Woolies dumps HD DVD
p2pnet news | Product News:- Another nail has been driven into the HD DVD coffin.
In Britain, Woolies – Woolworths – is famous. It was Wal-Mart before there was Wal-Mart, and it’s now made a move which’ll have a significant impact on the vexed DVD format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray.
The battle, has, “driven hardware prices down rapidly, but consumers are still confused by the split in title availability, says Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield,” p2pnet posted just before Christmas last year, adding, “The confusion could, though, end if Warner Bros and New Line opt exclusively for Blu-ray in early 2008, he predicts.”
Warner did exactly that and now is, “Major high street retailer Woolworths has become the UK’s first major chain to announce it is to drop the in-store sale of HD-DVD discs in favour of rival format Blu-ray,” says Digital Spy, going on:
“The move, which comes into effect in March, was taken after Woolworths revealed Blu-ray discs outsold HD-DVD by ten to one over Christmas.
“The retailer, which began selling both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats in October, added that it intends to continue selling HD-DVD online.”
However, “Alas the reasoning give by Woolworths isn’t quite as compelling as one might hope,” says Trusted Reviews, adding:
Steve McGuinel, Woolworths’ DVD buyer, stating that “Sales figures clearly show that the market is moving towards one format of high definition DVD. The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Because it plays Blu-Ray discs, there are over ¾ million homes in the UK that can view the new high definition format. There is nowhere near that number of HD-DVD players around. Switching to Blu-Ray only, will provide one clear offer to customers in the format they want to watch high definition movies in.”
Ok, I’ll accept the first part of his argument, the one week’s figures we have post Warner’s defection away from HD DVD shows a strong uptake of Blu-ray, but as the source of that data also reinforced: it’s just one week’s data. The attachment rate for Blu-ray discs to PlayStation 3’s is rather low because, oddly enough, most people buy the things to play games on – Sony has a lot more educating to do yet I feel.
Nonetheless, and it’s a big one, I fully expect that other retailers will now feel safer following suit and joining the format war ending move to exclusivity. It may not please the HD DVD early adopters, but that’s the price of progress.
Meanwhile, “i’m waiting for the HD DVD fire sale,” posted Don in p2pnet.
“$5 HDDVD’s and $20 HD DVD players in the bargain basement bin. That combined with a $25 HDDVD burner, and I’ll be set. Any movies on blu ray exclusive I’ll just rent. 3 layer hddvd blanks have more than enough capacity for blu ray disc.
“And with HD dvd support gone with the death of the format, so will be the DRM updates that you’re forced to download. Win win situation for the consumer if you ask me.”
Also See:
p2pnet - HD DVD next Betamax?, December 11, 2007
Digital Spy – Woolworths is first retailer to drop HD-DVD, January 29, 2008
Trusted Reviews – Woolworths Dropping HD DVD, Going Blu-ray Exclusive, January 29, 2008
p2pnet – IS HD DVD dead?, January 5, 2008
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January 29th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Apple iPhone key posted on Digg
http://www.digg.com/apple/18_84_58_A6_D1_50_34_DF_E3_86_F2_3B_61_D4_37_74_iPhone_Key
A comment from Digg:
We did this last time with HD DVD, and now, a few months later, HD DVD has lost the format war.
So by digging this…..
LONG LIVE ANDROID!!!!
January 29th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Hmmm, is this win for Sony and it’s overprice game system?
January 30th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Most *honest* people will agree with me, that it is good that Blu-ray prevails, as it has the stronger copyright protection system. One of the enhancements over HD DVD is of course, Region Coding. I’m glad the DVD world is not losing this important feature and I’m sure you are too.
Don’t worry about that slysoft crap. America is actively working to shut it down. Announcements will be made soon.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:41 am
I think most ordinary people will prefer to stick with a format they know they can back up, because these damn cheap plastic disks (but not cheap to acquire) scratch all too easily and then they are useless. They are also a perishable medium.
I’d put my money on HD-DVD.
If an indestructible or freely replaceable medium appears, then yes I would agree with unbreakable protection systems. But this will never be the case in a world where money drives everything and the customer is always treated as *dishonest*.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Oh. And Woolies is nothing like Walmart.
It’s not somewhere the mentally firm would choose to shop.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
IT IS THE CONSUMER WHO WILL DECIDE
The demise of HD-DVD is premature, mainly because the biggest users of opticl disk are not movie studios or record companies. It’s the consumer who buys disks by the truckload so as to copy/backup data and, yes, copy/backup purchased (by someone) commercial optical disk products, that will make or break optical disk products.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:39 am
I don’t buy optical discs, instead I download them from the net (specifically, compressed 700-1.3 gb). So I guess this so called format war doesn’t include me
As for backing up data, flimsy, small, and unreliable optical discs are not up for the challenge. I prefer to use pen drives, portable external hardrives (350gb), or a NAS (network attached storage).
The HD market supposition is based on the premise that consumers will be buying optical discs in droves. This hasn’t happened yet; And at current adoption rates, it doesn’t look pretty. Hell, sony is relying on the playstation to trigger critical mass; What does that suggest?
Lets be realistic here; Media centres are becoming more pervasive; You can convert older pcs into one with little trouble. So the question arises, if we have a network where video can be downloaded / streamed, why do we need HD players, HD discs, and HDMI DRM displays ? The simple answer is we don’t. Network bandwidth is continuously increasing, which renders optics and content protection (this is only for the benefit of the entertainment cartels) redundant. Say no cartel sponsered HDMI, and yes to DVI (DRM free digital video standard which existed long before HDMI, and is ubiquitous in the pc / media centre market; note that most tv sets also support DVI).