PS3 price cut rouses HD DVD group

Barely a week goes by without at least one member of the Blu-ray disc association claiming victory already/by next week/by the new year. Let's be honest, it gets a little annoying hearing them blabber on about how HD DVD doesn't have a chance. Traditionally, the HD DVD promotional group has been less vocal when it comes to the mudslinging, but it appears the PS3 price cut has slightly roused them from their slumber.

(Credit: Crave UK)

The good news is that they aren't worried. Ken Graffeo, co-chairman of the group and vocal HD DVD promoter, said: "The European PS3 price cut will have a minimal impact on the adoption of next-generation HD formats. The real battleground is in sales of standalone players and HD DVD is out in front by a massive margin."

We're sure fans of both formats will find plenty to debate in that quote, but however you swing in the format war, it doesn't seem like Panasonic's prediction that it will all be over by Christmas is especially accurate.

The group was also at pains to point out that the DVD market isn't reliant on games consoles, with only 40 percent of US consumers using their consoles to watch DVDs. It's a bit like comparing apples to Cuban tree frogs--DVD players are so cheap that everyone has one, where as games consoles still cost more.

The promotional group also claimed that HD DVD has 70 per cent of the standalone player market, which is an impressive statistic but still translates to relatively few players sold. It seems the general public just don't care that much about high definition discs at the moment. Clearly, most people are enjoying upscaled DVDs, which scan look very good indeed when played back on decent equipment.

(Source: Crave UK)

[ahickey]

PS2 was a primary DVD player in the early days

When the PS2 came out it was used as a DVD player.
Now that a DVD player can be bought for £30 why would you not have stand alone player.

Ignoring the PS3 Blu Ray players is like saying downloaded music shouldn't be taken into account for music sales as CDs are the only format that counts.

[joan151]

Your Comment is ignorant!!!

This speculation is ignorant. When PS2 was launched AS A GAME SYSTEM it included a dvd player for convenience and a sole format. DVD did not have a rival at the time either. If you want to compare anything, do the research first and then sound off. You would have had a better comparison between Betamax and VHS!!!

[psalm234]

Beware...HD DVD supporting Editor Article

It is interesting that you start off your post mentioning that the Blu ray camp is claiming victory and that it is annoying to hear that HD DVD doesn't have a chance. From this post and another post of yours "Tributaries HXC5: 1080P Video over Ethernet" it is obvious that you are a pro HD DVD supporter and can't give a biased opinion.

So, when the HD DVD group wants to rave about how they lead the market in hi def players, without counting PS3's in their count, but will include them when they make a comment about attach rates...sorry about that but anyone researching this will find posts like this.

As a frequent reader of this site, I find it hard to listen to someone that can't give the truth about the format war and which side is actually slinging mud and untruth when it is all over the internet.

If I'm not mistaken, this war is only hurting the consumers and the technology as it continues to run on. And I believe that the consumers are actually making a choice as it appears in sales that Blu ray has continually lead in sales since the end of 2006.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the war might have been decided by now if Viacom, which owns Paramount and Dreamworks, hadn't been paid off to drop support for Blu ray and only support HD DVD. It was very obvious that Blu ray sales for Paramount/DW titles were selling at a 2 to 1 rate in favor of Blu ray. Also, the sales for Transformers was well below what they should have been for a movie like that (see the facts and data). Even without Paramount/DW, Blu ray is still leading in sales.

Anyone who does their homework and research both sides can see which technology is superior. Which when I did mine, I saw Blu ray has the better technological advantage behind it for many years to come. If I am going to make an investment in a new technology (buying new movies, replacing my old movies), I would sure hope that it will be around at least longer than 5 years (which it looks like HD DVD's life cycle will be). And I don't think cheap players produced by only one manufacturer (Toshiba) is the way to worldwide adoption (by the way, the US is the only place were this war is even close...Blu ray leads 4 to 1 or more outside of the US.). Other manufacturers don't make standalone HD DVD players because they know they can't make money with a new technology when the price keeps moving south. I know I was raised to know "...you get what you paid for...".

Sorry for the rant, but I always thought that news reports were always best and backed by their facts and data. This is something the HD DVD Group has never done.

My comment to others reading, do your homework before jumping in...it will be the best way to get, hopefully, the true information about both technologies. This article is not giving a true biased opinion.