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HD DVD shrugs off Blockbuster move
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 21st June 2007
The HD DVD Promotional Group isn't fazed by Blockbuster's move to expand its Blu-ray rentals to another 1450 stores, while not expanding HD DVD.
Graffeo pointed out that rental counted for less than one percent of its revenue and brushed it off as an insignificant event in the format war.
Ken cited the fact that HD DVD is still being offered in the original 250 stores and through Blockbuster’s online rental service. He claims that those 250 stores are stores where there are large numbers of early adopters and the latter, he believes, is Blockbuster’s major growth market.
Thus, he is not fazed by Blockbuster’s decision. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that this is potentially a bigger win for Blu-ray than it is a loss for HD DVD, based on the figures he’s given to us.
He remained adamant that HD DVD was on top at the moment and claimed that dedicated HD DVD set top boxes are outselling Blu-ray set top boxes at a rate of three to one in the US. In the last six weeks, the Promotional Group has sold over 50,000 HD DVD set top boxes on promotion in the US, proving that once the price is right, consumers will buy into the technology.
Of course, these figures Ken gave us discount the PS3’s sales figures, which has sold over one million units in the States. Interestingly though, Graffeo claimed that only 30 percent of PS3s in the US are connected to an HDTV.
This was an attempt at playing down the fact that the PlayStation 3 is primarily not a Blu-ray player. To further press this point home though, he highlighted the fact that if you include the PS3 sales in Sony’s Blu-ray sales figures, Blu-ray customers are only buying an average of one Blu-ray title per player, while HD DVD owners are buying around four titles per player.
Whichever way you look at it, the numbers are so inadequate, especially when you consider the fact that there are over 90 million US households with DVD players and the market is worth around $26 billion a year. It is definitely early days now and the war looks like it is going to continue for quite some time.
Graffeo is confident that HD DVD will win the war because its players are getting close to that critical point of affordability, and there's also the fact that the HD DVD specification was finalised before any player was released, meaning that even the first-generation players can access all of the features in discs being released tomorrow. On the other hand, Blu-ray's specifications still aren't finalised, meaning that current players will not be able to access new additions to the specification.
Got a thought on Graffeo’s somewhat interesting statements? Share it with us in the forums.
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these guys won't let you rest for a minute ;)
Actually this is an ambiguity in the English language and generally relies on native speaker preference :)
Not me.
I always thought the 'rule' was not to use two consecutive consonants... which would make "a" high definition TV the correct way to write it :?
Lastly, I say "an HDTV" because that's how I would say it; "a HDTV" sounds too impersonal and it's harder to say I think.
According to a recent PC World article, the HD DVD releases of King Kong and Miami Vice caused problems with Toshiba players. It isn't just HD DVD, of course. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD players rely on firmware updates to keep the players up-to-date with the latest disc features.
The discs even come with the usual legal language explaining that they may not be compatible with your particular player.
-monkey
H.B.
Added to which, downloaded content is likely to be DRM'ed and time-restricted - if people are going to pay for something, they want to be able to watch it again and again, at their own leisure, not when some distant company tells them they can watch it.
The thing I find most interesting about the whole HD format war is that only the consumer level companies have produced players. Very few (if any?) of the high-end AV players have announced anything (we'll see if anyone announces anything at CEDIA next week, but I doubt it).
I'll eat my black Stetson cowboy hat if digital distribution isn't the main means of movie rentals and/or purchases by the end of 2010.
H.B.
-btb-
In other countries however, like china where 100mbit is much more pronounced, Digital Distribution isn't that unlikely
However, if you consider an HDTV title is something like 32gb (give or take)(for lets say 90 Min's)(also i think 32gb is actually a compressed movie already, so we are already at sub HDTV quality)
That's 364 MB/min (well a bit more then), which is about 6.1 MB/s, a 100mbit connection is 12.5 MB/s (maximum, in theory), however 100mbit Ethernet is actually 50/50 (up/down) (also this assumes that there is no weak link, or overhead in the system) so you would need gigabit networking just to stream an HDTV movie in your house, and how many people have a gigabit wire into their TV, I'm betting very few
I do apologise, i've just got back from the pub, but I kinda thought it needed saying...
It seems that HD Media is matching the prices of Games. but games you play over and over again and films you watch 1 or 2 times but over a much longer period of time.
No, H is pronounced 'aitch', thus 'an' is correct. See:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aitch
There is often perceived ambiguity with the letter h, such as an hour and a hat, but in the HDTV case it is clear cut - an aitch-dee-tee-vee.
Thanks,
Well, i should read the whole thread before i add my 2p. Just to be totally correct, it is 'aitch' rather than 'eych'. 'eych' is the noise you make after stepping in dog poo :)
I hope it tastes nice mate :)
Dont forget the Ketchup and a pinch of salt.
You started something now. This argument seems more interesting to me :p than the oringal post which I forgot about.