Today has been a really bad day for HD DVD...

1st Universal is no longer going to be a HD DVD Exclusive

http://www.thegamersthought.com/2008/02/breaking-news-egm-confirms-universals.html

2nd Netflix is dropping HD DVD

http://www.thegamersthought.com/2008/02/netflix-waves-goodbye-to-hd-dvd.html

3rd

Best Buy is suggesting Blu Ray over HD DVD

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Industry_Trends/Best_Buy/Best_Buy_to_Recommend_Blu-ray_over_HD_DVD/1455

This has to be the death-nell for HD DVD, in 2008 Blu Ray has outsold HD DVD 76 to 24.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HighDefSales.svg

so why in the Sony thread? Because I used to work at Best Buy and every HD tv, they try to push the High Def players, and now they will be talking Blu Ray exclusively. When I worked before, there were many people on the fence as to buying one format or another...wanting to wait it out. Now Best Buy will push hard on High Def format because they will try to sell over priced HDMI cables. So, all that to say if the US' biggest Electronic retailer is pushing Blu ray that is huge. Finally, the best blu ray player is the PS3 because it is easy to update the firmware with the Wifi. This is a huge boost to the sales of the PS3 hardware although it may not boost software much. It would be easy to imagine that for every 2 HDTVs sold at best buy, 1 blu ray player would be sold and many of them PS3s. Watch out when the US government switches to digital because they will really push HDTVs then and blu ray players (and therefore PS3s). Sorry for the long post!

Well, when will HD DVD off die (stop production)?

when Toshiba realizes they lost

Yeah I'm sure that's exactly what they'll push. I'm still fine with upconverted DVDs though...I'm gonna need a big price drop on players and discs to get into it.

It wouldn't make sense for BBY to suggest HD DVD at this point.

Hmm...I wonder why HDDVDS players cost like on ly fifty dollars more than a dvd player

oh yeah!!!
*light bulb dings in head

b.c it lost to sony againist blu ray

I wonder how this Blu-Ray will impact ps3 sales? A Blu-Ray victory helps no matter what, but BB employees actively pushing the format could boost sales even more.

HD DVDs only chance is to subsidise HD/Blu Players making them cheap and attractive to the market.

Well the sooner an official statement is released from Universal whether they are going to start producing films on Blu-ray the better it will be for the industry as it would mean only one studio (Paramount) exclusively supposrt the format and that would not last long i'm sure :D

best buy is saying they will push BR hardware. If they do it in favor for Ps3 it will definitly increase sales. I can see it like this.

consumer - "im looking into an hd movie player"

employee - "well blu-ray is the leading format and has the support of many more movie studios."

consumer - "that sounds good show me to the players"

employee - "well heres our selection. the sony ps3 is also a blu-ray player. if you or anyone in your household (like children) enjoy games the ps3 is only 100 dollars more than our cheapest blu-ray player. with that you get a gamming device and a hi def player. more bang for your buck"

consumer - "my kids have been bugging me for that damned thing. geez i didnt know it would benifit me too point me to them"

but thats only if best buy employees like their job. many of them are stupid kids and really dont care. usually they are like "there over here need anything flag me down bye"