With CES going on I thought I would take a stroll over to the AVS forums. I'm sure a lot of you here are familiar with them. When Universale (the only exclusive HD-DVD studio) made Zero announcements of coming titles it shocked a lot of HD fans. Here's what some had to say. "Wow... completely shocked here. I'm sitting here looking at the announced lists for the first 3 months of the year. I want brokeback and the mummy returns and the departed. On the other side, there's 14 titles I'd get. I think I'm just buying Universal only for my A2 at this point and going Blu-ray for everything else. My PS3 will be opened on April 24... by B-day." ____________________ "For the first time since I bought my HD-A1 and added over 100 HD DVD discs to my collection, I am going to have to consider curtailing the purchase of any additional titles. I will probably cancel my Amazon pre-orders as well. I have been a huge supporter of the format by purchasing equipment and software with zeal. But Universal's lack of enthusiasm dare I say it... has me turning Blu. I was anticipating some huge announcements but we didn't even get a hint of what is to come. I think the earlier HD DVD announcements were stellar. I predicted the terrific hardware news but I was also depending on Universal to pull out all the stops to help boost HD DVD beyond the first quarter. If this is some sort of strategy, it seems pretty damn foolish to me. I am wondering if they are actually re-considering exclusive support. Regardless of the new Toshiba announcements, losing Universal's exclusive support would certainly deliver a death blow and even I would consider having to make an incredibly painful decision." ________________ "Wow, makes me feel glad I went with HD-DVD before Blu. I was already planning on going neutral and getting a PS3 by the spring, and still loving my HD-DVD, but with this kind of "support", I'm half thinking it may not be a bad idea to sell my HD-A1 to help pay for it." _________________ "exclusivity is a prime factor here. Universal is the only major studio that was backing hd dvd. quite a few bd exclusive movies are being announced. not so for hd dvd. i'm gettin a ps3. not because i want to, but because i have to if i ever want to see these movies in hi def." _________________ "As supporter of both, I have to say that I am dissapointed. Come on, this is CES, where all companies get everyone pumped up about what is to come. Even if Universal plans on releasing 300 titles in the following year, its still a disappointment considering this is CES. I know people will come in here to defend HD-DVD, but face it, today is a gloomy day for HD-DVD no matter how many things you pull out your ass to defend it. I hope they keep releasing universal titles because I want them, but I have a PS3 and I must say that Blu-Ray will definitely be getting most of my money this year. Also I was looking at universals library. And they don't have a "Ton" of hits left in the catalogue, though they do have a decent amount that I will hold on to my A2." ___________________ "Universal, you made me do it. PS3 owner now. No, I'm not abandoning HD DVD. I was a supporter from the get go and will continue to be, own 70+ titles and counting, but life is to short to be playing this waiting game. Many of us held our collective breath for months for OUR Super Bowl, CES. Well, you let me down brother." ___________________ I only wrote about these to show an interesting thing. People who have been supporting HD-DVD from the beginning are not only switching sides, the BD player they prefer to get or already have will be a PS3. Pretty interesting. It seems in the AVS forum there is a heated debate among long time HD-DVD supporters, a lot of them are abandoning support and others trying to convince them to ride it out. But those abandoning support seem very willing to give their money to get a PS3 as it appears BD may become the dominate movie media. If Sony manages to pull this off I will be very impressed. That not only were they able to add BD to their gaming system and help push BD sales, but as BD sales become greater, and the look of support for HD-DVD seems to wain, people are actually willing to by a PS3 to be the BD player. The 2 ideas PS3 and BD are actually helping each other.

After recent inquiries about 80% of the PS3 owners are looking for BR movies and at least 50% look at the PS3 as their primary optical drive for movies ...with one million units shipped (at at 10 january probably already sold ) by 31 dec it is obvious that Sony will win this war on numbers alone .HD-DVD has seen a good boost with the HD-DVD attachment for the X360 but finally the numbers are starting to press on the HD-DVD side ...even if only 50% of the PS3 owners bought movies regularly it would be still half a million readers (plus the standalone players ) in NA against some 275 000 HD-DVD standalone and X360 HD-DVDadd ons put toghether .... By the way I can understand going for the underdog and the zealous creed of some early adopters but really sticking to UNIVERSAL only to satisfy their HD needs is a bit off ....the PS3 being about the same price of a stand-alone HD-DVD players and having the support of 7 out of 8 movie studios it is simply a way better machine for HD movies ....with the added value of its gaming/internet browsing/PSP connectivity/Linux OS of course ....

the only thing that HDDVD really has going for it is the name. Having the letters HD in its name is a big thing.

This will amount to a negligible increase in sales, if that.... The format war is far from over

With Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, Phillips, and JVC primarily supporting the Blu-Ray format, all these electronic manufacturer's will be competiting for the few who are switching from HD-DVD to Blu-ray. Remember as time passes and the second and third generation players come out, the PS3 will be one of the worst Blu-Ray players on the market. Gains to the PS3 format will be negligible in the U.S., and the 360 was never a factor in Japan anyway.

http://www.hdgamedb.com/amazon/history.aspx Blu-Ray exceeds HD-DVD for the first time on a daily basis on Amazon. Of course, Fox already reported that BDs are outselling HD in stores as of December 24th. I think we may finally get closure on this war this year. If blu-ray wins that's just good news for PS3 fans.

Blu-ray has 96% of the HD player market in Japan. "In terms of Japan, the game is already over there." http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/live-coverage-from-bda-press-conference/[/url] And in Japan the HD-DVD isnt even fighting back ..... I think the sooner the BR impose itself the better for everyone (except Toshiba of course ) and the less people are going to be let down with a HD-DVD player without movies ...