but here is my real point:

I just have to say this. i have been reading qoutes from both formats, giving misleading and untrue information. Followed by this, is a list of people posting comments on how the war is over and their format is dominating. both are wrong and this holiday season isn’t going to be the end of it. even if HD got squashed in the holiday season. They still have plans to put HD players in a good portion of computers made in 2008 and they now have the market for independant movies in 2008 as well (thanks to amazon and microsoft.) these facts could be a huge impact in sales for the coming year.

none the less – this is all unimportant. It doesn’t matter which format wins the war – you all lose when one finally does. The only way the consumer wins this war is if ALL the studios get their heads out of their behinds and stop with the exclusives. we live in an era where choice is the best option and competition works in favor of the consumer. it makes both products keep their prices lower and forces them to always be creating new improvements for their system. Regardless of what side you have taken, you shouldn’t want the other side to lose. You also shouldn’t want movie studios to go exclusive to your product. It prevents non-buyers from becoming buyers and it hurts the market all over the place.

The best thing that could happen in this war is if the EU antitrust comes back with information stating that the studios must drop their exclusives. then and only then can both formats survive. If they can both exist at the same time – you will find more consumers buying either product… not to mention cheaper prices and better updates and improvements.

I have seen a petition online from HD users asking the exclusive studios to drop their blu ray exclusives. I also saw one from blu ray users asking the same of universal. the only way anything will be accomplished (aside from the EU antitrust) will be if both sides work cooperatively along side non-buyers to make a petition asking all the studios to drop their exclusives and give the consumer the option of which player best suits their needs. it would make a huge impact if the studios not only saw both sides working together for this, but also non-buyers stating they want to invest in a system but not until they know their favorites could possibly end up on the next gen system they choose.

The studios always back their decision by stating “we think we chose the right system in the format war.” well its high time you all band together and tell these studios that it shouldn’t be their decision – it should be yours and all the individual consumers. And that choice shouldn’t go away. It will hurt everyone when it does.

PS3 IS A BLU-RAY PLAYER.
and there are now 1m of them in european homes.

with regards to “very few people are going to buy a BR disc who own a ps3″ comment. were the fuck do you suggest all the BR disc sales are coming from?

i dont know any official figures but arent BRD titles outselling HDDVD titles by like 5-1?

From what I understand, approximately 25,000 standalone HD DVD players have been sold in Europe and only about 8,000 standalone Blu-Ray players have been sold.

Now “very few” leaves room for argument, but let’s low ball it for the sake of argument and pretend that only 5% of Europe’s PS3 owners are actually buying Blu-Ray movies, that would still add an additional 20,000 users to the European Blu-Ray camp and puts them ahead in the number of HD capable devices that are being used for watching movies.

I got my info from where my name links to but unfortunately, my argument is based on this article being up to date and accurate. On the other hand, if there have been even more PS3s sold since the article was written it only further proves how much better of Blu-Ray is doing…even in europe. Anyway…

Breakdown of the Math for Europe:
HD DVD Players Sold: 25,000
Blu-Ray Players Sold (No PS3): 8,000
Blu-Ray Players Sold (w/ PS3): 405,000
PS3 Players Sold: 405,000 – 8,000 = 397,000
5% of PS3’s Sold Being used for playing Movies = 19,850

Therefore number of Standalone Blu-Ray players (8,000) added to the low balled 5% of PS3 players ued for playing movies (19,850) = 27,850.

So even if “very few” people were using the PS3 to play movies, Blu-Ray is still doing better. On the other hand, the difference between 25,000 units and 27,850 units just makes this whole thing crap and pointless…I just couldn’t resist making this comment.

The PS3 in the States is only $499 + from Amazon you get 1 free Blu-ray title + remote!

On top, you get 5 free Blu-ray by redemption! Now that’s serious value!

Basically, you can only count players that are expected to achieve nothing less than a 1:1 player/disc ratio. Everyone who buys a dedicated BR player is going to buy BR discs. Everyone who buys an HDDVD player is going to buy HDDVD discs. Very few people who buy a PS3 are going to buy a BR disc, thus, the PS3 is effectively cut out of the picture almost entirely.

As soon as I read that, the article lost meaning. It’s like… “let’s pretend the PS3 has no effect on movie sales and pretend it doesn’t have a Blu-Ray player built in.” pfft…