Audio Video News

Black Friday was apparently very good to HD DVD. Riding another wave of deep discount sales on the day after Thanksgiving, the HD DVD group, citing "retailer reports and other point of sale data," issued a press release claiming 750,000 dedicated HD DVD players have been sold.

Opening the holiday shopping season Toshiba's third-gen HD-A3 player was offered at a number of large retailers at prices below $199. Ken Graffeo of Universal and the HD DVD Promotional Group gushed that, "HD DVD is turning out to be a perfect consumer electronics gift.”

While HD DVD has been marketed primarily on sales of its standalone set-top players, the press release referred to "dedicated players" and used the total of standalone units and Xbox 360 add-on drives. The HD DVD camp has typically tried to lean away from including the Xbox add-ons, most likely to downplay both the sales of the PlayStation3 and to underscore its belief that few PS3 owners actually use their consoles to watch Blu-ray Disc movies. Its research suggests that owners of both standalone HD DVD players and Xbox 360 add-on drives buy HD DVD movies in greater numbers than PS3 owners buy Blu-ray Disc movies, which is referred to as a higher "attach rate."

There have been over two million PlayStation3 players sold in North America, and the number is certainly climbing thanks in no small part to downward movement in its pricing over the last few months. Even with its lower attach rates, the market penetration of the PS3 and the greater studio support Blu-ray enjoys has helped the format outsell HD DVD in total volume software sales throughout 2007.