right HD-DVD should use a cool names… many guys buy Blu-Ray coz the name but don’t know HD-DVD is the better…
i have the HDDVD player hookup for xbox 360 pretty tight.. have a blue ray player in next room.. love the, both haha
like 31 said: whatever, anything by Sony will not entering my house!
EVER!
I watched the superbowl and didn’t see any ad for hddvd.