In face of release announcements, last week's HD DVD sales sink to 15%
By Steven Kim 
posted Jan 17th 2008 10:23PM
posted Jan 17th 2008 10:23PM
The hard times for HD DVD just keep continuing. Last week was absolutely brutal, and the ensuing "quiet period" among the remaining HD DVD players didn't help in either the eyes of consumers or the media. The result? After floating around the 30-40% mark for most of 2007's weekly sales figures, last week saw that figure knocked down to a paltry 15%, with absolutely zero HD DVD titles in the top ten. Battered, but not beaten, the HD DVD group is hoping to turn things around with announcements of upcoming releases. Warner's release of "Twister" on Blu-ray 3-weeks ahead of HD DVD is salt in the wound, but Paramount and Universal are committing to the fight with title like "The Jack Ryan Collection" and "American Gangster." It's looking pretty grim for the red team right now, so keep an eye on the [Thanks, David and ag23!]
Tick tock......just spare the embarrassment and leave with some dignity. It was a nice run, but just bow out already (at least for the kiddie's sake)
Too much pride. It shows since they dropped all 3 player below cost.
players*
players*
Or, they could continue releasing content for those of us who purchased their players until it's no longer financially prudent them to do so. That alright with you champ, or is every day of HDDVD's existence just torture to your BD fanboi soul?
@ Cash
I believe that if they just admit defeat now, it will save people (like you!) some money on a product (HD-DUD) that's extinct will no longer work once they cease support for it and start making BD Players of their own.
Only a matter of time buddy.
Why would it cease to work?
Oh, and I was on your side until you wrote HD-DUD. You seemed impartial and I imagined you just had a good sense of humor but then you tossed that jem out there and, well, the rest is history.
@ FreeRange
I am impartial and would think the same way for the BD crowd if it was reversed, but as they (Cash) said fanboi...I had no choice but to say HD-DUD.
I am in it to end the Stupid war and let everyone choose a replacement for DVD ASAP with no regrets.
I wish hd dvd would just give up already blu ray has won. The only people who are going to lose at this point are the uninformed people who will go out spend there hard earned money on hd discs and hd players that have no real future. They should bow out now and refund money to everyone that bought a player and dvds from them in the last month with an appology for misleading them on a format that now has no chance of winning. I have have hoped from the start that blu ray would win so good for them.
Okay, I don't see how anybody can dispute these numbers. It's over...right... RIGHT!?
Don't worry. Truth Teller will give us a post about how this is good for hd dvd or how blu-ray will flop and only be a game console format.
Until Tosh says it's over, it's not over. I ans many others will continue to support HD DVD even if it's 1%.
Just because BR is winning, does not mean this is just or right!
To me as long as Tosh says it's still going, I will keep going, at the end of the day, if they can sell enough hardware, things could change in the future.
I and many others will never support sony in the biggest anti consumer rip off of the 21 century!
GO HD DVD !!!
Considering all the heat people give to Sony for anti-consumerism, this is pretty anti-consumer of Toshiba when you really think about it. The numbers say it all. People didn't want to include the PS3 as a Blu Ray player in the numbers, well the movie purchases don't lie. Toshiba should stop selling their format because it is a perfect example of anti-consumer.
I think they're trying to stick it out because Universal and Paramount have some strong titles coming out this summer, in theatres. It's too late for an 11th hour miracle though.
As for sales numbers, they're piss poor. That's why even with 1 movie sold per PS3, Blu-Ray outsold HD DVD.
Most people would consider extreme DRM and installing viruses on peoples computers as more anti-consumer than just not giving up.
I just wish Amazon would drop their HD DVD titles to $5-$10 so I can load up!
OUCH!!!!
Does this mean the damn war is over? I want to finally be able to chose a side here. But wait, now I have to deal with Blu-Ray's endless profiles, 1.0, 1.1, 2.0., whatever. It never ends. So now if I buy a 1.1 player, I'll have to buy a 2.0 player to enjoy profile 2.0 features when THAT is ready. Terrific. Why couldn't the two sides just work something out and let the consumer win? No, they had to have their irresistible ego battles to see who could screw early adopters more. As for me, I'm now waiting for profile 2.0 players to come out.
PS3, fully compatible with 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0
PS3 no next gen audio.
Thats not true RG. Its missing one of the 2 lossless codecs, but there could be an upgrade to decode it in the future. But still, it does TrueHD and PCM just fine.
You don't have to buy a 2.0 player ever. It's not like anything amazing is going to come from it anyway. So a few discs download some clips... big deal. More likely it will just be used by studios to shove online storefronts into their extras menus. Internet access will be the first thing I disable if / when my PS3 gets 2.0 support.
I started off HD-DVD and still prefer the quality of the technology, but fundamentally I just like watching movies in HD. Now I'm cutting my losses, and although I lost some money, I'd rather that Blu-ray would just win. And hopefully slews of (good) titles will come out and fence-sitters will jump in. Good movies in HD are far more important than the peculiarities of a disk to me.
Well said shikarum, I have preferred blu-ray over HDVD because of the future proofing as far as capacity as well as the support of more manufacturers and studios, but the bottom line is that if HDVD had won, I too would cut my losses and get on with it. I'm glad my preferred format won, but I'm glad primarily that someone has won at this point and in a likely matter of weeks we'll be seeing support from all major studios.
Guys, please don't be anti-consumer like $ony, and support HD DVD, Toshiba, and MS (note: no '$' in MS)! I think with big summer flicks coming out this year, like maybe Transformers 2 and Shrek the Fourth, HD DVD might be able to not only 'come back,' but actually kick $ony in its blu nut sack. We all know that HD DVD is the superior format, or at least, not the worst format. I think blu-ray is the worst because it can't support Dolby Digital Plus which I heard is the reason behind the 'reference quality' audio that Transformers had. Blu-ray is for richy rich snobs like yuppies who shop at the Banana Republic and drink fancy coffee drinks at Seattle's Best, but HD DVD is for the regular 'Joe Schmoe' like a lot of us out there and even though my A2 only supports 1080i video I heard that 1080i is just as good as 1080p because something called "deinterlacing" can be done by your HDTV and I guess you still get all of the 'high rez' of the 1080 pixels. Something like that. Bottom line guys, is that $ony is EVIL and I will never buy one of their yuppified products that are ANTI-CONSUMER and ANTI-JOE 6-PACK and we can't let HD DVD die because Bill Gates has always supported the consumer and free enterprise and has encouraged the development of competing products that helps out consumers like me and you! Thanks a lot for listening to my crazy rant, but I just want you guys to know that, together, WE CAN DO IT!
Both Sony and Toshiba annoy me. While I think Sony is one of the most important companies in the last 40 years, both Sony or Toshiba can end this silly war. It makes more since for Toshiba to drop HD DVD then it would Sony. With the 9+ Million PS3, something around 1/3-1/2 of a million stand alone players, and 75% of the home video market it just makes since. Trying to push HD DVD to victory will bring another year of this stupid war. I just wanna play HD movies.
Jesus my spelling sucks today.
sense*
Shut up. You're an idiot. Another moron who thinks Sony is the only company behind Blu Ray. You think those two movies will save HD DVD. It will be dead long before those come to video. Toshiba started this war. If you didn't notice, from the beginning, the BDA had the majority of the major corporations in the market behind it. Toshiba decided to instead of join them, compete with them, and thus creating this ridiculous format war. I look forward to watching Transformers 2 on Blu Ray like Michael Bay wanted me to.
@haldol
h4idol in disguise, you are still a disgrace no matter which dress you wear!!
God Damn you are an idiot. Makes me feel bad about previously being a strong HD DVD supporter. It's over, all that's left are players and movies to sell to the gullible morons who don't know any better.
All you "die hards" are doing is embarressing yourselves.
Lets get one format going so that we can get a real presence and make sure that crapo downloads like Apple TV aren't all we are left with.
LOL at the haldol handle. Do I note some sarcasm?
@ haIdol (aka h4Idol)
Listen "Sybil", it's obviously time for another intervention.
It's a new year (btw, happy new year) and it most certainly looks like "The future is Blu" here in the U.S., an almost certain victory for your camp.
Us Red guys are holding out hope even though it's probably a lost cause in North America. We're cool with it.
Yet you insist on being an instigator on this website, and you're oblivious to how much your behavior has backfired. Yeah, us Red guys don't care for you (and I'm being nice), but you are majorly pissing off your fellow Blu campers now!!!
Don't you think it's time that you retire your sad dog and pony show? It's starting to sound more like that you are incapable of positive interactions AWAY from your computer and/or outside your home.
And since some of us believe that you maybe only a figment of someone's imagination, could you at least come up with something more original than the cut and paste crap that you spew here weekly?
On a less serious note, you still haven't told me if you've finally watched "Hot Fuzz" yet. Don't let title scare you, mmmK?
@ "Sybil"
Oh, one last thing: I would rather that you not end up like this guy.
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5425747&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1
*sigh*
People, its not the same guy. H4ldol is fanatically pro-blu. This guy was obviously doing a pro-hd dvd parody.
He's done it before, and its always the same.
1) he gets low ranked
2) everyone bites the lure and goes off
3) those who don't post show they're gullible by voting the responses up.
Its not even a GOOD parody. Its actually annoying.
I know I'm in the vast minority, but this actually made me laugh. Nice satire!
For those holding onto the "HD DVD dream", at this point the only thing HD DVD could conceivably accomplish is the death of high definition media in general. If Toshiba keeps pushing hardware, it just makes the fence sitters keep on sitting. If that goes on long enough, there will be no hope of HD media ever overtaking DVD as the primary home video format, and we all lose.
Geez guys, this is not a HD DVD supporter, this is a good old h4idol in drag trying his very best to make the HD DVD camp look stupid, he is not a HD DVD supporter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is just a satirical lampooning by none other then h4 himself.
I really liked HD DVD but i do feel that it is over. The only way i see them making a come back is if toshiba bought a studio or something to get more films out on hd dvd. But i have a feeling that that won't happen.
Haldol-well done.
Can we please take HD-DVD out in the backyard and shoot it? Enough already.
Also, for those few who may have missed it, check this out for a good laugh:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ
thank you for posting that because that was one of the funniest things i have ever seen!
Thanks, that was a good laugh. The person that initially re-subtitled that is a genius.
Someday I hope to watch the Back to the Future trilogy on my PS3. I can't wait until Universal jumps ship.
Your comment and that video are made of pure unadulterated WIN, my friend.
@ morpheus73
Nice find on that youtube video. Even for a Red guy like myself, that was some funny sh*t!
BTW,
DON'T ENCOURAGE SYBIL (my pet name for haIdol or h4Idol or whatever the hell he wants to call himself these days). Figuratively speaking, we would rather you take Sybil out into backyard as well.
Yes HD DVD is dead. Yes they are losing market share at an exponential rate, but that isn't going to stop me from picking up HD DVDs until they die. I personally can't wait to pick up American Gangster.
I really believe Toshiba should release a solid dual format player, maybe with a rebate for current HD DVD player owners. It would feel like a much more dignified way out for us red folk.
In the end I'll hold onto my player, and eventually get a BD player or dual format. There is nothing wrong with the HD DVDs I already have.
Yes... Paramound and Universal have some strong titles in the theatres right now, but do you think people would still BUY em, I mean,
Beowul = Paramound = HD DVD exclusive,
I want beowul for blu-ray but since its HD DVD exclusive I'm goin to WAIT for the blu-ray version until contract expires instead of just buying the inferior HDDVD thats goin to be obsolete soon.
Hey Eric, great news for you! Distributor of Beowulf in Germany is Warner. They made the announcement, that Beowulf will be published on March,14th. Warner Blu-rays are codefree, so you can watch them also in the States. In Germany Beowulf is called "The Legend of Beowulf" and will have this audiotrack: English Dolby True HD 5.1, so check it on www.amazon.de (buy) or at www.bluray-disc.de (info)
Sorry guys, this sucker's not over. Everyone was expecting this slump, remember, this is the first week after the warner announcement. We knew this was gonna be ugly, but since amazon sales are back up on the red front, i'm afraid to say that the following weeks will reflect that. Old red's gonna climb out of the mud and sit back up at the 60:40 whether the BR fanboys like it or not (I'm gonna say, not). This war is only over if May goes by and nothing happens but i can't just see toshiba lying down on this one. You can bet a lot is going on behind closed doors.
I don't think the battle is over quite yet but this isn't a very good sign of things to come and Universal and Paramount aren't exactly helping matters with the releases they have lined up between now and may.
It might actually be in their best interests to just bite the bullet and say sorry guys Blu-ray won and we'll continue shipping the current titles for as long as they bring in profits.
"Warner's release of "Twister" on Blu-ray 3-weeks ahead of HD DVD is salt in the wound"
How late is "The Matrix" on Blu-Ray???
Yeah but the Matrix is an overrated POS that looks beautiful in HD... and yes, I own it in HD-DVD, but I should have learned my lesson when I bought it on DVD.
I'd say BATMAN BEGINS hurts more not to have in BD than the Matrix... and this goes to show HD-DVD fanzealots that WARNER gave some great support to HD-DVD with those two titles being exclusive (or at least a timed exclusive).
"And then the first single, but powerful, Blu-ray of light streaks trough the dark red hell of HD DVD. Let there be light."
Tosh is just about giving away HD-DVD players. Hell, for about a buck 30, the A3 is about the same price for a decent DVD upscaler... + you get movies free. Universal and Paramount would be smarter to support both formats and not to do a Blu-Ray exclusive. Then they could cater to the installed base of red out there and make money on both fronts.