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Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War
An anonymous reader writes "Citing the recent sales numbers, Sony exec David Bishop is claiming that the high-def format war can officially be declared over. With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1 Blu-ray discs are being declared the victor over rival HD-DVD by Blu-ray supporter Sony. 'And yet while all agree that it was a strong month for Blu-ray, opinion is split on whether the surge in sales is an indicator of stronger user adaption of Blu-ray compared to HD DVD, or simply a reflection of the larger number of new Blu-ray titles that hit the market over the month -- 25 new Blu-ray titles were released in January, compared to just 11 titles on HD DVD for the same period.'"
You're absolutely correct, and that would be a good measure of a particular format's success. Here's the problem: The number of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles currently available is a virtual dead heat. The last time I did a count (about 2 weeks ago) via a popular website that sells both formats, the numbers differed by less than 10, with the total being in the mid 100s.
As regards the most recent numbers, it's pretty obvious that more Blu-ray titles have been released and purchased in the last two months because a) Sony finally released the PS3 and there is nothing else to do with that hardware other than playing Blu-ray movies and play Resistance and b) they're trying to catch up with HD DVD which had a significant lead in available titles prior to the holiday season.
It's obviously way too soon to declare a winner, but I'll give Sony props for trying to turn lemons into lemonade...
I should note, as I often do, that I don't care who wins. If Toshiba and company stand pat and don't push their format then Sony could indeed win the thing because the PS3 is going to sell as time goes by, even if it doesn't become the dominant game console that the PS2 and PS were. The HD DVD folks need to get a standalone player out ASAP for under $400 and by Christmas they need to have players under $300. If they don't, then they'll have to rely on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on to compete with the PS3, and that's a dangerous road - not because the HD DVD add-on is a bad deal (it's actually a pretty good one), but because 360 owners already have what they need and want to play games without the bonus of an HD format, while PS3 owners are "forced" into possession of the HD format as a consequence of desiring PS3 gameplay.
The first week of January it was 2 to 1 for sales of BD
The second week of January it was close to 3 to 1 for sales of BD
The HD-DVD camp Shot back that there where more title released on Blu-Ray the first two weeks (11 vs 21).
So what to make of this weeks releases? 12 titles to 1
It seems the distributors have decided for us.
HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on February 13th, 2007
Blu-ray
* Broken Arrow (Fox)
* Chain Reaction (Fox)
* Chronos (Koch)
* The Departed (Warner)
* Entrapment (Fox)
* Ladder 49 (Buena Vista)
* The Marine (Fox)
* Phone Booth (Fox)
* Planet of the Apes (Fox)
* Reign of Fire (Buena Vista)
* The Sentinel (Fox)
* The Usual Suspects (Fox)
HD DVD
* The Departed (Warner)
Titles to date HD DVD 159 vs Blu-ray 171.
and remember HD-DVD had a big head start and is now fading fast.
Letter To Iran
last VHS by publication date
amazon.com
#1 the mystery of love
VHS Release Date: February 6, 2007
#115 Dora the Explorer - Save the Day! was Jan 10, 2007
#116 Here Comes the Big Red Car ~ Wiggles was Jan 3rd, 2007- so 115 seems to be a safe bet for new vhs titles in the last month.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
DVD-R and DVD+R are nearly indistinguishable from each other, unlike BD and HD-DVD which are very different. It's a lot cheaper to make a dual-format player for the former than it is for the latter.
Not that it really matters; the massive amount of studio support that BluRay has over HD-DVD makes it rather unlikely that HD-DVD will long enough to where dual-format players would be a viable option.
Rob