More Good vs Evil
Best buy, Netflix and now Walmart — all claim that they have heard from consumers that they should dump HD-DVD for Blu-ray. However a cursory glance of player sales data at top retailers will tell you that they’re lying through their teeth. On the other hand it’s more likely that they got a big cash infusion or favorable business terms on something else for their actions.
HD-A30 is #2 selling DVD player on Amazon. Blu-ray players are no where in sight. In fact, 85% of them are supposed to be PS3s. Next come the disc sales. Blu-ray here seems to maintain an edge with around 60% or so market share. But I think the size of the market overall for $40 DVDs is very small.
The corporations are going to do whatever gets them the most profit (more DRM, more proprietary stuff). It’s pretty clear to me that HD-DVD is in the interest of consumers.
* China is going for CH-DVD (a HD-DVD derived standard).
* Eros – the biggest bollywood DVD distributor is going for HD-VMD (which is incompatible with both)
* Combo players are probably too expensive to survive in the market
Netflix offered me a $1 upgrade to a Blu-ray account. Explains why they wanted to take sides in the fight. As long as there was no clear winner, they couldn’t charge a premium.