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A few months ago I found a nice roundup of the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debate on one of my favorite gadget blogs, Shiny Shiny.
While I thought I’d be staying firmly on the fence until the dust settles, a family member gave me an HD-DVD player he couldn’t use (thanks, Uncle Al!) so I’ve been buying up my favorite flicks on HD-DVD.
While doing some last minute Christmas shopping, I noticed that the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debate may have a clear winner after the holidays. There were piles and piles of Blu-ray titles available, but the HD-DVD shelves, while at one time well-stocked, had been cleared out. Action movies like Transformers , V for Vendetta, and 300 were being snatched up off the shelves like they were free (which they very much are not – a regular widescreen DVD copy of 300 is $19.99 on Amazon while the HD-DVD version is $27.95. The Blu-ray version is $23.95.).
I’d like to see the post-holiday sales numbers for Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Considering the scene above was the same at Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City, I think it will be a good prediction of how the format wars are going to end.
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04/26/2019
Kai said "Siafu is the Swahili word for Dorylus, you fool..."
Just curious, but where are you getting your numbers from? I’d love to look into this more.
Also, are sales numbers inclusive of the video game consoles that can play HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs (XBox 360 and PS3, respectively)?
I’m not sure a winner will be declaired any time soon, if ever. However, I can say that there are very strong sales of HD DVD hardware this Christmas season, so the landscape may varywell change after Christmas. I suspect the stand-alone HD DVD players in the USA will be slightly north of 1-million. This will not ensure victory, but it may very well ensure a dual format world for the forseable future. The Blu-ray studios are going to find it somewhat hard to ignore 1-million customers for very long.