HD DVD Outpacing Blu-ray in Sales Growth

[Ian]

According to the HD DVD Promotional Group's latest announcent, HD DVD hardware sales went up 37% this quarter while Blu-ray hardware went down 27%.

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At the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) Home Media Expo 2007, the North American HD DVD Promotional Group today 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.

Driven by major spring marketing efforts which brought standalone HD DVD players down to an industry first $299, dedicated HD DVD CE players experienced an astounding 183 percent quarterly increase. There are currently more than 180,000 dedicated HD DVD CE players in the market.

"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, and co-president of he HD DVD Promotional Group. "With HD DVD CE players now at MSRP prices starting at $299 and with strong marketing campaigns around new HD DVD titles with web-enabled interactive features, we're continuing to raise the bar for the consumer experience."

As usual, they're spinning the numbers in their favor. As usual, they're not including the PS3 in their figures. Also, they're not telling us the overall numbers, just growth percentages.

[vinnie97]

Good, the PS3 shouldn't be included in those figures, since it's Sony's trojan horse for Blu-Ray masquerading as a gaming system.

[Ian]

Good, the PS3 shouldn't be included in those figures, since it's Sony's trojan horse for Blu-Ray masquerading as a gaming system.

Yet, they don't eliminate the Xbox HD DVD drive from these numbers? Given, they don't explicitely say it, but "hardware" could encompass a lot.

[vinnie97]

The 360 HD DVD add-on is being used explicitly for HD DVD moving, though! Everyone who purchases it is purchasing it for one reason. The PS3? It's much more hazy as to what the end-user has in store, especially if you're talking about the more clueless among the buying public (aka the majority).

[Ian]

The 360 HD DVD add-on is being used explicitly for HD DVD moving, though! Everyone who purchases it is purchasing it for one reason. The PS3? It's much more hazy as to what the end-user has in store, especially if you're talking about the more clueless among the buying public (aka the majority).

You do have a point, but the HD DVD backers use this an excuse to eliminate the top selling Blu-ray device. If people aren't using it to play Blu-ray movies, who is buying all the titles then? Considering how slowly standard Blu-ray players have sold, its gotta be PS3 owners.

[vinnie97]

Yea, the problem being I guess you would have to use a mathematical formula based on the percentage of Blu-Ray discs being sold over HD DVDs (something like 3:1 currently?) and somehow apply that to the current # of PS3s eligible for inclusion in Blu-Ray only figures (I think I'm talking nonsense). Or simplify it like you said and really make HD DVD look horrible.

[Ian]

Universal's Graffeo is making some pretty bold claims. HD DVD not only holds the set top player market in Europe, but now 80% of the content is HD DVD too?

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6461381.html

Graffeo consistently defended Universal’s position, pointing out that outside of the U.S. HD DVD is far more pervasive than Blu-ray. Some Blu-ray studios do not have the international distribution rights to titles, which then are delivered by indie companies to non-U.S. retailers. Many of these indies, including Studio Canal, are choosing to produce in the cheaper-to-replicate HD DVD format.

“In Europe, 80% of the high-def content is HD vs. Blu-ray,” said Graffeo. “We need to look at this business on a global basis.”

That article is pretty funny. The audience was really giving Universal hell for only releasing their titles on HD DVD.

[dolphinius_rex]

Japan is 95% Blu-Ray, Austraila is dominately Blu-Ray (almost no HD DVD content or hardware is even available there), Europe is ~95% Blu-Ray including PS3 sales (and most stores there don't stock any other HiDef players but the PS3, and only Blu-Ray movies because of the PS3), and North America has Blu-Ray outselling HD DVD by 2:1 (current sales seem closer to 3:1 or possibly higher, thanks to the PS3 price drop/clearence sale).

Is this a format war still? It's starting to look like a one sided slaughter.

[Grain]

Where are you getting those numbers from Dolph? Not that my online shopping is indicitive of anything, but the one Australian shop I do deal with carries all sorts of HD-DVD software and hardware. Japanese HD-DVD's are readily available, as are European. None of this ultimately means anything, other than availability, but 95% is a strong number, so strong you wouldn't think anyone would even bother stocking HD-DVD, and clearly isn't the case.
Also, not so sure that the sales number for either format is strong enough to be considered a slaughter. One things for sure, I'm buying my boy a Wii

[Wesociety]

That article is pretty funny. The audience was really giving Universal hell for only releasing their titles on HD DVD.

The people giving Universal "hell" were Bill Hunt from the digital bits (Blu-ray backer) and a HTF member who owns a PS3.

These people also attended a private Blu-ray party the previous night, where they were given free Blu-ray players and titles.

I would also like to note that Blu-ray Disc Association members were invited to this event to discuss both formats, but they declined to show up...

[dolphinius_rex]

Where are you getting those numbers from Dolph? Not that my online shopping is indicitive of anything, but the one Australian shop I do deal with carries all sorts of HD-DVD software and hardware. Japanese HD-DVD's are readily available, as are European. None of this ultimately means anything, other than availability, but 95% is a strong number, so strong you wouldn't think anyone would even bother stocking HD-DVD, and clearly isn't the case.
Also, not so sure that the sales number for either format is strong enough to be considered a slaughter. One things for sure, I'm buying my boy a Wii

A lot of those numbers are covered in this post:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=23583

The Austraila thing however is old news, as is Japan.

[vinnie97]

Not even a slaughter because DVD is killing them both.

Sony can goto hell. Go Toshiba!

[dolphinius_rex]

Not even a slaughter because DVD is killing them both.

Sony can goto hell. Go Toshiba!

You make it sound like Blu-Ray *IS* Sony. What about Philips, what about Pioneer, what about Panasonic? There are PLENTY of companies working very hard to make Blu-Ray work. But for HD DVD Toshiba is basically by themselves. MS provides and OEM drive of Toshiba's, and some authoring support.

So, I'll take the industry supported format I think, and forget the proprietary hardware, format war creating, inferior specification, recordable drive lacking, limited content having, HD DVD format.

[vinnie97]

Not even a slaughter because DVD is killing them both.

Sony can goto hell. Go Toshiba!

So, I'll take the industry supported format I think, and forget the proprietary hardware, format war creating, inferior specification, recordable drive lacking, limited content having, HD DVD format.

oooh, I feel the burn. I realize Blu-Ray has a larger manufacturer conglomeration of companies but Sony is the one with the most to lose if it tanks. I could even settle for peaceful co-existence between the formats with one becoming more focused on movie playback (HD DVD) and the other on high-capacity computer storage but I know the world isn't big enough for such a solution.