Sharma Family Journal

Best buy, Netflix and now Walmart — all claim that they have heard from consumers that they should dump HD-DVD for Blu-ray. However a cursory glance of player sales data at top retailers will tell you that they’re lying through their teeth. On the other hand it’s more likely that they got a big cash infusion or favorable business terms on something else for their actions.

HD-A30 is #2 selling DVD player on Amazon. Blu-ray players are no where in sight. In fact, 85% of them are supposed to be PS3s. Next come the disc sales. Blu-ray here seems to maintain an edge with around 60% or so market share. But I think the size of the market overall for $40 DVDs is very small.

The corporations are going to do whatever gets them the most profit (more DRM, more proprietary stuff). It’s pretty clear to me that HD-DVD is in the interest of consumers.

Netflix and best buy made announcements today, which they had no business of doing. I don’t particularly care about the best buy announcement. If you took their advice, you’ll be paying $$$ for extended warranty anyway.

But the netflix one really bothers me. I sent them a mail making it clear that this one has to be settled by consumers. And that if they don’t offer HD-DVDs, I’ll look elsewhere.

So go ahead - order those cheap HD-DVD players from Amazon. May the format that offers most quality for your dollar win. $400 blu-ray player? Give me a break.