HD DVD vs Blu-ray: more victory cries
Another round of victory cries emanates from the various film studios, proclaiming that either HD DVD or Blu-ray is about to be defeated.
20th Century Fox's Steve Feldstein believes that, "The format war is in its final phase." 20CF are a Blu-ray only operation.
Universal's Ken Graffeo counters that you can't determine a trend over a couple of months, and Blu-ray's lead is only caused by more titles being available at present.
Toshiba's Deputy General Manager of HD DVD, Olivier Van Wynendaele, has said that the claims made by Blu-ray backers are simply 'propaganda'.
He believes that PS3 sales shouldn't be counted in the tally because there's no guarantee that consumers are buying the games console for its Blu-ray capability.
He also says that neither side can claim victory yet, as the total market share is less than 1%.
Toshiba also plan to undercut any price drops that Sony make in their Blu-ray players.
Universal and Toshiba both back HD DVD.
An independent consumer trends analyst, Alison Casey, says that the time is quickly coming when retailers make the choice as to which format to support. It's all a matter of shelf space. "They never wanted two formats. It confuses consumers and creates problems with them with returns," she said.
She's not hopeful that combination players will help solve the issue either. They simply confuse consumers. And having said all that, she reckons it will take 5 years before either high definition format "overtakes the hugely popular standard DVD format."
Plenty of victory cries, but still no realistic chance of a quick settlement.
Blu-Ray has the technical and theoretical advantage. Furthermore, total sales of Blu Ray Movies have already surpassed total sales of HD DVD Movies, mind you HD DVD was launched a lot earlier.
Posted by: Adrian | March 20, 2007 5:45 PM