Target is set to start promoting and selling the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player in October, but in a blow to the rival HD DVD format, it has decided to exclusively carry Blu-ray disc players, at least until after the holiday season. It is the second major retailer to only push the Blu-ray format. The largest U.S. provider of home movie entertainment, Blockbuster, has recently decided to push Blu-ray rentals.
While Blu-ray may appear to be doing very well, a bulk of Blu-ray's success is the result of the PS3 game consoles, since each PS3 effectively doubles up as a Blu-ray disc player. No games console is equipped with an internal HD DVD player. If we look just at stand-alone HD video players, according to the HD DVD camp, HD DVD players have outsold Blu-ray players by a 3 to 1 margin in Europe this year.
Thanks to RTV71 for letting us know about this news, with the following comment: The move by the popular national retailer could turn out to be a blow to the rival HD DVD format. Neither format is compatible with the other, and that means consumers have been slow to adopt one or the other, fearing that they will be shelling out big bucks for a device could end up obsolete if the other format ends up with the upper hand.
