Some sales stats from a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald…

85% of high def disc sales are Blu-ray
From Jan - Sept 2007, 81,219 Blu-ray discs were sold vs 14,632 HD DVD discs
24 of the top 25 HD titles were Blu-ray. “300″ was the only big selling HD DVD disc which ranked 20th.
Only 1,644 Blu-ray […]

I’ve seen the announcements lately that Toshiba will be releasing HD-DVD recorders. That wasn’t unexpected and I didn’t really make comment on them.
Looking at their latest announcement though, that the recorders can record up to two hours of hi-def content onto a standard DVD-R makes things a little more interesting.
I don’t know all […]

After a few weeks off we have more Australian DVD news, reviews and information from Jeff & Helen.

 Standard Podcast [38:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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 Standard Podcast [38:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just what we need - another Hi-Def DVD format! This time it’s CH-DVD. This format was developed in China for the Chinese market by the DVD Forum. It is apparently based on HD-DVD but has some added extra Chinese-devised copy protection and security. It’s expected to be launched in China in 2008.

Just in case you missed some of the recent announcements, LG has a new combo HD player, the BH200. Unlike the previous model it now sports the official HD DVD logo, meaning that the previous compatibility issues are a thing of the past.  Also included but missing from the previous version is audio CD support.
Basically, […]

Some may be wondering when the next podcast is coming….
We’ve recorded two since the last episode and both have suffered from technical issues - the latest being that Helen’s side of the conversation didn’t get recorded (some might see that as a good thing
Anyway, hopefully we’ll be third time lucky and […]

In the US the first Sub-$200 HD DVD player has been announced. The Venturer HD DVD player is expected to retail over there for below US$199. I’d guess we could expect it to be around $400 Australian.
Match a cheap player with big HD DVD only titles like “Transformers” and it will definitely give Blu-ray […]

With Paramount and Dreamworks now exclusively on HD-DVD, can Blu-ray still win the format battle?  Blu-ray may be selling in higher quantitiies but it is more expensive than HD-DVD, both to the consumer and the movie studios. Up until now I’d have said that Blu-ray had a clear advantage but with less studio support and […]

The New York Times has published an article confirming that Paramount were offered US$150 million in cash and advertising incentives in exchange for their HD DVD only move. They also noted that the exclusivity deal only lasts for 18 months.
Read the complete article here.

Rumor has it that JB Hi-Fi may stock some HD DVD titles in the wake of Paramount’s announcement.  They have always offered HD DVD online but not in stores, however the idea of missing out on what are sure to be high selling titles like “Transformers” might be a bit much for them.
I guess we’ll […]