Blu-ray winning in Europe
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We've seen the US picture - how's the war waging over here? Europeans together own more that 55,000 HD DVD players and Xbox 360 add-on drives, it has emerged, but that total pales beside the number of PlayStation 3s sold over here: 750,000.â¦
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An impending end to a format war over next-generation DVDs boosted shares in both victorious Sony, in the Blu-ray corner, and Toshiba, in the losing HD DVD camp, on Monday as consumers cheered an end to confusion over which discs will carry high-definition movies.
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NEW YORK -- With dominance of the market for high-definition movie discs still up in the air, Sony Corp. said today that it is including a small surprise with the new Blu-ray disc player it is shipping this week: a price tag $100 lower than previously announced.
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In the ongoing format battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the main focus has been on consumer applications, and in particular, the home movie market. This week, in fact, Blockbuster announced plans to increase the availability of Blu-ray discs in its stores. The video rental company said that customers were favoring the Sony-backed format over the Toshiba-sponsored HD-DVD, leaving many quick to suggest that this marks the beginning of the end of the latest format war.
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By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service and Paul Kallender, IDG News Service. The group supporting the HD-DVD optical disc format for high-definition video has received a boost in its battle against the rival
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(InfoWorld) - Visitors to the IFA consumer electronics show, which opens Friday in Berlin, will have ringside seats to the war over high-definition disc formats raging between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. As the two formats duel for the title of successor to current DVD movie discs, many European consumers haven't decided which kind of player they will buy. "Everyone is waiting for IFA where many new products are expected to be announced," said Frank Simonis, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc have sold in lower quantities in Europe than in other regions and prices are still relatively high, between â¬599 (US$814 ) and â¬899, according to Simonis. Currently, five manufacturers have launched Blu-ray Disc players in Europe, including Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic). Five additional vendors are expected to launch Blu-ray Disc players at IFA, while companies with players already in the market plan to introduce devices with new features, Simonis said. Many of the manufacturers are major suppliers of HDTV sets and hope to leverage that expertise to "accelerate the adoption of Blu-ray Disc," he said. The format has received a big boost from its use in Sony's PlayStation 3 games console, with sales of more than 1.4 million units in Europe, according to Simonis. The HD DVD camp is also bringing new wares to IFA, according to Frank Eschholz, business development manager of HD DVD products at Sony Deutschland GmbH. "There will be new devices and new features and more." Both types of players are designed with many of the same components inside and offer many of the same features, according to Simonis. But one of Blu-ray Disc's key benefits is its ability to store up to 50G bytes of data, he said. "Studios want to pack a bunch of extras onto discs in addition to the movies, and Blu-ray Disc allows them to do so," he said. The Blu-ray Disc camp, however, was jolted when Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced last week that they would align themselves exclusively with the HD DVD high-definition format. The decision comes at a time when market indicators have been pointing to competitor Blu-ray Disc as having the lead. In addition to next-generation movie-disc players, visitors to this year's IFA can expect to see plenty of HDTV sets, camcorders, digital cameras, MP3 players and notebook computers. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will introduce new products in all those categories, according to a spokeswoman. The company may launch two handsets as well, she said. Sony has decided to return to IFA after its absence last year, with plans to exhibit new Blu-ray Disc players, new Walkman music players and HDTV sets, according to a spokeswoman. More information about IFA -- the letters stand for Internationale Funkausstellung, although the full name is rarely used these days -- is available at the show's Web site .
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Blue-laser disc format's standard adopts new video codecs.
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After making announcements in Europe regarding its Blu-ray disc player lineup late last month, Sony used the backdrop of CEDIA 2007 to announce its two newest players for the North American market.
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Nec con HD DVD e Sony con Blu-ray hanno infatti previsto il rilascio dei primi drive interni per PC a laser blu intorno alla metÃ  del 2005. NEC, oltre ad essere impegnata nello sviluppo di un&#39;unitÃ  HD DVD
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Performance of both Blu-ray and HD DVD during this second holiday season is crucial in establishing the new generation of optical discs.
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Bringing next-gen DVD goodness into the Europe's living rooms Review While other manufacturers flap about trying to decide what format to back in the HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc war, Toshiba has been solidly behind HD DVD since the start. The HD-E1 is the first consumer-oriented standalone HD DVD player available in Europe, so you can now feed your HD telly something decent.â¦
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The standards battle could intensify in the last quarter, but so far Blu-ray dominates, analysts say.
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Backers of Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats eagerly await IFA consumer electronics show that opens Friday in Berlin.
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Despite lagging behind Blu-ray in both sales of discs and overall players, HD DVD still put on a happy face for CEDIA 2007 and pointed to its advantage in price and computer manufacturer support in the next-gen format war.
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Blu-ray DVD titles outsold rival  HD-DVD titles by almost 2-to-1 in the first nine months of the  year, but analysts expect additional HD-DVD support and new hit  releases to "transform" the high-definition DVD battle score in  the fourth quarter.
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PlayStation 3 driving demand? Blu-ray Disc is catching up with HD DVD, at least in terms of US pre-recorded media retail sales, the most recently published figures from sell-through video sales tracker Nielsen VideoScan show. In the first two weeks of January, BD media outsold HD DVD.â¦
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With dominance of the market for high-definition movie discs still up in the air, Sony Corp. said Monday it is including a small surprise with the new Blu-ray disc player it is shipping this week: a price tag $100 lower than previously announced.