HD DVD Sales Regain Ground

HD DVD continues to see a slow rebound in the public spotlight as new sales figures from NPD Group show a rebound in sales following a bad week immediately after CES. This is according to a news report published in Video Business.

The report shows HD DVD hardware sales totals accounted for around a third of HD set-top unit sales for the week ending Jan. 19, according to Video Business. This is a sharp upkick from the previous week, when HD DVD player sales only amounted to seven percent.

An NPD analyst told Video Business he felt the change in position was likely due to "sensitivity to pricing". This would tie in with a recent move Toshiba made to cut prices of its HD DVD players.

Toshiba HD DVD Players Leading Hardware Pack

Toshiba, despite struggles the HD DVD format has had of late, did quite well in HD DVD player sales last year. The reason for this seems to be its aggressive pricing, which is reflected in more recent price cuts the manufacturer made.

Research firm DisplaySearch recently unveiled a report in which it stated, among other next generation DVD information, that Toshiba "was the leading vendor of standalone devices worldwide during the Q1-Q3’07 period, cumulatively accounting for nearly 64% more standalone units than all Blu-ray brands combined."

Toshiba was also in the top three for cumulative sales of next generation DVD hardware when game console hardware was factored in. It, Microsoft and Sony combined for a 98 percent share of the world's hardware shipments.

Interview Reveals Interesting HD DVD Thoughts

A recent interview published by BetaNews focuses in on thoughts of executive vice president for Universal Studios and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group Ken Graffeo about the recent turbulence in the HD DVD camp. It provides HD DVD fans some interesting insights into how things are looking for the disc format.

Graffeo talks openly about how Warner's abrupt move to jump ship impacted the planned flow of the annual HD DVD CES press event, resulting in its cancellation. He also states firmly that Universal continues to back HD DVD, backing up earlier statements, and, perhaps most interestingly, the door is never closed to the possibility of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc coming together to unify under one standard.

[via High-Def Digest]

Best Buy + Toshiba= 9 Free HD DVDs!

If you have not yet purchased a HD DVD player and are waiting for the right deal to lure you in Best Buy is currently offering a very sweet promotion. It nets you a player + nine free HD DVDs.

This special limited time promotion, according to Best Buy, has you first select any two HD DVD titles under $35. You then choose from a sales list of Toshiba HD DVD players. From there you can follow rebate instructions to get five more HD DVD titles by mail for free.

The first two titles chosen become free when you pick which player you want. This is in addition to getting two free HD DVDs which come packaged with the chosen player.

[via Punch Jump]

Paramount Announces 1st Quarter 08 HD DVD Titles

Panasonic Home Entertainment has detailed its HD DVD line up for the first quarter of this year. 10 titles are expected to be released over the next few months.

Highlights of upcoming releases include Zodiac, Beowulf and The Kite Runner. You can get the full details via Panasonic's press release after the jump.

Toshiba Dropping HD DVD Player Prices

Toshiba revealed some new HD DVD marketing initiatives today to help bolster sales of the HD DVD format. These moves come as the company declares "record-breaking unit sales in the fourth quarter of 2007."

Toshiba says it had "#1 sales volume in the next generation DVD category with an approximately 50 percent market share in 2007" as well as having an 80 percent plus market share in next generation DVD notebook computers.

In order to entice consumers more into HD DVD, Toshiba dropped prices on some of its players. The entry-model HD-A3 will be $149.99, the HD-A30, with 1080p output, $199.99, and the high-end HD-A35, $299.99. The company will also be conducting "an extended advertising campaign" across multiple media channels.

Maxell Unveils HD DVD Player Cleaner

HD DVD players, like any other optical disc playback device, need to be cleaned sometimes to provide you optimum performance. Maxell unveiled at CES this week a new cleaning device with which to do that. It's called the Blu-Ray/HD DVD Lens Cleaner and it should be available in March for around $25.

The Blu-Ray/HD DVD Lens Cleaner uses something Maxell calls a "Wind Funnel Cleaning System." This system kicks in when the cleaning disc is put into the player. It "rotates and generates an air stream in a spiral motion and that air stream then changes to air shower on the lens when it passes through the holes. The power of the air shower removes dust particles on the lens without damaging the surface of the product."

Universal, Paramount: We Are Staying Put

A post we put up earlier today over at BluRayFreak reported how the last two major studios backing HD DVD, Universal and Paramount, might be thinking about departing for the Blu-ray camp. Breaking news and further digging has in fact revealed those two studios will not be departing the HD DVD side anytime soon:

• Paramount told Bloomberg its current plan is "to continue to support the HD DVD format."
• Universal just issued a statement as well saying "contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format."

There you have it - no more defections from the HD DVD camp. Those cries of happiness in Japan just got louder.

Samsung Reveals New Dual Format Player

Samsung is betting not everyone is ready to go one next generation optical disc format over the other yet so it is showing off at CES a new dual format disc player called the BD-UP5500. It is slated to be available sometime in the latter part of the year.

This disc player is noted by Samsung for its ability to support "the latest BD-Java and HD DVD interactivity available." You'll find the BD-UP5500 is HDMI 1.3 compliant, looks pretty sharp and is quite slim (2.3 inches).

Get more details on this dual format playback Samsung player after the jump.

Microsoft Reaffirms HD DVD Love

Toshiba must surely have a headache by this time today. First Warner Brothers announces plans to end HD DVD support. Microsoft next comes along and indicates it might begin offering Blu-ray Disc support. Things smoothed out later however for the HD DVD camp as Microsoft backpedaled on the comments.

A Reuters interview earlier this week quoted a Microsoft marketing manager as saying his company would consider a Blu-ray option for the Xbox 360 if there was consumer demand for it. The company changed its tune quickly though after these comments were published, indicating that "HD DVD remains the only format to deliver quality experiences at affordable prices."

You can hear the sighs of relief right now coming from Japan.