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Many PS3 & Xbox 360 owners unaware of HD capabilities
Posted on 10/08/07 01:06 by Seán Byrne
With all the news going around about how the PlayStation 3 helped push Blu-ray well in the lead, one thing that may come as a surprise to Sony is just how many PS3 owners actually watch Blu-ray movies on their console. According to a survey of 6,260 people carried out by the NPD Group's study of "Next Gen Functionally & Usage", it appears that around 40% of PS3 owners didn't realise their console could play Blu-ray discs. Also, around half those who knew about this capability have no interest in watching movies on their console.
So, with only about 1/3 of PS3 owners actually making use of their console to watch movies, it looks like it is time that Blu-ray backers should start to focus more on encouraging PS3 owners to watch movies on their console than trying to sell more players and consoles. What is more amusing is that despite all the effort Sony has put into the PS3's high definition capabilities, not to mention all the delays involved ensuring it launched with an internal Blu-ray player, just 50% of PS3 owners surveyed actually knew their console had high definition capabilities! This figure was worse with just 30% of Xbox 360 owners knowing that their console has HD capabilities.
As pretty much expected, it seems that most of those who bought a PS3 or Xbox 360 done so for one main reason - to have the latest console to play games on. Further info can be read in this Guardian article.
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Shocking news indeed! Don't tell me that people purchased game consoles to play games! Shocking, really. Who would have imagined! 
BUT... Unlike the Xbox360, which, out of the box is just a games console, every PS3 sold also doubles as a Blu-Ray player. Give it time, give it time...
"it appears that around 40% of PS3 owners didn't realise their console could play Blu-ray discs" ?????
were they stoned when they bought it and all the time afterwards? what do they do with those shiny little free discs that the console comes with, throw them like boomerangs?
anyway, sounds like another marketing, but not advertising, failure. those kids could not care less..
to any technically inclined person it should be obvious that u cant expect the same performance from a game console (ps3 or xbox) as from a standalone player dedicated to movies alone; needles to mention that toshiba for instance has gone thru 3 gens already to perfect the unit.
It really is too early to tell, i feel there will be 2 formats and the studios making 2 identical copies in both.Here is my take, the main reason VHS won the war was its 6 - 8 hours recording time, Most people want more storage, so bluray has that HD-DVD does not, so bluray will most likely win just based on storage, and note this... Today Entertainment is done with computers, People use them to rip movies play music and all the good stuff, and as we all know you can never have enough storage, so blu ray has it HD DVD doesn't!
No, this could be true. My friend has a PS3 and knows it has BluRay capability; but instead of buying The 300 miovie on Bluray, he bought it on DVD. I said dude are you nuts!! Why didn't you buy it on Bluray since you have a 1080P LCD TV and a 7.1 HD audio receiver? He just shrugged is shoulders and said, "Well everyone in the house knows what DVD is and not Bluray so I just got the DVD version." So I could see the truth in this article.By
cellpunxer (guest),
Friday 10 August 2007 08:28
Im interested what percentage of PS3/Xbox360 owners own a HDTV and what percentage actually connect it with a HDMI/Component/DVI cable.
By
Saquib Hussain (guest),
Friday 10 August 2007 17:20
I wudnt care either... im not sure if they are NOT aware, or they dont want the console for that reason. I want a good cnsole life, and watching movies might lessen my lens life (it happened for my PS2)... ill just sue it for games, and that wat i bought it for. i havea huge dvd library and im not gonna bring all of it to these new formats. gonna wait a while, buy a stablished movie format - DVD is not bad for me, does the work good enough. besides, same quality HD movies fit in any HDdvd or BluRay - i wudnt mind having a multi-HD dvd disc, instead of one BD disc, as long as its cheaper: doesnt amtter if special contents are in a sperate disc to me.
Here's another perspective. All those PS3 customers got ripped off by being forced to take the blu-ray player when they had no intention of ever using it.
@ ivid
Good point. However, I doubt any one of those people waiting in line at midnight with their cash/credit card handy felt forced to get the PS3.Try as they might, those poor PS3 owners won't be able to get HD out of that composite cable that comes packaged with the unit.
This message was edited at: 10-08-2007 19:50
This message was edited at: 10-08-2007 19:50
By
Dan (guest),
Saturday 11 August 2007 02:22
Wow just goes to show a bunch of people are retarded. Whether or not they use the HD is beside the point they should have at least noticed it. I mean $400 - $600 bucks for a console and you don't read the selling points maybe the economy is better than we think or 30 - 40% of people are sheep and follow their brand.
You'll also find people who aren't aware that their DVD players can also play CDs. Not everyone is "tuned in" to the capabilities of their electronic devices. It usually requires techies like us to point out the capabilities of electronic equipment.
Avarege customers dont care about resolution, aspect ratio and quality settings. Many of 16:9 TV owners are using their DVD-Video player with (factory default) 4:3 mode, and zomming the letterboxed picture to full screen, instead of setting up the player correctly. And they dont notice the quality loss.This message was edited at: 12-08-2007 12:21
I don't know about the Xbox but the PS3 came bundled with a Blu-Ray movie at launch in the US and a free Casino Royale was sent to purchasers in Europe.
Not using it's capabilities is one thing but not knowing?????
This artical seems like BS to me.
I play BD movies on my PS3 almost daily so I must be one of the enlightened?
I still do the majority of my gaming on a PC.
40%!! Jeez. What a bunch of morons! While people might not be inclined to watch Blu-Ray movies, I REALLY cannot believe that 40% have no idea that their PS3 cannot play Blu-Ray movies.By
darwin collins (guest),
Friday 30 November 2007 23:49
Since many PS3s come with a BluRay movie (like SpiderMan 3), and or a deal that you can get free BluRay movies mailed to you. (see the BluRay site)... I don't know how folks can't know. BTW... A PS2 can play DVDs. (grin)
How does it really matter, since the default cable that comes with a PS3 is only composite video?
(while a DVD player is component video, or at least S Video)
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