Sony Australia is very confident in Blu-ray's dominance over HD-DVD. Toshiba general manager Mark Whittard stated that the war is "far from over," but Sony Australia managing director Carl Rose begged to differ.

"Let's get things in perspective here. Despite all the hyperbole whipped up in the media, so far there is no format war in Australia," Rose said at the Experience More event in Sydney.

To back it up, Sony unveiled statistics that show Blu-ray's massive advantage over the competing high-def format. "You've just got to take a look at the industry support and the sales figures to see that," Rose added.

A chart Rose dished out reveal that Blu-ray takes the lead in hardware alone, even without the PS3 numbers. The BDP-S1, Sony's new standalone Blu-ray player, released last month gave Sony an edge over HD-DVD players with an 80:10 ratio, he said.

"The S1 joined PlayStation 3 in the market and as a result, over 90 per cent of the High Definition packaged media sales are on the Blu-ray format," he continued. Another player with a lower price, the S300 which will ship this September, is expected to "fuel the market" in Australia.

There have been some whines and moans over the "Dragon's Lair" interactive movie by Digital Leisure lately. Dean Takahashi of Mercury News has had some issues regarding the Blu-ray remake being unable to play in some players. The game did work on the PS3 but there was no audio.

Several responses came, pointing to everything from the compatibility of the title with the player to some bug in the disc's Java script. A call to Digital Leisure did reveal that some players do have playback issues with Dragon's Lair. The company, however, said that this was the first incident that pointed to their software having trouble with the PlayStation 3.

Digital Leisure also pointed out that aside from the PS3, the game was tested on these players: Samsung BD-P1000, Panasonic DMP-BD10, PowerDVD (PC) and the Sony BDP-S1.

It is recommended that buyers test the title first on a player before purchasing it. The root is probably in the Java codes used by different manufacturers, but the Blu-ray association is set to issue a deadline to mandate a uniform structure that should fix compatibility issues. You may also call the manufacturer's tech support line to ask for firmware updates that may fix the problem.

 

Sony Corp has recently announced that it is set to make available a cheaper Blu-ray player early this summer. The BDP-S300 is set to cost around US$ 599, and will have the same capabilities as the more expensive US$ 999 BDP-S1.

Senior VP of the home products division of Sony Electronics, Randy Waynick has said to reporters: "Eighty percent of people who buy a PS3 also buy Blu-ray movies to go with it. ...The consumers have determined that that's the format they're choosing to go with." He goes on to cite retail data from the Nielsen VideoScan that showed Blu-ray discs outselling HD DVDs by three to one.

Stan Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics, told reporters that by Christmas, prices for Blu-ray players should be down below $500. He further predicts that Blu-ray players will soon follow the steps of DVD players in becoming a commodity product. He says: "Over time, I think it will be just like DVD ."

Amusing that Sony has previously complained that DVD players became a commodity product too soon, and that turning a profit in a market dominated by US$ 50 units was hard.

NextGen informs that Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has stated that cumulative Blu-ray movie unit sales stand at just over 439,000 units in the U.S. HD-DVD sales, on the other hand, are just under 438,000. Moreover, according to the NPD group, Blu-ray currently stands as the number one new DVD format in unit and dollar sales in the U.S.

Although Blu-ray only lead by around 1,000 units, Sony has said that they expect the gap in sales to widen throughout 2007. Sony adds that the company currently lays claim to 40 percent of the Blu-ray player market with the PS3 and the company's US$ 1,000 BDP-S1 standalone player.

NPD reports that since the November launch of the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, the add-on has sold 92,000 units in North America as of the end of December 2006.

Sony's Blu-Ray player, BDP-S1, isn't going to see the light of day until October 25. The new delay puts the release date of the BDP-S1 so close to the mid-November release of the PS3, which also offers Blu-ray playback.

It will take more than speculations to wipe that curious look off your face, but it has been assumed  that Sony and its partners want to launch the BDP-S1 ahead of the PS3 to make sure consumers understood the system by the time the PS3 arrives. But with delays under its belt, it would seem that Sony is grooming the PS3 to be the standard bearer for the Blu-ray discs. This could be a failure on Sony's part to get its timetable right, but it can also mean that there could be a change in strategy. But I guess, we'll never know.

The BDP-S1 is due to launch at a price point of $999.95 in North America.