According to the Financial Times, HD-DVD appears to be winning the high-def DVD format war overseas. The reason: Several European independent film studios and production companies are supporting Toshiba's HD-DVD over Sony's Blu-ray.
Consequently, high-def owners must buy HD-DVD players if they want to watch their favorite indie and big-title films in HDTV.
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The Financial Times reports that 35 European films have been released in HD-DVD compared to less than 10 Blu-ray titles. European studios backing HD-DVD include Studio Canal, Pathe, Filmax, Imagion and Nixbu.
In the United States, the leading studios are supporting Blu-ray, which has given the format a large advantage over HD-DVD. Nielsen reports that Blu-ray disc sales have outsold HD-DVD by a 2-1 margin this year.
The newspaper reports that Toshiba and HD-DVD backer Microsoft have funded a marketing campaign to persuade the European studios to use HD-DVD.
"I have met much more
commitment from partners involved with HD-DVD than
Blu-Ray. I met Sony in mid-2006 but the support was
far below what was offered by the HD-DVD partners,"
says Rodolphe Buet, Studio Canal's chief marketing
officer.
But Buet acknowledges that the format war could take
a turn when the Blu-ray industry increases its focus
in Europe later this year.
"I am totally agnostic," says Buet. "All the work we
are doing on High Definition will be useful for
making Blu-Ray discs if the Blu-Ray standard wins.
It will be easy to change position."
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