Comments on: More People Still Own More HD DVD Players Than Blu-ray?

By: troyd

troyd — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:57:24 +0000

I agree with Mike D. re: the Harris poll findings. The average consumer doesn’t know (or care) the difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray.

I believe there are 2 factors that contribute(d) to low consumer demand for Blu-ray (and initially higher demand for HD DVD): 1) poor product positioning – the term “Blu-ray” makes little sense to most consumers hence the fairly recent decision to begin marketing Blu-ray as “high definition dvd” and 2) price point – when they were competing, compare $100-$200 for a HD DVD player vs. $200-$300+ for a BD player. It’s a no-brainer for the average consumer.

My mom is a great example (and also a technophobe). She purchased a HD DVD player ~4 weeks before HD DVD was discontinued. Her reason: price. She had no idea Blu-ray even existed. To her, the acronym “HD DVD” is all that made sense. Nice.

By: Fine HD » More People Still Own More HD-DVD Players Than Bluray? - MAVROMATIC

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:48:56 +0000

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By: Danny Mavromatis

Danny Mavromatis — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:29:24 +0000

Interesting… I would assume the Harris Poll would define HD DVD and Blu-ray separately, like they callout Playstation and XBOX 360. I would think people that own Blu-ray know that HD DVD is different… I see you point though… either way, I believe Blu-ray is struggling.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:23:51 +0000

This seems like a very error-prone survey to me. If I had a Blu-Ray player and someone asked me if I had a “high definition DVD player” I would say yes. If someone asked me if I had an “HD DVD player” and I didn’t know about the two formats, I would also say yes. I call bs on the Harris poll’s findings.