NPD has refuted this initial report. Only about 1% of the blu-ray stand alone players were actual sales. The others were all free or near free with HDTV purchases.

http://www.betanews.com/article/print/NPD_Free_Bluray_player_deals_led_to_boosted_sales_this_month/1201203983

NPD has refuted this initial report. Only about 1% of the blu-ray stand alone players were actual sales. The others were all free or near free with HDTV purchases.

http://www.betanews.com/article/print/NPD_Free_Bluray_player_deals_led_to_boosted_sales_this_month/1201203983

So I guess there are now close to 1 million early HD-DVD adopters that will likely stick with upconverted Standard definition DVDs for while. Sony will really have to work on getting $100-$200 players to the market fast. If they don't there is still a good chance HDM will never reach mass market adoption. And without the competition, I don't see price drops coming any time soon.

Anybody in either camp better take advantage of the BOGO deals while they last, It will be a LONG time before you see these again, especially for Blu.

Are the numbers out for the week yet? Not saying they are not, but I thought the numbers were published on Friday.

There are still two more weeks left of the Neilson numbers after tommorrows since they report sales for the previous week.

Don't forget to factor in that the PS3 just came out with a couple of games to play. Since the game machine now has games to play people may buy games instead of movies.

@ HDpurist

"Ironic thing is, HD-DVD had 1 full year head start over BD."

Then I suppose Blu-Ray is to blame for the format war since HD-DVD was already on the market for a full year before BD came and muddied the waters?

If you look at this link, you can see the top 5 for each side.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom120907/index.php

Blu

1.) Live Free or Die Hard
2.) Spider-Man 3
3.) Ratatouille
4.) Planet Earth
5.) 300

HD

1.) Planet Earth
2.) Transformes
3.) Shrek the Third
4.) Top Gun
5.) Star Trek: The Original series

Looks like two very different demographics. Three of the top five for HD-DVD look to appeal to an older audience. Four of the top five Blu-Ray look to appeal to a younger audience. Blu-Ray seems to be pretty in-line with PS3's main demographic. I'm not sure how Hairspray got in there at number 10 overall though.

Nielsen numbers can be found here until posted on engadgethd

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom120907/index.php

I live in Austin, and there actually was a pretty strong cold front that came through yesterday. Temperatures overnight were in the upper 30's to lower 40's. Not freezing, but cold considering the highs were in the 80's within the last 24 to 48 hours.