An online retailer taking pre-orders for high definition disc players and content has claimed that UK consumers are spending more on HD DVD than they are on Blu-ray.
Play.com says that pre-orders made on its website favour HD DVD over Blu-ray by 2 to 1, whilst content leads by 3 to 1.
Play.com is offering the Toshiba HD-E1 HD DVD player at £450 and the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player at £950 (£50 below list price).
What isn't clear is how many pre-orders have been taken for hardware and discs: unless people have been grossly mis-sold the idea of HD formats, then we have to assume that these are HDTV owning consumers.
Play.com also aren't taking into account any pre-orders for the Sony PS3. Whether this should be taken into account is questionable. Yes, it sports Blu-ray but it's also a games console, and that's still the primary reason most people will buy it.
Whether the HD DVD crowd can get too excited by this news is another matter, as everything is still operating on a much slower level, it seems, in the UK. Though the PS3 isn't (legally) hitting the UK until March next year, HD DVD may not get that much of an advantage because of it.
(Via The Register)
Still very early to say, but I am glad the cheaper price of HD DVD is appealing to customers...
Maybe something we can take from this news and debate whether price really is going to win the war of the two formats. Maybe it is :)
There is also the HD DVD add-on to the XBOX 360. This is released in November at £129. At that price I may even consider getting it. Especially as the HDCP issues don't appear to be issues any way. This is discussed on Major Nelson's Podcast from the other week:
http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/10/15/Show-198-The-one-about-1080p-and-Family-Settings.aspx
I'm in the UK and own three HD DVDs and will never buy a Blu-Ray. So there.
well i own 10 hd-dvds have some of that olley man! blu-ray cant compete way to expensive for starters! and ps3 doesnt count!
I guess the PS3 does not count because...? Does it not play Blu-ray movies? Does it not have the top specs of all the next-gen format players for one of the lowest price? Well, why should it not count? Is it because you are brainwashed to think it does not count?
Dumb Brits.. I suppose they would have opted for the original retail Divx over DVD as well back in the day eh? no wonder we ended up with VHS & not Betamax.. suppose we can also be blamed for not having SCSI Devices as standard, but the much slower IDE devices instead. Blueray would get my vote.. but what do I know? Im not a sheep fooled by advertising
err we actually didnt get divx players over here until many years after dvd, and yes hd dvd is cheaper with an equal to i
or if not better than picture than blu-ray.
if you want 2 pay extra so studios can fit crap extras in more fool you!
Better technology maybe, but HD DVD hasn't been plagued by technical problems like difficulties with diode manufacturing and getting dual-layer discs to work.
HD DVD has been using the newer VC-1 codec since release whereas Blu-Ray has been using MPEG-2, the same 14 year-old codec (ratified in 1992) that DVD uses. BDs are just starting to switch to VC-1 which is Microsoft's codec, and only HD DVDs are getting supervision from MS during compression. HD DVD has no region coding and less draconian DRM (the only reason Fox support Blu-Ray).
Industry support? It already looks like Lion's Gate will be starting HD DVD support in the near future, and many of the big BD releases have European distribution rights held by companies supporting HD DVD. Terminator 2 (Studio Canal) and The Fifth Element (Pathe), for example. Rumours persist that Apple will be shifting from BD-only to supporting both formats which will put native HD DVD support into both Windows and Mac OS X, and it's worth bearing in mind that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on the board of directors of Disney and Pixar, currently in the BD camp.
Besides, what was the last Sony format that wasn't beaten by a more open competitor? UMD video? ATRAC3? MiniDisc? SACD? Betamax? Memory Stick? What about MMCD, beaten to market by a little format called DVD? Arguably the only breakaway format from them that hasn't failed is DVD+R, and that's only because most people couldn't tell the difference between it and DVD-R.
Finally, HD DVD has far bigger early adopter support in the HT community, and they're the ones who drive these new formats through the slow early days. The poor early reviews of Blu-Ray titles such as http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa122.html#b1st and http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7850079#post7850079 haven't helped, nor have the comparisons of dual-format titles like Training Day (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/trainingday.html) which have stated that the HD DVD version looks slightly better.
Only slightly better, yes. But the fact is HD DVD is half the price for a superior product with a bigger library of titles. The PS3 is the BD camp's wild card but the PSP didn't turn UMD video into anything other than an unmitigated disaster, even without a competing format. Not to mention that HD DVD has the name recognition - how many random people could tell you what the hell a Blu-Ray is?
Makes sense - HD DVD is easily winning the battle in the US check out: http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm
esp the much higher sales rank of HDDVD - the problems for Bluray appear to be the much higher price players and poorer quality DVDs