Blu-ray player sales increase 7X, HD DVD players become DVD upscalers

[lostn]

Play.com's Stuart Rowe has said that there was a seven fold increase in Blu-ray player sales on the day that Toshiba announced they were pulling out of the formwat war. He said that people will see some great deals on HD DVD players but not on HD DVD movies as a lot of people have the players and collectors will keep buying them for the time being. Play.com has also started renaming HD DVD players. The HD-EP30 HD DVD Player" (as it was known on February 15th) is now listed as the "HD-EP30 HDMI Upscaling Player with HD DVD High Definition Playback."

Price drop and a rename... Ouch.

Btw, the 7X increase in BD player sales doesn't include the PS3.

Update: Looks like Circuit City's jumped on the bandwagon as well -- the HD-A3 is now listed as an "Upconversion DVD/HD-DVD Player."

News summary stolen from: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=25438

Sources: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/h...t-war-fallout/
http://www.t3.com/news/blu-ray-playe...en-fold?=35296

[DAMNSAM77]

7x sales surge? not including PS3's?

Man, people were dying for HDDVD to go away....lets hope the recent surge of positive bluray news and world wide front headlines "Format war is over - Bluray wins" strike a good note with mainstream consumers and J6Ps

[The BJD]

Originally Posted by DAMNSAM77

7x sales surge? not including PS3's?

Man, people were dying for HDDVD to go away....lets hope the recent surge of positive bluray news and world wide front headlines "Format war is over - Bluray wins" strike a good note with mainstream consumers and J6Ps

Are you serious? This is the same early adopters that bought HD DVD now buying blu. The top selling player is the Panasonic that is selling above MSRP, not likely J6P.

[Nomen Luni]

It's play.com and sales over a single day, so we're probably not talking huge volumes here. Still, a good sign that some people were waiting for a result, to so speak.

[lostn]

What's of more interest to me is the HD DVD name change. Logically, an HD-DVD player is better to have than a DVD Upscaler, but I guess the name brings about negative connotations now, for being a dead format, so calling it a DVD Upscaler with HD DVD support and selling it as such, is ironically a smarter way to liquidate existing stock.

At these prices, every HD-DVD owner with a few dozen titles should buy a second player, 1) to keep it out of j6p's unsuspecting hands, and 2) to use as a backup in case the main player dies.

I really really do feel sympathy for Toshiba though. I didn't when the format was alive, but now I feel kind of remorseful for the smackdown and the difficult times they faced. I do hope they succeed in other areas to recover their losses.

[billabong]

seems like blu ray prices went up from $300 to $400.

[Nomen Luni]

How do you figure that?

[Mr. Al]

I was going to get a second player for 100 bucks, but decided to keep my existing player and replace those with Blu. I have quite a few copies to change over, but the day will come when I will have an all Blu Ray collection.