Most Consumers Sitting Out The High-Def War

The New York Times notes that, despite the increasing variety of programs on the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, most US consumers are staying out of the DVD format war. This is a wise decision, the article states, because the two formats are essentially at a stalemate. "The two camps are victims of their own earlier success with DVD. The standard DVDs offered a quantum leap in quality from the picture and sound of VHS videotape, and for many that was more than adequate. In addition, DVD players that can convert images to near high-definition quality can be found for under $100, hundreds less than a true high-definition DVD player, further reducing the urgency to upgrade to one of the new formats."

Comments

Waiting For Dual

[markdavis]

Most of us are waiting for inexpensive, dual format (Blueray & HD-DVD) players. Who wants to buy into an expensive player that can only play half the movies or programs out there? As the work, friends, and family "hi tech" person, I recommend to everyone to wait for dual format. They find it amazing that I don't have either format yet.

Another group of prospects are waiting for ripping capability, so they can assert their fair use rights (even though they don't have any under the DMCA).

I don't predict either format will "win" nor "die" over the next few years. So, by each camp resisting dual-format, all they are doing is hurting the whole prospective market.

Lastly, a HUGE number of consumers can't even tell the difference between DVD and HD quality! The difference in sound is total marketing drivel. But the difference in picture- oh yes, it is major. But that goes to show... if most consumers can't even tell the difference, why should they pay more?

Re:Waiting For Dual

[pebs]

Another group of people is those that don't even care about the prospect of watching movies on these formats, but are more interested in data storage. They are waiting for the price to go down on writable media.

Re:Waiting For Dual

[Anonymous Coward]

"Another group of prospects are waiting for ripping capability, so they can assert their fair use rights (even though they don't have any under the DMCA)."

Whoa, there. People DO have fair use rights under the DMCA. Those rights haven't gone away. The peculiar situation introduced by the DMCA is having fair use rights, but not being able to legally exercise them because of the encryption and the illegality of circumventing it.

It would be kind of like paying to have the right drive your car on the street because you have a license, insurance, etc., but not actually being able to exercise that right because there is a wall built at the bottom of your driveway by the people who own the road, and it is illegal to knock it down.

[Okay, *you* come up with a better car analogy]

Re:Waiting For Dual

[stewbacca]

if most consumers can't even tell the difference, why should they pay more?

I don't know what the marketing term is, but there are plenty of people who buy more expensive stuff based on perceived abilities/values/specs, but they wouldn't be able to tell the difference had Consumer Reports/PCMag/Car-and-Driver/HomeTheaterMag/ProPhotographyMag etc. not told them so. I'm guilty of it myself from time-to-time, as well as most of you are, I'm sure. Many consumers aren't comfortable just buying something that is "good enough for me", because they hate the idea that there might be something better out there for the same price. Consumerism is a bitch.

Re:Waiting For Dual

[honestmonkey]

I don't think your analogy is quite right. VHS is not dogfood. I would say broadcast TV is dogfood. VHS allowed you to play back shows when you wanted, and record things off the TV. So lets say that VHS is a burger. Say a McDonald's burger, one of the cheap ones. DVDs bring that up to a good chicken dish, with a side of pasta and those breadsticks that are soft and warm. HD-DVD or BR might bring it up to lobster, but really, how often do you go have lobster? And that's just it. You go out to have lobster with all the trimmings and a good desert - movies. You don't usually bring home a lobster and cook it because it's a lot of trouble and it's just easier to stick with what's in the fridge. I mean the chicken is already defrosting and you have a can of the pop-n-fresh breadsticks. You've even got a bag of salad. For lobster, you'll need to get out the special plates, and melt some butter - do you even have butter, or just margarine? And your wife isn't a really a big fan of lobster, she'd just as soon have chicken. If she has to cook, she's not even sure how to cook the lobster anyway.

Mmmmm, breadsticks...

Re:Waiting For Dual

[CastrTroy]

I haven't seen too many demos of HD, but here's the things I think deserve some attention. The sky, which often shows "bands" of colour on DVD, and macroblocking, like with fire, or flashes of light. You can put all the resolution you want to into a movie, but if it's compressed too much, or with a crappy compression format, then this is still going to be a major problem. The frame is 4x times the size (in area), and the disc only has about 4-5 times the capacity. So if they haven't changed the encoding formats, I think we are still going to have a lot of the same quality problems we had before. Especially since they are trying to fit even higher quality audio with more channels on the disc as well.

Re:Waiting For Dual

[ScrewMaster]

[Okay, *you* come up with a better car analogy]

Okay, instead of a wall at the bottom of your driveway you have a motorized gate with a numeric keypad. You need a code to open the gate so you can drive your car, but the people who own the road won't give it to you. You could easily download a road-gate-code-cracker, but that's been made illegal.

Re:Waiting For Dual

[ashridah]

But will the HDTV blend? [cue music]

DVD/HD

[Kenoli]

No compelling reasons to upgrades, compelling reasons not to upgrade.

Sounds familiar. Anyone?

Why not support both?

[stewbacca]

Here's a novel idea (FTA): "Warner Brothers releases movies for both systems."

I guess Warner Bros. actually gets it and is reaching out to the biggest market possible, whereas the rest are picking sides and supporting their pet formats.

I remember for the longest time certain studios refused to release their movies to DVD because they were trying to push their own, stupid, proprietary systems. They eventualy caved (and I finally got Braveheart on DVD!). I see the same thing happening here.

For the record, from this casual observer's view, Blu-Ray is doing a much better job in brand recognition. Perhaps it is the catchy name, since HD-DVD sounds more like a spec than it does a product?

I can testify to that....

[lena_10326]

I have the 50" Panasonic plasma--bought it last year. There's no impetus for me to get an HD player because when I sit 15 feet away, standard DVD quality is good enough. Sure, I'd like better, I just don't want to pay a ton for it. I appear to fit inside the bell curve. It's comfy in here...

So, I wait. Wait and see.

Re:Anyone else hate idiots like this?

[gander666]

I was going to moderate this, but I have to respond. The Wiki article states in "Physics" and is thus correct. However, in general usage, quantum is a discrete shift in value, rather than a minor shift in a continuum. It can be small (as int he physics example), or it can be large. It all depends on the frame of reference, and what you are gaging.

It is this that I think that the article is referring to (correctly). Being a physics geek, I had to set the record straight.

I did it by accident

[DoofusOfDeath]

I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but...

I needed to do Linux development on a Cell processor, so I picked up a PS/3 and a 24" LCD monitor. At the time I thought that I needed an HDCP-compatible monitor in order to use the PS/3 in high-res mode. (I didn't realize that you only need a HDCP-enabled monitor if you want to watch Blue-Ray movies at high-res.)

So I accidentally joined the small group of people with a high-def setup. Oops.

Re:Anyone else hate idiots like this?

[mattgoldey]

Anyone else hate idiots like Jason1729?

If you had kept reading that very same Wikipedia page, you would have seen this:

In the vernacular, the term quantum leap has come to mean an abrupt change or "step change", especially an advance or augmentation. The term dates back to early-to-mid-20th century, coinciding with the discoveries of quantum mechanics. The popular and scientific terms are similar in that both describe a change that happens all at once (revolutionary), rather than gradually over time (evolutionary), but the two uses are different when it comes to the magnitude of the change or advance in question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_leap

DVD vs HD quality

[putaro]

We just bought a 42" LCD HDTV (1080P). Standard DVD's look damn good on it. I would believe that HD sources will look even better but I'm not willing to shell out for one of these players to experiment. Probably I will be downloading some HD content to see how they look vs the DVD's. Like you, though, I don't see any point in buying a player until either I can buy a dual-format player for a reasonable price or one of the formats is a clear winner.

Re:DVD vs HD quality

[walt-sjc]

Agree on the quality of standard DVD's with a good HD set and player... But there is another issue too. I won't buy an HD player until I can be sure I can make media backups 100% of the time like I can with standard DVD's. THAT, more than anything else, is what is holding me back.

Re:DVD vs HD quality

[h4rm0ny]

Seconded. I want to be able to stream all of my movies from my home server on demand, not fiddle around with discs that can be damaged. But a big point with the DRM is that if one of the formats didn't have it, that format would suddenly become safe to invest in. It wouldn't be ideal to have to re-burn all of my HD discs if the format went under and everyone used Blueray, but I (a) wouldn't need to as I could play them from the file and (b) would at least be able to without as much cost as replacing them if I so chose.

Get rid of the DRM and you're not taking a big risk in buying that media.

Re:Who cares? They're cheap.

[stewbacca]

So what's the solution, in the meantime you're going to waste your expensive high def TV watching shitty standard format DVDs?

Although I don't really support your flippant attitude about just buying (and rebuying) whatever format comes out on top (not everyone can afford two $400 players), I think you are on to something here. While I don't fully understand the specifics of all the formats and definitions, I do know that my HD Movie Rentals from my cable company look great and store nicely on my HD DVR box. Hell, even Lord of the Rings broadcast in high def on TBS the other weekend looks great when played back on my DVR (much better than my DVDs). If these movie studios don't pull their heads out soon, these disc-based systems will never take off and we'll all be pulling our content from our cable providers on demand instead (not that that will stick it to the man at all).

Killing their customer base

[mulhollandj]

How many are staying out of this because they don't like the copyright 'protection' which really hurts the functionality and ends up hurting the experience of legitimate users?

Re:Killing their customer base

[stewbacca]

I assure you, only a small group of slashdot users think like this. Name ONE non-techie family member or friend of yours that has ever ripped a DVD to a computer for the "experience of legitimate users".

Reasons I haven't jumped in

[cheebie]

The jump from VHS to DVD bought be a better picture, better durability, much greater convenience, cheaper prices (eventually), more variety, and there was only one format so I didn't have to worry about buying a DVD player only to have it turn into a blinking boat anchor. It cost me the ability to record since I wouldn't shell out for a DVD burner, but I found I didn't miss it all that much.

The jump from DVD to High-Def DVD will buy me a better picture, and that's it. And I get to worry that I'll chose the wrong format and it will be worthless in 2 years. The dual format ones are still too expensive.

So, I wait for the dust to settle before I toss more money into the bottomless technological gizmo pit.

Almost completely agree

[debest]

Lastly, a HUGE number of consumers can't even tell the difference between DVD and HD quality! The difference in sound is total marketing drivel. But the difference in picture- oh yes, it is major. But that goes to show... if most consumers can't even tell the difference, why should they pay more?

Although there may be some that can't tell the difference in quality, I think a far larger proportion of people just don't care about the increase in quality (myself included). I've seen demos in stores. I've seen a Sony disc that tries to show the difference side-by-side on the same movie (splitting the screen of a scene to show the left side as DVD and the other as Blu-Ray). Yeah, it's way better, but I don't give a crap! I don't have the cash, or the desire, to upgrade my television. DVD is good enough for me, and will be for a long, long time. I do not have interest in paying one cent more for the better quality video.

Never mind how much more difficult it is to rip the content!

Re:Almost completely agree

[TheRaven64]

Mod parent up. My stepfather is still buying VHS tapes if they are cheap, because the quality is good enough. DVDs are more convenient (no need to rewind, smaller space required to store them) and so he's more-or-less switched to buying them. He has a huge collection of films and absolutely no intention of buying either HD format. He can see DVD is better than VHS, but the content not the pixel count is what he cares about.

I tend to watch most DVDs on my laptop these days. I upgrade roughly every three years, so in two years I might end up with a BD or HD-DVD drive. At that point, I might start watching movies on whichever format the drive supports. I don't buy DVDs anymore though, I only ever rent them. I rarely want to watch a film more than once, and so I'd rather pay a fixed rate for access to new films than buy them individually. In two years, if someone is offering a download service over the Internet then I'd use that instead of renting disks in any format, as long as it's not tied to Windows and offers a flat-rate cost.

Re:Almost completely agree

[Jonny_eh]

Boo on VHS! Most of the movies on that format are Pan and Scan!
The greatest thing DVD did for home video was making letterbox/anamorphic widescreen mainstream.

Re:Almost completely agree

[RightSaidFred99]

In other news, a $13000 Hyundai gets me from point A to point B just as well as a $43000 BMW. Why on Earth are people buying those BMW's???! It's craziness!

Re:Almost completely agree

[debest]

In other news, a $13000 Hyundai gets me from point A to point B just as well as a $43000 BMW. Why on Earth are people buying those BMW's???! It's craziness!

Of course a BMW is a better car than a Hyundai, just as HD-DVD/Blu-ray are better than DVD. Most people don't care about that, either. They can't justify the benefits, given the increased cost. From 2006 sales figures, Hyundai sold 455,012 cars, while BMW sold 274,432. Seems more people, by your own example, agree with me.

Re:How about "Phoning Home" and DRM?

[jamesh]

By this I mean anything that forces the user to do something he does not want to like the PUOPs on standard DVDs. You can be forced to watch previews when you start a disk without having the option to skip forward or advance the track. I expect HD and Blu Ray to be worse in this matter.

The kids got a stack of DVD's for Christmas. I'm bordering on _FURIOUS_ that on some of them we have to sit through about 3 minutes of previews and "You wouldn't steal a car... video piracy is stealing" warnings. Honestly... it's crap like that that makes me want to just download instead of purchasing. Why on earth should someone who's actually doing what the recording industry wants and buying instead of stealing be the one who has to sit through the warnings and ads???

HD versus DVD

[Wowsers]

- HiDef is expensive... tick
- HiDef is fighting with HiDef*... tick
- HiDef for the average user gives no gain... tick
- HiDef cannot be (in theory) copied to your MP3 player to watch the movie on the player... tick
- For computers, HiDef only works on that abomination called Vista... tick
- HiDef disks (pressed or recordable) are expensive... tick
- One HiDef format is backed by Microsoft... tick
- Neither HiDef format has a "cool" name... tick

Now with all those ticks, let's all rush out and buy into the HD format.

Or, you could stick to what you have now, and rip** the DVD for your MP3 player to watch on, not have to get into the whole "this cable is not compatible with this type of HD content" crap, not get into "you machine thinks you're really a hacker and your new hardware has decided to offer you shitty vision" instead of what you paid for, not have to worry about full HD pixel ratios or interlaced / progressive video, and not have producers enforce region coding (cartel protection).

* I bought superior Betamax, don't want that kinda purchase again.
** in some places legally.

The article might be a little late..

[tjstork]

I mean, how many PS3's sold for xmas? Costco is selling 1080p TVs for $1000. I think 2008 is going to be the tipping point for a lot of people.

Most (older) customers have no reason for HD

[Opportunist]

Cue my dad.

He's a war movie fan. Especially 2nd World War. From Tora Tora Tora to Midway, from Battle of Britain to One Bridge too far, he has them all. He wants them all. He watches them all. When DVD came out, he was one of the first to go and get a DVD player, because now his previous movies would never go grainy from being watched a million times over.

Now, his movies have been made in the 60s and maybe 70s. Sound? Mono. MAYBE stereo. 5.1? C'mon, be sensible. Film quality? At DVD level you already saw the flaws, why bother with HD?

For him, there is no reason at all to even consider HD. Whether HDDVD or BluRay is moot for him, he's happy with his DVD.

And that's another problem. When someone is a fan of 60s movie, or of a movie star from the pre-80s era, he simply does not benefit from HD.

Re:Well

[bilbravo]

I had to comment on this just to set things straight. Blu-Ray does not render your DVD collection useless anymore than HD-DVD does... why? Because both play DVDs. HD-DVD is simply a moniker for the new format because it is part of the DVD consortium.

Repeat: Blu-Ray players play DVDs just the same as HD-DVD players do. The only imcompatibility is that Blu-Ray players will not play HD-DVD and HD-DVD will not player Blu-Ray.

My apologies if this is not what you meant, but it is how I read it and want to avoid others making the same mistake.

Re:How about "Phoning Home" and DRM?

[corsec67]

Then you need a Better DVD player, one that doesn't prevent you from skipping that stuff.

Re:More than quality

[PitaBred]

I can afford to take a chance on a format. I'm just not going to patronize a business that's consumer-hostile. I have self respect, and if they don't want to provide a product that will allow me to use it as *I* see fit, rather than under "license" as they see fit, fuck 'em. I'll spend my money elsewhere.