I have a feeling SpiderMan 3 is going to help Blueray alot. HD DVD needs to do some mild price cutting soon and get the porn rolling.

It is posts like these that will continue to get the comments below mine :)

Blu-Ray FTW!

Target is going to have an endcap this holiday season that features a Blu-Ray standalone movie player. There has been no announcement that they're "shutting out" HD DVD, and you can walk into any Target today and buy an HD DVD movie.

Blockbuster is not expanding HD DVD availability to any new stores. Existing stores with HD DVDs will continue to stock them. Blockbuster.com will continue to rent HD DVDs.

I've never heard of BJ's wholesale, but I'd like to.

2-to-1 sales sounds awful, I'll admit. But seriously -- a 700,000 disc total deficit with Blu-Ray is a pittance. That would be a rounding error if we were talking about DVDs. The volumes are way too tiny to be declaring a "smash."

Blu-ray has too much support from movie studios compared with HD DVD.

PS3 sales are most definitely the trump card and will remain that way until HD folds.

Cant wait until prices come down to reasonable levels for High definition media

The war is essentially over. Blue Ray will win. It may take anywhere between 6 months to 2 years, but the war is over. A 2 to 1 ratio is the final nail in the coffin. The ratio is just going to widen with the recent drop in price for the PS3. I'm predicting that in the next 6 months more retailers will drop their HD-DVD offerings and help accelerate its demise. It turns out that Sony's gamble in making the PS3 a Blueray player was a brillant stroke of genius that helped turn the tide.

Ouch, and read somewhere in a study that i think either 20% or 40% of PS3 owners have no idea that the PS3 can play BD's.

This is a Duh..dude article. It's written as if this is a surprise to any who has been tracking the events over the past 8-9 months. Blu-Ray reaceive a HUGE boost from PS3 selling 3 million WorldWide, BUT...laast time I checked...PS3 isn't looking to pick up the PS2's baton, and 3 million, heck 5 million isn't that much, when you bring it into perspective for the total DVD market. With the new incentives out there from Toshiba and MS, you can expect that 2-1 to shift to 3-2 in the near future...and maybe 1-1 by the holiday season. Toshiba is going to have to dig deep and prove some incentive that are simply too hard to pass up.

Both high def formats have sold under 4 million discs in 1.5years?!
Compared to regular DVD which sold 750 million discs last year alone?
"Smashes"!?
Wake up, please.

This is tiny tiny niche stuff, so far and out of the mainstream as to be invisible.
The idea that any of this means much when the market is so new, small & immature is laughable.

.....and anyone who seriously imagines that a games console is going to 'win' the wider (and much larger) a/v market is kidding themselves.
PS3 gave Blu-ray an initial (and superficially impressive) boost but they are now stuck with PS3 = Blu-ray.
That's a tactical success that has become a strategic disaster.

Of course it's also perfectly possible that neither new format ever escape the niche.

From what I have read, only 1% of all HDTV owners own a HD player. Not to mention 25% of American homes own a HDTV.

From this announcement, it sounds like everyone is buying Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but this is with respect to this 1% of the 25%. Should the other 99% of HDTV owners really care? This is a TINY format war.

I wouldn't put it past Sony to count games on Blu-Ray discs as movie sales. Then again, I wouldn't put it past the HD-DVD camp to count a 2-disc special edition movie as 2 different sales.

even a 2-1 lead when both formats have abysmal sales don't mean much. I think VHS still sells more than either format, although collectively they just now beat it. That's saaaaad. You can't call victory with sales that low. Only a fanboy does that.

Bottom line is Blu-Ray won't win if it is dependent on game consoles. Sure it helped give it a quick start, but both formats' disc sales are growing, with HD-DVD at a faster rate using April-June data.

IMO, neither format will win. Combo players will be here and will be about the same price as regular ones within a year. By the time we see mass market prices, everyone but Sony will be making a combo player and the format won't matter at all. Then there's Warner's TotalHD disc with both versions that they are offering the IP for FREE to the other studios. If either combo players or combo discs catch on, the format "war" will end and both will be with us until a successor is launched.

at best two times the cost why should anyone (except for investors/backing companies) be rooting for blu-ray?
I don't get it.
like the people giddy that intel should run amd into the ground. wouldn't it be nice to actually afford these things?

If manufacturers dont introduce new stuff, we would be stuck with VHS, if that. Forget about DVD, we maybe not even have color TV.
Today BR is winning, who knows about a month from now? Whatever is said to attack BR/HD may very well come back and spit in the face of those who said them.
So just wait till the dust settles and the price drop before picking a side, is that too hard to ask? Why all the animosity against one another?

When you have to replace you Bluray collection due to scratches? I'm currently backing up my DVD collection because it's getting worn out and old, and blue ray is 5X more susseptable to scratch damage. You also can't resurface a Blu-ray disc because there isn't enough substrate to support resurfacing.

HD player sales are going to be extremely low until the price dips below $200 and until they become the holiday "thing" to buy, like HD tvs dec `06. For me though this excludes HD-dvds cop out by making cheaper 720p players and trying to trick users into thinking they are the same, for me I can tell a noticable difference on my 1080p HDTV.

The vast majority of consumers are not going to start buying HD-dvd or blue ray any time soon. DVD is still King, and will be for at least a few more years.

who knows what can happen by then.

I do not think that Blu-ray disk is more susceptible to scratch damage. It sound to me that you never hold Blu-ray disk in your hands. If you did, you could notice that it has special coating, which was tested to resist scratches from metal wool sponge. I own a few Blue-ray disks and I can assure you I do not handle them with care as well as my 2 year old daughter. So far no scratches on any of them at all. Here you have it.

"20% or 40% of PS3 owners have no idea that the PS3 can play BD's"
But Sony has promoted that the system plays all its games on BluRay and you get a free bluray moive on the initial launch of system and now you get 5 free bluray movies...

Hey Nick, "blue ray is 5X more susseptable to scratch damage"

Where did you get your information when the coating on a bluray disc is thicker so scratches will not damage the data with typical usage damage.

I'm not avocating anyone but get the information straight before opening your mouth about some opinions.

Here is some information for you AJay read these articles:
-&#xof; PS3 owners who know about its BD capabilities:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/33304/98/
-BD protection layer:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/28699/118/

My two cents is that i would rather go with the HD-DVD because of this reason, i have enough trouble with dvds as it with out there being less protection on my disks.

Major retailers swing Blu...
The Xbox has an external drive, conveniently allowing for an external Blu-ray drive down the road...
Major studios have followed down the Blu-ray brick road...
Even one of the premiere platform providers, LG, offered up it's top model with hybrid functionality but left off the HD-DVD enhanced capabilities.
Movies are selling 2:1 in favor of Blu-ray...

If you create a spread sheet and make comparison lists of content providers (where the real money is folks ~ not the hardware ~ it's the content) it's pretty easy to see who's got the game licked!

This shiat was nailed back in 2005 folks...as depicted in the following...

Late last week the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) pulled an Ace out of its sleeve and announced that not only will they support the Advanced Access Content System (AACS), just like HD DVD, but that they're adding two more weapons in the fight against piracy: BD and ROM-Mark. The ploy seems to have worked, because not only did it net them Twentieth Century Fox, but this week two other companies have hopped on board with Blu-ray.

Earlier this week Universal Music Group said that they would adopt Blu-ray as the standard for their next-generation audio discs—a nice catch for the BDA. Even better, Lion's Gate Home Entertainment today said that they, too, want on the Blu-ray bandwagon.

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 17 /CNW/ -- Lions Gate Home Entertainment (LGHE), a division of Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF; Toronto), announced today that it will release content on the new high definition Blu-ray Disc format. As part of its cooperation with the Blu-ray Disc Association, LGHE will begin releasing new films, TV programming and other titles from the company's vast library in that format when Blu-ray hardware launches in North America.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, and Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney) were all previously on board. Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures has put their HD DVD plans on hold, and NBC Universal has scaled back their release plans for the holiday. Among the big hitters in the computing industry, Apple, Dell, Sony (obviously), HP, and Philips (among others) remain committed to Blu-ray.

Denon waited it out for 2 years ~ and finally made the right decision to go Blu.

Sony, Philips, Samsung, Panasonic, Mitsi, Sharp, Pioneer and now Denon (Marantz).

It's done folks!

Hardware doesn't make the decision ~ but it follows the trend...cuz you know...in the end...it's all about statistics and money.

guys,

Does it matter whether there are more standalone HD-DVD players than Blu-Ray players? Does it matter whether only 20% of PS3 users know that their console can play Blu-Ray? What matters is that BD is outselling HD 2:1. Yes, the absolute numbers are small, but the trend has been like that for months. Now, since the 2:1 ratio has been like that for a while, just think of the situation when the other 80% of PS3 owners realise that their consoles can play Blu-Ray??? I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. But in my humble opinion, Blu-Ray will win..

I didn't hear about the Universal Music Group story. This is a huge setback for HD-DVD. UMG is the largest in the record industry, with more than 25% of the market. People may say that audio is separate than the video market. I don't think so. I can't wait to have one player for audio and video.

Man you people need to get your facts straight. Just because one format reads its disks at a different depth, 0.1mm vs. 0.6mm does NOT determine its likeliness to scratch. This user just made an educated assumption which sounded logical but unfortunately is wrong. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5jEbZt6AIQ

I know youtube isn't too reliable but It is cited to joystiq.com. I'm not saying it's any better than HD-DVD but can say that they hold up very well to abuse. If you're not convinced, do some google searches. From what I remember reading online, Sony is actually in a little trouble for using somebody else's anti-scratching technology. ;)

Remember, folks, we're talking about Sony here. Have they won a format war yet? Remember Betamax? SACD? 2:1 lead in sales is not a "smash", by any means. Let me know when it's 10:1, and every movie is coming out on Blu-Ray. Until then, my wallet stays in my back pocket.

Sony has done pretty good over the last 40 years...

They helped push Audio Cassettes from a dictation format to a audiophile medium. They were partnered in the development of Compact Discs.
Trinitrons still hold the top spot for best selling televisions in modern history. Don't forget Walkmans, Handy Cams, Sony ES and Playstations.

But hey, it's not about Sony ~ what it is about is that Blu-ray is being adopted from content provider to supply chain to equipment platform manufacturer because it had better backing out the gate; it is better marketed; offers higher capacity and is ultimately backed by Sony's prowess in all these matters.

...oh...and by the way...Sony pisses me off...but I still can't ignore the facts.

I wager if the public were actually informed of a nice little feature known as BD , which I might add you TG Daily guys aren't covering, and you damned well should, they'd jump the boat to HD-DVD. Especially after the wonderful experience they had with a certain extra "feature" on those old Sony/BGM Music CDs, catch my drift?

i didn't know about hd dvd until recent after seeing sale promos for 300. with that i read about 50 billion articals about comparing the two and for the hype blu ray was set out to be plus with it's push through using the PS3 it does not compare to hd dvd sound and video quality i even compared the two at my local electronics story. just remember the more costly does not mean the better. Blu ray got ahead of the game by using the PS3, but things will com into check by 2010.

"it does not compare to HD DVD sound and video quality". I don't know what sources you were viewing when you did this "comparison", but Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support the same compression standards, and have the same 1080p compatibility. The only major difference being the bitrate of the two. You might be referring to artifacts on the movies, I don't know, but the two technologies, video-quality-wise are neck and neck.

But should be. HD DVD is backed by Microsoft. That alone is a good reason for HD DVD to wither and Die. Why? Because next generation HiDef formats are already laden with anti-consumer DRM. The last thing we need is for Microsoft to push it's DRM AND proprietary codecs into a consumer device where every single player and movie sale can be tracked and controlled by Microsoft. Where content will only play on an Microsoft approved player connected to Microsoft approved devices.

And if you don't understand that this is a very real threat, you should look into Play For Sure and WMA and the list of screwed over Microsoft media partners in Microsoft's long quest to have every single media device you own be a PC running some version of Microsoft's Windows.