Not many HD DVDs are planned for release until the end of the month with American Gangster as the big release on Feb. 19 and Beowulf a week later. American Gangster and Beowulf are good titles, but HD DVD needs to get is shizzle together and release some more and bigger titles! Click the title to pre-order from Amazon and get your title the day of the release:

Week of Feb. 5:

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]
Naked Beneath the Water [HD DVD]

Week of Feb. 12:

The Amateurs
Girls Gone Wild: Baby Bash Live & Uncensored [HD DVD]

Week of Feb. 19:

American Gangster (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]
Galaxina [HD DVD]
The Invasion (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]

Week of Feb. 26,

Beowulf (Director’s Cut) [HD DVD]
The Brave One (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]
Cecilia & Bryn at Glyndebourne: Arias & Duets [HD DVD] A must have!
Dragon Tiger Gate [HD DVD]
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Resurrection [HD DVD]
Rain in the Mountains [HD DVD]

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Xbox 360 price cut is a result of consumer demand and good performance of HD DVD in 4th Quarter of 2007 … according to a post over at HD DVD Blog

“This move [today's Xbox HD DVD price cut] is based on continuing the success of HD DVD in the market and responding to consumer demand as experienced during the fourth quarter and Toshiba’s recent price moves which increased their player sales significantly,” a rep for the company told GameSpot. “Clearly pricing is the most critical determinant in a consumer’s purchasing decision and we’re simply responding to the market. Also, given the production efficiencies inherent in the HD DVD format, we’re able to suggest more cost-effective pricing, especially as sales volumes increase.”

Check the linkage here

Despite the protestations of the Blu-ray camp, the war over HD home video is not over - no where near over. As I have stated on this page many times, studio support is irrelevant to the war. Essentially, creating a product which has greater compatility with present DVD libraries and which is affordable will create a winning product. Warner’s defection was related to it wanting to swing its big balls around and try to be a king maker.

Regardless, many believe that the format which can proivde a replacement to current DVD players (HD DVD is support by the DVD forum) at a low cost is HD DVD; including tech giant Intel. I saw this over at the High Def Forum and decided to link to it here and provide exceprts because it is so well written and in plain terms describes the great technological difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD which make HD DVD a superior format. It is an older article but its reasoning is sound and should be evaluated. There is no reason why Warner’s shift to Blu-ray would make Intel shift its position that HD DVD is technially superior and a better product for consumers.

Employee Communications
July 19, 2006

High-definition digital video-which solution is best? The debates
continue, with proponents of both Blu-ray and HD DVD arguing
vociferously for their respective standards and solutions. It’s clearly
important to consumers to settle on a single standard, and Intel came
forward early on with support for HD DVD. We asked Steve Balogh,
director, Content Protection Entities, and Keith Rowe, initiatives
manager, Digital Home Content and Services Group, to tell us why. Here’s
their response.

(name has been removed), Employee Communications

________________________________

To understand why Intel supports the HD DVD standard, you need to look
at our business model. Think of the entire ecosystem from customer to
silicon producer. Intel’s business is selling more platforms.

Click to continue reading HD DVD News: Why Intel Supports the HD DVD Format

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Major Nelson is reporting that Microsoft has lowered the MSRP on its 360 HD DVD from 179.99 to 129.99. This is an awesome deal. I used the Xbox HD DVD player until I replaced it with the much quiter A30 in November. The beauty of this drive is that it connects via USB so you can plug it into your PC and it should be recognized by Windows XP and Windows Vista. With the HD plug-in from Nero you can watch HD DVDs on your PC. I have this baby hooked up to my PC (Vista 64bit) and love it. I wish it had rewrite capabilities though. Regardless, its a nice addition to a PC, and if you are new to the market, its a nice addition to a living room. If you dont have a 360 here is a good opportunity to really upgrade that home entertaiment system with a kick-ass gaming rig, HD player and $125 in free movies.

If you do get a 360, pick up Project Gotham Racing 4.

Buy at Best Buy

See Update below original postOriginal post: January 22, 2008
Bill Hunt’s ”My Two Cents“ column is a great place to go for reasoned opinions and thoughts. Unfortunately, Bill Hunt favors blu-ray. Regardless, Bill can be very fair and blanaced even in a column entitled “My Two Cents”Today bill posted some numbers and graphs which tell an interesting tale about the recent Warner-Offensive in the ongoing format war. These numbers show that the recent outselling of High Definition Movie hardware is tilted in favor of Blu-Ray. Prior to the Warner-Offensive (week ending Jan. 5, 2008) the numbers were, for all intents and purposes even, with BD leading by 1,000 units:

Blu-ray Disc - 15,257 units
HD-DVD - 14,558 units
Source
Note: Total combined January sales did not even equal the December sales gap of 40k units.

So Warner’s statement that its move was based on customer preference is just a small stretch, especially in light of the fact that at most we are talking about 4% of the market (need a cite!).

Most of the buzz around the offensive, however, occurred after Warner’s announcement. Many Blu-ray fanboys jumped at the chance to shout chants of glee as it appeared Blu-ray sales ratios were trouncing HD DVD player sales. The numbers don’t lie, HD DVD was knocked down:

Blu-ray Disc - 21,770 units
HD-DVD - 1,758 units
Source

Clearly HD DVD sales dropped as potential buyers of the format became frightened by the war dances of Blu-ray fanboys and forum posts (note: Bill at Digital Bits favors Blu-ray but he is not part of the aforementioned ‘fanboy’ group which populates Digg and other forums - Unless, of course, he participates in those groups anonymously - His site is a great source for info).

Importantly the lost HD DVD sales are not primarily going to Blu-ray. Blu-ray saw only a moderate increase in BD player sales of about 6,513 units sold, 15,257 to 21,770, while HD DVD lost 12,800 unit sales. This confirms my personal experience that most people are non-committal to any one format in light of the Warner-Offensive. I think that with the low HD DVD player prices we should see a bump in HD DVD hardware sales as people see the HD DVD player as a good upconverting player with HD DVD potential. The troubling fact is that the 16 year-old working at Best Buy has no clue.

Many focus on movie sales numbers, but hardware sales are key. 2008 will be an important year as the 2.0 Blu-ray spec will be released; will this cause owners to buy a spec 2.0 player? Will Blu-ray users update for 2.0 specs? Also, how will the triple-layer disc effect the market? Only time, sales numbers, and Shakira’s hips will tell.

Update January 24, 2008

From The Daily Game, NPD, the source of the numbers above, came out to clarify its statements. Specifically, that the sky is not falling on HD DVD like everyone predicted:

“As you may have seen, there are attempts being made to portray NPD’s weekly sales tracking figures for next generation DVD as a trend. We want to remind you and make clear that it is not accurate to make long term assumptions based on one week of sales — a cautionary point that NPD has made as well.

“The facts are that during the week that is being singled out, both Blu-ray disc players and software were being given away for free with the purchase of 1080p TVs. It is also important to note that the instant rebate promotions that had previously netted Toshiba’s players’ MSRPs to $199 and $249 had actually ended on Jan. 5th — causing an increase in HD DVD’s MSRP back to $299 and $399 during that same week. Since Toshiba’s retail price move on Jan. 13th to $149 / $199 — Toshiba is seeing very positive sales trends at retail. This reinforces the fact that price is a significant driver of sales.

“Toshiba’s HD DVD players represent a significant value to the consumer and the marketing campaign that just began is proving effective.”

Also, important to note, is that NPD does not track Amazon.com sales numbers which reflect that Toshiba’s A3 is ranked as the #22 sales item in electronics and the #1 selling DVD player and #1 selling HD DVD player. the only DVD player with a higher ranking is Philips 1080p upconverting DVD player.