HD DVD Promo Group says HD DVD players "thrashing" Blu-ray in the US

[Chad Varnadore]

It's hard to trust anything that comes from the HD DVD promotion group. They've been desperate for positive sales press all year and have turned twisting the truth into an artform of misinformation and skewed facts.

When the HD DVD promotion group was claiming that HD DVD standalones were outselling BD by 4:1, that was proven false early this year by actual sales data showing only a very small increase in HD DVD player sales over stand alone BD sales. But, when the PS3 is being used as the primary BD transport even by many "professional" reviewers, it's obvious that those sales can't be dismissed.

The whole attach rate nonsense is utterly laughable. Lets ignore the fact that most people don't buy movies as much as some of us more dedicated early adopters. So, attach rates are always going to decrease as market penetration increases. HD DVD advertising higher attach rates with lower player sales, is a promotion for BD, not the other way around. But the way the HD DVD promotion group wants to conveniently ignore PS3 sales, except when they talk about attach rates... come on. They can't have it both ways. Either the PS3 is a viable player in which case BD has a dramatic lead in player sales; or it's not, in which case (assuming HD DVDs standalone figures are correct this time) BD has a far higher attach rate.