Just read in a Norwegian newspaper that currently BluRay has 77% of the marketshare in terms of HiDef discs sold. The March statistic is the first time in Norway they have published the sales of HiDef discs. "Open Season" is #1 with Casino Royale a close 2nd.

Important to note that since Norway is small the numbers are too, here are the actuals:

Blu-ray # sold 5.040 value in USD: 135000
HD-DVD # sold 1.488 value in USD: 34800

Since March, Casino Royale has been the first title to break 1000, while "Open Season" is now second with 700 copies sold. King Kong is the most selling HD-DVD with 360 copies so far.


Quoted reasons for BluRay's dominance: PS3, plus the fact that some stores sell PS3 as a bundle with one movie. Also, better availability of (popular) titles on BluRay, plus Sony stores selling (only obviously) BluRay titles.

Edit: For the record, seeing I already got one sour response from a HDDVD fan - I am format neutral at this point. This is not a HDDVD bashing thread, I only reported a news-item that I thought would be of interest to early adopters of HD.

Edit2: I messed up on the currency conversion (previous $ were too low..), so new numbers should be correct.

Are HD DVD players cheap in Europe like in the US?

I've been living in the US for the last few years, so I don't have a good picture of it, but checking the possibly biggest electronic retailer in Norway, the cheapest HDDVD goes for about 600 USD and the PS3 (which is obviously the cheapest BluRay player..) goes for about 740, so yes, the HDDVD seems to have an advantage on the price.

Well, HDDVD and BluRay sucks in Scandinavia.

Very few BluRay movies can be found in even fewer stores priced at about $60 each.

HD-DVD players start at about $800.

Everyone i know who owns either format in Scandinavia orders online at axelmusic.com and thier stat is currently:

Yearly,
BluRay: 34.3%
HDDVD: 65.7%

They mostly sell imports so sales thru them will not count in the local numbers.

Average price of HD E1 in the UK £350
Average price of Samsung BDP1000 in the UK £600
UK PS3 £425

Impulse buy range is £100-150, well thats when most people I know bought a DVD player.

UMMM >>> 6500 discs sold is pretty much ...

Another worthless thread

HD DVd players are not that cheap here.

Dvdmonster brought up a good point though - imports are not counted and may be large in Norway as well.

Daniel's response indicates that HDDVD players in UK, like Norway has a price advantage but probably not by the margin that you have in the US.

Technicolor, can you give some approx prices for both HDVD and BluRay (probably incl. ps3) in Portugal?

Lastly to A.Void: Seeing you have such an EXTENSIVE list of useful topics that you are responsible for creating, your response really breaks my heart... (plus the fact that it seems you root for HDDVD which may color your opinion just a little...I am not biased towards any format myself).

I did mention the numbers are small, but then again, not that impressive here in the US either, and after all, the "war" is world-wide, so I would think most early adopters in hd (unless they are very narrow-minded) would find some interest in seeing how other countries are doing.

I did mention the numbers are small, but then again, not that impressive here in the US either, and after all, the "war" is world-wide, so I would think most early adopters in hd (unless they are very narrow-minded) would find some interest in seeing how other countries are doing.
Thanks for the good info, tomes.

It might be interesting to provide some color as to the potential of the Norwegian market. How do total DVD sales compare to the US or to other EU countries?

Dvdmonster brought up a good point though - imports are not counted and may be large in Norway as well.


The thing is imports from the US don't make European studios any money. We can play everything from America, and it's cheaper than local material, even with shipping!

BrynRhys, good idea! I will check to see if I can find such info!

Grubert, I guess some import from the US, and some from other European countries. I believe at least for BluRay, there is a region coding, so US discs can't be played in Euro players and vice versa. Also, some titles will add value when they are local. For instance, "Open Season" had a norwegian title, and probably Norwegian dubbing instead of english voices. (They tend to do that for (mostly animated) movies that may appeal to kids, but not in movies directed towards adults).

Edit: For the record, seeing I already got one sour response from a HDDVD fan - I am format neutral at this point. This is not a HDDVD bashing thread, I only reported a news-item that I thought would be of interest to early adopters of HD.

Thanks for the info and screw what the trolls bitch about! :D

I appreciate the kind words NYG! :)

If the whole world is buying from the US their HD DVDs and BDs in their native land and that explains BD leading there, why is BD leading here?

Well, HDDVD and BluRay sucks in Scandinavia.

Very few BluRay movies can be found in even fewer stores priced at about $60 each.

HD-DVD players start at about $800.

Everyone i know who owns either format in Scandinavia orders online at axelmusic.com and thier stat is currently:

Yearly,
BluRay: 34.3%
HDDVD: 65.7%

They mostly sell imports so sales thru them will not count in the local numbers.
VERY good point.

Since March, Casino Royale has been the first title to break 1000, while "Open Season" is now second with 700 copies sold. King Kong is the most selling HD-DVD with 360 copies so far.

How's that for irony? :D

If the whole world is buying from the US their HD DVDs [...]

Exactly. Example: me.
US HD DVDs bought: over 20. European HD DVDs bought: zero.

Helping fight US trade deficit since September 2006. :D

Actually sales for highdef here in scandinavia isnt something to brag about. Its just little bigger then LD was (wich were imports only)

Were in on of the biggest store in the country, they had thousands of ordinary DVDs and maybe 20 each of red and blue.

Players need to come more to the public.

went into virgin megastore in bristol (england) the other day and they'd changed their highdef set up. there was now a dedicated ps3 booth right by the door to entice new customers, using a sony plasma. look ok i guess. but the interesting development was with the discs, they'd kept the same amount of shelf space, but the hd dvds had almost been completely removed in favour of more bds. not sure if this is the same nationwide. am in brum today and will check out a few places to see what the score is.

Just read in a Norwegian newspaper that currently BluRay has 77% of the marketshare in terms of HiDef discs sold. The March statistic is the first time in Norway they have published the sales of HiDef discs. "Open Season" is #1 with Casino Royale a close 2nd.

Important to note that since Norway is small the numbers are too, here are the actuals:

Blu-ray # sold 5.040 value in USD: 99300
HD-DVD # sold 1.488 value in USD: 25600

Since March, Casino Royale has been the first title to break 1000, while "Open Season" is now second with 700 copies sold. King Kong is the most selling HD-DVD with 360 copies so far.


Quoted reasons for BluRay's dominance: PS3, plus the fact that some stores sell PS3 as a bundle with one movie. Also, better availability of (popular) titles on BluRay, plus Sony stores selling (only obviously) BluRay titles.

Edit: For the record, seeing I already got one sour response from a HDDVD fan - I am format neutral at this point. This is not a HDDVD bashing thread, I only reported a news-item that I thought would be of interest to early adopters of HD.

These numbers are not of interest of anyone the way I see it. I'm an early adopter myself, got my Panasonic BD player late last year, and a Toshiba HD DVD in January. But when you are talking about the most selling title has just reached 1000 copies and number two 700 hundred, then clearly all we get from this is that it is too early to make anything out out of these numbers.

How many Norweian HD DVD and BD releases are there? It's getting better for every week now, but still.. There were almost none until late this winter. And Norwegian early adopters have been importing their region free HD DVD titles from the US since last summer - and these numbers are not shown anywhere in that article. Of course, there are some import of BD titles too but given the region coding I think that is more limited.

The link for those who speak Norwegain: http://farojournalen.gan.no/id/223

I just say that it is too early to judge anything, and the numbers are too low also to get anything out of them. Open Season (nr 2 top selling title on BD according to that article) was on display in about every store I went into the weekend PS3 was released so it's not surprising that PS3 customers picked that on up on their way out of the store.

I actually got more BD titles than HD DVD titles, so I'm not trying to defend HD DVD.

Actually what would be interesting would be global sales statistics for HDDVD and Bluray, are they obtainable, or even tracked?

Exactly. Example: me.
US HD DVDs bought: over 20. European HD DVDs bought: zero.

Helping fight US trade deficit since September 2006. :D


Same here:

US HD DVDs bought: over 30. European HD DVDs bought: zero.
US region free Blu-ray titles from amazon.com, and titles which are region
coded I am buying from UK (amazon.co.uk, sendit.com or hmv.co.uk)
US blu-ray:17 UK blu-ray: 25

HD DVD in Slovakia is 0, you can't find any player, not even notbooks with hd dvd drive...., and maybe you can find xbox360 addon...

Movies on HD DVD ? nowhere........ and wtihout at least subtitles it will be very hard for them here...

on other hand, Blu-ray started month or so ago...... with about 30 titles avaible with local subtitles and several titles with dubbing,.... in HW PS3 is leading with Sony players, Pioneer, Samsung, and about 8 different PC Blu-ray burning drives....

Marek

I'n norwegian and I have never bought an HD DVD in Norway. I only import. I have 20 HD DVDs now and more on the way.

Potetgullmannen and others who mention the sales are very low in Norway and not statistically sensible. Yes, I mentioned the low numbers in my initial post, though trends are still possible to see. (the whole import thing is an issue that makes it far harder though).

Concerning low market penetration: Even though the US has apparently shipped more than 100 000 Casino Royale Discs that would to me indicate that the percentage is not too much off between the countries (even though the sales numbers are). Consider that Norway has about 4.7 million people, while the US has about 302 million. You can still argue that concerning the low penetration of either format in the US as well, statistics don't really offer a clear indicator of who wins (if any).

Also, while Scandinavia are very small markets in the big scheme, it is worth to note that they are often early adopters of new technology, as can be seen by broadband penetration and cell phone penetration in Norway, Sweden, Finland etc.

BrynRhys, I found the total videomarket numbers in Norway for March: 22.75 million USD vs roughly 170 thousand for BluRay and HDDVD put together, so I guess a little shy of 1% market penetration. PS: If you know Norwegian (actually mostly numbers anyway :) the stats can be found at: http://www.release.no/nystatistikk.asp?stat=kjopeMnd

zBuff, don't know of any global stats, though Nielsen does the US ones.

Marek, thanks for more input on the status in other countries - I certainly find it interesting to see what other countries are doing (or not doing) on the HD front!

It will be more interesting here after the summer, when its get cold and dark, more time to watch movies. Right now its more barbecue and swiming (well not swimming yet)

Only movielovers like me will buy movies.

Thanks tomes that's interesting. Got a link to the article? If you know what store is including movies with the player(s) I'd love to know that too, as I've yet to see any that do that. The only PS3 bundles I've seen so far have been games and extra controller ones.

Personally I'm going with imports mostly because the number of titles is so much greater at the moment.

BrynRhys, I found the total videomarket numbers in Norway for March: 22.75 million USD vs roughly 170 thousand for BluRay and HDDVD put together, so I guess a little shy of 1% market penetration. PS: If you know Norwegian (actually mostly numbers anyway :) the stats can be found at: http://www.release.no/nystatistikk.asp?stat=kjopeMnd
Thanks, tomes. I expected Scandinavia to be more of a new-adopter market, considering wealth statistics, etc. Interesting to see HD at less than 1% so far. Considering how low the volume numbers in the US for HD DVD are, and that there appears to be a significant amount of EU importing taking place, it makes me wonder what percentage of the US HD DVD volume estimates are actually EU purchases.

Frode, Potetgullmannen posted the link that I summarized in English: http://farojournalen.gan.no/id/223
I initially got to that link through a digi.no article: http://www.digi.no/php/art.php?id=380139

BrynRhys, yes, excellent point. Sounds like the import from the US (especially for HDDVD) is considerable, so it's likely a pretty decent percentage of US sales is actually from Europe.

Regarding being early adopters, Scandinavia has often been test markets for new products, but in the case of HD, they are behind the US. I don't think there is widespread OTA/Cable/Sat distribution of HD signals for instance, which means probably less penetration of HD sets, which again would translate into lower numbers of HD players/disc sales. I'm happy to have enjoyed HD here in the US since around 2002 or so :)

Ah thanks for the links.

While there's only a couple of HD channels on pay satellite, the actual HD set penetration is pretty high these days. You can't even buy standard def TV sets here anymore (with the exception of some 480p plasmas - yes 480p, not 576p *shudder*). Everyone wants a flat screen TV these days, and all of them are HD Ready. Prices are decent too. I'm willing to bet that these days the HD set penetration is much higher here than in the US. My only complaint is that 1080p models have been slow to filter in so it'll take a bit longer before they come down in price to affordable levels.

It's actually kind of funny because Blu-ray and HD-DVD will most likely be the first time people here see HD. With players being expensive and pretty much absent from stores that means PS3 and Xbox360+HD-DVD addon. They're rolling out DVB-T and turning off the analog OTA network starting next year which means that hopefully we'll start getting some more broadcast HD content.

Frode, that is good to know. I guess I need to visit Norway again soon :)

HDTV's are ridiculously cheap here in the US, btw, so I would think they sell pretty well.

We also have to remember that the low sales of HD movies and HD DVD and Blu-ray players in Norway is because the formats just got released here. HD DVD has been out in the USA for a year now, and BD almost a year. I picked up probably one of the first European Panasonic BD players in a store in Oslo, Norway, three days before christmas eve for 2300 dollars or so. (NOK 13.990,-). That's expensive! And there wasn't that many players available either at the beginning. And the HD DVD players started appearing in internet shop's at the end of January this year, and the HD DVD addon for Xbox 360 in February. The PS3 showed up in March.

Like Frode says - everybody's buying HDTV's these days, but most people don't have any HD sources in their homes. I guess they are more conncerned about how their new flat screen tv's look when hung up on their walls, and really don't know that much about the improved quality of HDTV signal from satellites or HD DVD/BD. Hopefully this will change soon so that the prices of both HD players and discs come down. Also more discs with Norwegian subtiles are important for the less A/V enthusiastic people.

Wow, you have a much higher AV budget than I do then :) I'm waiting for the prices to come down further here in the US :) Good point about the length of time it has been available though. Also, here in the US (though some may disagree with me), I think various large stores have been relatively good about making players and software available. You have electronics stores like Circuit City, Best Buy and Fry's and other store chains like Walmart and Target (for people outside the US: these stores sell *everything*;food, clothes, electronics, toys etc)

Seeing you frequent this forum, it's quite possibly you read the article on the frontpage - to quote:

"This past Wednesday, the FCC ruled that electronic retailers will have to post warning stickers on any left-over analog televisions that are still being sold out of inventory.

The Commission already had ruled that all new TVs, VCRs, DVD recorders include digital ATSC tuners as of March 1 of this year. Technically making them digital devices. Some retailers are still trying to get rid of leftover inventory from last year."

Looks like it will be overwhelmingly HD sets that are sold going forward here in the US..