14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, the HD DVD promotional Group announced that more than 1.5 million HD-DVD disks have been produced and shipped to the stores since the official launch of the standard, in 18 April 2006. I'd say that this number is no motive to party for the HD-DVD manufacturers, but it's safe to say that they have kept their promises about the availability of the disks. The main problem in the HD-DVD area still remains the lack of capable drives.
This is actually a pretty bad moment for HD-DVD standard since Sony just announced its first Blu-Ray player for Playstation 3, and that makes things look even more complicated since both HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray players are still rare and quite expensive. And the fact that a certain producer decides to integrate a Blu-Ray player into what might become a successful gaming console can't be a good thing especially when thinking about future sales. Maybe Microsoft can reverse the process since they also plan to launch a HD external player for the Xbox 360 but this time, it will be a HD-DVD one.
There are already 110 HD-DVD titles on the market with 40 more to come out by the end of 2006. And the fact that HD-DVD players remain significantly cheaper than Blu-Ray players ($375-$500 vs. $750-$1500) might eventually give HD-DVD standard a winning chance. Don't forget the hybrid players though. They may prove to be the best solution in time. That is if someone will actually produce them.