DVD Player Ownership Surpasses VCR Ownership

An anonymous reader wrote to mention an Ars Technica post stating that, for the first time, more U.S. consumers own a DVD player than own a VCR. The DVD player dropped below $100 quite some time ago, but the third quarter of this year saw the percentage of DVD player ownership reach 81.2. Only 79.2% of consumers now own VCR players, reports Nielsen. From the article: "For all of the talk about the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray, both technologies are far, far away from most family rooms. Yes, the two are just now beginning what could be a long battle for entertainment-center supremacy, but keep in mind that the technology that they are vying to replace has only recently gained the upper hand against the previous-generation technology--a decade after first being introduced. Even if Blu-ray or HD DVD unexpectedly routs its opponent from the market in the next two or three years, it will still be several more years before the victorious format supplants the DVD."

Comments

Re:DVD will be the winner in the HiDef War

[CDMA_Demo]

No one will ever use the full capacity of BluRay station wagon.

Re:DVD will be the winner in the HiDef War

[plover]

Are you saying 640K station wagons full of BluRay* discs should be enough for anyone?

You're probably right. At least until holodeck interaction becomes common.

*Firefox's spell checker suggested BluRay should be spelled "blurry". So much for HD.

I will "upgrade" when...

[pla]

it will still be several more years before the victorious format supplants the DVD.

I will "upgrade" to the best HD format only when it counts as an actual upgrade - Meaning I can play it, in full resolution, on a Linux box.

Note that I don't include the word "legally" in that condition... A broken-feature-reenabling ripper (like DVD Decrypter used to do for region coding, macrovision, and button lockout) will work just as well as an authorized player.

So, which group will give me what I want first? Sony, Toshiba, or DVD-Jon? The winner takes all.

Blue Ray this, HD-DVD that...

[RiotXIX]

Jeez, give it a rest. I have money, but do you honestly think I'm going to subscribe to another new format for at least 10 years? We aren't all tech-writers. I might just skip this technology fasion trend and go for the one in one or two generations, just like I will with consoles. And even then I'll be content with my DVD library. Just like I am with CD-audio quality and good speakers. And I'm speaking as a tech nerd as well. Uprgrading would simply be burning money, which I don't feel, whether I had the money or not, would be a good idea.

Re:where is the DVR adoption?

[MojoStan]

I'm still perplexed that there's not been faster and more widespread adoption of DVRs. As a technologist, I tend to be friends with the kinds of people who have DVRs, but I still have a hard time impressing on "regular people" how damn wonderful they are.

I'm just speculating, but I think "regular people" might be turned off by the monthly fees/subscriptions required by the most popular DVR solutions. They might be thinking: "I never had to pay $20 per month (with a 1-year commitment) to use a VCR." (Yes, there are cheaper options for longer commitments. This is just an example. But "regular people" have to be convinced of its value first.)

I also think most "regular people" underestimate how much television is a part of their life. Many people like to think that television is "not important" enough to pay extra money for what they think is a slightly advanced VCR. In reality, people watch way more television than they think they do. They would probably save lots of time and enjoy their time watching television a heck of a lot more if they used a DVR.

I continually explain that having a good DVR is like having refridgeration -- once you've had it, you don't see how anyone made it this far without it. To that end, my wife and I find it diffucult to watch tv away from home.

It's not cool to admit tv is this important in our lives (I'm kidding). We should all be getting out and reading more, right?

Convincing people to pay an additional subscription to put an extra box near their television, with no new content, is a difficult task. I think free trials might do it. 30-day money-back guarantees (like the one offered by TiVo) still seem like a hassle to the unconvinced. Better competition and lower prices are also needed. The leader, TiVo, is darned expensive unless you commit to a long-term subscription. Windows XP Media Center does not require subscriptions, but not many people hook up PCs to their televisions. Cable/satellite companies can probably push free DVR trials on their customers (integrated into the set top box), but their DVRs are not nearly as usable as TiVo and ReplayTV (last time I checked).