Posted on 02/14/2008 6:20:09 PM PST by Snickering Hound
The format war has turned into a format death watch.
Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks, reliable industry sources say, after a rash of retail defections that followed Warner Home Video's announcement in early January that it would support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format after May.
Officially, no decision has been made, insists Jodi Sally, vp of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. "Based on its technological advancements, we continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers, given the value and consistent quality inherent in our player offerings," she said.
But she hinted that something's in the air. "Given the market developments in the past month," she said, "Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."
Immediately after the Warner announcement, the HD DVD North American Promotional Group canceled its Consumer Electronics Show presentation. The following week, data collected by the NPD Group revealed Blu-ray took in 93% of all hardware sales for that week.
Toshiba subsequently fired back, drastically cutting its HD DVD player prices by as much as half, effective Jan. 15. But a hoped-for consumer sales surge never materialized; retail point-of-sale data collected by the NPD Group for the week ending Jan. 26 still showed Blu-ray Disc players ahead by a wide margin, 65% to 28%.
Software sales have declined as well. The latest Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales data show the top-selling Blu-ray Disc title for the week, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's "Across the Universe," sold more than three times as many copies the week ending Feb. 10 as the top HD DVD seller, Universal Studios Home Entertainment's "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Blu-ray Disc titles also accounted for 81% of all high-def disc sales for the week, with HD DVD at just 19%.
Toshiba had been pitching its discounted HD DVD players toward the standard DVD crowd as well as high-def enthusiasts, noting in its ad message that the new players would make DVDs look a lot better as well. And as a last-ditch effort, the company ran an ad during the Super Bowl -- a 30-second spot that reportedly cost $2.7 million.
But in the end, sources say, the substantial loss Toshiba is incurring with each HD DVD player sold -- a figure sources say could be as high as several hundred dollars -- coupled with a series of high-profile retail defections has driven the company to at last concede defeat.
"An announcement is coming soon," said one source close to the HD DVD camp. "It could be a matter of weeks."
Microsoft is the other big player in the HD DVD equation. Last fall when Paramount Home Entertainment announced it was dropping its dual-format strategy and would release titles only in HD DVD, giving that side a brief resurgence, a pitch to journalists for interviews came from a Microsoft email address.
Several phone calls to Kevin Collins, Microsoft's normally accessible "HD DVD evangelist," were not returned. Nor were calls to Ken Graffeo, the Universal Studios Home Entertainment executive who doubles as co-president of the HD DVD North American Promotional Group.
When Warner abandoned HD DVD in January, the format was left with just two of the six major studios backing it, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment. Blu-ray support among independents is rising. ADV Films, Tai Seng Entertainment, Topics Entertainment and National Geographic have all confirmed they are going Blu-ray exclusive, while more than one indie that was releasing titles just on HD DVD, including Surround Records and Opus Arte, will now offer Blu-ray as well.
This week, two key retailers, Best Buy and Netflix Inc., both got off the fence and threw their support behind Blu-ray exclusively, citing widespread studio support and consumer preference. Both companies said Warner's decision was a turning point in their strategies.
"We've listened to our customers, and we are responding," said Best Buy president and COO Brian Dunn.
Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey said it appeared the format war had been won by Blu-ray for the benefit of everyone.
"We wanted to put an exclamation point behind that," he said.
Industry observers are closely watching Amazon, but there's been no movement, other than a 50% off sale for 150 HD DVD titles, including "Transformers," "Zodiac" and "Stardust."
Blockbuster Inc. last summer already decided to offer only Blu-ray Disc titles at its company-owned rental stores.
Chris Tribbey, Home Media Magazine senior reporter, contributed to this report.
I new Sony would win...They didn't make the same mistake as they did with beta...
Seems like Toshiba also said they were not going to make DLP TV’s in future, only LCD’s.
I agree
Playstation 3 is at least a game system, Blu-ray player, plus I think it has backwards capability for PS2 and PS1 games, as well as playing regular DVDs.
Why purchase a separate HD-DVD player, or even do that with XBox 360, when you have an all-inclusive with PS3?
This is as hugh and series as when the CBS color TV system was trumped by the more compatible RCA color TV system back in the 1950’s .. the CBS system was superior but wasn’t compatible with existing black & white technology, hence the RCA system won out in the marketplace as the standard. Same thing happened with Betamax vs. VHS
I myself will be hitting the bargain bins and picking up all of the HD DVD’s I couldnt afford to buy earlier.
Because the games for the PS3 are horrendous. Xbox 360 won some big exclusives from being in the market a year ahead of PS3. Plus HD-DVD and Blu-ray are both already washed up...video downloads (including HD) are here and are only going to grow. However the PS3 will make an excellent all-inclusive doorstop.
http://www.idoblu.co.uk/page2%20Blu-ray%20Players.html
List of Blu-ray players as of January this year.
The PS3 is promised to get an update to be final profile (2.0).
The only standalone players so far that are to offer this are the Panasonic BMP-BD50 due out in weeks, the Sharp BD-HP50U and the very high end Marantz BD8002 due later this year.
Did you buy an hd dvd player?
Why waste your money, you will eventually buy a blue ray.
And I thought when I bought all those DVD’s that I wouldn’t have to replace my movie collection AGAIN after the VHS tape debacle.
What was I thinking?
How did the CBS system work? Did it amplitude-modulate the chroma information the way VHS does?
BTW, the VHS vs. Beta concept played out decades earlier in the rotary-fastener business. Mr. Robertson came up with his improved fastener/driver design decades before Mr. Phillips, but he was only interested in making fasteners and drivers himself; by contrast, Mr. Phillips was more interested in licensing.
Everyone know the Atari 2600 is the king of video game consoles. Not as many games being made for it today as in its prime, but more games came out for it in 2006 than in 1978.
What about the people who bought movies on Super 8? Or the ones who, before that, bought them on 8mm?
Bwaaahahaha!
Thanks for that!
It was only a bad marketing decision. I had a BetaMax in the early 1980's and it was far superior to any VHS machine. The VHS proponents sold their idea to housewives wanting to tape a week's worth of soaps on slow play six hour format... no matter how poor the quality was.
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