doesn't walmart sell something like 40% of all dvds, kind of makes only using amazon pointless.

@liquid -

that may be true, but amazon is still a viable way to track being a scaled-down version of sales trends, even if it is only a fraction of world-wide sales.

Think of it this way - its not like all Blu-ray buyers are shopping at Walmart and all HD shoppers are shopping at Amazon... chances are its a pretty even distribution at any outlet.

Blue-Ray lost when Sony backed/created it. Sony gets no love in the format wars.

How about they compare prices of actual, dedicated players. Most home theater owners are not going to buy a console to play movies on.

The only fault I can see with the results is with the Google trend history. They haven't added "blue ray" to the list, which according to this: http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22blu-ray%22%2C+%22blue+ra...
is quite a popular search. Also, HD DVD has the word DVD in it which might affect it. But hey, I'm surprised anyone is buying either of the formats. From what I can tell, Blu-ray may be faring better in the UK, The Osmonds - Live is the best selling HD-DVD...

merkidemis - this is about actual DVD sales, not player sales... while you make a point about the PS3 skewing player sales, this just tracks the media itself, which could be considered a fair way to measure.

I bought a PS3 to play movies on because it osts half as much as other players on the market. I feel so dirty.

I'd think Wal-Mart would skew incorrectly more than Amazon... since I think more people who know what HD DVD and Blu-Ray are shop at Amazon than those who don't.

pyramid6:

It's Blu-ray.

Sorry, but with so many posts talking about the formats I think I will scream if someone else writes Blue-ray. Yes, you can call it what you like but it makes no sense if I start talking about DBD movies or HG-DVD.

bluray lost when every single review of their movies lost against hddvd, i mean dear god whats the point in more space if your competitor looks better and has iHD... for half the price for the player (hell less than half in many cases, especially if you use the 360 HDDVD on a PC lol)

BlueRay Blu-Ray... they just dropped the da*n e to be stylish, the damn laser is BLUE not BLU

@ RHord

i dont know, 40% is a huge number coming from once source, it can change the entire outcome. If amazon and walmart were both online only stores, i would say maybe. But the difference in walmart being a physical store means a lot. I for one have never bought a dvd online and i do all my christmas shopping at amazon for years now. But when i want to buy a movie i want it now, not in 2-3 days and i think a lot of other people do too. So they go out to a real store.

@TVGenius

are you serious, what makes you think if someone shops at walmart they dont know what bluray or hddvd's are?

I'm surprised people are trying to break down the reasons this early. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason HD DVD wins is that the term HD is in the name. The unambiguity of the name simplifies the message.

If you were selling a laser that painted everything blue, then 'blue ray' makes sense, but in this case having to affirm that yes, blue ray plays in HD, is sort of a negative to the marketing.

Remember that a single tech consumer is smart, but people as consumers are basically retards.

Looks like Sony is gonna lose again Atrac, Beta, Minidisc, UMD and now Blu-Ray..... Blu-Ray costs more to make and has no real advantages over HD DVD. I have even "heard" HD DVD is actually better looking. Most importantly HD DVD has the backing of more major studios. I am about to go buy a Toshiba HD DVD for $420 on eBay.

Looks like Sony is gonna lose again Atrac, Beta, Minidisc, UMD and now Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray costs more to make and has no useful advantages over HD DVD. I have even "heard" HD DVD is actually better looking. Most importantly HD DVD has the backing of more major studios. I am about to go buy a Toshiba HD DVD for $420 on eBay.

Oh I forgot you have Blu-Ray ads so I guess you cannot allow someone to be decisive towards HD DVD. Very unbiased!

@wohho
I think your on to something. When you see HD-DVD you think, "Hey, it's high def. DVD."
When you see Blu-Ray you think, "Hey, it's misspelled."
@jtsongas
;)

I dont know how much Walmart will affect those numbers, I know every place isnt the same, but out of 4 walmarts I went to the other day looking for HDDVD's only 1 sold HDDVD or Blu ray. and the one that did had a really slim selection, maybe about 5 or 6 different titles for each

If you are to examine all of the information that is out there, including the Amazon charts, the difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray in this battle is marginal at best.

- At the time after MI:3 shipped, it was quoted that 3.7 million DVDs vs 20,000 HD DVD/Blu-ray discs were sold. HD titles continue to be only a fraction of the market.
- Even though HD DVD had a 2 month head start, they continue to have to have only 15 more titles than Blu-ray. With the exception of Universal and Sony, the other studios are now typically releasing in both formats, especially for big titles such as "The Matrix".
- Look closer at the charts posted by Amazon, and look at the last 7 days option also. The difference between the two is really fractional in the overall picture, and many of the charts are actually showing a "downward" trend for HD DVD, and the gap between the two is closing.
http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm
- Toshiba is actually eating nearly $300 per unit in their first generation players, and they are having quality control issues delaying the second generation. The second generation players, which have HDMI 1.3 and are more technically equal with their Blu-ray counterparts, had a quoted price of $1000. We will see how much Toshiba subsidizes, if any, again.
- The blue diode shortage, and other components used, is affecting both camps in production.
- Microsoft's iHD disc interactivity, while having some benefits, pales in comparison to the programmability options of BD-J.
- The Adult Entertainment industry was instrumental in deciding the Betamax/VHS battle, and announced they will begin to ship titles in January. And while they remain cautious and will release in both formats, the execs have stated they have a leaning towards Blu-ray.

There are too many companies with their money on the line in this battle, and we are only now beginning to see it warm up a bit. The upcoming year will be interesting one…

The price of Mission Impossible isn't skewing the prices. Mission Impossible is out on both formats.

If something is skewing the prices, it would be the HD DVD/DVD combo discs that are usually a good $8-15 more expensive (Miami Vice, for example).

I bet Amazon puts HD-DVD ahead because they dont want to be stuck with all the titles when the format flops.

Or maybe it really is because HD-DVD is selling? BDs (the official acronym for Blu-Ray Disc) may cost less because until the PS3, you paid twice as much for a BD player, which initially didn't perform as good, and the movies were worse on BD than HD-DVD. So the lack of demand may mean economics takes over, and thus BDs should cost less, because there's less people wanting them. (Nevermind the BD fingerprint, the fact that HD-DVD adopted "managed copy" versus the no-copy approach of Blu-Ray... (official support, not hacked))

HD-DVD's fault was a crappy firmware on the player.

Blu-ray is cheaper? That's HD-DVD's one disadvantage in all this?

I thought the whole point of HD-DVD was that it's cheaper than blu-ray.

Or was your entry just worded oddly?

Most Blurays I've seen are more expensive than the comparable HD-DVD, but thats not the point. I am staying out of the format war by buying a PS3. How? Because I bought it to play (high-def) video games, and play the occasional high-def movie. By the time the war is over both players will be cheaper than dirt. End of story.

According to thedvdwars.com, HD-DVD has been slightly cheaper for the past couple of months (to the tune of 50 cents). It's ridiculous to pay nearly $30 for an HD-DVD movie. They need to bring it down to $15-20 to make the purchase viable. I mean, it's not like we don't have 3 versions of Stars on VHS and 2 on DVD. The movie industry needs to wake up and stop screwing the consumer at every media shift.

That being said, HD-DVD movies are awesome. I recently watched Ray on HD-DVD and it was absolutely amazing. I watched it on the HD-DVD add on for the 360 and it's phenomenal. Say what you will about the 360 add-on, but the fact is, today's high end GPUs can push the absolute best image quality, even surpassing VERY HIGH END set top boxes. It's crazy to think that my two year old, $4500 DLP set is now the only part of my setup holding me back from the absolute BEST movie experience. (1080p, here I come!)

I don't know what planet you guys are living on....but aside from the HD=DVD combo discs, bluray is WAY more expensive. I just went to Target and almost half of the HD-DVD's were 19.99.

Most of the blurays were 29.99. If you ask me...the 'walmart' crowd will probably want what's cheaper...and that's HD-DVD.