Throughout the press conference, the HD DVD group repeatedly emphasized its satisfaction with the results it has so far received in the North American market. It is no secret that HD DVD currently holds a price advantage over Blu-ray. The cheaper price tag of HD DVD players compared to Blu-ray devices has allowed HD DVD to gain the confidence of consumers who have a budget to keep in mind.

According to the HD DVD group, they have currently sold 125,000 HD DVD players. The figure includes all HD-DVD players, meaning that it counts all standalone players, Xbox 360 add-on units, and Intel Core 2 Duo HD DVD-enabled laptops. The numbers, though, don’t completely speak for themselves. So far, HD DVD has enjoyed a high attach rate of 28 movies per player. The HD DVD group was quite optimistic of the future of its format, planning to expand the HD DVD user base to 2.5 million by the end of 2007.

There were a total of 300 HD DVD titles in 2006, and many more have been promised for 2007. Another feature that will greatly spur the commercial effect of HD DVD is hybrid support. Hybrid discs will have support for DVD on one side and support for HD DVD on the other. This method, however, conflicts with Warner Brother’s hybrid method, which we will discuss more further on into this article.

The most important announcement from the HD DVD camp was that of a triple-layer HD DVD disc. The HD DVD group was able to increase the density of each layer from 15 GB to 17 GB, increasing the total maximum capacity of HD DVD discs from 30 GB to 51 GB. Up until now, the Blu-ray Disc Association has used the smaller capacity of HD DVD to its advantage, claiming superiority of its product because of its larger capacity. This new announcement places HD DVD discs ahead in capacity by 1 GB, a sure blow to the BDA which probably didn’t receive this news with much enthusiasm.