Re: 90,000 HD DVD players sold in one weekend

Please remember, someone only willing to spend $99 on a player is not likely to shell out $25-40 per disc on new titles.

If HD-DVD wants to survive, they need to drop the 'Combo Format' idea and lower the price of thier discs to the $10-20 range, and not just catalog titles, but new releases. But things are definitly getting interesting.

I just wonder if Toshiba is actually making money...

hey,
First off, I would jsut like to introduce myself. I've been following this site and using it for HD DVD news for quite some time now. I just decided to get an account (Don't ask me why it took so long, I have no excuse) so I could finally respond to some of the stories. I own a HD DVD player along with 20 or so HD DVDs.

Now, back on topic...

These are incredible and exciting numbers. You also must realize that the majority of these stores sold out amazingly fast. What this means is that many people who were not able to get their hands on the HD DVD player are now aware and looking for other sales. This $98 dollar sale really brought home the name and idea of HD DVD to the mainstream. However, I myself have been looking at purchasing a PS3. I love movies and watch them avidly, but my true love reamin in video games. The new 399 PS3 is an extremly good deal for a blu ray player. I'm sure many of you are informed about this, but if you're not than the cliff note version is this: Sony is selling a 40 GB PS3 packaged with Spiderman 3 on blu ray. This PS3 is also elidgable for the 5 free blu ray offer.
I love HD DVD and will always support them. It looks like they are really serious about pulling ahead this holiday season and these sales figures support that. However, Sony is really playing hardball and is not going to lay down anytime soon. It will be interestinig

Plus... that stupid Pixar collection is comming out on blu ray and that alone is enough to warrant a $400 purchase from me.

90,000! Woo hoo! That's great news.

Like I posted earlier, the clerk from walmart told me not one person bought a HD movie when they were getting their $98 A2s last week. Selling 90,000 players is great, but it means little to bringing in additonal studio support if no one is purchasing software.

Johnson, i have a pal that works in walmart. and one in BB and i constantly ask.. so i see what you mean. not really many sales.. however the list of titles isnt good at all specially at Walmart or target as it has been mentioned before. alittle better in BB for me

I constantly visit these stores because of girftcards i get from work for BB target and walmart... and i have trouble finding what to buy. most of the small amount of titles they have, i either already bough or got as freebies.

I but most my titles online, because they are cheaper, and because they have options. and save the cards for when theres a new release, usually priced the same online.

I also rent HD online before i buy.

[Post edited by kucoloco on Nov 7, 2007]

What a waste ... the HD-A2 doesn't even do 1080p ... see CNET's review here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/toshiba-hd-a2/4505-6463_7-32074340.html

It's obvious that HD DVD is dumping a low end product in a desperate attempt to prolong it's inevitable defeat.

Inspite of Transformers ... Shrek the 3rd, and other well known titles, HD DVD is STILL being outsold by Blu-ray 2:1 ... what does this mean? Even with a lower price tag HD DVD still can't compete.

This holiday season will see Blu-ray thoroughly crush HD DVD ... and by the end of 2008 this war will be over with both PS3 dominating the 360 and Blu-ray will be the sole Hi Def format of choice.

http://blu-raystats.com/percentages.php

bubblebathgirl, it's not such a waste when you consider there are more 720p/1080i sets out there [like mine] than 1080p. It would be a waste to spend extra $ on a 1080p player without an HDTV to accomodate.

They aren't dumping crap on us, theiy're providing choices...something the competition doesn't do much of.

What a waste ... the HD-A2 doesn't even do 1080p ... see CNET's review here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/video-players-and-recorders/toshiba-hd-a2/4505-6463_7-32074340.html

It's obvious that HD DVD is dumping a low end product in a desperate attempt to prolong it's inevitable defeat.

Inspite of Transformers ... Shrek the 3rd, and other well known titles, HD DVD is STILL being outsold by Blu-ray 2:1 ... what does this mean? Even with a lower price tag HD DVD still can't compete.

This holiday season will see Blu-ray thoroughly crush HD DVD ... and by the end of 2008 this war will be over with both PS3 dominating the 360 and Blu-ray will be the sole Hi Def format of choice.

http://blu-raystats.com/percentages.php

Please feel free to go back a year or so and read all the threads on why this makes absolutely no difference if you have a 1080p TV that properly deinterlaces. If your TV doesn't do that then it probably doesn't matter what the heck you feed it.

Any way you slice it selling in one weekend what the top selling BR player from Sony "shipped" in an entire year is a positive thing. Spin it any way you like.

Also the 2-1 sales days are long behind us. Oh and S3 didn't beat Transformers or so I hear so HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. Must be a blip in the space time continuum (Spelling Eddie?)

Some that I have heard and enjoyed (other than your 1080p one) so far are:
* Fire sale (So what more sales please, Sony can fire sale the PS3 for a year Tosh can clear our inventory to make room for new models)
* How much are they losing. (Well no one knows and they might not even be losing, but to put it in perspective, even if each one cost $200 to make Toshiba could five away 5,000,000 and still just approach the billion that the Sony PS3 lost in the last quarter from what I hear.
*What happens when JQP tries a "blue" one in his new player? Well what happens when he tries a red one in his BR player? DUH.
*No one will be buying movies for it for any number of reasons. For example that $99 was the last hundred they have to their name so they spent it on a player rather than food and will just use it for decoration. If its a Christmas gift then what makes you think they wouldn't (or family wouldn't) buy movies to go with it? Or if not then someone somewhere is buying a lot of movies Dec 26th+.
*They are bad cause they are cheap. Hahaa. If Walmart had a sale of $10,000 2008 Porsche 911's would you call them cheap or just a crazy good deal.
*On an on and on. I would still have to put my vote on the best being the ones who don't even get their facts straight before posting like the above poster.

The whole thing has become so little about fact and so much about mud slinging, BS and pure debate regardless of facts that I hardly ever even bother any more.

Any BR supporter who doesn't go neutral at these prices is missing the boat as far as I am concerned. I said way back that I would go neutral for a v1.1 preferable Dual format player under $400 or $500, but heck I would grab pretty much anything at the $100 price point if it actually worked even if it wasn't v.1.1 if it had ever occurred to me that their may be a BR player in that price range. I would be crazy not to. At that price point I do not believe there is any risk. Worse case I would get a decent up scaling BR / DVD player for the bedroom.

Just thought I would say hi.

Cheers,

Richard

Quote:
Despite these differences with test patterns, however, we found it difficult to find any noticeable difference with program material. We checked out the difficult Chapter 9 from Aeon Flux, for example, and both players looked the same on the Samsung TV. It's safe to say that with most HDTVs, the differences between the appearance of HD DVD discs at 1080i and at 1080p will be slight.

Hey bubbles,

Read the article. It is NOT a low end product. You simply focused only on what you WANTED to read and you took that out of context. Your comments are simply plain 'ol, run of the mill, BD bs propaganda which is repeated over and over and over and over....forever!!! There is NO apparent picture differences between 1080i and 1080p on a screen under 60." Period. End of discussion. I am soooooooo tired of you bd folks twisting information around. It's getting real tiring.

Quote:
. . . which is repeated over and over and over and over....forever!!!

Yeah, kind of like all the threads on HD DVD.