90,000 HD DVD Players Sold Last Weekend
Last weekend’s attempt by HD DVD to advance their position in the high definition war seems to have been a success.According to figures reported by Video Business, over 90,000 Toshiba A2 players were sold at Wal Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City and a few other retailers over the past weekend. What’s interesting about the 90,000 figure is that it doesn’t include online sales on sites like Amazon, which were conducting their own $99 sales.
How significant is the 90,000 plus number? Well, by comparison, that figure pretty much matches the total sales to date of Sony’s BDP-S300 unit, which has shipped (but not necessarily sold) 100,000 units since its release this past summer.
Overall, Blu-ray players still outnumber HD DVD players in homes if you include Playstation 3 sales in that figure.
However, the sale of 90,000 HD DVD players in one weekend (with certainly more deals to come before Christmas) translates into many more movie sales for the format. Will it be enough to tip the scales or, at least, even them out (Blu-ray still holds a 2 to 1 advantage in movie sales)? Time will tell.
posted by Shannon T. Nutt at 5:14 AM
7 Comments:
This is great. If those people buy 5 HD DVDs for each one of the players sold, you're looking at 450,000 HD DVDs moving off the shelves and this is from just the 1st weekend. This is what Warners Bros. was waiting to see. This could really push things towards HD DVD.
Interesting to note, however, that so far sales of HD DVD have not budged and may have even fallen. This may indeed push HD DVD to victory but it is too early to write off Blu-Ray yet.
I'm far from writing off Blu-Ray. I was at Target today and they finally have a endcap with a Blu-Ray playing to show people but they aren't using a HDMI connection so the people aren't seeing what Blu-Ray can do. HD DVD doesn't promote that they can do 1080p but Blu-Ray does. Target is screwing Blu-Ray if they don't use a HDMI connection to show 1080p.
You actually don't need HDMI for 1080p. All you need is component provided the disc isn't copy protected. One of the reasons they're not pushing 1080p on HD DVD is because it's only the "expensive" HD DVD players that do it. Right now they're trying to win by low prices, which is pushing other companies away, such as Onkyo which had to stop marketing their 1080p player.
It was a great sale and I was able to partake in it. The problem I'm having is thinking about what was wrong only buying 1 unit. For instance there is only one room in the house that can play HD DVDs now because of this, so if I want to watch my transformers HD DVD, it can only be done in my living room. It seems absurd to carry the entire player to the bedroom. This problem extends out side my household with my family's laptops as well. Just something to keep in mind.
@irishgod33
I was at Target and their Blu-ray display wasn't hooked up with HDMI either. You know why? The Blu-ray player on the display was a non-functioning model. They had a modified Sony BRAVIA internet link attached tot he back of the TV through a proprietary cable. The TV wasn't a 1080p set, but it doesn't really matter because at 32" you're not going to now the difference.
Look like warners sold out HD dvd. actally the one that really lost is the consumer, they always lose. All those 100,0000 units they sold around black friday. i think warner should of waited 3 months see what mirosoft does.
With the rumors that Xbox is going to have a built in HD-dvd player, at CES.
The only thing i can see is if Toshiba is just going to drop the dvd format player and just made everything HD-DVD which still play dvd
It is a little unfair with Sony holding all those movie studio's in there pocket and only Warner Bros supporting HD. there will not be any hope for HD DVD.
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