HD DVD's online content reaches 30% of owners, on average
by Richard Lawler 
posted Dec 4th 2007 at 10:54AM
The HD DVD camp can still tout online connectivity as a feature Blu-ray doesn't have yet, and now they've released numbers on how many people are actually using it. According to the HD DVD Promotional Group, Universal's web-enabled discs averaged 30% of owners going online, while Transformers notched 80,000 unique online viewers with 30% logging on again to download additional content later. HD DVD-exclusive studios Paramount and Universal seem encouraged enough by the numbers that we can expect the content to continue to flow, but we've got to wonder if the added features will translate into increased sales.
Filed under: HD DVD
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
h4ldol @ Dec 4th 2007 11:23AM
Lame. HD DVD needs to do better than this if it wants to survive another quarter.
wysiwyg @ Dec 4th 2007 11:34AM
Lame comment.
flipah @ Dec 4th 2007 11:39AM
Does HD-DVD players come with internal HDD to store downloadable content? or is this online streamed content handled by the memory of the player? Sounds difficult to me how this acutally works.
But I'm already Blu.. so it doen't matter.
Go!Blu Wuhu!
LiqwidZero @ Dec 4th 2007 11:42AM
All HD DVD players come with onboard flash memory, which has been there since the first HD DVD players that hit the market.
John Drinkwater @ Dec 4th 2007 11:35AM
In 5, maybe 10 years time, what does it matter? The discs will still be readable, but its doubtful youll be able to access the online content still. So its pretty pointless.
I say buy them only for the content on the disc
Truth Teller @ Dec 4th 2007 11:42AM
"survive another quarter"
- Genuine laugh out loud moment there.
Your delusion is genuinely hilarious.
The game console format is not taking the adult a/v market, HD DVD quietly continues to do so as prices continue to fall to the point where SD DVD pricing and HD DVD pricing are indistinguisable (making the choice of a new SD DVD player pointless).
That is the HD DVD strategy.
This comparison between the 2 is laughable.
UMD outsells both high def formats combined (just as VHS video tape did until very recently) but it is of no consequence either.
So big deal, the PS3 format sold a few more PS3s and the game console owners bought a few more discs.
It really doesn't matter in this.
Blu-ray is driving up a dead-end, game consoles don't spread very far being gamers.
That's the truth of the matter.
LiqwidZero @ Dec 4th 2007 11:43AM
Dude, we don't need another h4ldol
h4ldol @ Dec 4th 2007 11:55AM
Was it also HD DVD's strategy to lose every week of HDM sales since the format "war" began? HD DVD fans should ease up on the rhetoric and propaganda until their format of choice actually wins a week of disc sales, or at the very least, doesn't get majorly owned by blu-ray to the tune of greater than 70:30. And yes, I am dual format but hope for blu-ray to deliver HD DVD from its misery in the near future. Then I will premanently retire my noisy and slow 1080i Toshiba HD-A3.
Truth Teller @ Dec 4th 2007 12:02PM
Yeah, I know, it's pretty shocking stuff.
Imagine anyone calling the game console format for what it is.
Shape @ Dec 4th 2007 11:44AM
HD-DVD players have internal flash RAM to store the downloaded content. On the XBox 360, this flash is actually in the USB drive itself.
The downloadable Transformers features are actually pretty cool. One of them is a GPS to show you where the action is, along with a pop-up video-like commentary under the video.
LiqwidZero @ Dec 4th 2007 11:45AM
Just to correct: it's Flash ROM, not RAM.
JeffDM @ Dec 4th 2007 11:51AM
Isn't the flash ROM like 128MB for most units?
LiqwidZero @ Dec 4th 2007 12:08PM
Yes, but, amazingly, you can also delete the content.
I still have plenty of storage on my machine. I've downloaded the Locator feature on Transformers, all of the Shrek the Third content, and I still have loads of space left.
EEL @ Dec 4th 2007 7:42PM
@ h4Idol, aka "Sybil"
Happy Holidays, Sybil. Did you enjoy Turkey Day? I love how you knock Red's ability to do many things out of the box that your Profile 1.0 Blu player can't. Did you already shell out another $500-600 for a Profile 1.1 player yet? Or are you waiting for Profile 2.0? I'm sure as soon as you do, you won't wait to tell us all about it!
BTW, did you watch "Hot Fuzz" yet? Get over the title. It's a very funny movie.
flipah @ Dec 4th 2007 12:07PM
How about downloadable content on that same HD-DVD with Tranformers 10 years from now? does it work or is it all gone?
I'll go for the movie only and don't actually care about downloadable content.
I can access downloadable content by using the browser of my PS3 or my laptop.
Thumbs up for Blu-ray ;-)
JeffDM @ Dec 4th 2007 1:06PM
"Imagine anyone calling the game console format for what it is."
What is with this bizarre and unfounded presumption that adults don't play games?
JeffDM @ Dec 4th 2007 12:45PM
The problem is though, once it's deleted and you want to see it again, it must be redownloaded. 128MB just doesn't hold very much. My computer from fifteen years ago had about that much and I didn't expect it to do any multimedia stuff. I think they could have just as easily stuffed in a gigabyte or more at negligible extra cost, or at least offer a way to plug in a CF card in the back.
mntwister @ Dec 4th 2007 12:16PM
These features, some of which I have seen, are really dumb and useless. Take the Chuck and Larry one, where you can go online from your player and purchase items....that's great for no one but Universal and the producing company of the product. I've seen it too, and they are overpriced.
I'll stick with the movie itself in the best possible picture and sound, and that is Blu-ray. Uncompressed on 86% of releases (see formatwars). Hd-dvd is around 26%. I know where I am getting my money's worth. Plus, I couldn't have lived without Cars, Ratatouille, Die Hard, Pirates and Close Encounters No way!
I see the software sales for Thanksgiving week were 73% blu-ray and 27% hd-dvd. Even the 150 million Paramount deal with Transformers and Shrek 3 could not stop the big blu sky. Blu's numbers got even better during the release of these 2 titles.
In 2008, blu-ray players will match hd-dvd players in price. All special features will be the same, but the content advantage, which is most important, is in blu favor. You have the catalogs of 20th Century Fox, MGM, United Artists, Disney, Touchstone, Miramax, Columbia Pictures, all exclusive to blu. Content is the big factor, not player price, and blu-ray has it!
Truth Teller @ Dec 4th 2007 12:19PM
Yes, all HD DVD 'extras' are terrible.
Until (if?) Blu-ray gets them, then they're staggeringly 'advanced', amazing and so incredibly useful & cool.
Yeah right.
The game console format, always 'going to', sometime next year, perhaps.
John B @ Dec 4th 2007 12:35PM
*sigh*
"My format is better than your format."
"No, my format is better than your format."
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Yeah, well, my daddy can beat up your format!"
"Nuh uh. My daddy can beat up your format!"
Pathetic.
LiqwidZero @ Dec 4th 2007 2:27PM
Menubots are available for download, finally!
Truth Teller @ Dec 4th 2007 5:45PM
I have never said that adults do not play games.
That is a seperate issue.
The fact remains that the PS3 is primarily a kids/adolescents game console.
....and that Blu-ray is utterly dependent on it; without the PS3 Blu-ray died long ago.
Blu-ray is a game console format, not a serious contender for the adult a/v market.
All the relative gains and progress they tout is just them driving ever further up that deadend.
It's about as significant as UMD sales numbers in the end.
HD? @ Dec 4th 2007 1:26PM
I would rather the content was included on the disc. If HD-DVD can't fit it on one disc then use 2.
Having to download it everytime(as the built in storage does not hold much) seems ridiculous.
Not to mention I don't know anyone with a network port in their living room.
ryan @ Dec 4th 2007 1:57PM
I wireless ethernet bridge is all you need if you want those features. I switch my bridge between my 360 and HD A3.
HD4ME @ Dec 4th 2007 9:33PM
Down loadable player content= NEXT GENERATION
You BR fans amaze me, 'BR is soooo much better because it does not have next generation features and we don't want them'.
The facts are all BR players are poorly specified & obsolete 1.1 spec, and it's far more expensive then it's opposition,...WTF????
There would be no format war if it was not for sonys greed, sony and the BDA created this mess, they have snowed you all with a ridiculously over priced DRM infested DVD player, yet you all defend it as if some one was attacking your homes or something, why?? I just don't get it