HD DVD and Blu-ray sales data January 8, 2007 3:47 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, CES, Hardware Sales, HD DVD, High Definition Optical Disc, News.1 comment so far
In press releases during CES, both backers of HD DVD and Blu-ray have announced sales data for their respective formats. But there is no clear data on the Blu-ray side. (more…)
Warner Brothers to announce single Blu-ray/HD DVD optical disc January 4, 2007 9:00 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, DVD, HD DVD, Movies, News, Television.add a comment
Understanding that consumers are wary of buying into the new high-definition players, Warner Brothers plans to announce a new disc (Total HD disc) capable of playing film and television content in both formats.
Executives at Time Warner (parent of Warner Brothers) hope the disc will generate an increase of sales of the new High-Definition players. Barry M. Meyer, the chairman and chief executive of Warner Brothers, said in an interview that the company came up with the Total HD disc after concluding that neither Blu-ray or HD DVD was going to lose the format war anytime soon.
“The next best thing is to recognize that there will be two formats and to make that not a negative for the consumer,” Mr. Meyer said. “We felt that the most significant constituency for us to satisfy was the consumer first, and the retailer second. The retailer wants to sell hardware and doesn’t want to be forced into stocking two formats for everything. This is ideal for them.”
The disc will be debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next Tuesday.
Source: — [The NY Times] — New Disc May Sway DVD Wars
LG Electronics set to debut first dual-mode HD DVD/Blu-ray player January 4, 2007 8:45 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, DVD, HD DVD, Movies, News.add a comment
South Korean electronics giant LG Electronics. Inc. announced Thursday their intention to develop the worlds first Optical Disc Player capable of supporting the two competing disc formats — Blu-ray and HD DVD.
LG will debut the player next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company had originally planned to release models for each format, but decided against that approach, fueling speculation that they were moving in this direction towards a dual player.
The new model will hit the U.S. market during the first quarter of this year, with LG adding that they will announce a timeframe and price point for the device during CES.
HD DVD/Blu-ray war heats up and system hardware sales for November December 15, 2006 12:16 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, Hardware Sales, HD DVD, News, Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3, Video Games, Xbox 360.add a comment
With November out of the way, sales data is starting to trickle in for the Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox HD DVD add-on, one front of the High-Definition format war.
For the month of November, Sony sold 197,000 Playstation 3’s in the U.S., while Microsoft sold an impressive (for an add-on) 42,000 HD DVD add-on’s for its Microsoft Xbox 360 player.
It should be noted that while Sony had more PS3’s sold, it’s impossibile to gauge how many of those owners of the system are using the console as a Blu-ray device. On the other hand, it can easily be assumed that all 42,000 owners of the HD DVD drive are using that device specifically for HD DVD movie playback, since the device isn’t used in any form for video game playback (the Xbox 360 is equiped with a regular PC DVD drive, hence the need for an add-on).
Elsewhere on the video game front, Nintendo sold 476,000 units of its new Nintendo Wii console, taking an early lead on the Playstation 3 by more than double the units.
Nintendo is said to be having no problems with their production of the unit while Sony is having issues but are still promising 2M PS3’s shipped by the end of the year (Sony originally were hoping to have 400,000 units for the U.S. launch, but were only able to supply half of that).
For the month, console sales were paced by the Playstation 2 at 664,000, the Microsoft Xbox 360, which has been out since last Christmas, at 510,000 and the Nintendo GameCube at 42,000.
On the portable front, Nintendo’s DS was the best seller with 918,000 sold, followed by the Nintendo Game Boy at 641,000 and the Sony Playstation Portable at 412,000 units sold.
Here are the installed base figures as of November, 2006 for all current video game systems in the U.S. (Console and Portable):
PS2: 35.8 million
GBA: 34.3 million
DS: 7.6 million
PSP: 5.7 million
Xbox 360: 3.4 million
Wii: 476 thousand
PS3: 197 thousand
Blockbuster will begin testing rentals and sales of High-Defintion DVDs November 5, 2006 1:06 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, High Definition Optical Disc, Movies, News, Television.add a comment
Beginning this month Blockbuster, the nations largest rental outlet, will start testing high-definition dvd rentals and sales at about 250 of its stores, chosen by the basis of where early adopters are said to be.
The outlets will carry about 40 titles of each current high-def format; Blu-ray Disc and HD DVDs, with prices set at an equal setting.
“It’s a careful selection process,” Blockbuster spokesman Randy Hargrove said of store experiments. “We’re looking at DVD adoption rate and hardware penetration. We’ll continue to watch the market and monitor to see where additional expansion will be appropriate.”
High-definition rentals is not new to Blockbuster, as their Blockbuster Online brand has been offering both formats on their site for quite some time.
Free Blu-ray Movie to Be Bundled With PS3 October 20, 2006 10:06 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, Microsoft, News, Sony, Video Games.add a comment
On launch day, The Playstation 3 will be bundled with a free Blu-ray movie, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”, the Nascar racing comedy starring Will Ferrell.
That addition was one of many announcements given at a Sony’s Gamers’ Day conference yesterday, including free online gameplay from launch.
The Sony Playstation 3 will go on sale November 17th in two flavors; a full-featured WiFi enabled version with a 60GB hard drive for $599.99 and a non WiFi enabled 20GB version for $499.99.
Microsoft is expected to release their HD DVD Add-On for $199.99 in mid November. That will enable Xbox 360 users to add HD DVD playback (the other high definition optical disc format). It will also be bundled with a free movie, the 2005 hit “King Kong”.
Warner Bros. Lowers High-Definition DVD Forecast October 9, 2006 8:00 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, High Definition Optical Disc, Movies, News.add a comment
After a weaker than expected September in total sales for High-Definition hardware and software, Warner Bros. has halved their original sales estimate for the new medium.
Back in August of this year, they forecasted sales of $1.5-$1.9 billion in hardware and $500 million in software by years end. Because of the lower than expected September take (about $30 million, roughly half of what was expected) estimates have been revised downward to $750 million on hardware and $150 million for software.
Warner Halves High-Def Projections (Video Business)
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