The European HD DVD promotional group said Wednesday that the HD DVD format is winning the battle against Blu-ray in Europe, as HD DVD players outsell Blu-ray disk players by three times. The promo group does not count the number of Blu-ray-capable Sony PlayStation 3 game console, however, the claim is still significant as those, who want to watch movies, not play video games prefer HD DVD.
The European HD DVD promotional group claimed it had 74% market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for standalone players, citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK, reports Reuters news-agency. It is unknown how many Blu-ray and HD DVD movies were sold in Europe and how many of them were sold during various marketing campaigns.
The HD DVD promo group also remained tight-lipped over the number of players sold to retail, but considering that even the U.S. has acquired just about 150 thousand HD DVD standalone players, the European Union hardly consumed more.
The success of HD DVD is a result of standalone players pricing, which is well below that of Blu-ray disk standalone pricing. Toshiba’s spokesman for the European HD DVD group, Olivier Van Vieandal, said surveys had shown 70% of consumers would be prepared to buy a high-definition player once prices fall below $200, but currently HD DVD players cost about €399 ($549), which means that HD DVD has not yet become a commodity product and the winner of the two formats battle.
“You can’t get to mass-market consumption until you get to mass-market pricing,” said Steve Nickerson, a Warner Bros spokesman for the HD DVD group.
But Mr. Nickerson is reported to have said the high-definition video market was developing faster than the DVD market had.
“If we take a pragmatic approach, and understand we’re still only selling to innovators, we are ahead of the DVD curve,” he claimed.
Blu-ray and HD DVD formats compete for replacing the DVD standard. HD DVD discs can store up to 15GB on a single layer and up to 30GB on two layers. Its competitor, Blu-ray, can store up to 27GB per single layer and up to 50GB on two layers, but Blu-ray discs are more expensive to produce. The HD DVD is pushed aggressively by Toshiba and NEC as well as being standardized at the DVD Forum, which represents over 230 consumer electronics, information technology, and content companies worldwide. Blu-ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic, which are among the world’s largest makers of electronics. Among Hollywood studios HD is supported by Warner Bros. Studios, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, whereas Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox endorse Blu-ray.
Comments currently: 8
Discussion started: 07/12/07 09:14:39 AM
Latest comment: 04/06/08 08:28:27 PM
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1.
What a nonsense comparison, I am sure blu-ray is larger and will be larger with the PS3 and combo drives. Who wants a 15gb disk when they get a 50gb one.
[Posted by: Species5618 | Date: 07/12/07 09:14:40 AM]
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thats right compare a single sided disc to a dual-layer disc...
br single disc is 25gb not 50gb. so lets compare 50gb to a 30gb disc please...
also when it comes to movies, at those sizes you quickly reach transparent encodes with bitrate anyways so you wont see any different between a 30gb encode and a 50gb encode anyways. its all bollox. now for plain data storage i agree BR does have the edge but we are talking movies here...
[Posted by: hmmmm | Date: 07/12/07 11:29:18 AM]
We are talking data. Blu-ray standalone writers for computers are what will decide this thing. The more computer drives they sell the cheaper the per unit price. This will transfer over to the home entertainment market. One disc=one hard drive backed up.
The 50 gb storage on Blu discs is being used. Otherwise they would not be using them. HD-DVD throttles down the quality in order to fit the data onto disc. You do the same thing if you have a large picture file and want to make it smaller. The HD-DVD promotion group has very slick marketing techniques. Look into the practicalities using logic.
The startup costs for Blu-Ray is more than HD-DVD in production.
[Posted by: Sam | Date: 07/13/07 02:19:50 PM]
2.
how did an article on hd-dvd movies in europe become a article about 50gb of data storage??? we are talking about content on standalone players here.
you do understand that 99% of the movies out there which can be had on both BR and HD-DVD discs use the exact same video encode on them. why you ask... because 30gb is enough to put 3hrs of AVC/VC1 content on either formats.
storing 50gb of MY data on a BR disc right now to me is a dangerous game to play. the layer is so close to the surface that you only have to fart near it to corrupt the data. movie discs get a hard coating put on them, but the disc's joe blow will buy from the store will not.
HD-DVD discs do not have this issue by the way....
[Posted by: hmmmm | Date: 07/13/07 10:08:14 PM]
3.
Current BluRay players (except PS3) all are targeted for high end market, while Toshiba is low end. The price point of BluRay player is nearly a double over HD-DVD. This article is baised and has no difference saying Toyota is the true winner because they can sell more cars than Mercedes!
I would like to tell XbitLabs that nearly all leading HiFi/HiVi magazine in EU, including the What's HiFi, perfect BluRay over HD-DVD!
[Posted by: Is it? | Date: 07/14/07 12:43:08 PM]
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ok so with your theory betamax won over vhs .... its just that everyone doesnt know it yet...
money talks and bullshit walks ... sony's bs isnt working in Europe by the looks of it..
[Posted by: hmmmm | Date: 07/14/07 02:31:10 PM]
JAJAJA your funny, then why did the HDDUH people get on the EU union to look into BD for unfair practices, lol. Oh well well see who will win, i guess blockbuster has no say in it, one of the mayor movie media renters, they choose BD lol. Eat it HDDVD.
[Posted by: 000123 | Date: 07/16/07 06:52:00 AM]
4.
Yeah... whatever... who won at last? XDD
[Posted by: Mark | Date: 04/06/08 08:28:27 PM]
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