HD DVD Sales Tumble After Warners Defection

Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:27AM EST

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The first HD DVD sales figures since Warner Brothers jumped ship to Blu-ray are starting to trickle in, and the news is bleak: both HD DVD disc and player sales have plummeted since Warners' surprise pre-CES announcement.

Engadget HD has the numbers from Nielsen VideoScan, which details disc sales for both Blu-ray and HD DVD. The latest word, for the week ending January 15: Blu-ray snagged a whopping 85 percent of disc sales, compared to just 15 percent for HD DVD, with no HD DVD titles at all in the top-10 list. Now, the numbers represent only one week's sales, and as Engadget HD points out, HD DVD didn't happen to have any big titles coming out that week; still, given that the historical Blu-ray/HD DVD split has been more like 60 to 40 percent, that's a sharp drop.

Meanwhile, NPD Group (via High-Def Digest) has sales numbers on the hardware side: for the week ending January 12, Blu-ray players represented an overwhelming 92 percent of all HD decks sold, compared to less than 8 percent for HD DVD. Compare that to the previous week, when Blu-ray and HD DVD player sales chalked up a 50-50 split. Ouch. That said, Toshiba announced an HD DVD player fire sale on January 13, so we'll have to see if that kicks up next week's sales a notch.

Again, we're just talking one week of figures here, but the numbers pretty much speak for themselves. Looks like the format war may be drawing to a close, rapidly.

Related:
Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending January 13th, 2008 [Engadget HD]
Blu-ray Commands 93 Percent of Weekly Hardware Sales Post-Warner Announcement [High-Def Digest]

Comments on HD DVD Sales Tumble After Warners Defection

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  • 1 Posted by hedo4three2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:18PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hmmm...no comments. Finally the HD-DVD fanboys will accept defeat.

  • 3 Posted by paul_soares on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    Please just let it end so I can buy a Blu-Ray player with confidence.

  • 5 Posted by magpagbst on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    i'd wait until the third or fourth quarter of this year . . . i would imagine there'd be a pretty good selection of sub-three hundred dollar blu-ray player----- ting the market by then . . .

  • 6 Posted by trickfoot24 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    Too bad the media is a day late and a dollar short with this article. Shelves at BestBuy, CC and Wal-Mart have been emptying with the 50% price cut of HD-DVD. The HD-A3 is also in the top 10 of all electronics sales at Amazon... and the #1 for both DVD, and HD-DVD player categories. Just like VHS came from behind with their massive price cuts in the late 70's (no, it wasn't porno), HD-DVD will prove again that the consumer trumps all. Sorry Sony. You can pay off all the studios you want, but consumers and free markets are what drive things here in America. You think you would've learned by now. Tsk, tsk.

  • 7 Posted by hedo4three2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:18PM EDT Report Abuse

    To trickfoot24, if my memory serves me correct, and I am basing this totally on memory not fact but I used VHS because I could copy 6 HRS of programming. Nobody bought movies back then. You could buy a few titles, I remember a marquis advertising Star Wars for $84.95 and that was a bargain. We rented. I am not to sure where you are getting your facts but VCRS weren't inexpensive until the mid 80's. I bought a demo for $350 + in '84 and was the only one on my dorm floor who had one. How will HD-DVD prevail when all studios drop the format? and they will because we need only one type of HD and Blu-ray won which is why Paramount put the clause about "Warner Bros" switching in their contract. As for Sony paying, I thought Toshiba was the one who paid the studios? Blu-ray won because it is the better technology (specifically the wavelength of the laser)Some pratices by SONY DRM wise will concern us enthusiast but they try to come up quality technology eventhough some fail. Although the UMD didnt take the market by storm , some are still amazed by the video quality of those 1.8G discs and still trying to figure out how they did it. The studios pickd the winner of this war not Sony, not Toshiba, not us just be thankful the better technology is winning and will soon have one format.

  • 8 Posted by staticx_1981 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    Dont forget the $500 millinon that "Sony" gave to Warner bros to go to Blu-ray..... Plus alot of people are going to be Disappointed when the blu-ray 2.0 players come out since the 1.0 player will be out of date and wont be playing the 2.0 movie. WOW wish they had a Ethernet hook up so it could be updated huh?

  • 9 Posted by taller226 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    Actually the ps3 is looking better and better. I work at toy store that has seen a sudden rush on them as people can use that blue ray player. It also has an internet connection for future updates.

  • 10 Posted by sailkeuka on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:00PM EDT Report Abuse

    I dont believe this...price always wins. HD DVDs and players cost less. I think this is wishful thinking of the blue rays boys.

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