Article: Factors in selecting a HD format - by Country

[james99]

Article:

While other factors such as studio support and technology advances will have an impact on the adoption of next-generation DVD players, the providers of these products must ensure they are meeting the expectations and demands of consumers to be truly successful. Those who offer a high-quality picture a wide variety of content at a reasonable price will dominate.

[wprager]

Wow. Content (B-R trump card) is on the bottom in every country. Price (HD-DVD claim to fame) is second, and in many cases pretty much tied for last. Maybe it's VMD FTW after all

[PrimeBane]

I can't say I'm too surprised with quality being #1... I mean, we all bought into HDM to have a better quality picture on our HDtvs.

[hoodlum]

Keep in mind that these results are based on the decisions of early adopters who place a higher importance on quality. For mass adoption, quality will be dead last as the current DVD is "good enough" for most people. Mass adoption will not happen until there is a cheap player that plays all HD movies, whether that be a combo player or a single format (wins war).

[Luis_A51]

Its not surprising. The overwhelming majority of people will always say Quality and Price are the top 2 factors when selecting just about anything. A combination of the two leads to perceived value (doesnt necessarily mean the cheapest, the best quality/price ratio for each person is different) and that is the overwhelming factor when selecting products.

But what good is a low cost/high quality player if your favorite movies arent available? Quality/Price are the top factors in selecting a player (and corresponding format) but content is what determines if you will support that format long-term. And long term (software) is where the real money is.

[wprager]

But your favorite movies *are* still available. Now, if DVDs went away overnight, and you had to chose Red or Blu, then there would be a lot more format-neutral people out there.

[U]

I don't get the numbers for Japan... They ranked it Price --> Quality --> Content yet Blu-ray in the land of the rising sun is like 15:1 over HD DVD with higher prices and arguably the same quality as HD DVD.

Unless they are referring to the quality of the hardware?

[polaris]

yeah the issue is not clear on hardware vs. software but there are some comments from the article this is pulled from

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/N...ant-60549.html

"The exception was Japan, which valued the "price of the player" as most important."
So I guess they mean the cost of the hardware but most of the piece is about the format in general.

I guess the PS3 is seen as a good value then in Japan. Its still early days. HD DVD players are cheap, but perhaps not a good value when compared to a PS3, which people know can also gaming. THis may be the early adopter market that is the cause for Japan's situtation.

THere isnt much surprising there I think.

[U]

Ah... Thanks. I actually didn't read the article as both links point to the same image and I was too lazy to go find it.

[Arthur Dent]

Japan is a bit different from America. The name Sony is a fetish for them. Most people there would buy an empty box if it has the Sony logo on it. PS3 would sell well even if there were no games or Blu-ray movies yet.

[jvincent]

Japan is a bit different from America.

Understatement of the year there.

There is definitely a strong Sony preference in the Japanese market but Toshiba is Japanese too so there should be no inherent bias against it unlike the situation with the Xbox 360 for gaming.