HD-DVD stand-alones beating Blu-ray in Europe

The HD-DVD group has earlier announced positive signs coming from the European front of the high-definition format war where it says that its stand-alone HD-DVD players are outselling Sony‘s Blu-ray players on a three-to-one scale.

The data, the group says, comes from research firm GfK and covers countries Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Germany. The numbers included all current HD-DVD players stacked up against players outside of the Sony PlayStation 3 console which is also capable of playing Blu-ray movies.

The group, however, made it clear that Blu-ray discs are still outselling HD-DVDs in the same region and declined to comment on whether or not the format is losing money in the United States and other markets around the world.

Comparisons have already been drawn between this format war and the rivalry between the Betamax and the VHS formats from about three decades ago. Others have likened it to Netscape versus the Internet Explorer from back in the mid-90’s.

The HD-DVD format has been in Europe significantly longer than Blu-ray. Its technology was developed by Toshiba and is capable of storing more data than its predecessor, the DVD format. It can also play videos at a higher resolution and is touted to have better audio output than recent storage media.

The Blu-ray camp is led by Sony and is backed by other biggies such as Apple and Samsung. It also plays HD videos but can store information on a bigger level and is said to sport more features. The price point for Blu-ray, however, is steeper than that of its sole rival.

The HD-DVD group has earlier announced positive signs coming from the European front of the high-definition format war where it says that its stand-alone HD-DVD players are outselling Sony‘s Blu-ray players on a three-to-one scale.

The data, the group says, comes from research firm GfK and covers countries Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Germany. The numbers included all current HD-DVD players stacked up against players outside of the Sony PlayStation 3 console which is also capable of playing Blu-ray movies.

The group, however, made it clear that Blu-ray discs are still outselling HD-DVDs in the same region and declined to comment on whether or not the format is losing money in the United States and other markets around the world.

Comparisons have already been drawn between this format war and the rivalry between the Betamax and the VHS formats from about three decades ago. Others have likened it to Netscape versus the Internet Explorer from back in the mid-90’s.

The HD-DVD format has been in Europe significantly longer than Blu-ray. Its technology was developed by Toshiba and is capable of storing more data than its predecessor, the DVD format. It can also play videos at a higher resolution and is touted to have better audio output than recent storage media.

The Blu-ray camp is led by Sony and is backed by other biggies such as Apple and Samsung. It also plays HD videos but can store information on a bigger level and is said to sport more features. The price point for Blu-ray, however, is steeper than that of its sole rival.