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High-Def Format War Still at Stalemate

Geoff Duncan
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High-Def Format War Still at Stalemate

Who’ve have thought we’d be collectively eyeing the end of of 2007 and there would still be no clear high-definition disc format widely accepted by consumers? Although we’re sure the new year will bring all manner of self-congratulatory and chest-thumping press press releases from both camps—particularly as the all-important Consumer Electronics Show launches in Las Vegas in January—the bottom line is that Blu-ray and HD DVD are still at a stalemate and, for the most part, consumers seem content to sit out the “high-def revolution” until things settle down.

For folks keeping score, here’s roughly where things stand:

  • The Blu-ray camp is generally seen to be leading in overall disc sales, althought the technology is having trouble moving its more-expensive standalone disc players. The PlayStation 3 is the absolutely best-selling Blu-ray device on the market, and what few people are buying PS3s (at least, in comparison to Wiis) seem to be buying them for gaming purposes, rather than movie-watching. On the content front, movie studios Sony, Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate exclusively offer titles in Blu-ray format, and the camp is looking to titles like Spider-Man 3 to push Blu-ray over the top.
  • The HD DVD camp still has tech giant Microsoft on its side, and has exclusive content partnerships with Universal Studios, Weinstein, and more recently Paramount, which stopped Blu-ray production in favor of HD DVD. (The only fence-sitter at this point is Warner Brothers, which offers both movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, although not all titles are available in both.) However, the HD DVD camp is the clear leader in terms of standalone players, with prices for Toshiba’s HD-A2 dipping below $100 at leading U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy over the holiday season, bringing an estimated 100,000 new households into the HD DVD camp.
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Amid all the hubbub, it’s worth noting that total sales for both HD DVD and Blu-ray are still hopelessly dwarfed by the sales of standard DVDs and DVD players: although the technologies have been duking it out for a year now, consumers aren’t embracing either in significant numbers.

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Industry watchers predict more consumers will opt-in to a high-definition disc format as they upgrade to HD-capable TVs in larger numbers. The more consumers experience high-definition content, they reason, they more they’ll want to get a high-definition disc player of one stripe or another. However, other pundits are wondering of the high-definition disc battle may be outflanked by broadband delivery of high-definition content, whether from cable and satellite operators or via the Internet. It could be that consumers will never adopt a disc format in significant numbers, and instead opt for services that bring high-definition content directly to their homes.

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Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
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