This is not unimpeachable, empirical proof of anything. It is simply an observation.

On the Amazon.com page under "What do customers ultimately buy after viewing items like this?" we see:

63% buy OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-Ready Up-Converting DVD Player
23% buy Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD PLAYER
9% buy Samsung DVD-HD950 HD Conversion DVD Player (Black)
5% buy the item featured on this page: Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc Player

The 23% for the Toshiba doesn't surprise me, the 63% for Oppo does. Does this mean adoption of any HD-type format will be slow. Or is the fact that nearly 30% of people are buying an A1 or a BDP-S1 remarkable?

I means people are getting confused and thinking the OPPO is a cheap HD DVD quality player. And when you look at the specs, you cant blame them. More titles, cheaper price, and it has the words HD. And since odds are they wont see the output from a real HD-DVD or BluRay player, they'll go happilly on their way thinking they're at the top of the food chain.

D

Good. The less people buying BR, the better. If you can't convince them on HD-DVD, you sure as hell aren't getting them near BR.

Once a fanboy...

I know. To think i used to be a BR fanboy.

Crazy, isn't it?

There are other options apart from just being a BD fanboy or an HD DVD fanboy.

such as?

Being format agnostic.

Nothing wrong with having a preference. Cheerleading for your preferred format, spewing vitriol over the other and engaging in ass-owning - that I object to.

I put my money where my mouth is. At this point, I've chosen a side.

One of the biggest reasons I'm happy I switched is because of how childish and pompous Sony is acting. They don't deserve to "win" in any capacity.
If they were playing fair, it would be much easier to be "agnostic."

But that isn't what this thread is about.

Oh, I don't care what someone's preferences are one way or the other. Wasn't meant to be criticism...just a response. Kinda nice to see vocal, enthusiastic HD DVD supporters to help balance out the Blu-ray crowd.

I guess I still consider myself format agnostic, not really having a strong preference towards either camp, although I'm starting to think about waiting for the audio thing to shake out with Blu-ray before plunking down a grand. The right titles at launch might sway me, though.

Not a chance in hell am i plunking down a grand. Or even $500. Maybe $200. I don't need another machine on my rack and I see zero point in it. Star Wars could come out and I still wouldn't buy it. Until HD-DVD is dead, I'm staying with them. Jumping in on both formats right now, I believe, would seriously confuse things.

I can see the confusion. I was at Wally looking to see if they had the A1's in yet and there was a cheapo upconverting player and the signage, the Walmart signage, said "Near-HD" on it. I'm not sure how much an Oppo is, but if it is even just $100 cheaper, I could see a non-informed customer picking that player over a real HD player. How should Sony feel about that?

I was in Wally World looking for the Toshiba's...just to see if they had it. I asked someone and she said..."HUH?" I said HD-DVD. She said "what's that? recordables?"

I walked away.

A few weeks ago (real close to the release of the Toshiba A1) I was on the phone with a family member and he told me he just bought a high definition dvd player at walmart for less than $100!!!

What can you say to that???

I give up!!

There was an article in Video Business a few months ago saying that even INFORMED consumers are doing this... quite a few of them. There are lots of people out there with HDTVs and large DVD collections that are turned off by the initial HD prices, buggy machines rushed to market, lack of selection, and -- most importantly -- the format war.

People see that they can get pretty darn good results with a upconverting player at less than $100 and figure that's "good enough" for now. Might as well sit out the format war for a couple of years and see how things shake out (HD vs BR).



And, yes, there are also going to be a lot of uninformed people who do this as well. Sort of like the same people who are watching standard cable on their TVs and assume it's automatically "HD". This should really be scaring everyone in both camps. They have to fight a lot of battles simultaneously with these product launches -- ignorance, apathy, resistance to change...

There needs to be some seriously publicity and articles in all media. Get the PR machine up and running. Screw the ads. They need people to do articles that J6P would read and get informed by.

One thing's for sure, it should be REALLY interesting to see how they sell both of them together on the same shelf.

My local Walmart actually had a sign above the dvd section that said "HD-DVD here. More titles coming soon." I felt proud. Their HD titles are all across the top row in plain view. They still don't have players yet.

Not sure if this happens to anyone else, but whenever I buy a HD-DVD instore, the cashier stares at it a few seconds front and back after scanning. As if to say, "what the hell is this?". One Circuit City cashier asked me how good the HD's are compared to dvd and of course I bragged on them as much as I could before the next person came up.

Just doing my part...

I have a feeling The Digital Bits will be a Sony backer. They've had glitches with their Toshiba and make it sound like all of them will. Not to mention the fact that they didn't really notice much of a difference in quality. And then they had this to say about the PS3 pricing:

"Sony has officially announced that its Blu-ray Disc capable PlayStation 3 will be available here in the States in two versions on 11/17. There will be a model priced at just $499 containing a 20GB internal harddrive, and also a $599 unit containing a 60GB harddrive. I have to say, those are pretty impressive price points, given that speculation just a few months ago had the PS3 selling for $700 or more."

Really? $600 for a gaming maching is impressive? Oooooookay.

I don't think there's any need to use the future tense there. They've never veiled their preference.

I don't visit that site much at all. From the few times I had visited, I definitely got that impression. Since I'm a HD-DVD backer, there won't be any need to go there.

Give me a fucking break.

I debunked that on avs and I'll do that again here, no problem.

Shall I pull out the quotes?

I am SO glad to read I am not the only one that feels this way. I was called to the carpet a few weeks back when I inplied that I thought that Hunt was more of a BR backer than a HD backer!

I still say we'll know a lot more how this war will shake down in a few more weeks when BR launches and we can finally accurately compare the two side by side, rumors and innuendos aside.

That seems like an awfully strong reaction. Nothing I said was directed towards you, and The Digital Bits has every right to support whichever format they want. I don't read their site regularly (their news and reviews aren't timely enough to be of much use to me), but I've always been left with the strong impression that Bill Hunt and company preferred Blu-ray to HD DVD.

It is a strong reaction, because I'm really fed up with the witchhunt campaign leveled against Bill Hunt and thedigitalbits (who I am not associated with in any form) during the last few months. He's been called a shill and worse.

For the latest (failed) attempt at slander, see here, which included BH's reply.

He has expressed reservations with regard to the launch both of Blu-ray and HD DVD. If he has commented on reliability issues with the HD DVD player and not on the Blu-ray player, it's because the BD player isn't out yet. Obvious.

He has said that with both formats at war, the most likely reaction of the public is that of indifference.

Similarly, Kris Deering of the Secrets site and Chris Beveridge of animeondvd have been accused of having an agenda, just because they voiced their dissent with the prevalent rah-rah attitude.

A shame.