HD DVD

Research: 32 million high-def players to sell by 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like a high-definition Christmas, and the battle lines are already forming between the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps. The stakes are getting clearer, too: Parks Associates today released a report estimating that, counting both set-top boxes and game consoles, more than 32 million Blu-ray and HD DVD players will be sold in United States by 2011, up from the 4.9 million units estimated to MORE

Sony: Price cut more than doubles rate of Playstation 3 sales

Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SNE), told the San Jose Mercury News that the $100 price drop on the 60-gigabyte Playstation 3 caused the rate of sales to double. Retailers reporting a PS3 sales spike included Amazon.com (AMZN).

Microsoft fights for the life of HD DVD as Blu-ray gains retail support

Microsoft (MSFT) said today that it would cut the price of its Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on heading into the holiday season. The software giant is seeking to lend support to the format as Sony-backed (SNE) rival Blu-ray gains support at retail.

At last: TiVo trims prices to pursue HD customers. But is it enough?

Buy a high-definition TV to watch HD cable channels, and your world changes. Suddenly you can see erstwhile invisible crow's feet around the eyes of aging actors, and standard DVDs bear a grainy resemblance to YouTube video. Like some modern Greek hero, you're blessed and cursed with the ability to see TV as it really is.

New Blu-ray / HD DVD combo player coming in fall?

Japanese site AkihabaraNews.com is reporting that LG plans to release a $400 HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player this holiday season, citing anonymous sources.

Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Sony says the war has just begun

Sony (SNE) executives in the United States are well aware that the battle has barely begun between their Blu-ray disc format for high-definition content and rival HD DVD, they told me over lunch this week.

Xbox 360 price cuts coming before Christmas?

Microsoft (MSFT) realizes that $199 is the "sweet spot" for console pricing, and that Nintendo did a "good job" pricing the Wii at $249, Bloomberg reports, quoting David Hufford, a director of Xbox product management. The Bloomberg piece also says:

Microsoft Corp. has won over 20-year-old gamers, who spend hours a day launching rockets and firing

plasma guns on the company's Xbox 360. Now it wants their moms.

To lure them, the MORE

Blu-ray sales trouncing HD DVD at Amazon

Maybe Sony (SNE) will have the last laugh after all. These days on Amazon.com (AMZN), sales of discs in Sony's Blu-ray format are trouncing rival HD DVD. A look at the rankings today shows that the bestselling HD DVD title – Happy Feet – is #129 in the DVD sales rankings. Five Blu-ray titles are outselling it: Casino Royale, Black Hawk Down, X-Men 3, The Departed, and Kingdom of Heaven.

HD DVD vs. Blu-ray: Netflix says no winner yet

The price of high definition movie viewing keeps coming down. Toshiba's highly rated HD-A2 HD DVD player is now $395.88 at Amazon.com (AMZN), where it is the #16 best-selling DVD player.

Blu-ray, not to be outdone, is dropping, too: The Samsung BD-P1000 (and the Philips BDP9000) are $599.

HD DVD vs. Blu-ray: what it takes to win a format war

The battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray is far from over, but it's becoming clear that HD DVD will win round one – this season the tepidly reviewed and impossible to find PlayStation 3 (SNE) is the only Blu-ray player that comes close to being reasonably priced (at $500), while discounted HD DVD players can be found during this holiday season for about $415 – and the Xbox 360 (MSFT) MORE