Home Media Research finds Blu-ray outselling HD DVD

A new survey by Home Media Research found that Blu-ray outsold HD DVD by two units to one in the US, during the first nine months of the year.

According to Home Media Research, US sales of Blu-ray discs totalled 2.6 million units between January and September, compared with 1.4 million HD-DVD discs sold.

However with the launch of more interactive titles exclusively in the HD DVD format, during the fourth quarter, analysts believe that the situation could turn around.

HD-DVD, which was developed by Toshiba Corp is backed by Microsoft and major film studios such as Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation.

New HD DVD titles, such as Paramount’s ‘Transformers’, feature new, advanced Web-enabled features. Over 100,000 HD-DVDs of the title were sold on Oct 16, its first day of release.

For 2007 as a whole, consumers are expected to spend $186 million on Blu-ray discs, compared with $91 million on HD-DVD.