More bad bits for Bluray

It looks like HD-DVD has outsold Blu-ray by 33% in their respective 6-week launch windows. However, Samsung's Bluray Player's high price allowed them to capture 42% more revenue with less sales. That's great for Samsung, but not so good for Blu-ray as a whole.

This means that right now, there are more HD-DVD players in consumer hands than Blu-ray players.

But most significantly:

Overall high-def players are still playing an insignificant role of all disc player sales in the market. NPD said that HD DVD and Blu-ray players accounted for only 0.4% of all disc player sales. DVD players came in at 86.2%, DVD recorders at 13.4%.

Obviously, this will change in the future. If Microsoft releases their HD-DVD drive before the PS3 comes out, I wonder if that will give HD-DVD sales a significant boost? Or on the other end of the spectrum, will the PS3's debut help Blu-ray catch up? Or will Blu-ray gain a negative association and harm the PS3's status since the Blu-ray is required? At the same time, could Xbox 360 owners could look down on the hefty HD-DVD add-on?

I mentioned that I couldn't find a Blu-ray player at Sears. One of my room mate's works there, and he said that they don't even carry Blu-ray at that store. Of course, they don't carry current games either. Hmmm...

Still, will this HD-DVD out-performing Blu-ray trend continue? CNET's not counting chickens, but they aren't giving Blu-ray any extra points. They recently re-evaluated the Toshiba HD-DVD player and the Samsung Blu-ray player. Samsung's Blu-ray player DECREASED in score (6.6 to 5.8) and Toshiba's HD-DVD player INCREASED in score (6.6 to 6.9). Ouch.

Currently, thedvdwars.com is still reporting more success for HD-DVD on amazon.com. It's not looking promising for the Blu-ray camp when it comes to movies.