NPD Group Says "Wait! HD-DVD Isn't Dead Yet"

The NPD group, owners of the not-quite-as-popular-as-they-had-hoped HD-DVD format, attempted to battle back against the tide of "naysayers" who claim that the format war is over and have declared Blu-Ray Disc the winner. "While select articles have implied that HD-DVD as a format is doomed and the sky is falling for the format's supporters, the NPD Group this afternoon reinforced that sales results from a single week do not necessarily indicate a trend, and that the week in question had several intriguing variables that have gone unreported."

Comments

A Modest Proposal

[divide overflow]

If the NPD Group really wants to shake things up they ought to offer free HD-DVD licenses.

Re:A Modest Proposal

[ColdWetDog]

Blu-Ray at this point is simply too expensive to be any good for backups,at least for me. And I care more about burning my own media than I do about formats, which is why I and a LOT of people I know are sticking with DVD.And let us not forget that the cheapness of digicams and other forms of user content creation.

I'm genuinely curious - why are you (and just about every other geek who just doesn't want to back up his porn collection) so interested in an untested format for archival purposes? DVDs and CDs really aren't all that robust if you really want that data stored. Is there any info on the (presumed) shelf life of user-burned HD / Bluray disks? Inquiring minds want to know.

Re:A Modest Proposal

[Wdomburg]

There is a finalized spec, but it's silly to say that Blu-ray also doesn't have a finalized spec. For watching movies, it's finalized enough. They are adding newer stupid features. Totally ok.

Really? It's silly to say there isn't a finalized spec? Care to explain why there isn't a signle 2.0 player on the market yet, then?

As for whether it's "finalized enough" is a matter of opinion. If I'm going to pay a premium price for discs I want to be able to access all the features, period. Maybe you don't personally see value in downloadable content or in-movie experience features (video commentary, live storyboards, pre-effects footage, etc) but I do.

Cheaper for sure, but so what? Eventually blu-ray will be MUCH cheaper (I'm willing to bet money on it).

Sure, any volume electronics get cheaper over time. I prefer sooner rather than later. And this isn't just about players - mastering, design and production costs are also significantly lower, thereby allowing cheaper software as well.

And the audio codec are mandatory because HD-DVD is inferior. Period. They cannot fit uncompressed audio and must use compression, so of course there's a mandatory codec. You say space is wasted on uncompressed as though it's impossible to hear the difference. It's not, studies have proven it, I can tell, and why not have absolutely perfect audio? Audio is blu-ray's best feature.

You're a moron. Lossless codecs like TrueHD and DTS Master Audio produce an identical bitstream. Uncompressed audio buys you nothing but wasted space and bandwidth.

Not sure what your point for combo discs means. I don't need combo discs for blu-ray devices because obviously blu-ray will be in every $50 drive in five years. You can't get a combo disc for most movies, since most studios aren't on HD-DVD. Just a lame point.

That's fabulous in five years. Right now I enjoy being able to play my disks in my HD DVD player, my three DVD players, my three DVD drives, my portable DVD player and the car DVD player I'm picking up for the kids. Even if I spent the thousands it would cost to replace everything now, there are no portable Blu-ray drives (and little value to having one ... 7" and 9" screens aren't going to be HD resolution any time soon).

I can see sticking with DVD. It's certainly good enough for enjoying films. you can't beat the slection. But you insist you're sticking with HD-DVD, and I don't really know how that's possible. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that Toshiba is liquidating, the studios are leaving, and there's not going to be a bundh of players or movies to stick to. It's like my asserting I will stick to Betamax until VHS is far more compelling. WTF deos that even mean? That I won't be watching any movies? Stick away, pal.

It means just what I said, I'll stick with HD DVD combo discs and DVD for the foreseeable future. They play in all my current devices, they'll play in all my future devices as well (even BD, since they play DVD5 and DVD9 just fine).

As for whether Toshiba is liquidating, I don't buy it. I think they're making a legitimate effort to continue establishing the format. You obviously disagree. I don't care.

The market is choosing blu-ray 9:1 over hd-dvd without even counting PS3s, so I think you're going to change your mind.

The fact that you quote figures from a single week of sales after the research firm that provided them publicly stated not to take them serious illustrates nicely why I don't put much stock in your judgement.

The HD-DVD's failure in DRM is a big reason why they lost. If you are so opposed to DRM, then you need to give up on optical movies. Perhaps that's a shame, I don't know, but it's the truth.

I would say it's more Sony literallly owning several movie studios and spending billions subsidizing the Playstation 3 to submarine the format into as many households as possible. The lack of extensible DRM was a secondary i

Re:A Modest Proposal

[Gr8Apes]

You'll be happy to know that after the BD camp claimed themselves the "winner", that the next generation of BD 2.0 players will actually increase in price to $600 or more. A monopoly is a beautiful thing.

Re:A Modest Proposal

[MidnightBrewer]

You mean like how the DVD monopoly has resulted in $600+ players?

There is another thing to consider.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everyone bothers to read sites like Slashdot and Digg. Many may have no clue about what's been going on in the HD DVD war. So they see lower prices and they switch to that format. Warner hasn't yet released all their movies on Blu Ray, and their current HD DVD stock is probably still out there.

Why the hate?

[Berkyjay]

So does everyone here hate HD DVD because of some orrational hatred of Microsoft? I personally like HD DVD for it's cheaper price and the lack of heavy handed tactics used to try and force us all to convert. One of us. One of us. One of us.

Might as well ask the same in reverse

[SmallFurryCreature]

So do you hate BluRay because of some irrational hatred of Sony? I personally like BluRay because it comes free with a PS3 and the lack of have handed tactics by MS (such as buying support) used to try and force us all to convert. One of us. One of us. One of us.

Frankly if you want to look at the sides involved you could at most choose the lesser of two evils, lets see who is the convicted monopolist again? Who is the rootkit company again? Who insist on ignoring standards and enforcing their own inferior solutions on the public?

Sorry, this format war was about the difference between Jack Johnson and John Jackson. If the parties involved had been smart they would simply have merged their products and saved everyone a lot of trouble.

Oh and I don't hate MS, I just don't trust them, they got a very long history of lying to serve their own goals. Sony does the same, but I have never ever been forced to use a Sony product that was riddled with bugs. Can you say the same for MS?

Re:Might as well ask the same in reverse

[Moonpie Madness]

OK, at least you're honest.

You do realize that HD-DVD players are also Japanese, right? No? You mean bigoted morons are ignorant? Shock. Frankly, Sony competes side by side against South Korean and American electronics. It just does its best, and has no monopolies. Microsoft does not compete fairly and has serious monopolies that it exploits. We're a global economy, and Sony is a lot better for us than MS is. You are free, moron, to buy stock in Sony.

And how are you beinf forced to buy a new blu-ray player? All blu-ray players play all blu-ray movies. Sure, you can't surf the internet or save clips on old ones. So what? This is a typical dishonest attack.

HD-DVD is definitely the lesser of two evil. Less fun, less successful, less content, less future, less value, less alive. It's over.

Re:Might as well ask the same in reverse

[terjeber]

I don't like being forced into buying a new player every time they want to update their specs.

Sigh. Why is it that all these HD DVD fans are always spouting this ignorance? Before you open your bigoted mouth, why don't you try to figure out the facts of the matter? Here is some advice for you: Better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are an idiot than to open it and remove all doubt.

No, you don't have to get a new player to watch Blu-Ray movies in the future when the spec is updated. Your old player will work fine. It may not be able to surf the net, but you did buy the player to watch movies, right?

Re:Might as well ask the same in reverse

[terjeber]

Since Microsoft is much less involved in HD-DVD than Sony is in Blu-Ray, it is not only irrationnal, but a bit uninformed, to use Microsoft practices are a main argument to judge the HD-DVD format.

That's just funny. You are joking right? You can't be that uninformed. Microsoft is the sole reason that there is an HD DVD format. Toshiba wanted to drop this long ago but were persuaded by MS to keep it up.

Personnally if I had to choose between both I'd choose HD-DVD for the lack of region coding and the fact they have less DRM.

Personally I have chosen Blu-Ray to try to help end the war now. The reason is simple. MS is continuing to support this war because they want both formats to fail. If both formats fail then MS will be in a much stronger position to capture the download video on demand market with their VC-1 encoder and Media Center PCs. Do you really want Microsoft to own the entire distribution channel of your entertainment system?

Oh, and don't tell me that MS is just as bad/good as Sony, Sony doesn't own Blu-Ray.

Re:This calls for ...

[stormguard2099]

I think the correct answer is a shorter quote...

Re:too bad, so sad

[fastest fascist]

Next to go: Blu-Ray. Who's still going to be buying plastic discs in 5-10 years time, when a significant amount of people actually have the hardware necessary for viewing HD content?

Re:Not so fast...

[feepness]

As an insider I can attest to the fact that the online world has been nailed by one of the most successful viral marketing campaigns ever waged in a digital format war. An unnamed company (or three) got together before the recent announcement by Warner Bros in the weeks before CES to orchestrate this domino effect. I heard they also flew a missile into the Pentagon. Did you know that a real airliner couldn't have made that hole and that they stole all the tapes of the event?

Re:Not so fast...

[RedWizzard]

Whether all the press has been orchestrated or not is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is that Blu-ray has the majority of the studio support and has the higher market share. An undecided buyer would have to be pretty brave to bet on HD-DVD at this point.

Re:Karma-whoring suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

HD-DVD: At least it's region free. I can't effing believe that Sony wanted to continue the region-coding madness.

Re:This is getting absurd

[king-manic]

People like to complain that Warner stabbed HDDVD folks in the back, but this is a true stab in the back.

These guys know it's over and are trying to squeeze the last few bucks out of this things before it's all over, so they put out crap like this to get a few suckers.

It's bad for the industry, for their partners (except Microsoft), for the consumer, to let this format war last any longer, and it's over, so let's move on.

These folks are starting to embarrass themselves. I agree that HD DVD is dead. However NPD is just a market research firm. They just want to clarify that 1 week of data is nto enought o draw conclusions from. Which is a fair comment.