the data was not tracked and there was no reason to track the data. Hell even Toshiba was ready to DROP HD DVD in 2005. the only reason why was because of IHD Microsoft wanted to Slow Adoption of Blu-Ray, they Knew it was slim to no chance to make it when the main majority of Optical drive companies all decided on Blu-Ray well before 2004. Toshiba was the only Hold out and Even they were ready to throw in the towl, until Microsoft stepped in.

Blu-ray Says No to Microsoft, and Vice Versa: 2004.
HP in turn invited Microsoft to also support Blu-ray for playback under Windows, which HP would need for the Blu-ray equipped PCs it sold. According to an article by Peter Burrows in BusinessWeek, Microsoft demanded that the Blu-ray group adopt its WinCE-based iHD for developing interactive content (since renamed to HDi) in order to sign on.

Somewhat ironically, the Blu-ray group had already adopted BDj, an interactive authoring system developed by HP. BDj is based upon Sun’s Java platform. Content developed for BDj is intended to be easily adapted for delivery not just on Blu-ray disc, but also over cable systems.

The Blu-ray Disc Association “did a three month side-by-side evaluation and concluded that iHD didn’t offer enough advantages to make a switch worthwhile,” Burrows reported. “Microsoft was livid.” In September 2005, Microsoft and Intel announced their exclusive support for HD-DVD, which had already included HDi as a mandatory part of the specification.

Bill Hunt of Digital Bits explained to InternetNews that Toshiba was ready to drop HD-DVD and join Blu-ray in 2005 until an unnamed company, which Hunt believes to be Microsoft, “pressured the company to stick with HD DVD since so much time and money had been invested in it.”

“Everything I’ve been told,” Hunt said, “is a lot of people in the HD DVD camp were ready to throw in the towel in late 2005 and something kept them from doing it. Microsoft seems to be the company that is running around crowing the loudest about HD DVD.”

None of that had anything do to with SALES.  Before the PS3 was released HD-DVD players and movies were outselling Blu-ray players and movies.

Also, if everyone knew it was going to fail then why did WB, Paramount, Universal and others decide to back the HD-DVD format in 2004?   Surely they didn't have the same nefarious plans as Microsoft?

Come on, you're clutching at straws here and I don't even know what you're trying to prove.   The fact that Blu-ray burners were released in Japan in 2003 had almost zero effect on the format war. 

It's not about the Sale's..HD DVD did not have that Great of sales Anyway...lol

double dipping...you know as well as i that is a very common pratice among the Movie production companies.

as for clutching at straws...I do not have to clutch, because there is no straw, just Like HD DVD was not going to make it..they all Knew it, The Reason being was There was just not enough Manuf. Support for HD DVD and that was never going to change!

Ask your self, If HD DVD was selling so well, remember less than 1 million HD DVD player's have sold..that's world Wide, that if it sold  so well as you say. Only Toshiba Made HD DVD optical drives, Even Sony could have Made them also but did not at the time.An Since it was Only Toshiba no more OEM manuf. made HD DVD optical drives for the HD DVD Player's Except for Toshiba why is that?

Or do you think Sony payed them off too?

or could it be the most simple of reason's

Because there is no Money in HD DVD FOR OEM manuf. to make the HD DVD drives.

one could argue that the Demand for HD DVD by the consumer was great, I can grant you that but without more Manuf. HD DVD was going to fail, and it did. It  was not about Sony paying off people, or anything like that Sony did not have too, remember back in 2002 the main manuf. all got together and talked about the eventual replacement format for DVD, which since both HD DVD and Blu-Ray both play standard DVD's it's pretty much an upgrade to your player until the eventual phase out of DVD as a whole but that will not be for many year's to come anyway.

HD DVD's main draw back was there was no Money in it for the other CE OEM optical drive manuf. Toshiba priced it so low off the bat that they could not make enough Money off of the production, while Blu-Ray did.

That was the Big reason why HD DVD failed, that AN Blu-Ray was already a mature format more so than HD DVD was. you may think that A Blu-Ray burner had nothing to do with the format war, but it indeed did, the reason being is once again, Blu-Ray was shown already on the market and it worked 3 year's prior to HD DVD being released, uptil anyone of these format's was released the CE manuf. all looked at what these companies produce for optical drives in order to order those drive's for their devices so they can put them out into the market. So uptil that point Blu-Ray was already to go vs' HD DVD..but but the software, Blu-Ray was not finished and HD DVD was!

Once again who made the Software for HD DVD player's...that's right Microsoft, but yet even in their Own xbox360, Microsoft decided not to put HD DVD inside the xbox360 because it would have increased the over all cost of the xbox360. An besides HD DVD was not needed for software anyway, by Microsoft's own Statement's Digital Download was the future. So why would Microsoft Support one over the other of these TWO format's, Beause Toshiba decide on IHD but the rest decided on Java.

there would not have even been a HD Contest IF the other CE Manuf. decided on IHD over Java, and more than likely Microsoft would have Still gone Ahead with DVD anyway. So that the other CE manuf. could not count on Microsoft anyway to support Blu-Ray. Because I doubt even than that Microsoft would have offered Blu-Ray as an Option for just Movie playback for the xbox360 due to the cost that would have shown the price of the xbox360 and the PS3 to be inline closer to parity than Microsoft would have wanted. So it's no wonder the other CE companies never cared for Microsoft's outlook on physical format's because Microsoft did not care themselves, but Microsoft wanted a slice of the pie of their market, but never would have really supported it.

At leaset with Blu-Ray they could make some money, but also Since the licence for java would be far cheaper to them than IHD. they decided one more thing to give them more money to keep in thier pocket's.

Yes, my comment, the one you responded to, was about sales....stop trying to change the subject.  My comment was about HD-DVD outselling Blu-ray before the PS3 was released.  This is true.  I doesn't matter that the sales were low, and it doesn't matter that the PS3 sales eventually dwarfed the HD DVD player sales, they were selling better than Blu-ray was doing AT THE TIME.  I'm talking about the 7 months BEFORE the PS3 was released.  The rest of your rant has absolutely NOTHING to do with my comments whatsoever, it's about your belief that Blu-ray was always going to be the winning format and nothing else mattered.  This is/was your opinion but relates in no way to my comments.

From Blu-ray's own wiki page: "HD DVD had a head start in the high definition video market, as Blu-ray Disc sales were slow to gain market share. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and "buggy", and there were few titles available.[34] This changed when the PlayStation 3 was launched, since every PS3 unit also functioned as a Blu-ray Disc player."

"By January 2007, Blu-ray Discs had outsold HD DVDs"

BY JANUARY, meaning that before that time HD DVD had been outselling it.

Here is a typical forum topic from that time period:

http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=727412

I'll quote a typical post: "HD DVD is making it harder and harder for folks to believe that the PS3 is going to turn it around. Like someone else said in this thread, until standalone BR players are available around the $500 mark, sales will continue to suffer. However, it now also appears that despite their 'overwhelming' studio support, content sales have also been meager. One thing that HD DVD fans have shown is very strong loyalty and very high attach rates."

Anyway, I'm done with this conversation.  Let's agree to disagree.  You can continue to believe that Blu-ray was always ahead in sales spurred by the massive number of Japanese cartidge based optical drives that sold in 2003, HD DVD was all just a big corporate consipiracy and that no one ever belived it could win.  Meanwhile I'll continue to live in reality.

Once again who made the Software for HD DVD player's...that's right Microsoft, but yet even in their Own xbox360, Microsoft decided not to put HD DVD inside the xbox360 because it would have increased the over all cost of the xbox360. An besides HD DVD was not needed for software anyway, by Microsoft's own Statement's Digital Download was the future. So why would Microsoft Support one over the other of these TWO format's, Beause Toshiba decide on IHD but the rest decided on Java.

Y'know that Microsoft software went into blu-ray as well, correct?

I keep seeing you say this, and I keep pointing out it's factually incorrect.  Stop intentionally spreading FUD and misinformation.

no it's true the only one's who made combo drives still had to use the Toshiba's chipset because of the IHD software, just because the player has a name stamped on it does not mean they created the optical drive in that player..if you would look in there Inside the player it will be a Toshiba optical drive!, so yes indeed it is true.

even in your list of drives Toshiba was the main manuf. because, well it was Toshiba's to start with, though other's such as Sony and Nec could have indeed made them HD DVD drives also, they also could make Blu-Ray drive which they did.

The Point being that At the Time Toshiba was the only place to get the HD DVD optical drives for your product. buy OEM.

Put up or shut up.  Cite any reputable source that says Toshiba was the lone manufacturer for HD-DVD drives.