Industry must do more to motivate consumers to buy High-Definition
Posted on 21/09/07 19:17 by geno 888                             
Industry must do more to motivate consumers to buy High-Definition

On a press prelease, NPD Group published results of a survey about consumers' intent to purchase and awareness of high-definition video players and video content. According to the study, there are some reasons for the slower than expected start of high-definition video players and high-definition content sales.

It seems that the main reasons are basically two: many HDTV owners said that the standard DVD format still works well enough so they don't feel the urge to buy a HD player, and because of the war among the two rival formats people is still waiting for a clear winner (nobody wants to have again a "betamax" on the shelf...)

According to the study, however, even if large numbers of consumers already understand what a high-definition player is, there are still many people that have no idea about HD, and the main culprit of this:  A lack of information.

Even if indeed the industry must do more to motivate consumers (this, too bad, means more advertising. I said "too bad" because we are already submerged by ads in every place...), I still think that the main factor that actually will cause the large diffusion of High-Definition is the end of the war among rival formats. If there is no winner, there will be no diffusion.

So the main thing that industry should do is not to spend more money in invasive advertisements but stop to bore end-consumers with that useless and money-consuming war once for all.

 

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By steven2874, Friday 21 September 2007 19:29
The manufactures still don't get it. Why would a rational consumer "upgrade" to a DRM riddled system that can only be used the way "they" want you to use it. I can back-up my purchased DVD's and use the content the way I want to and not how some corporate "Big Brother" wants me to.
By dlathem, Friday 21 September 2007 22:56
dlathemConsumers are getting smarter. The format wars are one thing, but the overbearing DRM issues are the real pissers. I don't expect the big boy to play it smart, I expect them to simply quit making regular DVDs to force the consumers in the the HD DVD world or do without. For my self, I just may decide to do with out and hope the big boys end up doing with NOTHING!
By johnzap, Friday 21 September 2007 22:57
johnzapGo DVD, go! Smilie
By LMZ (guest), Saturday 22 September 2007 15:59
It's those exact same reasons they wanted a new format... If the studios could make you pay them every single time you view a movie they would.... they are the greedy money mongrels behind it all. There was never a need for a new format and in the end HD DVD will win simply on name recognition.... people are out buying HD TV sets, not Bluray TV sets... the general consumer is basically ignorant, and they are being told continuosly that by 2009 they need to upgrade their tv to an HD or they will have to buy a converter because theri TV will no longer pick up normal TV signals.. only HD signals will be broadcast... so the consumer goes to the store, buys an HD TV, see's there are new DVD players out that are HD DVD and Bluray DVD... consumer picks HD DVD so it will work with his HD TV.... ignorant I know but true.. I see it all of the time. If you take away PS3 sales, HD is clearly leading the market in hardware sales... and with the new storage capacity of HD discs they are now have pretty much the same storage capacity (not that it was ever needed) The battle between formats is nothing more than a battle of control.. it's no different than the battle between Divx and DVD (which I clealry predicted from the beginning that Divx would die a quick horrible death people told me how terribly wrong I was and that my reasoning was so totally screwed...... wonder where those people are now? Probably on the Bluray team) The studios need to get with the program, smart consumers want total freedom over what they purchase and bring home to watch, they have and always will feel that if they buy something at the store and bring it home it is their's, they own it and they can do what they want with it... if they want to back it up and make a copy to archive or keep in the car they feel and should have the right to... those consumers are going to go with the format that suits them best... there are smart consumers that don't care about both HD formats because basic DVD is fine with them... and with the new "up converting" players coming on the market will be even more satisfied. There are consumers like me.. I personally don't care about "counting the hairs on the back of someones neck" I'd rather have a TV that fills up my entire wall.. even if it were a tad blurry.. for me bigger is better.. not sharper is better.. so standard DVD is fine with me and believe me there are plenty of consumers just like me.... There's consumers who don't care because they only rent, watch once and will never watch it again.... There are many different types of consumers the studios don't even take into consideration or care about and as I said most consumers will go with name recognition because they don't know any better and never will... Bluray was always a stupid name for the format anyway... Sony have done nothing more than create another format they will eventually loose the battle with.. Bluray is another Betamax.. it will just take a little bit longer to die it's slow painful death... just wait 'til the christmas after the HD TV swith in 2009... you'll finally see HD DVD sales start shooting up the charts... as that will be the year consumers will have bought more HD DVD players than Sony has in it's installed PS3 customer base. Personally until all studios release on HD I will be sticking with my regular DVD player.. and still trying to figure out how I can put this little plastic lens into a box and make a TV that will fill up my entire wall :-) Doubt me now... but bookmark this post and read it again in three years.... and you'll be eating those very words.. I won't be. My2Cents
By BitRate, Saturday 22 September 2007 17:25
The big boys want to take away the fair use rights of consumers and shove more useless products down our throats. People have woken up to these content producers and their desire to screw consumers over yet again.
This message was edited at: 22-09-2007 17:26
By 2bits (guest), Monday 24 September 2007 13:52
I think it boils down to not enough benefits to upgrade. I had to rewind my vhs, with dvd I can jump to a scene, change languages, have bonus material and the picture and sound was a big upgrade. Doesn't feel like I get anything new for investing in the new formats AND I have read that unless I have a tv larger than 30" I will see little improvement.
By Chuckwagon, Monday 24 September 2007 19:59
It really boils down to price. If an HD-DVD player were $100 people would buy it. Or a Blu-Ray. But since both camps are led by greedy S.O.B.s the prices stay far too high. Blu-Ray will win the the computer market, based on capacity, as the technology will allow far greater capacity in the long run than what HD-DVD can offer. Plain simple technical truth. In the computer world capacity rules. And since most of the other factors for the two formats are roughly equal, it makes the computer based decision easy. If HD-DVD were smart, they'd drop their price as fast as possible to get some push into the market before the reality that Blu-Ray will win the computer market really sinks in. Because once the computers are all using Blu-Ray, it makes it really easy to cross over into the home stand-alone market. If HD does drop prices now, then there may actually be two formats for quite some time. If they remain greedy, then they likely will lose in the long run. In the end, the sheep want cheap. And cheap means under $100 for a player. These wankers need to stop pushing off lies about how expensive the "new" technology is manufacture, and start acepting that people aren't going to pay for it while DVDs are still around. Whoever goes cheap first will probably survive, even if the other camp survives as well. I hope both die, because I think DRM is a commie plot, but I doubt they will. Smilie
By Chuckwagon, Monday 24 September 2007 22:14
Oops, it double posted. Frown
This message was edited at: 24-09-2007 22:15
By neo1918, Tuesday 25 September 2007 01:37
Come on, people. HD-DVD and Blueray offer a clear and definitive improvement in picture quality over DVD. The new formats may have horrible and invasive DRM, but you can't say there was no need for a new format.
By NOT INTERESTEN IN EITHER (guest), Wednesday 26 September 2007 07:25
Hey companies are you paying attention? You constantly want to spy on us to try to get us to buy more trash. Here we are telling you what we want! BOTH formats have too much DRM. There's a format war, DRM, discs of both formats are fragile and should have been locked in cartridges (along with all other optical discs), DRM, the discs are dirt cheap to replicate but cost $30 new, DRM, there's not as many movies on either format, DRM, HVD is coming, DRM, they forced everyone to buy new TVs for their stupid HDCP DRM, DRM, DRM, DRM. Did I miss anything? No amount of advertising will persuade me, ads turn me off, especially when I can't skip them. We all gave DRM a chance and it was a royal pain in the ass. NO MORE DRM!!!!!!! Frown HD DVD disc replication costs: http://www.proactionmedia.com/hd_dvd_replication.htm http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hd+dvd+replication&btnG=Google+Search Blu-Ray replication costs: http://www.proactionmedia.com/blu-ray_replication.htm http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=blu-ray+replication&btnG=Search Cheap players suck, regardless of what color their lasers are puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke puke Just read these: http://www.epinions.com/pr-Coby_COB_yuml_DVD207_DVD_Player_for_Home_Theater_DVD/display_~reviews I can tell you from personal experience CHEAP PLAYERS SUCK!!!!! I returned two Coby crappies and got a banged up 5 year old used Phillips DVD player with a dent in the top for less money from a thrift store. Not only was the picture better, but the thing still works, it's 7 years old! You're not saving money when you have to buy a new $40 junk drive every couple of years, not in the long run anyway. If you buy a high definition TV for better picture quality why would you want junky drives on the market? That's just going to drag good manufacturers' quality down so they can compete against the junk. If you're not interested in quality you don't need high def. Stay away.
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