HD DVD Surpasses 750,000 Players (incl. Xbox 360 Addon) Options

[Xbox-Scene]

HD DVD Surpasses 750,000 Players (incl. Xbox 360 Addon) Posted by XanTium | November 27 15:23 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From the press release: [QUOTE] Following landmark Black Friday promotions through major retail chains, the North American HD DVD Promotional Group today announced that sales of dedicated HD DVD players exceeded the 750,000 mark. The data is based on retailer reports and other point of sale data, and includes standalone set-top players as well as the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. "HD DVD continues to gain momentum and market share with consumers," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group. "With more than four weeks left for holiday shopping, HD DVD is turning out to be a perfect consumer electronics gift." HD DVD continues to step up marketing and education efforts, helping consumers to see the quality and value of the new format. In addition to an enhanced presence at major retailers, HD DVD has added educational sections to its website at http://www.TheLookAndSoundOfPerfect.com. [/QUOTE]

[cerealkillajme]

Great news for HD-DVD and early adopters (like me)

And only a month ago they were nearing the 500,000 mark.

[moddingswede]

I bought the 360 addon last month and couldn't be happier.

[bucko]

weres my 5 free movies promo uk come on I aint used it yet..

gonna have to buy a movie as soon as I get paid grrrr.

[dmitri]

So based on this, HD-DVD just breached 10% of the BluRay install base.

[cerealkillajme]

So based on this, HD-DVD just breached 10% of the BluRay install base.

It's all on how you want to look at the numbers though. Blu-Ray's stand-alone install base is only 250,000 (could be up to 300k by now) with the rest of their install base being PS3s. So HD-DVDs stand-alone install base would be about 2.5-3x what Blu-Ray's stand-alone install base is right now.

And according to a recent article when you include PS3s in with Blu-Ray's install base it destroys their movie attach rate (HD-DVD is 3.8 and Blu-Ray is .6).

[Reaper527]

weres my 5 free movies promo uk come on I aint used it yet..

gonna have to buy a movie as soon as I get paid grrrr.

mine hasn't arrived yet either i shipped my form off right before halloween. regardless, i love my player.

So based on this, HD-DVD just breached 10% of the BluRay install base.

that number includes all ps3's though, and i personally feel thats different from hd-dvd including 360 sales. my reasoning there is that the ps3 has blueray built in, and everyone with the system gets it regardless of if they want it. the 360 add on is stand alone, so everyone that has it actually got it with the hd-dvd format in mind. (i'm not saying no one cares about the ps3's blue ray player, but at the same time, i promise the interest level of ps3's install base is not 100%)

regardless, great news for hd dvd that they cracked the 750k mark, next step 1m

[jesterrace777]

No one has really addressed the issue of Sony's poor history with console optical drives either. I will be very interested to see what happens to the Blu-Ray numbers/support when a bunch of these early release PS3 Blu-Ray drives go south in the next year or two. Having been an early adopter of the PS2 and dealt with hardware issues after using it as both a DVD Player and a game console, something about having an all-in-one drive makes me very nervous. Also when you consider that many of them are purchasing these $400-$500 PS3/Blu-Ray/Multimedia systems and the fact that the cheapest stand alone Blu-Ray player that doesn't support all of that runs about $400, you have to wonder what corners Sony had to cut in order to cram all of that stuff in there and still be able to sell it in that price-range. True, the PS3s are being sold at a loss but it still doesn't account for the huge discrepancy in price between stand alones Blu-Ray players and all of the hardware required to make a PS3 run.

[STICKY_BUD]

i know 2 people who purchased the toshiba a3 model with 10 free movies over the weekend from amazon. actually, once their price got down to $159, i ALMOST bought 1 myself; except i already own the add-on and do not need the player until next year when our new house is completed.

instead of buying the player, i treated myself to a stack of movies which were on sale. they had a list of 104 movies on sale(buy 2, get 1 free), including the first 3 "best of" collections with 4 movies each, so my total was 18 movies for $179.

if they keep having sales like that, it should boost the attach rate a bit more...

[djtonic]

Well...I have a PS3 and the only Blu-ray movie I own is Planet Earth the discovery channel show. I own a stand alone HD dvd drive and I own harry potter box set, transformers, departed, shooter, goodfellas, hot fuzz, and I just ordered the bourn box set. My HDDVD drive seems faster, easier to use, fits in my entertainment center, runs off my "all 4 one" remote, is quiet and there are a ton of cool older movies out on hd dvd that I love....and it only cost me about $200.00
As for all in one machines, meh. I think I will sell my PS3 because I am not buying any games for it and could care less about keeping it because of blu-ray.
If my 360 had HD dvd built in I probably would still have a stand alone dvd player. My original ps2 and xbox had dvd drives but I always used my actual dvd player for movies.


~Dj~

[88 Ecko Unltd 88]

good news for hd-dvd probably by late next year players should be around $100-$140

[Kramer987]

i know 2 people who purchased the toshiba a3 model with 10 free movies over the weekend from amazon. actually, once their price got down to $159, i ALMOST bought 1 myself; except i already own the add-on and do not need the player until next year when our new house is completed.

instead of buying the player, i treated myself to a stack of movies which were on sale. they had a list of 104 movies on sale(buy 2, get 1 free), including the first 3 "best of" collections with 4 movies each, so my total was 18 movies for $179.

if they keep having sales like that, it should boost the attach rate a bit more...

you spent 179 dollars on movies? some of you people boggle the mind.

[jesterrace777]

Well...I have a PS3 and the only Blu-ray movie I own is Planet Earth the discovery channel show. I own a stand alone HD dvd drive and I own harry potter box set, transformers, departed, shooter, goodfellas, hot fuzz, and I just ordered the bourn box set. My HDDVD drive seems faster, easier to use, fits in my entertainment center, runs off my "all 4 one" remote, is quiet and there are a ton of cool older movies out on hd dvd that I love....and it only cost me about $200.00
As for all in one machines, meh. I think I will sell my PS3 because I am not buying any games for it and could care less about keeping it because of blu-ray.
If my 360 had HD dvd built in I probably would still have a stand alone dvd player. My original ps2 and xbox had dvd drives but I always used my actual dvd player for movies.
~Dj~

That and I believe you can get Planet Earth on HD-DVD as well.

[Mozbius]

It's all on how you want to look at the numbers though. Blu-Ray's stand-alone install base is only 250,000 (could be up to 300k by now) with the rest of their install base being PS3s. So HD-DVDs stand-alone install base would be about 2.5-3x what Blu-Ray's stand-alone install base is right now.

And according to a recent article when you include PS3s in with Blu-Ray's install base it destroys their movie attach rate (HD-DVD is 3.8 and Blu-Ray is .6).

Wow! If those numbers are correct I'd tend to say that it's really an eye opener! Can you mention your sources?

[cerealkillajme]

Wow! If those numbers are correct I'd tend to say that it's really an eye opener! Can you mention your sources?

http://www.n4g.com/News-87860.aspx

The pre-Christmas holiday sales season is seen as being a powerful indicator of which way the consumer will go in the search for higher-quality video entertainment. In terms of US households the numbers are already showing a distinct trend, with Adams Media Research saying there will be 600,000 HD-DVD players in place, and 400,000 Blu-Ray units (all stand-alone) by the end of this year.

So by the above they aren't at 400k yet.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35008/118/
And according to below (2 day old article):

According to the HD DVD Promotional Group, standalone players have outsold standalone Blu-Ray devices, which excludes the Playstation 3. The Digital Entertainment Group agrees, reporting that standalone Blu-Ray player sales have not even reached 200,000 units yet. However, when the PS3 is factored in, Blu-Ray dwarfs its competitor.

http://www.betanews.com/article/HD_DVD_pla...rope/1196182088
And the above article talks about the attach rate as well as the one linked in my original post.

Here are some numbers from June as well.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/format-war/blu+...n-us-270696.php

According to research group Digital Entertainment Group, there are 1.5 million Blu-ray players in the US. That's made up of 100,000 standalone players and 1.4 million PS3s. As for HD DVD, there are 150,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD players and 150,000 standalone players.

Good god I had to work some for that one. I came across those numbers just reading a few articles the other day and last week and I could not find them again if my life depended on it. Another that I couldn't find is when they are talking about the "projected holiday sales" they said Blu-Ray would get to 400k and also mentioned in parenthasis that "150k sales", which would put their estimate of the current install base to be 250k standalone Blu-Ray players. I did not mention that above or link it as I wasn't able to find it again.