Yes, sales may be up for HD-DVD software/hardware by 37%, but 37% of near zero is still, get this, near 0. Even with their sales growing, bluray is still probably selling more units.

For just $200 more I can get a PS3 that comes with Bluray and everything. I think $199 is a better price.

first!

You can always buy the Hd-dvd addon for xbox at 199$ if you already have the xbox or buy both for 199$ 299$ = 498$ = less than a ps3.

The Blu-Ray and HD-DVD total number of units sold were close 3 months with Blu-Ray having less then 100,000 unit lead thanks to the PS3. So 7 of something far from 0 probably puts them near equal in total units. Standalone HD-DVD units are killing standalone Blu-Ray units. This war is far far from over. Maybe after this holiday season we'll have a winner but who knows. All I know is if you tell Sheep consumer A he/she can have HD for $99 bucks at Christmas it would be over.

oh and yes for this month only you can get a ps3 for $200 but next month it's back to $300 so don't get too excited.

I bet a lot of the Blu-Ray drives don't get used for video playback, so don't generate many blu-ray disc sales. So despite the fact that there are a lot more Blu-Ray drives in circulation the difference in software sales is not that big.

I read that out of 10 millions Xbox owners only 200.000 bougth the HD-DVD add-on, that means that about 2% of console players are currently interested in HD video. If it's the same ratio for the PS3 that would mean that out of 3 million PS3 only about 60.000 would have been bought for watching Blu Ray movie. Now there are probably more peoples that bought a PS3 for Blu-ray than Xbox360 users that bought the add on for HD-DVD, but it's pretty safe to assume that no much more than 200.000 PS3 were actually sold for blu-ray.

The rest of the PS3 sales will generate minimal Blu-ray sales as these are gamers that were forced to buy blu-ray to get the PS3 but have no interest in purchasing discs on a regular basis beyond 1 or 2 discs "to try". These sales "to try" generated a lot of sales around the release time of the PS3 but have now cooled down and fallen, that's why Blu Ray disc sales are actually down. On the dedicated player front (were a lot of the disc sales are) Blu ray isn't doing well.

On the other hand nearly all of the HD-DVD players in circulation were bought for HD-DVD video playback instead of bundled, so the customers that bought them actually buy discs on a frequent basis, so the ratio of discs sold by drives in circulation is much higher. Apparently this is a trend since several months, Blu Ray got a big push at the launch of the PS3 but since that sales didn't grow much, while HD-DVD didn't get the push (and was overtaken by Blu-ray because of that) but it's sales are growing every month. None of the formats is going away soon, but I think that amongst video enthusiast HD-DVD seems to do better (probably because of the low price of the standalone players).

Question:
With the soon to be release 65nm version, codenamed Falcon, of the Xbox360 I expect before the end of this year a price-drop, could it be that we might be able to get a (slight) price-drop of the add-on?
This would position the Xbox360 in an even better place than the PS3...

I have no idea what you're talking about, James. If you include the PS3, Blu-ray has several times the installed base of HD-DVD. And a PS3 for $200? Wha?

Anyway, there's a reason that these press released never cite actual sales numbers -- they're quite small. Saying that something "increased 37%" sounds much more impressive than using a real number that would only point out the fact that HD-DVD is still way behind in hardware and software sales.

http://www.dvdempire.com/Conte...f_wars.asp

Check this out, HD-DVD hasn't been able to out-sale blu-ray since Nov 2006.

I have a PS-3 that I purchased primarily as a Blue-Ray player. I have been thinking about getting an HD player for the few movies that are HD only. I would think that I am not the only one who is doing this.

If other early adopters are picking up HD systems for a secondary player, that would cause a short term bump in HD sales. I can't picture anyone with Blue-Ray purchasing an HD Disk if they can get the same movie in Blue-Ray (So HD media sales should stay low).

The limiting factor as to how many new movies I buy are the number of good movies that have been released. want more disk sales? Put out more content.

One other note, I don't see why anyone would buy a standalone Blue-Ray player. The PS-3 outperforms them by quite a bit.

The market is still just testing the waters with hi-def players. If the audio/video-philes equate Blu-ray with PS3 they won't take it seriously. Especially since the PS3 is flagging as a game console. The price of HD-DVD players has consistanly been lower that Blu-ray and outsells non-game console Blu-ray 4 to 1.

Our moms and dads aren't likely to buy a PS3 to watch movies and even less likely to replace it once they bought it.

The bottom line is that neither format will go away any time soon. Sony has a titanium foot the door and HD-DVD has the support to win by default. I'm calling it a draw.

What are you talking about, shaun? HD-DVD has Universal...that's it. There are a few studios supporting both formats, but there are more exclusives for blu-ray.

Neither format it safe. Sony has screwed up a good format before so it could happen again. The same goes for HD-DVD. Right now, however, it would appear that blu-ray is capturing more market share.

PS3 provided an early boost to blu-ray, but it can't do that much longer. It will be sheer idiocy on the part of sony to sell advanced game consoles cheaper than stand-alone hd players. Ultimately, it is price that is going to matter, and hd-dvd will continue to win as long as it is *way* cheaper than blu-ray. $250 is still too high for an hd-dvd player but I think that is acceptable for an enthusiast and that is why hd-dvd is picking up.

I believe in a couple of years we will have good quality hybrid players for under $100 and that is the only way this "format war" can be over.

First off the reason for such low numbers of people buying the HD-DVD addon is most people that would buy it are enthusiasts, and they realize a system with out an HDMI output and a limit of 1080i for playback do not make this a true HD-DVD player.
The PS3 is great for Bluray, it is giving a great base to hold market, while giving other Blu-ray player makers time to get their production costs down so stand alone players won't cost so much. I see the future of Blu-ray being better... but this format war isn't the be all end all because it will be very short. IP TV at home with instant everything on demand is were we are going.

All this fuss about a hd most people don't even have an hd tv, i run a computer store and ask customers what kind of tv they have, they all have a standard def tv, also ask them what players they have just dvd.

HD is an enthusiast product i ran over to future shop to see how man hd movies they had 1 shelf maybe 20 titles.

Also asked customers about hd they said they could care less there are 2 formats and they won't choose either till there is one universal format like dvd.

We already ran into a problem like this before beta vs vhs and people this time around don't feel like getting burned.

I have a blu-ray player in my ps3 bought a blu-ray movie and a 1080p monitor, i was not impressed by the image quality seems the conversion was not done very well.

Just to check it was not my hdmi cable i download some 1080p trailers, the picture quality was amazing, even blu-ray if its not done right is no better than dvd so whats the point?.

I won't be buying any hd content anytime soon till there is 1 format and the conversions are done so the picture quality is there.

btw also tried hd-dvd same thing not impressed by image quality on some titles.

You are not limited to 1080i without hdmi, if you have a high-end tv, then you more than likely have a vga port on it as well. VGA supports 1080p, as wel as the XBox 360 elite having the HDMI. Study before you quote partner. : )

CS, I miss-spoke. I meant that casual consumers will know what it is by the name "HD-DVD" whereas people will have to be educated that Blu-ray is similar and possibly worth the extra cost. Therefore, HD-DVD wins by default. Plus there are technology companies like Microsoft and Toshiba promoting HD-DVD exclusively to offset some of the extra entertainment companies supporting Blu-ray.

But, I agree, no format is safe and Blu-ray has a fair lead.

I do not want nobody to make decisions for me. That exactly what Sony does with bluray PS3 and exclusives movie titles. This is absurd. We should make such decisions not them. Only because of this I choose HD DVD. Let them brain wash somebody else.

The way the connection between the HD-DVD addon is set up, it doesn't matter it can't stream true HD. Maybe we all need a refresher course on transfer rates. And the 1080i is a quote from the 360 spec list provided by MS.

While better HD-DVD drive sales may be good and all, Toshiba still needs more support from content providers. I know Sony will the be the last to ever support HD-DVD, but Toshiba needs sweet talk the likes of Disney and Fox to support their format. Going into Virgin Mega or Circuit City and seeing the Blu-ray section 3x as big as the HD-DVD section is just depressing.

Dude, the audio / video transfer rate of BR is 54Mbps & HD-DVD is 37Mbps, which is obtainable over a Super G wireless connection. As you recall, USB 2.0 has a transfer rate of 480Mbps. So how can anyone say that the USB 2.0 cable on the HD player to 360 can NOT support true 1080p?

And how old is this spec list you are reading? They updated the firmware in the 360 months ago to support 1080p. So you 1-2 year old list is no longer accurate. I am no fanboy to consoles, processors, vehicles. I just go with what works. And I know for a fact the HD-DVD on the 360 is one of the better I have seen. (I work in an electronics store and build/repair computers for a living.)

I am a pro editor and DVD disc authorer. I like the HD DVD format, but the only HD DVD burner I am aware of is the slim line one available for HP-Compaq laptop PC's. I would like to see more PC and table top recorders available in this format. After all, if one wants to further cultivate a market for their high definition format, then encourage people to record on HD DVD media. Blue Ray has several PC burners to choose frpom now. What about HD DVD ?

With the slug fest going on between you two about 1080p for the PS3 and 1080i for the 360, don't forget that the majority of HDTV's that have been and still are being sold are only a 720p max resolution. So I think again, price is going to be a bigger factor than even, which one has better picture quality, because neither can show it off to its fullest capabilities on the majority of "HD" Tv's

No price-cut,then any xbox 360 sold from now on should have the hd dvd player included as a bundle at no additional cost! All defective 360's returned to their owners should have an hd dvd shipped alongside of their repaired consoles. BOOOMMMM!!! Format War Is Over!!!!!!!

That is the most moronic post ever dude
MS 360 sales have not been about an adult or kid saying "hmmm, this means i can use my 360 for watching 1080i output HD movies." No they say something like this, " hmm, this means i can play sweet games with excellent quality on my hdtv."
In addition to the 10% of people that actually do but xbox and add the hd-dvd, the price of the 2 at xbox's current price would break the bank if they decided to "give away" bundled hd-dvd players with the purchase of xbox's

I'm ready to purchase a gaming console and It'll be the xbox 360 elite because of the existing great game library, but I also want to get into the hi-def movie experience as well. I know that the xbox 360 up-scales the standard dvd format to near hi-def quality through the use of the hdmi cable. But, in order for me to get that true hi-def experience, I would have to buy an expensive hi-def player and $500.00 to $300.00 is out of the question when you can download movies now to your gaming console harddrive. Since blu-ray seems to be winning the format wars, I think that microsoft should make available the blu-ray add-on player for the xbox 360 system for the same price as their hd dvd add-on player! I don't want to spend alot of money on a disc format that might become obsolete in two years because of movie downloading.

Blu-Ray disks skip, video quality is not the greatest all the time (Depends of the movie) & audio is not 100%. HD DVD costs cheaper to produce, complies with the DVD forum specifications, and has the best picture & audio quality. Regardless of support, HD DVD is overall a much better option IMO.

Release Dates for HD DVD Discs
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html
Release Dates for Blu-ray Discs
http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/releasedates.html