Format War reported on NPR

[Uberfy]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=17910746

I was excited to hear coverage of CES and specifically the Blu-ray HD DVD format war on NPR today. They did a decent job of keeping it simple, and covered the basic facts for those who don't know anything about the HD formats. Nothing new for those of us who eat, sleep, and breathe the latest blu-news. They did over-generalize that Sony is the big backer of Blu-ray, but for a quick radio piece it was a good story.

The best part was when she said that lots of people were looking at the Blu-ray displays, but not many were over looking at the Toshiba HD DVD displays.

How sad.

[MacHaggis]

Amazing how clueless some people are about stuff... "Blu-ray and HD DVD are basically the same, except Blu-ray has more studio support"...

This morning, listening on my way to work, NPR had some CNET guy who actually admitted that Blu-ray has won, but he added that the battle is now "media vs. HDi"... no surprise since it's coming from CNET.

Bogdan

[Sylin]

Originally Posted by MacHaggis

Amazing how clueless some people are about stuff... "Blu-ray and HD DVD are basically the same, except Blu-ray has more studio support"...

For the general public, that's all they want to know. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are essentially the same, in general terms. To Ma 'n Pa Kettle, who don't know a megapixel from a gigawatt, technology is strange and unfamiliar territory. They might be savvy with their cell phones and can work their way around Google, but ask them to "Digg your blog" and they think you've just insulted them.

I'm not criticizing, just stating that for many of us enthusiasts on this site, being "techie" is a way of life. But we are certainly the minority, and a niche in the vast ocean that is the consumer market. Most people, of all age groups, are technological novices.

The bottom line--and what the NPR story did a great job in relating, when I heard Laura Slidell's live report--was that Blu-ray and HD-DVD might look similar to each other on your TV, but they are loads better than regular DVD. When asked which format dominates, Laura said that Blu-ray now has over 70% studio support and is gaining ground, and retailers would be hard-pressed to recommend HD-DVD to anyone now.

I loooooved her last-second plug about how the Blu-ray booths @ CES were just PACKED with people, whereas HD-DVD only had a few people milling around. They were probably trying to score one of those free backpacks.