CES 2008: HD DVD's CES stand quiet on opening day

Do the two rival's show stands tell a story?

8 January 2008 2:37 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Following Warner Bros' significant announcement that they are to ditch the HD DVD format in favour of going exclusively Blu-ray, all eyes have been on the events at CES to see how the industry takes the news.

Pocket-lint visited the two rival factions's show stands to see how things differed. The two stands - just yards apart at the Las Vegas Convention Centre told an interesting story.

At 4pm on Monday 7th January, the opening and busiest day of the Consumer Electronics Show, the HD DVD stand was practically deserted, while the Blu-ray Group's show area was buzzing and enjoying a good crowd for a demo.

Although this was only a small snapshot of the current state of the format war, it is interesting to note just how ominously quiet the HD DVD area was with not one person watching the demo video, and only a handful of visitors.

The official CES press release from the HD DVD group mentions only a "recap" of the figures in 2007, with stats like the amount of titles available and the standalone players sold.