With Toshiba's latest "fire sale" on HD DVD players, it appears that studio holdouts Universal and Paramount will remain exclusive to the HD DVD camp just a little while longer, while Toshiba and stores attempt to clear out stock of HD DVD players.
For anyone who may not think this move is actually an attempt to "reinvigorate" the HD DVD format, it needs to be pointed out that given HD DVD's studio disadvantage, the format is clearly on it's last legs.
The above graph shows the relative DVD marketshare of each of the major studios, along with their format allegiance as of the latest announcements. While Blu-ray continues to have nearly 70% marketshare in its corner, HD DVD no longer can claim even 25% support.
Note that smaller studios (New Line, Dreamworks, and MGM) that are owned by or have their DVDs released under the umbrella of a larger studio have their sales counted under the larger studios stats in the graph above.
So, for anyone thinking that a $149 - $299 HD DVD player is too good a deal to pass up, consider how much that player will really be worth as an upconverting DVD player... since that's about all the players will be good for going forward.
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