PS3 helps Blu-ray... laptops help HD DVD?

[coolkid1922]

i found this article and I wondered what the fine minds over at bluray.com would think about it. this is not my article or opinion.


PlayStation 3 boosts Blu-ray:
Chris Jenkins | August 07, 2007

BLU-RAY is giving HD DVD a hiding in the early race to secure the next-generation DVD market in Australia, thanks largely to Sony's PlayStation 3 games console.

Dedicated DVD players of either format are still too expensive for many
According to industry analyst GfK, the PS3 accounts for about 95 per cent of the market for high-definition DVD equipment in Australia.

The PS3, launched in March, provided a big boost to Blu-ray software sales, GfK analyst Sharane Lewis said.

It had sold about 55,000 units in Australia by the end of June, compared with just over 1000 units of dedicated Blu-ray players, according to GfK figures.

In contrast, total sales of HD DVD capable players, including the Xbox 360's $249 HD DVD add-on launched in March, were just under 2000.

Blu-ray software was averaging sales of 1500 units weekly, compared with 250 units weekly for HD DVD, Ms Lewis said.

Blu-ray also had the lead in the number of titles available, with about 110 software titles available for Blu-ray at the end of June, compared with about 50 for HD DVD. "It's really Blu-ray at the moment," Ms Lewis said. "It's a long away ahead, but it is still early days."

The number of televisions capable of supporting the so-called full-HD 1080p standard is also growing, with such sets now accounting for 8 per cent of the flatpanel market.

Using the PS3 as a key weapon, Sony is leading the charge for the Blu-ray standard, determined not to repeat the VHS versis Beta battle of the 1980s, which Sony's Beta lost, despite being generally considered the better technology.

Other Blu-ray backers include Pioneer, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Apple and Dell.

HD DVD is being championed by Toshiba, NEC and Microsoft, among others, with supporters saying HD DVD discs are simpler and cheaper to produce.

Toshiba disputes that Blu-ray has a big lead, saying that if PS3 figures are included, so should sales of laptops with HD DVD drives. Toshiba alone has sold more than 10,000 units in Australia with HD DVD drives, product marketing manager Justin White said.

For dedicated players, HD DVD had claimed 73 per cent of the market in Europe and 55 per cent in the US. Figures for Australia were not yet available, he said.

Mr White also questioned GfK's software sales data, saying outlets such as EzyDVD and Quickflix had been reporting to Toshiba that sales were going in HD DVD's favour by as much as two to one.

While the two formats compete head-on to secure control of the new market, the market itself is developing very slowly, with Blu-ray only just having overtaken the ancient VHS as the nation's second most popular video format.

While Blu-ray holds a handy lead at present, sales of Blu-ray titles still make up only 0.2 per cent of the total video software market.

With the war between the competing formats far from over, the public remained hesitant about jumping in and buying a $1000-plus dedicated DVD player, Ms Lewis said "At the moment, the majority of the hardware sales are being driven by the PlayStation 3.

"It's the consoles that are driving it, not the players at this point in time."

The rental market for next-generation DVDs was also slow, Video Ezy general manager Andrew Gardiner said.

"It's quite slow in take-up. We have them on the shelves in certain stores, but not in all of our stores," he said.

Where high-definition titles were available, Blu-ray was clearly ahead, he said.

Compared with DVD players, which were owned by about 98 per cent of Australian households, the hardware base for Blu-ray and HD DVD was still tiny, Mr Gardiner said.

Nevertheless, he expected rentals of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles to increase this year. "We are certainly going to promote both HD and Blu-ray, but it will depend on consumer take-up of the hardware," he said.

"We have seen Blu-ray players in the US reduced by $US100 here and $US100 there, and we will see that here too, with the hardware reducing in price."

Mr Gardiner said he expected one format to emerge victorious but it was too early to say which.

Ms Lewis said price falls were expected before Christmas. "We can't really make any calls on it until we see what happens towards the end of the year."

Sony HD displays and DVD assistant product manager Andrew Smith said the Australian market may not follow the US pattern of price cuts, but prices would fall here.

"The next big driver will be Christmas, obviously. It will be the battlefield where everyone wants to be front of mind with their customers, and price will be a big part of that," he said.

[Zyclone]

a laptop with a HD DVD driver in it will run you a couple of grand easily down under and i would say that the people that can afford a laptop like that have no interest in running movies on a tiny laptop screen when they have a nice A/V set up instead.

[buckshot]

I don't quite understand the whole hidef drive in a laptop. for either format. I don't know anyone who hooks up a laptop the their hdtv and uses it for watching movies. I know some who do that with desktop computers. can you tell the difference between sd and hd on a laptop?

what i'm trying to say is that the ps3 and the hd add on will be used to actually watch the movies. I doubt many people will buy an hd capable laptop to watch hd dvds on. unless its a 32'' laptop screen.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by buckshot

I don't quite understand the whole hidef drive in a laptop. for either format. I don't know anyone who hooks up a laptop the their hdtv and uses it for watching movies. I know some who do that with desktop computers. can you tell the difference between sd and hd on a laptop?

what i'm trying to say is that the ps3 and the hd add on will be used to actually watch the movies. I doubt many people will buy an hd capable laptop to watch hd dvds on. unless its a 32'' laptop screen.

Many laptops have 1920x1080 (or better) screen resolution, so yeah, I'm sure the difference between HD and SD would be very noticable. I certainly notice the drop in PQ when I play DVDs in "full screen" mode on my laptop (17" screen).

Don't forget that unlike TVs, laptops tend to be used on one's lap--no more than 50cm from one's eyes--so the PQ differences would be more noticable.

But I agree that most HD laptop drives would probably be used as a backup mechanism rather than for watching movies.

[Xerious]

they've got toshiba, hp... we've got apple, sony, dell... hmmmmmm....

[WickyWoo]

There are several things they don't mention

1- You need a modern multicore processor with a lot of RAM to support HD playback

2- The battery life at high load, with optical drive spinning is only 60-80min. Not enough to watch a movie let alone work

$1500 to a laptop, and they *****ed PS3 was expensive

[jorg]

i found this article and I wondered what the fine minds over at bluray.com would think about it. this is not my article or opinion.


PlayStation 3 boosts Blu-ray:
Chris Jenkins | August 07, 2007

BLU-RAY is giving HD DVD a hiding in the early race to secure the next-generation DVD market in Australia, thanks largely to Sony's PlayStation 3 games console.

Dedicated DVD players of either format are still too expensive for many
According to industry analyst GfK, the PS3 accounts for about 95 per cent of the market for high-definition DVD equipment in Australia.

The PS3, launched in March, provided a big boost to Blu-ray software sales, GfK analyst Sharane Lewis said.

It had sold about 55,000 units in Australia by the end of June, compared with just over 1000 units of dedicated Blu-ray players, according to GfK figures.

In contrast, total sales of HD DVD capable players, including the Xbox 360's $249 HD DVD add-on launched in March, were just under 2000.

Blu-ray software was averaging sales of 1500 units weekly, compared with 250 units weekly for HD DVD, Ms Lewis said.

Blu-ray also had the lead in the number of titles available, with about 110 software titles available for Blu-ray at the end of June, compared with about 50 for HD DVD. "It's really Blu-ray at the moment," Ms Lewis said. "It's a long away ahead, but it is still early days."

The number of televisions capable of supporting the so-called full-HD 1080p standard is also growing, with such sets now accounting for 8 per cent of the flatpanel market.

Using the PS3 as a key weapon, Sony is leading the charge for the Blu-ray standard, determined not to repeat the VHS versis Beta battle of the 1980s, which Sony's Beta lost, despite being generally considered the better technology.

Other Blu-ray backers include Pioneer, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Apple and Dell.

HD DVD is being championed by Toshiba, NEC and Microsoft, among others, with supporters saying HD DVD discs are simpler and cheaper to produce.

Toshiba disputes that Blu-ray has a big lead, saying that if PS3 figures are included, so should sales of laptops with HD DVD drives. Toshiba alone has sold more than 10,000 units in Australia with HD DVD drives, product marketing manager Justin White said.

For dedicated players, HD DVD had claimed 73 per cent of the market in Europe and 55 per cent in the US. Figures for Australia were not yet available, he said.

so he used the ps3 figuers as a player in alsutraila but not in euro

Mr White also questioned GfK's software sales data, saying outlets such as EzyDVD and Quickflix had been reporting to Toshiba that sales were going in HD DVD's favour by as much as two to one.

i gusse every blu-ray suporter shops at diffrent stores cuz blu-ray dominating alstraiula over all

[/QUOTE]While the two formats compete head-on to secure control of the new market, the market itself is developing very slowly, with Blu-ray only just having overtaken the ancient VHS as the nation's second most popular video format. [/QUOTE] so in how many months blu-ray did what vhs took how mnay years to do

[/QUOTE]While Blu-ray holds a handy lead at present, sales of Blu-ray titles still make up only 0.2 per cent of the total video software market.

With the war between the competing formats far from over, the public remained hesitant about jumping in and buying a $1000-plus dedicated DVD player, Ms Lewis said "At the moment, the majority of the hardware sales are being driven by the PlayStation 3. [/QUOTE]
thats becuase its the lowest priced!!!

[/QUOTE]"It's the consoles that are driving it, not the players at this point in time."

The rental market for next-generation DVDs was also slow, Video Ezy general manager Andrew Gardiner said.

"It's quite slow in take-up. We have them on the shelves in certain stores, but not in all of our stores," he said.

Where high-definition titles were available, Blu-ray was clearly ahead, he said.[/QUOTE]

Compared with DVD players, which were owned by about 98 per cent of Australian households, the hardware base for Blu-ray and HD DVD was still tiny, Mr Gardiner said.

Nevertheless, he expected rentals of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles to increase this year. "We are certainly going to promote both HD and Blu-ray, but it will depend on consumer take-up of the hardware," he said. [/QUOTE]

notice how he didnt say hd dvd

[/QUOTE]"We have seen Blu-ray players in the US reduced by $US100 here and $US100 there, and we will see that here too, with the hardware reducing in price."

Mr Gardiner said he expected one format to emerge victorious but it was too early to say which.

Ms Lewis said price falls were expected before Christmas. "We can't really make any calls on it until we see what happens towards the end of the year."

Sony HD displays and DVD assistant product manager Andrew Smith said the Australian market may not follow the US pattern of price cuts, but prices would fall here.

"The next big driver will be Christmas, obviously. It will be the battlefield where everyone wants to be front of mind with their customers, and price will be a big part of that," he said.

plz exuse my horriable QUOTEing job lmao

[GaS]

Its a total pipe-dream on toshibas part.

[akadkins]

I have no problems including computers w/ HD-DVD drives, as long as you include computers with Blu-Ray too. I think it would be a wash. Besides, watching a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD on a laptop would be no better than DVD. Computers won't 'win' the format war.

[Sielle]

so in how many months blu-ray did what vhs took how mnay years to do?

Not really sure this is a fair thing to say. At what point was VHS competing with a parallel technology while attempting to take over the current home movie tech? Sure there was the VHS/Beta battle, but they were both completely new ways of watching movies, there wasn't really the DVD equalivent at the time, was there?

Then with Laserdisc there wasn't really a parallel tech to compete with. I guess the closest thing would be DVD vs. Divx attempting to gain on VHS and overtaking Laser as the 2nd most popular format. But even then Laser wasn't at one point the most popular format either (which VHS was and as such had a MUCH MUCH larger install base as the 2nd most popular).

[Anthony P]

The article is not bad. Obviously you have the insane quotes from Toshiba (as if 10k HD DVD laptops have sold in Australia- last time we had numbers there were not even 10k world wide)

should Laptops, consoles ad-ons and dedicated players be counted, yes. (but funny how the HD DVD PCs should be counted and there is no mention of BD PCs where there are many drive manufacturers)

As to the effect of Laptops. THe reality is that they will have almost 0 effect. Why

1) why would someone buy a 2k$ laptop when they can buy one that is 500$ and do their PC job. If someone goes out of his way for an HD DVD laptop then they would have bought some kind of HD DVD player so there is no gain (and maybe they did and the PC is a secondary device)

2) Most studdents can't afford an HD DVD laptop (and that would cover most single person households that might buy a laptop), a none single person hopusehold can't really use an HD DVD laptop as a player. Think about it "I wish I could watch ..... that I bought on HD DVD but _____"

____ = my dad has some work to do and he is using the machine in the office.
____ = my spouse is at work now.
____ = my wife is on a buisness trip all week.
____ = the PC is not connected and I have no idea what cables are needed and how to make this work.

3) if this is a work bought laptop, many companies don't allow the SW to do that. I know of at least two companies that did not allow movie playing SW on the machine.

[groovyone]

I had been eyeing a nice Sony laptop with a BD burner for $1800, but it was a 768 screen. Some of the newer ones (often up to $3500) have 1920x1200 screens. True, I wouldn't buy one just for movies, but when I do upgrade my current laptop the new one will have a BD burner.