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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."
If the NPD Group really wants to shake things up they ought to offer free HD-DVD licenses.
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.
A customer enters a multimedia shop.
Customer: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The owner does not respond.)
C: 'Ello, Miss?
Owner: What do you mean "miss"?
C: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
O: We're closin' for lunch.
C: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this hd-dvd what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
O: Oh yes, the, uh, the format...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?
C: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!
O: No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.
C: Look, matey, I know a dead hd-dvd when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
O: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable format, the hd-dvd, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
C: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.
O: Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!
C: All right then, if he's restin', I'll wake him up!
(shouting at the hardware)
'Ello, HD-DVD! I've got a lovely fresh cuttle movie for you if you show...(owner hits the hardware)
O: There, he moved!
C: No, he didn't, that was you hitting the hardware!
O: I never!!
C: Yes, you did!
O: I never, never did anything...
C: (yelling and hitting the hardware repeatedly) 'ELLO HD!!!!!
Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o'clock alarm call!
(Takes hd-dvd out of the hardware and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
C: Now that's what I call a dead hd-dvd.
O: No, no.....No, 'e's stunned!
C: STUNNED?!?
O: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Formats stun easily, major.
C: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That hd-dvd is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.
O: Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.
C: PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home?
O: The hd-dvd format prefers kippin' on it's back! Remarkable format, id'nit, squire? Lovely plumage!
C: Look, I took the liberty of examining that hd-dvd when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting in its hardware in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.
(pause)
O: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!
C: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this hd-dvd wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!
O: No no! 'E's pining!
C: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This hd-dvd is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!
'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies!
'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig!
'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!
THIS IS AN HD-DVD!!
The summary is partially incorrect. The NPD Group is a research firm, they do not own the HD-DVD format or anything close to it. The closest thing to HD-DVD's owners would be the DVD Forum, which is a consortium of companies.
The reason NPD is involved in this is because they are one of the big research firms for tracking sales data. NPD is the firm that released the earlier reporting talking about HD-DVD hardware sales slowing and this is a clarification of that. They are pointing out that one week's results can not be extrapolated to argue that HD-DVD is dying/dead like many people did, it's too short of a time period in a week with several unusual variables.
NPD group is not an owner of the HD-DVD format. They are just a bunch of market analysts who provide information to retailers. See their website : http://www.npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=profile_s.html
There are two kind of people, those who win and those who whine
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?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It wants to go for a walk!
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
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. The game plan was, in a nutshell, that Warner Bros would announce their support for Blu-Ray (even though they will continue to make HD-DVD for some time) and their subsidiaries would follow closely with announcements. Then it was revealed that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Twentieth Century-Fox Home Entertainment would reaffirm their commitment to the format. This information was fed into the biggest gadget blogs with the underlying message that the war is over. This was parroted near verbatim by submissions to all of the major technology and social bookmarking sites. Major audio video forums had been primed with posters working for the viral marketing firms employed to pull this off. Overnight every major site on the internet along with mainstream media was singing the Blu-Ray song. To make sure the statistics following CES would confirm the "Blu-Ray has won" story manufacturers were heavily discounting Blu-Ray players. This week, much to no ones surprise, this came true.
So why am I sharing this? I am firmly in the Blu-Ray camp but the techniques employed in this war have been rather unethical. Which blog or news agency will be the first to hunt down the facts in this story to confirm my story?
Don't buy it? Then read this article on TechChrunch which describes the same techniques used to market viral videos.
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?
Excellent! We attack at dawn!
I agree , I would like to see content distributed on read only memory cards. I seen 32 gig cards were do out soon. Why can't we see a new format using these instead of optical discs ? Supposedly they are cheap to produce and the newer flash memories can provide enough read speed to watch movies off them. Why not a little more investment in it to make it even faster then optical discs, and completely be done with optical discs.
But that would fail because they probably couldn't pack as much DRM on them to protect the "content".
This package Does Not Contain a Winner
In the UK, I recall seeing this on the Beeb (six o'clock news) and I'm pretty sure Sky news. Mainstream media may be slow but something like this is quite major.
It not dead yet, just resting and dreaming of Norway.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
You laugh, but HD DVD is at least a DRM optional format like DVD. Blu-ray mandates AACS - you can't press a Blu-ray disc without AACS for some reason.
Not that any studios are putting out AACS free HD DVD discs, but the possibility is there for any company that wants to act ethically - or that just doesn't see the onerous licensing requirements as worth the money supposedly saved by using DRM.
And yeah, I like the fact HD DVD is region free too.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I agree both formats are probably dead, but not for the reasons you state:
Here's the more probable reason why both formats will likely fail:
The studios are largely backing Blu-ray. That means HD DVD will likely fail unless Toshiba can get a hell of a lot of players out in the next six months.
Blu-ray cannot succeed either. The players are expensive and unlikely to come down in price. Most of the players on shelves right now are obsolete. The only player worth getting is the PS3. The PS3 is sufficiently powerful enough that the upcoming changes to the Blu-ray spec are just a matter of updating the firmware. Many standalone Blu-ray players have no internet connectivity (required for recent Blu-ray spec changes), and nothing like enough storage capacity.
HD DVD, interestingly, doesn't have this issue. Much of the recent revisions to Blu-ray have to do with bringing it up to spec in capabilities to HD DVD. But the studios seem to be going Blu-ray. So it doesn't matter.
I don't think consumers are going to go for either. For Blu-ray to take off, it needs cheap players - sub-$200 before there's any chance of mass market starting to take off, with sub-$100 players to truly achieve DVD-like penetration. it certainly isn't going to work with $300-500 players that you already know you'll need to replace within the year. That'll piss people off, especially when they start playing DVDs and HD discs back to back and notice that the visual quality they paid $300 for isn't that dramatic after all. Oh, sure, 2001 and Blade Runner look awesome. But anything action based isn't, and who cares if a romantic comedy is high definition?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Blu-Ray: You fight with the strength of many men, HD-DVD. [Slashes HD-DVD's arm off]
HD-DVD: 'Tis but a scratch.
Blu-Ray: A scratch? Your arm's off!
HD-DVD: No, it isn't.
BLU-RAY: Victory is mine! We thank Thee Lord, that in Thy mer--
HD-DVD: Hah! [kick] Come on, then. Have at you!
You can talk about sales rates or attach rates or how much shelf space is dedicated to blue boxes as opposed to red boxes, you can talk about technical merit or political merit, you can talk about studios committing to or being bought out by one side or another. You can talk about all number of things, but I know the war is over.
Blu-ray wins. I know this to be true.
I know this because sitting on the shelf underneath my teevee is a Toshiba HD-A3.
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.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
HD DVD has the ability to press a DVD and HD DVD on a disc. I would start including the HD DVD version on every standard DVD. Anyone that doesn't have an HDTV but is planning on getting one sometime in the future can still continue to build their DVD collection, and then enjoy them in HD when they upgrade. That will also provide an incentive to upgrade.
There are still a lot of people out there that do not have the equipment to play either Blu-Ray or HD DVD. Since I work in the tech field, most of my coworkers do, but there are only two of us in my neighborhood that have HDTV. I am the only one in my immediate family that has HDTV as well. Not having to worry about your DVD collection being obsolete by having the HD DVD version as well would be a good selling point.
"An undecided buyer would have to be pretty brave to bet on HD-DVD at this point."
Why is that? You can get an HD-DVD player now with 7 films for the same price as 7 bluray films without a player here in the UK. The Bluray player costs an extra £250 on top so that's a pretty big difference for now. Even if HD-DVDs stop being produced you've still got 7 high def films and a nice upscaling DVD player.
Even if HD-DVD is dead, the current deal on Toshiba's low end player is hard to argue against because you don't actually lose anything by going for the offer, but you gain arguably the cheapest entry option into true HD content.
It's one of those things you can buy if you're interested in high def and win or lose, it doesn't really matter. Even when the system eventually dies if HD-DVD is gone then you'll have still got a nice life out of it and the free DVDs will be cheap enough to re-buy in another format for a couple of £ or so if you liked them enough. It'll probably also be enough to keep you going until Bluray drives become more reasonably priced even if you rent movies.
Essentially the current cost of Toshiba's HD-DVD drive and the free HD-DVDs can act as a no-risk bridge for those wanting high-def content but not being willing to buy a Bluray drive right now.