What is Digg?104 Comments
- afx1, on 10/12/2007, -6/+64The exact sales figures are 3 Blu-Ray, 1 HD-DVD sold.
- rewquio, on 10/12/2007, -5/+39You forget, MS can release a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox-360 in a heartbeat. That's the advantage of an external drive. I read an article a while back that speculated that even though MS provides the software for HD-DVD, they really want both formats to fail. Take a look at what MS is doing with digital distribution of HD Movies.
- knaps, on 10/12/2007, -6/+24If I hear the word "BetaMax" or the term "the war", who wins, or anything about "the war"'s outcome one more time, my head'll explode.
I'm so sick of people fighting over this like it matters. Please just shut up already. - Snakedal337, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Perhaps pre-internet that would have been true, we live in a different age now, and i'm willing to be that while the porn industry does have leverage, its no longer enough to break a format on its own.
- reject, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21Hahaha. Read another article:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/456
"According to VideoScan, during the first two weeks of January, Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD by more than a 2:1 margin. It should be noted that the two weeks in question saw only two new high-def disc releases -- both from Blu-ray ('The Covenant' on Jan 2, and 'Crank' on Jan 9)."
Seems that Blu-Ray is still BEHIND, and went ahead for ONLY two weeks, while HD DVD did not release anything new. Blu-Ray is behind overall, 92.40 for every 100 HD DVDs sold. Sorry, Blu-Ray guys. - rewquio, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17@seanthebond
By the time the format war is actually settled. The winning player will be down in price to somewhere around $100-$150, just like when DVDs really took off. The PS3 will probably still be a lot more expensive then. It's the other way around, the PS3 drives Blu-Ray sales. Blu-Ray does not drive PS3 sales. Do you ever buy a console so you can play DVDs? - Klarth, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Whoa, three Blu-Ray movies sold already?! Impressive.
- childprey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Yknow, everyone is making the "OMG SONY SUCKS RAWR", but really, wouldn't blu-ray winning be a GOOD thing? personally I like the potential of being able to burn 50 gb to a disk - I'd support a format with a 20 gb advantage at dual layer
- chameenz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10And the winner of the Blo-ray/HD-DVD war is....avi rips in h.264 with ac3 audio on your hard drive.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11http://computer.howstuffworks.com/digg.htm
- jackal230, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7That's just more of the Sony FUD that usually appears on digg. Sony even stated that they allow adult content on Blu-ray. The story you read was really about a porn distributor unable to find a bluray manufacturer that would print his discs because the manufacturers were afraid of losing their license.
- idonthack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Are those blu-ray movies only, or movies and games?
- Partyworm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Even if the PS3 enables blu-ray to somewhat succeed, it will be at an extreme cost to Sony's console business, as we're already seeing. This is simply because Blu Ray will never have the selling power that DVD gave the PS2 due to the fact that the market situations that facilitated them are completely different now. DVD was effectively a revolution in home entertainment, everyone embraced it and went out replacing their old VHS collections with DVD. This massive shift will not happen with the HD generation, simply because the net consumer benefit between VHS vs DVD and DVD vs HD is much smaller, and consequently consumer uptake will be much more gradual. This is compounded by the fact that there are two formats competing this generation, not just one as with DVD, causing the average consumer to stall for even longer before committing themselves.
By the time Blu ray becomes an incentive to buy a PS3 (if it ever does) it'll be too late to save the console, at its current market performance. - NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13Ah, look people! A real-life graduate of the Sony School of Marketing and Business Economics!
- Durrok, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Isn't that like rooting for the Nazis so you can finally stop worrying about memorizing all those pesky country names?
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Look above, Vivid releases their porn on BluRay on March 28th. They emphasize they do have a company lined up to produce the discs (the problem the other porn company ran into). DADC is not pressing BD porn. But they never pressed DVD porn either, and that didn't stop DVD from having lots of porn.
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Vivid/Disc_Announcements/Blu-ray_PornGate_Ends_with_the_Return_of_Debbie_Does_Dallas/445
I personally think the porn thing is greatly overstated. My family, like many others bought a VHS deck in spring 1984 so as to have it for the summer Olympics. At that time, you didn't research stuff on the internet, you went to the store and talked to the salesman. No mention of porn was made, and I doubt the salesman even knew which format had porn. My father selected VHS because there were about 20 VHS decks to choose from, and only 3 Beta. And the Beta ones cost more. Plus, the salesman said you could record 8 hours on a VHS tape (which wasn't really true until longer tapes became available almost two years later) and Beta only recorded 3 3/4 or something. Given how expensive tapes were, being able to get 6 hours on one instead of 3 3/4 meant a lot.
It's amazing how many people repeat the porn thing as true given that there is absolutely no hard evidence to back it up. Not even buyer surveys. - postaboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7A more credible source than that ***** fanboy site, actually their whole article was ripped from HomeMedia and they dind't even cite it. From HomeMedia Magazine:
Week ended Jan 14
YTD: BD 100.00, HD 38.36
Week ended Jan 7
YTD: BD 100.00, HD 47.14 - mr_bako2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5its funny as hell to see everyones excuses for sony winning something. what do you mean "americans love brands"
typical people feel safe with the stuff they know, i would feel alot safer buying an HD-"DVD" then a blu ray, that means they must be buying it for quality, accept it... - ferretpants, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I really don't care who wins at this point just so long as somebody does
- RockVJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4At the moment more hype surrounds blu ray than hd dvd...however, I would go as far to say that these current sales figures are irrelevant, at least for another a year. Primarily because although high definition is starting to kick in, it still remains an expensive option (at least in the UK anyway!.) Like any format, you need to get past the hype phase after launch, when prices really drop, and average consumers start to take notice.
- kuribo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@Snakedal337
There isn't a restriction (that I know of anyway), but there's a difference. The Xbox 360 doesn't come with either new format built in, so it can be made cheaper. If the customer ALSO wants to play a new format, an add-on player can be purchased for relatively little. The PS3 has blu-ray built in, which is a large part of why it costs a couple hundred more.
Sure, if the right external drives are released, maybe you can play either format on either machine, but all PS3 customers are paying for this functionality, whether they want it or not, while 360 owners only have to pay if they actually want it. - HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No. That article doesn't say anything to back that up.
These numbers are from Nielsen SoundScan, who tracks purchase of discs, not sales of PS3s.
And PS3s didn't come with vouchers for movies, some came with a movie packed in though. Not that PS3s sold in the two weeks in question didn't come with a pack in (or voucher). - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4OK, I'd love to know why I get dugg down every time I post a comment questioning whether either format will succeed. It's entirely possible that by the time the format war is settled and enough people have high definition equipment to be viable a new disc format or downloadable video service will exist.
As much as I'd love to see a successful HD format there are a lot of hurdles to overcome: The format war; lack of HD equipped households; timing (hell, the number of DVD players just recently surpassed VCRs in American homes); price (players and movies); lack of additional features other than quality (DVD featured additional extras and convenience over VHS). VHS had 25 years at the top. DVDs had 10 years. How long does HD-DVD/Blu-ray have to make its mark? People have just replaced their movie collection with DVDs, I think they're likely to be skeptical of new formats.
I'm not saying I'm sure the formats are going to fail, just that there is a chance. If you think I'm full of ***** tell me why, rather than anonymously digging me down.
Edit: In the time it took to write that rant my comment got dugg back into positive territory. Now I just look like an ass. - Satertek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@afx1
No it wasn't quite 3:1, so one of the blu-ray discs must have come broken in the case. - dvddesign, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sony doesn't own BluRay lock stock and barrel. They're part of a collective of license owners. They may have majority share, but there's never been a point where you or anyone else would have bought a DVD drive made by WB... Who ever licenses technology can put whatever they want in something from someone who carries the license. Your Xbox 360 doesn't have a MS made DVD drive in there... It's a Samsung or Hitachi.
So if MS wanted BluRay, all they'd have to do is find a willing manufacturer to provide it for them. I'll still bide my time and wait for one format to die. I'm shocked it's gone on this long... - Bamborzled, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"the people who have a blue-ray player can affored a ***** load of dvd's for it"
Then what was the point of buying the Blu-Ray player in the first place, if they're just going to watch DVDs? - ovejon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I'm not really surprised that blu-ray is outselling hd-dvd. We have to take into consideration that Blu-Ray has a lot more studios releasing movie under this format as opposed to hd-dvd. Seems like Toshiba's 1 year head start is not helping very much.
- ChewyBass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4As the article stated I think it has more to do with the PS3 in more hands now than those with a HD-DVD player. Until the average Joe gets in the market and decides what they will buy either format is still up in the air. If Blue-Ray can come down in price and match the HD players there will be more competition. Average Joe doesn't think about storage or quality, they think mostly on price.
- postaboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5SI: Since inception, looks like Blu-Ray is closing the gap quick, and will overtake Hd-Dvd overall in about a week or two.
Week ended Jan 14
SI: BD 92.40, HD 100.00
Week ended Jan 7
SI: BD 85.05, HD 100.00 - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"But Sony can always deny MS permission to use Blu-Ray."
Even if they could, they wouldn't. Sony makes money from the Blu-ray format becoming a standard and selling lots of movies. They're not going to do anything to jeopardize that. - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7The PS3 *may* have ensured that Blu-ray will beat HD-DVD, but that doesn't mean either format will be successful. Who won the format war between DVD-A and SACD? Who cares! I think it's quite likely both formats will be a relative failure in the market.
- consonance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Winning for two weeks is nothing when your competitor has been winning for months - not to mention that very few consumers are buying these things right now. It's going to be a while until consumers actually start buying significant quantities - say, enough that they can be considered for a Christmas promotion.
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3BluRay already has porn outside the US. It will have porn in the US soon. Hd-DVD will also.
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Vivid/Disc_Announcements/Blu-ray_PornGate_Ends_with_the_Return_of_Debbie_Does_Dallas/445 - Darthmalt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ethernat has a point. I think it will be several years before there is widespread adoption of any HD format. Especially among people like me who have SD tvs. And cant afford (at current prices) a HD tv +Hd player + movies to take advantage of HD
- otatop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The video rental place I work at has HD DVDs and Blu-rays. We've got about 15 HD DVDs and about 35 Blu-rays, and they keep sending us more movies on Blu-ray. The weird part is, every single HD DVD has been rented out, while only 14 of the Blu-rays have been rented. It's obvious which format the company thinks is going to win.
Also, most of the people who bring the Blu-rays or HD DVDs up to the counter have no idea about the format war taking place. They just assume that since they have an HDTV, they can watch these HD discs. Despite the fact that we have huge signs saying "These discs will NOT play in a standard DVD player!" we still get about one person a week bringing the damn things back saying "This thing wouldn't play in my DVD player." - notgod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Let me get this straight, people are digging an article from a Sony orientated site and saying that Sony's product is doing good? I don't even believe it, I want to see some numbers from retailers and manufacturers before I believe anything by word of mouth.
- vashgunfighter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I find it interesting how they don't present any numbers in terms of how many were actually selling. Sure the Blu-Ray could be outselling HD-DVD...but how many are actually selling? DVD's are probably still way outselling them by a considerable margin. They're expensive and pointless really. Sure, higher definition movies look nice, but only a small population of the U.S. has the capabilities of using anything HD. It's rather lame to try to shove this onto people when DVD's are still quite viable mediums for movies and television. They're cheaper, well established, and cater to a larger majority. The fact that the article even hints at PS3 repeating history is ridiculous. Again, very few people have or want a PS3 compared to the number of people who have DVD players. It's not a good medium, it's not a good time for it, and the PS3 will not make the difference.
- EmmSee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5I think it's hilarious that this got buried off the front page so fast. The PS3/Sony haters just don't give up.
Blu-Ray will win & it just KILLS them. - interiot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2... if you watch to count "anyone who has the urge to search for blu-ray or hd-dvd", rather than "people who are actually willing to plunk down cash for a player and movies".
- ubuwalker31, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What matters is what people are going to buy as the actual media player to hook up to the TV. Some distributors are playing it safe, releasing in both HD and Bluray. Others aren't. You can get Superman Returns in either format, but Serenity is only available in HD. I want to be able to watch both...so, I have to get a combo player. This is like DVD+r vs DVD-r. You end up getting the DVD+-r , cuz you wanna use either, or whichever is cheaper. Right now, Superman is 27.95 on HD-DVD ($40 retail), but only $23.95 on Blu-Ray ($35 retail). If I had the dual format player, I'd pick up the Blu-Ray version. Its simply better economics. Also, judging by the fact that there are maybe a million blu-ray units out there, and about 150,000 HD-DVD units, I think Blu-Ray is winning. I hate Sony, but thems the facts.
- clownbaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, but the average joe won't be in the market. At least, not until HDTVs come down in price (by a lot). HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is still (and might remain that way) nothing more than a niche market for a/v buffs. I just gotta laugh when people speak of a format war... either they are both gonna last or they are both gonna die. I don't see sony or HD-DVD backing out at all. Another problem is the fact that these high definition discs are not really too far advanced compared to normal dvds, most people who know this are not going to buy them. This "war" is completely different from the VHS vs Betamax thing back in the day. Back then, there was no other "format" for watching video at home (except maybe watching home movies on a projector or something). Betamax pretty much lost that "war" because they wouldn't open up their technology to others. I'm gonna sit back, relax, and watch my standard DVD collection while all you video buffs are stuck with ***** mainstream titles on Blu-Ray/HD-DVD.
- Quintessence, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3What I want to know is whether these numbers are counting the Blu-Ray movies bundles with the PS3. Certainly that would manipulate the numbers considerably because even consumer is indirectly buying the movie, it may still count as a sale. Does anybody know if this is the case?
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2dvddesign:
The MS HD-DVD drive is made by Toshiba, like all HD-DVD drives. Because, unlike BluRay, which has broad support from drive manufacturers (Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, Sharp), HD-DVD only has support from one drive manufacturer, Toshiba.
Sony doens't own BluRay and can't deny MS access to it. And even if they couldn't they likely wouldn't want to. US gamers get all excited about the console wars, but the DVD format wars are much larger. - MaxPayne3476, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's the same situation in the United States. Many people are buying into the HD market with new LCD or Plasma sets, but I still think there is still a wide transition gap from the TV to purchasing another expensive piece of hardware. I don't think the sale of BluRay or HDDVD is flying through the roof yet. Only time will tell.
- omaryak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3It's the packaging. I saw Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs at the store, and the blue packaging of the Blu-ray discs was much more appealing than the burgundy they chose for the HD-DVD. Burgundy screams "old" to me - late 1970s, early 80s. I hate Sony and I hate their proprietary brand names, but it does seam that they are winning on the marketing front at least for now.
- knaps, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10Ooops, my comment ran out of time editing it last, and the entire comment looked like it got deleted. I wrote this one to rectify that, but it appears as though my old comment survived. Hooray.
So, in the meantime, I'll just reiterate:
I can't even try out the PS3 Kiosk in a retail store without some asshat coming up to me and muttering about how Sony's going under because they chose to pair the Cell with a weak GPU, or how they read on digg that Sony lied about accepting an award for the wrong model of controller, or any of that.
If you don't like it, and don't want it, express your opinion by not buying it. I give you all the freedom you want to swing your fists wildly until one of them hits me in the nose. - hakz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5blu-ray outselling hd-dvd? what??? I thought hd-dvd had this one with the porn deal?
- sdwilly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually that article is incorrect in that Sony only gave away a free Blu Ray in the first 500k PS3's. There are no free vouchers with a PS3 purchase what they are doing now is including coupons for $10 off of several different Blu Ray titles (Nothing special from what I've been told). To counter that Toshiba is giving away 3 HD DVD movies with every player you purchase.
- sdwilly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These are actual sales only, so this does not include the free movie that Sony was giving away with the PS3, nor the HD-DVD that MS is giving away with the Xbox360 Add-in.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10It doesn't matter if the porn industry switches to blu-ray. What matters is that Sony has directly tied PS3 and Blu-ray together, basically giving PS3's network externality to blu-ray. The industry releases in a format for which more people have, there's no point in picking hd-dvd if 3 times more people have blu-ray. Anyone who knows economics and business would know that blu-ray won the moment ps3 had blu-ray.
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