Blu-ray outsells HD DVD by 2-to-1 in US

Blu-ray DVD titles outsold rival HD DVD titles by almost 2-to-1 in the first nine months of the year in the US, but analysts expect additional HD DVD support and new hit releases to "transform" the high-definition DVD battle score in the fourth quarter.

Home Media Research, a division of Home Media Magazine, said on Tuesday total US sales of Blu-ray discs, using a Sony-backed technology, totalled 2.6 million units from 1 January to 30 September, versus 1.4 million HD DVD discs sold.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba. It is backed by Microsoft as well as film studios such as Warner Bros.

The division in Hollywood grew deeper in August when Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation signed exclusivity deals to distribute their next-generation discs on HD DVD format for the next 18 months.

Gerry Kaufhold, analyst with In-Stat research firm, believes newly released HD DVD titles with new advanced Web-enabled features, such as Paramount's Transformers, will help the HD DVD camp in the fourth quarter.

Paramount Home Video said that Transformers had the biggest debut of any high-definition titles, selling over 100,000 HD DVDs on October 16, its first day of release.

Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, also said the 18-month period of exclusivity for HD DVDs by Paramount and DreamWorks should strengthen HD DVD's hand this quarter.

"This definitely smoothes out the edge that Blu-ray had in exclusive titles, and it very much strengthens HD DVD's hand in the fourth quarter," he said, but still expects Blu-ray will lead for the year overall.

Adams predicts that for 2007 overall, US consumers will spend $186m purchasing Blu-ray discs, versus $91m for HD DVD.

Walt Disney, Sony, 20th Century Fox, and Lions Gate Entertainment are exclusively in the Blu-ray camp.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers had hoped new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, would revive the slowing $24bn home DVD market.

But like the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, the DVD standards war has slowed adoption and created customer confusion. It has also raised the likelihood it will be years before next-generation players become standard equipment.

Since both formats launched in the spring of 2006, an estimated 4.98 million high-definition discs have been sold, including 3.01 million in Blu-ray and 1.97 million in HD DVD up to the end of September, according to Home Media.

One big factor giving Blu-ray an edge has been the popularity of Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which also include a Blu-ray disc drive.

"It's going to be 2008 before the dust will really start to settle. For now, it's like watching a yacht race," said Kaufhold, who expects the standards battle will lead more consumers to dual DVD players such as those made by LG, which supports both Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Samsung is expected to market a dual-format player later this year, ahead of the Christmas shopping season.

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