Consumers favor HD DVD over Blu-ray

[SpOoNmAn]

Consumers favor HD DVD over Blu-ray due to negative perception of Sony

HDTVUK have reported the findings of a US-based survey which suggests that a major factor in consumer negativity about the Blu-ray high definition optical disc format is a distrust of Sony, and annoyance from some gamers that they're forced to adopt Blu-ray if they get a PS3.

Cymfony, a market influence analytics company, discovered that positive discussions about HD DVD were 46% higher than Blu-ray, with over twice as many post authors stating being "impressed with HD DVD" versus "impressed with Blu-ray"

Source

[D_Litch]

It's not surprising that the common consumer favors HD-DVD. They know what a DVD is, and when they get a TV that's HD, they know what format they should use. My uncle is a mildly crazy war/HD aficionado and he had no clue what Blu-Ray is.

[Jon Liu]

It's hard for people to adopt something so incredibly new as the concept of "Blu-ray" just because they just got into DVD's themselves. Now seeing HD-DVD, like D_Litch said is something relatively familiar to those people so it makes it easier to say, "Okay I can get into this..."

It also doesn't help that the price tag for the standalones are heavily outweighed, with the HD-DVDs being quite a bit cheaper, overall.

As far as the picture quality, Blu-ray is certainly really narrowing the gap lately so, that point is almost null and void but, with that said... would people like to spend 500-1000 dollars for something that looks good or would people like to spend 1000-2000 dollars for something that looks as good. Kind of makes it tough to rationalize at that point. Granted that the PS3 is only 600 dollars but, most people aren't getting a PS3 JUST for the Blu-ray aspect.

[alter_ego_trip]

Now if only the studios will start realizing the fact so the format wars can be done with.

[GoatMother]

Toshiba took advantage for the first several months with having a huge price advantage (blu-ray players were twice as much at $1,000 versus Toshiba's $499 unit). Also blu-ray had a few crappy early releases where as Toshiba's early titles looked great.

Things have changed since then as both sides now have players starting at $499 MSRP and blu-ray titls are now excellent. Still there definitely was some damage done by the way blu-ray introduced itself.

[Rhino Chaser]

I also wonder what will happen when Blu has more time to build market share...

[GoatMother]

Thanks to consoles I don't see either format going away for a long time. Without the xbox360 and PS3, each doing more for their format than the stand alones so far, they both very well could have failed.

IMO both kick ass so it doesn't really matter to me anyways. I just have a PS3 which defaults me with a blu-ray player. I would have picked up a HD-DVD add-on if I was able to score one at $160 at CC (I didn't expect to be able to get a PS3 well into next year). Right now though I don't see myself needing 2 HD movie players.

[BiffCo]

The thing I enjoy about my HDDVD player is that it has the analog audio outs so I can take advantage of the new audio formats without upgrading my reciever. While Blu-ray has the holy grail of all audio on many of their discs (uncompressed 5.1 PCM tracks, lossless codecs like TrueHD and DTSHD don't even come close), they have no way of getting it out of the player other than HDMI. Recievers don't have the ability to decode uncompressed audio at the current moment (unless it's 2 channel).

-Brad

[MadBryan]

Yeah, I can't even stand to go over to the Spot anymore and Chad Vandersnoot rattle on about bluray. Have you guys looked at his equipment list lately. I'm always wondering if it takes all that gear to produce the image and sound he raves about. First to take the Walmart crowd wins. Our crowd with their Def Techs and Halo amps and Dennon and Elite and well I could go on for awhile. We are the minority. In my circle of coworkers and family/friends I'm the only one who seems to care about such things. They all love to come over to here and watch the latest game/movie (yes even on the LCD)

[KEEZY]

Here is a question (Hey, I haven't Keezied in a long time!):

If HDMI carries audio and video... I'm guessing both go to the receiver? And then the video goes on to the TV? Doesn't signal quality drop as you pass through more equipment?

[SpOoNmAn]

Are all those cracks on me? You named everything I have(I know the lcd was @ me, lol). Err minus the Denon now that I look at it.

I love you man! Youre just an ass that needs a hug once in a while.

But anyways, Bryan is right, it wont be our crowd that wins it, it will be the *regular* people who dont empty their bank accounts on such theater toys as we do

Since my relatives have been adopting home theater(thanks to getting 4805s after seeing how good they look over the past 2 years), they appreciate the hobby more and do their best to stay in the loop. The only ones that even know whay BluRay is are my cousins and thats only because they know what the ps3 is. Other than that, nooone knows what it is but they sure do know about HD DVD.

My Uncle asked if the Core could use the addon drive, him asking such a thing me. A year ago he was making fun of me and my big screen and yearning for a great picture. Now he wants a Core for the family with the addon? Wow.

*Side Note: anyone else have Parasound Halos?

Damnit, gotta clean up this drool again!

[MadBryan]

Honestly no Spoon. I admire your gear (just not your opinions) I was trying to think of some great stuff I've been around and you happen to have some. Oh, and watch it with the ass cracks....haha thats kinda funny!

[JohnW]

Originally Posted by KEEZY

Here is a question (Hey, I haven't Keezied in a long time!):

If HDMI carries audio and video... I'm guessing both go to the receiver? And then the video goes on to the TV? Doesn't signal quality drop as you pass through more equipment?

True for analog signals, not for digital. Analog takes a bit of degradation (though with current gear, I doubt you'd actually perceive it), and HDMI, well, just stays digital all the way through. Nothing to degrade.

[KEEZY]

Excellent. Thanks Mr. B Goode.

I guess I should have known that. 1s will always be 1s and 0s will always be 0s. Thats excellent then. I like having everything pass through one central location... that gives you one place to control most of your HT.