Blu-ray winning in Europe
We've seen the US picture - how's the war waging over here?
Europeans together own more than 55,000 HD DVD players and Xbox 360 add-on drives, it has emerged, but that total pales beside the number of PlayStation 3s sold over here: 750,000.
Market watcher Understanding and Solutions - which has long vociferously forecast Blu-ray's victory in the format war - provides the figure for standalone players, though the number of Xbox HD DVD drives comes from Screen Digest. Both figures arrive via a story in US publication Home Media Magazine.
U&S has another stat: during 2007, BD media outsold HD DVD by a ratio of three to one, with Blu-ray passing the million disc mark in November of that year.
If that doesn't show that, contrary to what some observers claim, PS3 owners are interested in watching movies as well as playing games, we don't know what does.
Interestingly, combining all these figures reveals HD DVD owners have bought, on average, more than six discs each. PS3 users, by contrast, have each purchased three-quarters of a disc. Those averages broadly match statements made in the past by the European HD DVD Promotional Group, which would lends weight to the figures quoted by the various research companies here.
European sales of standalone BD players remains a mystery, but it's not likely to be a large number and certainly smaller than the HD DVD player total, thanks to much higher prices, later launches and the widespread availability of the PS3.
If Register Hardware readers are anything to go by, there's a clear trend evidenced by their comments on the topic that a fair few folk have bought a PS3 primarily to watch HD movies on.
The high number of BDs sold compared to HD DVDs, and the relatively small showing of BD standalone players, demonstrates that in Europe the PS3 is driving uptake of the Blu-ray Disc.
Still, compare that to DVD sales: 250m in 2007, up 29m discs on the previous year, according to the British Video Association, again by way of Home Media Magazine.
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COMMENTS
HD-DVD Outselling iPod
The Toshiba HD-DVD player last week was the best selling electrical item on Play.com even outselling the iPod! The more expensive Toshiba HD-DVD model came in at number 5. This week the Tosh is at number 5.
Sony BD didn't even make the top 100 and the closest BD player was from Samsung and that came in at number 67.
Cost talks and now the price point of the Toshiba HD-DVD's is at an acceptable level things have started to change.
I'll keep buying HD-DVD whilst I can
I own an xbox 360 + hd-dvd and a PS3. Obviously had the 360 longer but i certainly am not a fanboy for m$oft or sony. 360 is running at 1920x1080 via VGA and PS3 same res via hdmi on the same Sony (!) 1080p TV. I find it easy to say give me the xbox and hd-dvd any day over ps3 and bluray. Quality of graphics in games seems better and so does playback of discs and multiplayer on xbox live makes games. My hd-dvd addon will keep playing the discs I have and I am sure if bluray does ever win over Tosh then they will make dual format machines. For now I will keep buying ever cheaper region free hd-dvd with their better quality extras and leave ps3 to play games that i cannot get on the xbox.
I do with the fan on 360 was quieter though. My Ps3 is near silent. Actually most of the time it is silent cause I'm on the 360.
i'll choose the format that ....
Is region unlocked...
Has widespread use of PIP....
Is cheap...
Allows SD and HD disc on a dual format disc...
That is bluray isn't it?
What? It isn't?
Damn!
Loaded stats
Great. As said, though more Blu-Ray discs are being sold just because there are more PS3s about than any other player, it's clear that PS3 owners are actually not that interested in Blu-Ray. They buy one disc (or a fraction of one going by the stats), and that's it.
Blu-Ray wins, and no one's interested.
Attach Rates would be a better figure to look at, but the heavily aggressive pro-Blu camp have better marketing, which is really what's "won" it.
Personally if I ever go for Blu, I'll be waiting for a "proper" player, not an overpriced under-featured console (especially in the UK). Something that *fully* supports profile 1.1/2.0, and has high-end AV components, ideally with internal decoding of all HD audio formats (PS3 doesn't do this), and *full* support for DTS-HD MA (PS3 doesn't do this) or *full* bitstreaming of HD audio formats (PS3 doesn't do this). AND I expect a remote control in the box! (PS3 doesn't include one!).
On top of that, I'll have to wait even longer for full profile 1.1/2.0 discs to be released. At present I'm buying the HD DVD equivalents because there's no way Warner and co will be re-releasing their Blu-Ray versions with 1.1/2.0 features any time soon and the HD DVD versions are superior.
As for HD DVD. Let's see what the sales data for the first quarter of this year brings. £100 for an HD DVD player with 7 free films after all must have generated some interest (and going by most AV / film forums, a *lot* of interest).
@ Mr. Eman
and anyone else who labels Blu-Ray as Sony, it's not! Sony is only one player in a list of 18 consumer electronics who all own Blu-Ray, no one company has ultimate say in Blu-Ray, it is a conglomerate! Just because Sony have released the most successful blu-ray player in the PS3 does not make blu-ray Sony's.
On the other hand, you can easily say that HD-DVD is toshiba, as there is only one other consumer electronics company behind it, which is so small no one can remember its name.
@ ian, shame you xbox fanboys can't see past the end of your noses! I did own an xbox and due to it failing on me multiple times and the awful service i got from MS, i got rid of it, and now have a PS3, and to be honest with you i have never looked back. The library of games is great these days, and to top it all off, it has got me into HD movies, owning more blu-ray movies now than i do games for the console. Also, it was only last week that quite a few independant reviews have stated that the ps3 will take over from the xbox360 at least here in europe by the end of the year, although it will be a while before either consoles can get anywhere close to the Wii.
As for anyone claiming downloaded hd movies are the way forward ROFL..... To get a HD movie and a decent PCM soundtrack to the movie you will need to download at least 30GB of data! fine we can all go out and get a 20Meg pipe if we want, but the backbone of the internet also has to be capable of downloading such vast quantities across the globe, which unfortunately, it isn't capable of yet, maybe another ten years.....
