It really doesn't take a keen eye for news these days to spot the
all-out PR blitz by team Blu-ray to convince the masses that
the format war is over and Blu-ray has won. Now
Toshiba is finally sticking up for itself, in specific response to Blu-ray's recent CeBIT press conference. Olivier Van Wynendaele, Deputy General manager of HD DVD at Toshiba, calls the Blu-ray claims "propaganda" and disputes the Blu-ray points. For instance, the new 3:1 sales figure being touted by the Blu-ray Disc Association in regards to Blu-ray to HD DVD sales is claimed by Wynendaele to be artificially inflated by free Blu-ray movie vouchers being redeemed by PlayStation 3 owners. He also notes that Toshiba has sold 200,000 HD DVD players in the US, in comparison to the 30,000 standalone Blu-ray players sold, and that it's not clear yet how many Blu-ray movies the two million PS3 owners are going to be watching. Olivier also promised that Toshiba will undercut Sony prices every step of the way, and made it clear that while HD players account for less than 1% of DVD player sales, it's way too early to call the war for either side.
posted Mar 19th 2007 2:56PM
Sounds like the dirty tactics of the BDA are being exposed for what they area. Public misinformation.
Fighting mis-information with mis-information?
What next gen dvd player comes with 5 free movies?
Why is it not mentioned that those are included in HD DVDs numbers?
A Toshiba rep defending the statements from another Toshiba rep? Shocking!
Of course, Van Wynendaele's not telling the truth either. The vouchers aren't for free movies, they're discounts, and you still have to buy them in the first place. At most, you could get maybe 4-5 movies, well under the attach rates that HD DVD claims. It also looks like he's discounting the worries of neutral studios and the fact that despite supposedly going for half the price, player sales are not stimulating software sales. The latest estimates put HD DVD's 1-week sales when nothing is released at around 5,000. That's barely 1 disc per standalone. Even when the same drought applies to Blu-ray, they sell more than 4 times as much movies as HD DVD, and that's with lowball estimates of 22% of PS3s used mostly for movies.
At least he didn't lie outright like Universal did and claim that the Amazon sale (specifically)--that didn't start until March--was responsible for being outsold 2:1 and by 125,000 movies in February.
Well, obviously he is going to defend HD-DVD, he is a Toshiba rep!
But regardless whether HD-DVD drops prices faster, in the end it doesn't matter as most of the Major studios are behind Blu-Ray!
It doesn't matter if HD-DVD players cost 100 bucks, people are missing the point.
Most Blu-Ray movies now and in the future will NEVER come to HD-DVD. It doesn't do you a lot of good to buy a HD-DVD player as only 1/8th of the content you want to will ever come out for that format. That is a lot of titles to be missed.
AG I disagree with your premise that Blu-ray movies will NEVER come to HD DVD just simply based on historical record. Both Fox and Disney supported Divx over DVD yet today they both deliver movies on DVD. Disney's CEO Robert Iger said that he thought they'd eventually support both formats but they felt that Blu-ray was the superior format.
Fox is antagonistic towards Blu-ray but it's News Corporation that makes the final decision just as Time Warner makes the final decision on what Warner studios does.
The studios will go to where they can make money plain and simple. They will support a format if it brings in profits so all HD DVD needs to do is create a large enough userbase to generate profits.
Because those 5 movies are fulfilled directly through Toshiba and not through retailers. Sony PS3 deals were for $xx.xx off movies or in some cases a free movie and these vouchers did in fact come from retail which affects the numbers.
Thus when Blu-ray'er love to spout of 3:1 ratios of BD to HD DVD movie sales they so conveniently leave out the fact that neither the 3 Movie deal, 5 movie deal or free King Kong movie are included in HD DVD sales numbers. Nor is HD DVD sponsoring a %50 Amazon sales to boost numbers as well.
He hasn't mislead anyone and facts are Zombi and Jiffylush are Blu-ray fanboys that view everything through blue tinted glasses.
"The studios will go to where they can make money plain and simple. They will support a format if it brings in profits so all HD DVD needs to do is create a large enough userbase to generate profits."
Couldn't agree more. This price drop is aimed at getting the installed base of HD DVD players up. The Blu Ray-only-studios will follow once Toshiba has a more compelling story and join Paramount and Warner in the dual format camp.
@hmurchison
Blu-Ray has lots of momentum right now with the lead and many movies coming out for their format whereas HD-DVD has had little to no titles come out in about a month.
This is on the eve of the PS3 launching in Europe so the Blu-Ray lead is going to get even bigger.
Keep in mind that Blu-Ray is not going to just sit back and let Toshiba or whoever get their momentum back. If HD-DVD does a price cut, you better believe that Blu-Ray players are going to see a price cut(excluding the PS3 for now)
Whichever way you look at it, More Blu-ray movies are selling making retailers and BD supporting studios happy, more movies - especially big blockbuster movies are releasing on Blu-ray making consumers happy.
Toshiba have nothing useful to offer me, I want the best movies and Blu-ray has them! Casino Royale + future Bonds, Spiderman 1-3, Rocky series, Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3, FFVII Advent Children, Ghost in the Shell/Innocence and so on.
"I disagree with your premise that Blu-ray movies will NEVER come to HD DVD just simply based on historical record. Both Fox and Disney supported Divx over DVD yet today they both deliver movies on DVD."
Conveniently enough, you forgot to mention Universal did the same thing.
@ Zombie
Divx was never as popular as Blu-ray or DVD for that matter. It's clear that Blu-ray is going to win the format war so why is it people keep insisting that Blu-ray only studios are going to publish on HD-DVD? It would be as bad as DVD only companies supporting Divx.
What is Toshiba smoking? Blu-ray has already outsold HD-DVD Standalones units SI.
Blu-ray took the standalone lead last month and started outselling HD-DVD movies in January.
Those 3:1 #'s are official Nielsen/VideoScan sales numbers and don't include free movies at all.
The lies and misinformation in this story are reminiscent of something you would see in a M$ PR statement. Toshiba knows they are losing but its still sad to see them sink so lo and resort to putting out these outrageous lies.
I love watching the Blu Ray kiddies get their panties in a bunch. I'll stick with my 2006 product of they year Toshiba HD DVD player and keep buying movies, that really pisses of the Blu Ray kiddies.
@AG - Hey you may be right or wrong. Time will tell but I don't think that the studios will look beyond potential profits. Their idea was to have one format quickly win and prevent consumer confusion. That clearly hasn't happened and to make matters worse both formats have had a breach of DRM. I think we have plenty of changes ahead.
@Zombie- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX Disney, Fox and Paramount released on DIVX exclusively. Universal did not.
The War is far from over. I see Blu-ray fans as being apathetic. "sure give me more DRM" "sure I'll pay more" ummmmmm no thanks. When there are other options and said options don't come with higher price tags and more crappy DRM I owe it to myself to take a look. It just so happens I have, at worst equal quality, no region encoding and less DRM with HD DVD all at a cheaper price.
It is about time some one from HD DVD spoke out about the numbers the Blu-Ray camp is throwing out. If you tell enough lies you will convince people that it is the truth through repetition.
I do wonder if that 200,00 number includes the Xbox360 add-on. That low a number would seem that it is excluding the add-on.
The add on was a miserable flop for M$. It's only sold some 40K units to date so I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers did include the Add on.
Blubaru you should check your numbers again.
"According to the sales data, the high definition movie-playing add-on sold 42,000 in November – its first month on sale – and a further 50,000 in December."
http://www.360-gamer.com/news.asp?id=226
Those number are only factoring in number until then end of December.
And you believe M$’s numbers? The same M$ that claimed that they had sold over $100,000 add-ons in DEC of last year. I will never take M$ seriously after the crap that tried to pull at CES and CEBIT.
Yes, they rounded up. I think a company can be forgiven for rounding up in a press announcement. They certainly over a 100,000 by now.