High def wars: Christmas in sight

[Elandyll]

Translation (my own) of an article on a French News website

http://www.france24.com/france24Publ...90345.zmwmcf2o

DVD HIGH DEFINITION: FORMAT WAR AS CHRISTMAS DRAWS NEAR

Battle of numbers, Promotion deals, prices going down: partisans of the rival formats Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are locked in a bitter battle while Xmas is drawing near to impose their standard as the de facto format of High Definition that will replace the DVD.

The Japanese giant Toshiba, who created the norm HD-DVD, was having this week a conference on that subject, two weeks after a Blu-Ray event of the same type organized by Sony and its partners.

With the help of numbers, both sides tried to show their domination on the new market of High Definition players, sold since 2006, each claiming objectivity with the help of the GfK institute.

Toshiba puts in the forefront the "leadership" of the HD-DVD technology with a 72% market share on the High Definition stand alone players (January to August) in France and 69% in Europe.

But for the Association Blu-Ray partners France, created recently, the Blu-Ray format will have conquered 90% of the High Def. players market by the end of the year with 600.000 homes equiped.

This number was obtained by adding the sales of the consoles Playstation 3, all of those having a Blu-Ray player, and its price just having been lowered by 200 euros, at 399 euros.

"Blu-Ray is a format supported quasi-exclusively by consoles", denounces Thierry Chabrol, general director of the consumer electrics division of Toshiba France.

Other ground where the battle takes place, the sales of discs in High Definition, dominated at 60% by Blu-Ray.But, replies Toshiba, "We sell 5.2 movies per player, against 0.6 for Blu-Ray", implying accordingly to the company an "attachment rate very much in favor of HD-DVD".

"Verbal spins without end", mocks Arnaud Brunet, general secretary of Blu-Ray Partners France who prefers to point at the long list of backers of Sony's format.

The company rallied to its cause big names of consumer electronics such as the Japanese Sharp, Matsushita, Pioneer, Mitsubishi Electric, the South Corean Samsung as well as the European Philips, and major studios such as Disney and 20th Century Fox.

HD-DVD, on its side, obtained the favors of Universal and Paramount, the backing of Microsoft, Intel and a group of manufacturers, most notably Chinese ones.

Others haven't taken position yet, like Warner Home Video or the computer manufacturers HP and Acer. LG even created a player capable of reading both formats.

It is difficult in these conditions to find a way for the consumer.

Technically, Blu-Ray has a larger storage capacity, but it is also more expensive to produce, and thus proposed to a higher price.

This is an argument pushed forward by Toshiba who says it wants to make High Definition "accessible to all", with prices around 300 euros.

So, who will have the last word? Specialists will not take a chance by making a prediction.

"In no way can we even talk of a victory of HD-DVD", says M. Chabrol. "The road is going to be long, very long", he estimates, reminding us that only 15% of French homes are today equiped with a HD TV set.

The other camp on the opposite portrays a large dose of "optimism". "We do not see how Blu-Ray could not win all votes: it is very largely backed and is knowing a large success in the US", says M. Brunet.
But "nothing is ever won in advance", he quickly adds.

Interesting. Spin on numbers from Tosh (the usual stuff, including PS3 when it's favorable -with attachment rates- but not when it's not -overall standalone players sold-), but very very pessimistic at the end (it's going to be a very long road). Toshiba knows it cannot win rapidly and drags it out, with the consumers being the losers.

/golfclap HD-DVD supporters.

P.S: Just a little farther on the same website, I see that Sony's finances jumped upa large amount, with Net benefits up 72Billion yens compared to last year's Q3. Q3 2007 for Sony = more than $500M benefits, despite the losses on the PS3.