HD DVD peripheral outselling standalone boxes

Yes I do and I'm glad that I got it for Christmas this year!!I own a PS3 as well so having a Blu-Ray player and the HD player is GREAT!! The only problem that I have is I'M STILL WAITING FOR THE EVIL DEAD TRILOGY ON Blu-Ray or HD!! Come on guy's!!!!!

Not getting one since Blockbuster pulled support..Movie companies are scared now. Looks like the evil Sony blue Ray will finally win a format battle.

Blockbuster didn't pull its support, it still rents them. They just choose to put Blu Ray in ALL of their locations. HD DVD are still in their top stores and online I believe to rent.

I have an HD DVD drive. Love watching movies on it!

I do. Goes great with my Netflix account. :)

i acutally picked up my hd drive last weekend. i had to admit that i did suffer from slight buyers regret after i heard the blockbuster news, but i'm not too worried. the way i see it, if hd-dvd does lose this war, retailers will be blowing out their hd-dvd collection so i'll just stock up and purchase an LG blu-ray/hd-dvd player.

another point i would like to bring up is that i don't think MS is promoting this drive enough. instead they're shooting themselves in the foot by releasing HD movies for download on XLA. i know i know, you can't fight technological progress, but there are alot of 360 gamers out there that need reassurance after purchasing a potentially soon-to-be-dead HD drive.

I have the HD drive, and even though I do believe that the general market still isn't ready for a new format, I've gotta say that Serenity, King Kong, Miami Vice, and some of the others that I've seen in HD, are very very impressive.

I've had the HD DVD for a few months now for my 360. A few months ago I cancelled my Blockbuster because they weren't getting the latest HD DVDs on time in store, and there went whatever advantage Blockbuster had over Netflix for me. (I liked the ability of turning in online rentals in-store for a free rental).

Hahaha

Sorry...I own a PS3 and have to laugh at all the people who bought a dead format. Although my favourite movie is not supporting blu-ray yet. (Gladiator)

As a games system 360 has an edge but nobody should ever buy the HD DVD add-on.

This year at E3 Microsoft will announce the Xbox 720 with Blu-Ray. I just really want this to be over.

Also, I don't really understand why people are insisting that losing support from Blockbuster is signalling the death knell of HD-DVD. Blockbuster, much like the porno industry, no longer holds the weight it did for VHS and (to a lesser extent) DVD. I mean I honestly can't name one single person I know that has rented anything from Blockbuster in the past 2 or 3 years.

i should add...if you're on the fence about purchasing an HD drive, take a look at 'planet earth'in HD. that series alone will make your decision for you.

#3 - Blu-Ray isn't in all of BB's retail locations. Only in a ~1/4 of the stores (1400 out of ~5800 stores).

I bought it and do not get to use it as much as I would like but when 300 comes out on HDDVD watch out baby.

The winner of this war will be Digital Distribution it is just a way better business model.

I own the add-on. The difference between DVDs and HD DVDs was so impressive I had to get one.

I bought one. It's fun. HD movies look nice. It's also really nice to have a secondary drive for the 360. That way I can always keep my current game in the 360 and just use the expansion drive for movies.

The Blockbuster news miffed me a bit, but I'm not too concerned. I really don't think either format is going to "win" -- while Blu-Ray is outselling HD DVD, neither is selling enough to really look like a smash success and Blu-Ray isn't outselling HD DVD enough render HD DVD dead. I feel that neither will really replace DVD and both will live on as an enthusiast's format for at least the next couple years. If Blu-Ray wins the battle in two or three years, that's fine -- I'll buy a cheap Blu-Ray player then (if I don't have a PS3). At the moment, HD DVD is a perfectly decent format with some nice exclusive movies.

Both formats have certain advantages, and I think dual-format players are going to become the standard, honestly.

i got the HD-DVD add on recently. it looks amazing and all but i'm still on the fence. for now i just own three movies and will netflix the others i want to watch.
My favorite movie is going to be blu-ray only so that might force me to do something crazy.

p.s. my psychic prediction is that unfortunately blu-ray will "win".

@6

Netflix will rent out HD-DVDs soon. Since the advent of these companies like Netflix, Blockbuster has become irrelevent.

@8

Typical Sony Fanboy dream.

@9

I agree...Blockbuster hasnt been relavent for years. I stopped going to Blockbuster 10 years ago. As for the porn industry, I think they still have weight. Not many people own a computer or are comfortable looking at porno on their PCs (privacy issues). So DVD/HD-DVD is the next best thing.

I personally think HD-DVD will win. They have the interactive content that Blu-Ray doesnt. Plus the size issue of the discs doesnt matter anymore. Blu-Ray 50GIG and HD-DVD 52GIG. So that arguement goes out the window. Plus in the coming months you will see Wal-mart and Target selling HD-DVD players for the masses at $199.99 price point. Sony's cheapest player is at 599.99. The fact that the PS3 is sitting on the shelves collecting dust doesnt bode well for Blu-Ray either.

Microsoft understand that digital downloads are the future, and that physical formats will be dead in a few years anyway. Whichever format dies first doesn't really matter!

As you can probably tell, I don't have the HD DVD drive, but I don't have a HDTV (I play all my games on my 19" monitor), so I'll wait until I've got one of those first!

I didn't know that the format war was going to be decided by the unwashed morons that rent movies by going inside one of those awful Blockbuster stores.

The picture and sound quality of "Children of Men" on my HD-DVD was jaw dropping.

Mr BoomStck XL:
One down, two to go:)

http://xbox.joystiq.com/2007/06/25/this-week-in-hd-dvd-twin-format-edition/

It's interesting that nobody's mentioned how all the blu-ray players out so far are now obsolete due to changes in the way the interactive content will work on future titles.

That's going to be a pretty big kick in the balls for Blu-Ray when the general public hear about it.

How it sells doesn't really matter to MS in the long run, honestly. I mean, if it doesn't work they can stop making the things and it won't affect the actual console in the slightest. Considering that, perhaps it's actually kind of smart that they just went with plain DVDs for games this time around.

It's not doing so badly anyway. Blu-ray player sales count PS3s sold, but you have no idea how many of these will be used for movie play. The HD-DVD drive does nothing but play films, so at least you know that it will be fulfilling that purpose.

Personally, I don't honestly care about either of them right now and am fine paying $15 or $20 for new films on DVD instead of $30 or $40 lol.

@17

Ouch. If thats true.

"Netflix will rent out HD-DVDs soon. Since the advent of these companies like Netflix, Blockbuster has become irrelevent."

"Soon?" They already do! They have rented them since around the time of HD-DVD's launch.

@ Andy

"Sorry...I own a PS3 and have to laugh at all the people who bought a dead format."

So if you can laugh at us for buying a "Dead format", how much funnier is it that you bought a "dead gaming system". Let's face it the PS3 was DOA. Sucks to be you.

It's to do with the Java system they use or something. Here's a thread on the teamxbox forums explaining it better than I ever could:

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=530955

@18

$30-40 dollars? Have you gone to Circuit City or Best Buy lately? Try about 17-25 dollars. ?The price has fallen quite a bit.

@22

Great post. lol.

@24, I work for a home entertainment / home cinema / hi-fi retailer, and read about it in "What Hi-Definition TV" or some such industry magazine a few months back. It's surprising how the mainstream press haven't picked up on it.

Had one. Sold it. I didn't like the selection of HD movies available and didn't consider it worth it; Especially since I can download HD movies on Live and from my DirecTV.

I'm now of the mind that the format war is stupid. Digital distribution is the way of the future.

I picked it up and only regretted that I could have gotten two free movies if I had waited a couple of weeks...oh well. The movies look wonderful, my only concern is that I don't think Disney will ever join the HD DVD ranks since they invested in Blu Ray, which means a lot of movies won't be in HD...and I really like some Sony Classics movies such as House of Fying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, etc...what we as consumers need though, is for the prices to come down on the movies. I only own 4 including the free copy of King Kong, because I don't really want to pay $25-30 per movie when I can get 4 for $20 at Blockbuster

I have one and a netflix account... Love it. Cut my BlockBuster card in half and gave it to them... They couldn't understand why I was upset...clueless...

Unfortunately, for HD-DVD, I feel the Blockbuster announcement is the beginning of the snowball effect and the ultimate demise of HD-DVD. On paper the Blockbuster annoucement may not really be that big of deal, but it's the media announcement of it and the public's perception that it is a huge deal. I'm confident that in the next couple months we'll begin to see an increase in Blu-Ray player sales as well as Blu-Ray discs just because of the Blockbuster announcement. For people on the fence, this was all they needed to hear to finally step up and purchase a Blu-Ray player. I'm a 360 fanboy, but it's very possible that Xbox 720 will have Blu-Ray. Sounds crazy, but it may very well happen.

I bought an HD-DVD addon a couple of weeks ago and got The Matrix Trilogy free.

Maybe it is just me but I don't see either format necessarily winning anything at this point. DVD is still the big dog and will be for quite some time. Even if Blu-Ray wins out against HD, it doesn't mean it will be the format for the next 5 years. How many people have bought Blu-ray standalone players?

@15

Wow Ed, when was the last time you went on internet, or have you been hiding under a rock all this time? As far as disc space goes you're completely wrong. You are comparing a double-layered disc compared to a triple-layered disc, Blu-Ray and HD DVD respectively. BDA already have announced their own triple-layered disc at 100GB back when the Blu-Ray first came out, even four layers of 200GB goodness! Besides, can you seriously imagine how much it's going to cost to produce a triple-layered disc? You're talking about technology for HD DVD that will not be revelant for years to come. Even then, the price advantage of HD DVD will be moot if they even bother releasing it now. As far as the "fabled" budget HD DVD player for Wal-Mart, that was announced over six months ago, and we still haven't heard anything new about them; whereas Blu-ray.com have announced that Funai WILL be producing a low cost, budget Blu-Ray player for this coming Fall. The "cheapest" Blu-Ray player available is the BDP-S300 MSRP $499 in case you really have been living under a rock, which is comparable to Toshiba's mid-range player the HD-A20, not Toshiba's budget player the HD-A2 which only supports up to 1080i at $399. Even though, PS3 is third place, selling only 80,000 units a week, I do not recall that being a small number of Blu-Ray enabled devices. But it's people like you, Ed, that drag on this unnescessary format war, when you cannot acknowledge that Sony finally, for once, has a winning format.

I bought the HD-DVD add-on last Christmas and only the PS3 fanboys' hate and the Children of Men disc have given me reason to pause. It is a far superior DVD drive than the standard 360 as well. Sorry, M$, your standard 360 DVD player is garbage! Netflix is oddly silent on the format war front. I would think they'd know right now from their enormous client base exactly which system is favoring--and not solely due to the release of a single title (ahem, Pirates?). HD-DVD movies are also much better looking than their HD brethren over satellite and cable. Stand-alone HD-DVD players are dropping in price but the interconnectivity with the 360 menus is awfully nice. Fix the Children of Men disc!

i do and i love it, the quality is slightly better than the bluray but the blueray has a wider selection. who cares

ULTIMATE MATRIX BABY!!!

Well, no. I don't. I don't watch enough movies for it to be worth it. Oh, and I don't have an HD TV... I still think that HD/BD DVD's are a ripoff.. It's charging us to see stuff slightly clearer. But that's just me.

I love getting my Videos online in HD, but I think DVDs look just fine.

I picked up an HD-DVD drive when they were on sale. I also picked up "Planet Earth" and was blown away.

I got the HD-DVD add-on the day it was first released. I *love* it. Nothing quite like watching The Matrix Trilogy, Children of Men, Planet Earth, and V For Vendetta in HD any time I want to.

That said, I will be buying one of Samsung's HD-DVD/Blu-ray combo players when they come out later this year. Sadly, I think Blu-ray is still going to win because of its broader studio support.

sure do have one & it's awesome!

Blu-ray 1.1 won't disable any early gen player or turn it into a brick. A garbage post by someone who doesn't know anything trying to warp fragile little minds. PIP during a movie, why? Oh so you can watch a director commentary while watching a movie. BD-Live or Live downloads for HD-DVD, whats the point?

Honestly I buy or rent a movie to watch the movie. SO what if the Java enabled PIP function won't work. Maybe if the player was a DVR then the downloadable content could add value, but that stuff should be on the disc anyway. Even so I'd trade extra content for a higher quality transer of th efilm any day of the week.

Also anyone that thinks digital distribution is going to surpass discs in the mainstream anytime soon is mistaken. Easy to use boxes to download HD movies aren't available and HTPCs are still a niche product.

Fiber to premises service won't be widely available till at least 2012, perhaps later. Even with that the speeds you can buy aren't fast enough for full HD digital distribution. Municipal Wi-Fi is a pipe dream and will be thrown out because of the telcos.

All in all for the money you'd pay to get a connection fast enough for HD digital distribution you'd be better off renting a few hundred movies from a store and you can watch them right away.

If HD movie downloads ever do become popular you'll begin to see size restriction penalties show up on every cheap internet plan. You'll get 5 GB per month on a $29.99 a month service with each additional GB priced at $9.99. Want unlimited service, well that will be $129 a month or $99 with a qualified HD cable package and internet phone service.

I think I'll keep my $12.99 a month unlimited disc based rental service.

The fact that the 360 HD-DVD player works plug and play with vista helps too :)

@8.

Uhh..."no one should buy the HD DVD add-on?"

Even if it DOES lose out to Blu-Ray, I'm still enjoying the HELL out of my Hi-Def movies and only spent $200 bucks on a player. That's less than some high-end DVD players, dolt.

That's a pretty damned good reason.

I've got one.

lol @ #15

@39

Obviously you've never used a 360 (why are you here?) - any simpler and you'd download stuff accidentally.

@15

Oh yeah Ed, there was also one other thing I didn't mention about your comment. You mentioned that the porn industry still has weight; since when, 1976 (when VHS first came out if you didn't know)? The porn industry doesn't have as much weight as you think. For 1. we have a new technology called "broadband internet" and it's FREE to download porn at all qualities including SD and HD by the way, because you really have been under a rock, and 2. why the hell would you want to watch porn in HD, let alone pay for porn?! Porn's one of those things that really should remain SD. HD would undercover too many regions that never existed before in genitalia. Let's keep my favorite pornstar just that, my favorite, by not ruining them by making them HD. But obviously you do not own a PC, because you've been ex-communicated by all the news that's been going around the world, since your 30 year leave of absence. So you're basically saying that these people who are not comfortable watching porn on their own PC, in their own privacy (there are privacy issues on watching porn in your own home now?), are more comfortable to go to the porn store to pick up something in public that could be potentially more embarrassing in the first place when they couldn't watch it in the their own private computer for download? Last time I checked, locking the bedroom door, putting on headphones to your computer, foregoing lube if someone is home, about handles the privacy issues. Yeah, let's stick a HD DVD porn into my home theater in the living room and crank it up so all the neighbors can hear how big of a pervert I am! How is HD DVD the "next best thing" I ask you? Anyway, porn's coming out on Blu-Ray as well. I guess there is a positive to HD porn on HD DVD when I think about it. Those stretch marks look really hot! (insert sarcasm)

The quality of Blu-Ray and HD DVD are identical. You'd be a fool to think there's a difference. Ultimate Matrix is not a HD DVD exclusive, it's coming out on Blu-Ray as well.

I have the add on drive. Love it.

I bought the HD-DVD drive because of the price. It's OK, but Blu-Ray has a better lineup of films