Blu-Ray kicking HD-DVD's butt!!

Losing for the last 9 months!!

Well it looks like the Next-Gen disc format wars have gotten hot!! Blu-ray DVD titles outsold bitter rival HD-DVD titles by almost 2-to-1 in the first nine months of this year!! Analysts expect... that with the additional HD-DVD support and certain hit titles including the number one selling dvd of the year "Transformers" that HD-DVD could possibly play catch up. Home Media Research, a division of Home Media Magazine, said on Tuesday that total U.S. sales of Blu-ray discs, using a Sony-backed technology, totaled 2.6 million units from January 1 through Sept 30, versus the miniscule 1.4 million HD-DVD discs sold. HD-DVD was developed by Toshiba Corp. The format is backed by Microsoft Corp and film studios such as Time Warner Inc's very own Warner Bros. This division in Hollywood grew deeper in August when Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc signed exclusivity deals to distribute their next-gen discs on HD-DVD format for the next year & a half. This is what makes the wars so heated. The winner is still not clearcut. Even though Blu-Ray is well ahead in the race! Paramount Home Video stated "Transformers" had the biggest debut of any high-definition titles, selling over 100,000 HD-DVDs on Oct 16 on it's very first day of release. Impressive to say the least. We techfiends actually are rooting for the Blu-Ray to prevail simply because of the fact tht Blu-Ray has a higher storage capacity 50-60gb whereas the HD-DVD maxes out at 25gb. Boooo!!! Experts predicts that for 2007 overall, consumers will spend $186 million purchasing Blu-ray discs, versus a measly $91 million for HD-DVD. Yeah i know, we sound biased. But hey, it's our party and we'll do what we want to!! While the HD-DVD camp has the aforementioned heavy hitters in the camp, Blu-Ray has some movie powerhouse exclusivity contracts as well. Those would be they mighty Walt Disney Co., Sony (of course), News Corp's 20th Century Fox, and Lions Gate Entertainment. Not too shabby of a crew, huh? Hollywood and electronics manufacturers had hoped that these newer high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and higher storage capacity would revive the suffering $24 billion home DVD market. But, akin to the Betamax-VHS format wars of the 80's, the DVD standards war has slowed mass adoption and thus created more customer confusion. What do i get the Blu-Ray or the HD-DVD?? It has also fueled the next-gen format wars timespan. We don't when this will be over?? Only time will tell. Both formats, launched in the spring of 2006, have sold an estimated 5 million high-definition discs. This number includes 3 million in Blu-ray and 2 million in HD-DVD through the end of September, according to Home Media. One major factor that has given Blu-Ray the lead is the massive popularity of Sony's PS3 game consoles, which, of course, includes a Blu-ray disc drive. It may be late 2008 before we have any indication of the end of these format wars. In the meanwhile, this could lead to an increase in popularity of players that support both formats (Blu-Ray & HD-DVD) such as this $1000 dollar baby (Samsung BD-UP5000)

....Only time will tell!!!