US HD DVD sales hit new low
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Post Warner announcement trend? US HD DVD software sales slumped to just 15 per cent of the hi-def disc sales total during the week ending 13 January. Throughout 2007, HD DVD's share was closer to 35 per cent of the total.â¦
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In a recent survey of HDTV owners by NPD Group, a full 73% were satisfied with the picture quality provided by upconverted DVDs for them to become too interested in a high-definition disc player of either format. Other figures are equally shocking, suggesting that the high-def format war may already be over. BetaNews spoke at length with the NPD report's author, analyst Ross Rubin.
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Japan's Toshiba Corp. has slashed its  sales target for high definition DVD players and recorders  after disappointing sales in the U.S., putting a damper on  prospects for one of its growth businesses.
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But not for long? HD DVD managed to cut itself a rather larger slice of US hi-def player sales in the third week of January, according to one analyst group's figures. But a rival market watcher still believes that HD DVD will be dead before 2009.â¦
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Consumer electronics maker Toshiba  Corp (6502.T) said on Monday it is slashing prices of its HD  DVD format players by between 40 to 50 percent as major  Hollywood studios move to embrace Sony Corp's (6758.T) Blu-ray  format high definition DVDs.
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High-definition DVD died Friday after a brief illness. The cause of death was the decision by Wal-Mart to stock only HD DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format.
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Hardware manufacturers are in fix when it comes to settling down for a standard for DVDs. Toshiba, NEC and Sanyo are favoring a next-generation DVD standard called HD (high-definition) DVD while Sony and other
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But lead narrowing fast US consumers bought almost twice as many Blu-ray Discs than HD DVDs in the first nine months of 2007, trade title Home Media Magazine has claimed.â¦
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Lower car sales in August resulted in a 0.3 per cent dip in overall retail sales in the United States during the month following a rise of 0.8 percent in July, the US Commerce Department reported on Tuesday.
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Unphased by the recent string of bad news for HD DVD, the company has gone ahead with announcements for dual-format chips for combo players.
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Warner Home Video's answer to the rift in the high-definition DVD industry will not arrive in the second half of this year as planned, instead reaching the market in 2008. 10-20 movies will be initially offered using the "Total HD" technology, which includes both HD DVD and Blu-ray on a single disc.
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Two days after it lost an important ally in the high-definition format battle, Toshiba put on a defiant face at the Consumer Electronics Show and declared the HD DVD format is a long way from being dead.&quot;We remain firm in the belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of consumers,&quot; said Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, at a news conference. He said Toshiba was surprised by the announcement, which came on Friday, that&#160;Warner Bros. was dropping HD DVD&#160;and exclusively backing Blu-ray.&#160; &quot;We are especially surprised that this decision was made in spite of the significant momentum that HD DVD has gained in the U.S. market and other regions.&quot;Warner was the only major Hollywood studio releasing movies on both formats and the decision to go with Blu-ray Disc meant Toshiba has only two major studios, Paramount and Universal, backing its technology.The decision also left Toshiba with a potential public relations disaster as it came just days before CES, the annual North American gathering of the consumer electronics industry that kicks off officially here on Monday. In response to the Warner news the HD DVD Promotion Group canceled its news conference, leaving some to conclude that backers of the format were ready to concede defeat.&quot;As you can imagine this is a tough day for me,&quot; said Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for digital audio and video products at Toshiba America Consumer Products. &quot;It&#39;s difficult for me to read all the pundits declare that HD DVD is dead. Clearly the events of the last few days have led you to that conclusion but we&#39;ve been declared dead before.&quot;But Toshiba might have a hard time convincing the analysts and media that follow the battle closely that HD DVD is still in the race.&quot;It&#39;s interesting the CEO said he was surprised. I think that&#39;s an understatement. Devastated would probably be more accurate,&quot; said Peter King, an analyst at U.K.-based Strategy Analytics, who attended the Toshiba news conference.&quot;They really have an uphill battle,&quot; he said. &quot;They are left with a couple of the smaller studios but there is no doubt the major studios have voted with their feet. It&#39;s hard to see now what they can do. Maybe focus on the PC market as a format, but they have a major struggle and that was very clear today.&quot;King wasn&#39;t willing to call the battle over just yet but he said a lot would depend on comments made during CES by other industry leaders, like&#160;Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is scheduled to speak in Las Vegas Sunday evening.But if the battle is over then what&#39;s bad news for Toshiba will be good news for consumers and the consumer electronics industry, he said. &quot;Everybody in the industry can get behind one format [and] start promoting. The message will be simple and clear, prices will come down and it&#39;s a good thing for the industry.&quot;Toshiba said 1 million HD DVD players are currently in the market in North America.In a statement issued on Saturday the company also expressed surprise over Warner&#39;s move &quot;despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.&quot; On Sunday it didn&#39;t elaborate on those contracts or what its next move may be in the march to make HD DVD the de facto replacement for DVD for high-definition content.
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Japan's Toshiba Corp.  has  lowered its sales target for high definition DVD players and  recorders on slower-than-expected unit sales in the U.S.,  putting a damper on Toshiba's prospects in one of its growth  businesses.
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Stating that the industry has already picked a winner in the battle of next-generation DVD superiority, Netflix announced Monday that it will stock only Blu-ray discs and drop the HD DVD format. Since the first high-definition DVDs came on the market in early 2006, Netflix has offered both formats.&quot;We&#39;re now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def,&quot; Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, said in a statement. According to the statement, the company cited the decision by four of the six major studios to use only the Sony-developed format.Netflix&#39;s move comes about a month after&#160;Warner Brothers announced its shift to Blu-ray, joining three other major studios. Only two major studios, Paramount Home Entertainment and Universal Studios Home Entertainment, publish in the HD DVD format.Netflix subscribers can still rent the remaining HD DVD titles until the discs&#39; natural life cycles take them out of circulation. The company plans to fully abandon HD DVD by the end of the year.Netflix offers more than 90,000 DVD titles, over 400 of them are Blu-ray.&#160;
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Blu-ray and HD DVD -- will be costly to everyone concerned, analysts say. The availability of two rival formats will raise prices and confuse consumers.
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Crucial US holiday sales launched with a flop, retailers reported.
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For the first time, more US households now own DVD players than video recorders, according to a survey that reinforced the decline of the 30-year-old tape technology.