You're going to see a slow die off of HD-DVD. They will draw it out until the Bluray group finally pays them off to stop. I kinda think that what they are doing to consumers at this point is mean though. Not everyone knows what they are getting into when they buy HDDVD. At such low prices you are going to get people that will impulse buy not knowing the real issues. My guess is there are a lot of people making uneducated purchases, and there are probably a few people snagging them up before they are gone. As I made it sound, I am convinced Bluray will be the dominante format, it is just a matter of time now.

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Apparently nobody has told companies backing HD DVD that the format war is over.

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Maybe you should keep that to yourself. Although I agree with you, these are supposed to be news, not your personal opinions.

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I kinda think that what they are doing to consumers at this point is mean though. Not everyone knows what they are getting into when they buy HDDVD. At such low prices you are going to get people that will impulse buy not knowing the real issues. My guess is there are a lot of people making uneducated purchases, and there are probably a few people snagging them up before they are gone.

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Maybe retail should do something about it, like dropping HD DVD altogether. Or that would just piss off more customers who have a HD DVD player.

From what I can tell this site operates as more of a blog than a news site. Most the stories here have little attempt of objectivity. They are mostly geared to the opinions of the readers, so it is rarely noticed when opinions spill out. In situations of high controversy such as this one, it is much more apparent when a blip of opinion finds it's way onto our screens. You won't find too many articles here that are truly objective.

I figured they'd bounce back a little... But when Warner goes FULLY exclusive ion may or whatever sales will slowly begin to drop... They have to :S

These NPD numbers don't count Amazon sales
(who are 'only' the 2nd largest retailer in the whole world).

They are unofficial leaks, NPD do not release these numbers weekly.

So it is clear that they are designed & being used to suit a rather obvious agenda.
They are impossible to verify......and note that the instant HD DVD prices were cut (and the HD DVD numbers recovered) they stopped coming - only now to be released again this week as BD promotions blunt the impact of the HD DVD numbers.
Talk about selective stats.
It's not exactly hard to see what's going on there.

We also know (ironically from NPD when they tried to show a little fairness & clarified the last lot of leaks) that the blu-ray side are giving away as many Blu-ray profile 1.0 (which may well come back and bite them shortly) players as they can with certain brands of TV.
So it turns out that many of the Blu-ray 'sales' are not actually true 'sales' at all.

In short these numbers are as unreliable as they come - but even so they show that, despite all the bad publicity and tales of doom,
HD DVD has not just rolled over & died.

We have also seen it is a verifiable fact that , since the HD DVD price cuts, the Amazon (remember, only the 2nd largest retailer in the world) ranking of all the gen 3 HD DVD players at or around the top of not only the DVD bestseller ratings but also the ratings for their entire electrical itinerary.

The Blu-ray side are trying to stack up as much bad news for HD DVD as they can.
It's just a spoiler for what's on the way.
They are mightily unhappy about what is going on, because despite the enormous amounts of cash they have spent out HD DVD has still not vanished, not by a long shot.

(and note that despite all the unfounded 'fire sale' claims Amazon & others have been selling out and restocking HD DVD hardware)

It's not over and some surprises are long overdue.

^^Dont care

What i can see happening, is HD DVD players being sold as Upscalers atm, because they are cheap enough to be sold as them, and because they are cheaper than some upscalers anyway, so this shoudl be want the camp want to be aiming for, and as more people uy them as upscalers they will increase the amoutn of HD DVD players in teh market, until they have more standalone than BR, in which they could actually fight BR back, as companies would see HD DVD has a good amount of stand alone players!

I don't think HD-DVD will ever die but instead be a small portion of the Movie industry.I prefer HD-DVD over Blu-Ray because I love extra features that HD-DVD has to offer over Blu-ray.I don't think it is over completely because if it was all the Movie Studios would have joined Blu-Ray already even if Sony payed them like they always do.

It's a firesale, plain and simple. Of course the numbers will look strong until the inventory is depleted. Same thing happened when Videodisc was competing with VHS and Beta in the home video market. Lots of players kept selling (and a couple even developed) even after the format was dead, and media was available to pick up on the cheap as rental stores liquidated their inventory. Some folks were able to put together some nice little libraries. Same story with HD DVD. They aren't bolstering the format with these sales, they're recouping sunk costs and getting out. The "restocking" is mostly coming from inventory of already finished goods and plants with work already in process.

It's over, yet it's apparent some are (still) in denial. Waste of effort to think otherwise.

I don't understand how folks can't see this objectively, without heavy doses of fanboy mentality. It must be difficult for those who are seething and bitter that they guessed, and guessed wrong. The real winners are those who weren't early adopters of either format. I have no interest in either format (I don't even have HDTV yet) but it's very amusing to watch folks spin doctoring, tapdancing, and flailing like a fish out of water over the "war" as if they have some vested interest in it (other than having an expensive soon-to-be paperweight in their entertainment center.)

Originally posted by pirkster:

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I don't understand how folks can't see this objectively, without heavy doses of fanboy mentality. It must be difficult for those who are seething and bitter that they guessed, and guessed wrong. The real winners are those who weren't early adopters of either format. I have no interest in either format (I don't even have HDTV yet) but it's very amusing to watch folks spin doctoring, tapdancing, and flailing like a fish out of water over the "war" as if they have some vested interest in it (other than having an expensive soon-to-be paperweight in their entertainment center.)

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haha-you are so right!! that made me laugh dude, thanx :P

that's because hd-dvd is on sale everywhere u get a 42lcd with a hd-dvd player plus a couple of movies for 700 , so that's why

Originally posted by pirkster:

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as if they have some vested interest in it (other than having an expensive soon-to-be paperweight in their entertainment center.)

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- What "paperweight"?

In what weird universe can my HD A/EP35 be anything but what it is?

It's always going to be an excellently spec'd player and the bargain it has always been.

It is 2nd to none at SD DVD playback (comparable with Denons at many times it price)
and I have a growing collection of HD DVD discs which it plays beautifully.

How is that ever going to change?

The only "fanboys" I see around in this debate are the sort who pretend that in 6mths time there will be no more HD DVD discs available and the HD DVD players that we own (and the discs bought to date) will suddenly stop working.

That's just ludicrous BS, but sadly all too typical of the level of the Blu-ray 'argument'.

Not only do I have a catalogue of approx 500 (western) HD DVD discs to choose from right now (800+ worldwide) but I also will always have 90,000 SD DVD catalogue to play on it too.

Awesome Hugh you can just set that hddvd player on the shelf next to your 8 track player, betamax player, cassette tape player, laserdisc player, minidisc player, along with all the media you have for those as well.

I hardly think an HD DVD player (which will always be a very nice spec/price deal) sits easily with the failed formats you have listed off there.

The fact that it will always be able to use the 90,000+ SD DVD titles and the 500+ HD DVD titles alone makes such a comparison laughable.

Originally posted by chaos_zzz:

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that's because hd-dvd is on sale everywhere u get a 42lcd with a hd-dvd player plus a couple of movies for 700 , so that's why

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42" LCD for 700 dollars?? Where, oh do tell!

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Sorry, double post.

Why trade the insults guys? Everytime this debate comes up you attack each other. You'd think this was the presidential election we wre discussing.

Insults aside, there are one or two points I would like to throw into your discussion.

1. These companies with exclusivity deals with Blu-ray may be in the fold now, but what happens in a few months time if the format is not going as well as is being projected? They may need to rethink. Not just on loyalties to format, but to Hi-Def itself, which brings me to the next argument.

2. Formats aside, HD video is still a very small market and I don't believe it's growing as strongly as some people believe. Even if one format does win the "War", who is to say that things will improve?

3. Let's remember that customer is king. This format "war" is not being decided by consumer power, but by corporate will. That applies to both sides.

4. This is nothing like the betamax and videodisc format wars of long ago. Both camps have poured billions of dollars worth of investment capital into the developement of - and the equipment for manufacturing - these discs. Do you think that either one will suddenly roll over and die? I think not

5. Finally, let's just suppose that the only Hi-Def format left in six months time is Blu-Ray. Those "Poor" HD-DVD users are still going to have a pretty good upscaling DVD player that will play the format that is still likely to dominate the market for a few years yet.

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Toshiba reportedly has new HD player model coming out:

http://1080living.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=30

It's no surprise that that sort of rumour is being spread.

But that doesn't make it true or anything more than a mere rumour.

Toshiba and Microsoft are fighting a lossing battle that really showed the sony did really learn from their loss in the arly years. Now they have really put a great product out there however i am not going to get any new next generation dics yet. Until i see afordable next generation disc writers.