Blu-Ray edges ahead of HD-DVD
Seems like Blu-Ray is edging ahead of HD-DVD in the war of the high definition film formats. Today's Financial Times (subscription required) reports that Blockbuster Video (which owns Xtravision) has increased the number of stores renting Blu-Ray titles to almost 2,000 while restricting the number of stores with HD-DVD titles to 275.
Here, Xtravision rents Blu-Ray titles (for €5.25 a night), but where are the HD-DVD movies?
My view is that Blu-Ray will increase its advantage because every Playstation 3 console sold has a full-on Blu-Ray player on board. To play HD-DVD titles, you need an Xbox 360 plus a €200 player add-on, which most people probably won't buy.
Xtravision are owned by US giant Blockbuster. Blockbuster are exclusivly Blu-Ray only. A killer blow to Toshiba and HD-DVD imo. I only hope that Xtravision stock more Bli-Ray as I've rented them all in my local branch
Posted by: VictorRomeo | July 28, 2007 at 07:07 PM
The lowerend standalone HDDVD player cost €299 in the UK at moment - that is half the price of the cheapest Blu- Ray player the PS3 - unfortunatly xtra-vision won't stock HDDVD's so it will push people to buy the more expensive player
Posted by: Howard | August 02, 2007 at 02:38 PM