| dallas said: First of all, HD DVD technically isn't losing but I also think that it is important to look at WHY this is happening. Toshiba's cheapest HD-DVD player has been discounted down to $400 with a $100 rebate making the effective price come down to $300, versus the blu-ray player's best price of $800, which implies that toshiba is bleeding red ink over every HD DVD player bought.   Secondly, Sony just added manufacturing capacity this year for blu-ray DVD's to be made, more than doubling the current capacity so Sony apparantly sees the format as growing just fine. Secondly, the most realistic way to look at the high def DVD market is in terms of value/price.  A high ratio will mean that consumers would be more interested in the product, and this ratio is getting higher all the time due to the actual price of blu-ray movies dropping due to more and more of them being made and bought all the time. The price for a blu ray DVD is about $10 more expensive than a regular DVD and this will probably drop to $5-$6 in a few years. Do you really think that the demand will not be there for the blu-ray when the price comes down for the PS3, and the blu-ray dvd itself? You do reallize that the price for the PS3 will probably be $300 or $400 in just a matter of a few years and that blu-ray players will probably be much cheaper as well.  So, just face it; the day of the high-def DVD is upon us and the luddites are just.....ignoring reality. |
I don't want to get into another inane BD vs. HD-DVD argument, but there are a few points that need to be cleared up:
HD-DVD is a cheaper system to produce. Toshiba isn't bleeding money on players. The diodes are considerably cheaper than the equivalent BD diodes and the overall system costs much less to produce than BD. Also, you can get a BD player for around $450 now, not $800. You can also get an HD-DVD player for a little less than $300.
Also, HD-DVD production lines are roughly half the cost and produce more discs per month than do BD lines.
While I probably think BD will win, this war is far from over. The information is out there, just take a look at it. There are multiple sources that think HD-DVD players could be down to $150 by holiday 2008 (or about 1/2 to 1/3 of a BD player), if not sooner.
This "war" ain't gonna be decided for a long, long time. Grab a beer, sit back and watch. It should be an interesting two or three years.
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