Study: HD DVD Has Lead in Consumer Support

[dialog_gvf]

Study: HD DVD Has Lead in Consumer Support

A few comments.

-An online study was needed? I guess HD DVD currently selling more than BD was too subtle to determine the current leader in consumer support?

- As you can imagine, the AVS posters probably responsible for a good amount of these posts assume that it respresents general and overwhelming support for HD DVD. Very funny.

- Look at the actual numbers:

Overall, nearly 33 percent of all online posts on HD DVD were positive, compared with 53 percent that were neutral, and 14 percent negative. Blu-ray scored a 24 percent positive rating, with 53 percent neutral and 23 percent negative.

Blu-ray posts: 24-53-23
HD DVD posts: 33-53-16

Considering all the negativism out there, is anyone shocked it amounts to only 23% of Blu-ray related posts? And, that apparently 4.83% of that is from people upset with the PS/3 having a BD drive?

What an odd thing to be upset about, unless you're already against BD.

Gary

P.S.

Studio 60 derivative joke:

"Cymfony chief strategy and marketing officer Jim Nail also announced an extensive six month online survey to determine whether people think water quenches thirst".

[emilsjr]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

"Cymfony chief strategy and marketing officer Jim Nail also announced an extensive six month online survey to determine whether people think water quenches thirst".

Spot on right.

The fact that they actually quote from an obvious MS shill is all you need to know.

"“Sony forces you to buy Blu-ray,” read a post at forums.adventuregamers.com. “MS doesn’t force you to buy HD DVD. It’s about giving the consumer options.” "

Wonder how much MS pays these shills to regurgitate their mantra? The FUD is basically beyond belief now. Seems they are getting very desperate. Which tells me they are getting worried.

[hyperdine]

Here's the full report...

http://www.cymfony.com/Blu-ray.pdf

Notice the quote they have from AVSForum on page 4. They obviously included AVSForum as part of their study, so I can't say that I'm too surprised at the results.

Interesting that they mention the PS3 throughout the report, yet the timeframe of the data collection ended on the 23rd of November. The PS3 had only been out 6 days at that point.

Also, take note that the gap in positive ratings is only 900 basis points (9%). That's actually a pretty small difference.

Lots of holes in this research. This reminds me of a saying we have at work that you've probably heard before..."There's lies...damn lies...and then there's statistics"

[dialog_gvf]

Oh, this is rich:

Few posts discuss the higher storage capacity and advanced
interactivity, advantages Blu-ray touts.

What parallel universe did this survey come from?

Gary

[Rio]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Oh, this is rich:



What parallel universe did this survey come from?

Gary

Paid by M$?

[JimPullan]

Hi-Def Digest reprinted this study on Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD:

"Online opinion makers have already crowned HD DVD the winner over Blu-ray in the high-def format war, says a new industry research study -- and the PlayStation 3 may be more hindrance than help.

According to Home Media Retailing, a report compiled by independent market analytics firm Cymfony has scoured over 17,664 postings on various media sites, tech blogs and message forums in the past two months, and found that Blu-ray currently lags far behind HD DVD in positive opinion. In fact, the numbers say that the buzz for HD DVD is 46 percent greater than that of Blu-ray, and that's among both high-def early adopters and the gaming community.

Further scrutinizing a core sampling of 2,000 random posts, the report found more bad numbers for Blu-ray. Of this group, 23.4% viewed Blu-ray negatively compared to 14.2% for HD DVD; 53.1% were neutral toward Blu-ray (52.8% for HD DVD) and 32.9% viewed HD DVD positively compared to 23.5% for Blu-ray.

But perhaps most surprisingly -- and potentially lethal for the Blu-ray camp -- the report also suggests core gamers are actually dissenting from the format because of Sony's inclusion of a Blu-ray drive in the PlayStation 3. That's in sharp contrast to almost all industry projections, as the PS3's next-gen capability was expected to be the trojan horse that, hands down, would win the format war for Blu-ray.

"Sony forces you to buy Blu-ray," read a post at forums.adventuregamers.com that was cited by Cymfony. "Microsoft doesn't force you to buy HD DVD. It's about giving the consumer options."

Ouch.

What do we make of all of this? Well, one study is only just that -- one study. But it is obvious that ever since the Blu-ray format launched this past summer amid poor reviews for both the initial hardware and software, it's had a tough time recovering in the court of online opinion. Meanwhile, HD DVD continues to enjoy an upsurge in awareness and support few saw coming. Worse still, if the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray capabilities are suddenly seen not as a benefit but instead Sony forcing a format down gamers' throats, well, all this bad buzz could soon turn Blu-ray into a giant blueberry of a bomb bigger than Violet Beauregarde in 'Willy Wonka.'

One thing we know for sure. Launching a new home video format is no different from any other new product -- perception is often the same as reality. And if more reports like this continue to circulate and the Blu-ray backlash doesn't let up, the format's backers will find it an increasingly uphill struggle to turn the tide. We here at High-Def Digest, meanwhile, remain format agnostic, and will continue to report and review on both formats. But unfortunately for Blu-ray (and Sony) the shadow of the failed Betamax is always hovering close by. Stay tuned... "

IMO it's premature to make any judgements and this is but a single study or survey, not carrying much merit. I wonder if AVS Forum was behind this study? I'm still confident that at the end of the day, Blu-Ray prevails !!!

Jim

[Josh]

Every study is funded by someone, usually one of the people the study is focusing on. Take a guess as to who funded this study.

[dobyblue]

Yah! Okay then are you kidding me? There's mention of the PS3 in there despite the study being conducted between October 1st to November 23rd, 2006. So the PS3 was out for 7 days out of the 54 days of post sampling? Yet get this - 21% of the negative Blu-ray conversation was about PS3 issues!! That's pretty odd isn't it? The PS3 was out for 12.96% of the sampling days yet 21% of the negative posts sampled were about the PS3. Don't even bother trying to explain that one. "I don't like PS3 because it has Blu-ray" is not a "PS3 Issue" - it's HD DVD fans trying to spread negativity about the format.
On page 3 you'll note that the first Discussion Driver of the 2,000 posts analyzed between 10.01.06 and 11.23.06 is "Much of the BLu-ray discussion was driven by the release of Sony's game console on November 17th."
Look at the rest of those quotes. Every single one is about negativity towards Sony. Let's look at excerpts from the 6 quotes.
1) Sony..has a track record of starting format wars and losing them.
2) Sony has yet to come through on its new formats, Betamax..
3) I'm kind of glad Sony is getting screwed
4) The sheer arrogance of Sony is incredible
5) Sony forces you to buy Blu-ray
6) A Sony rep has admitted there is a problem
Whoa!!! Let's not mention any of the troubles the A1 Toshiba player went through and is still going through. Let's not mention the problems the 360 had with its launch.
I've got a better title for this fraud of a study.

We hate Sony by Cymfony

26% of other posts were a "General dislike" of Sony.

"Many posters noted other failed Sony platforms, including Betamax and MiniDisc, and felt that Blu-ray will follow the path of these other Sony failures"

Yeah Blu-ray will probably follow the same disastrous path as CD, DVD, the Walkman, the Discman, etc. Not to mention SACD is more popular now than ever before. 1,000 titles between 1999 and 2002 and 1,000 titles alone in the last 15 months. Mainstream artists like Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Dire Straits have releases in the last year. Genesis are releasing all 14 of their studio albums in multi-channel DSD SACD during 2007 and 2008. There are more than double the number of DVD-Audio releases on SACD, over 4,000 now. In fact if DVD-Audio and SACD are a format war, SACD wins handily. MiniDisc is still the #1 portable digital recording method, so it won it's format war. I don't see any recordable mp3 players.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Rio

Paid by M$?

Anything end to end so anti-BD is definitely suspect. A balanced report would have listed what positives are being discussed about BD as well.

And, how convenient that they managed to sneak in the 720p gaming issue, but completely missed the PS/3 getting rave reviews as a BD player in the same period (the survey is about BD v. HD DVD, right?)

Consumers discussed specific models far less, with only 1,200 posts referencing one of the 3 Blu-ray players [sic] or 9 HD DVD players [sic] currently on the market.

I guess they figure people make decisions based on forum/blog post surveys?

"I went into the store, and seeing that eight of the nine HD DVD models have sold out (only the HD-A2 was on the shelf), I saw a clear win for HD DVD"

Riiiiight.

[Jazar]

Wait... did I just read this right? That "study" came from internet forum posts?

Now I've heard everything.

[marzetta7]

Oh my. I've never seen such utter crap, and such grand conclusions only after 3 weeks of the PS3 launch. I'm amazed at how hard the HD DVD FUD machine is working, but then again, they're going to have to.

The industry is not on their side.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by marzetta7

Oh my. I've never seen such utter crap, and such grand conclusions only after 3 weeks of the PS3 launch. I'm amazed at how hard the HD DVD FUD machine is working, but then again, they're going to have to.

The industry is not on their side.

Pretty much everything based in actual reality is not on their side.

[dialog_gvf]

The main unfavourable things is this thing will be repeated all over the place. It's a war of public opinion, being fought with what amounts to an anti-Sony survey.

Look at the numbers and how they don't seem to match the overwhelming negativism of the survey. Why isn't there a single positive remark about Blu-ray in it?

It shows a desperation somewhere. I thought the number and quality of movies was what would determine whether a format was good or not. Apparently now it is how much you want to join a certain crowd in hating Sony.

Gary

[Blu-ray San]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

The main unfavourable things is this thing will be repeated all over the place. It's a war of public opinion, being fought with what amounts to an anti-Sony survey.

Look at the numbers and how they don't seem to match the overwhelming negativism of the survey. Why isn't there a single positive remark about Blu-ray in it?

It shows a desperation somewhere. I thought the number and quality of movies was what would determine whether a format was good or not. Apparently now it is how much you want to join a certain crowd in hating Sony.

Gary

I said it once and I'll say it again, ever since PS3 was launched, there have been some serious Sony haters BSing about every little thing. The statement from Microsoft about giving the consumer options? Are you serious?? What "options" will the consumers have when the Xbox 360 rolls out with a HD-DVD drive built-in w/ HDMI to their console?? You know it's going to happen.


BTW, The next DVD format war WILL be decided with whichever format releases better porn...i mean movies!

[Rio]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

I guess they figure people make decisions based on forum/blog post surveys?

I'm sure that their online search system are pretty much affected by tons of rants of certain (specific) posters like r*j*m, A**r, etc. .

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

"I went into the store, and seeing that eight of the nine HD DVD models have sold out (only the HD-A2 was on the shelf), I saw a clear win for HD DVD"

The analyst should ask some simple questions to store managers like:

- How many models have you handling so far?
- How many players have you actually sold?

[phloyd]

Originally Posted by JimPullan

What do we make of all of this?

They spent a lot of time at the AVS forum? Haha...

[Rio]

They are selling FUDs, since they have nothing to sell now except add-ons . This is one of where the $150M marketing fund came from M$ pouring to ...

[theknub]

lol, i was just thinking about some funny commercials for BR...

have some commercial where wolverine, spiderman, luke skywalker, shrek, and whoever else come storming out to fight a dinosaur. at the last second, have harry potter fly in, cast a spell and shrink the dino to the size of a bird chick. then have all the BR characters grouped next to each other with the dino being dwarfed. finish up with a exit saying BR vs hd-dvd... you decide.

i know, stupid, but came to mind as i was reading this and how absurd it really is.

[vick vega]

The BD group needs to launch a really cheap,stripped down to the bones player for some people. They don't care about surround sound or inter-active features they just want to watch hd through their tv speakers and don't want to worry about hdmi. If some manufacture does this and price it at 200-250 then blu-ray would gain a big lead

[theknub]

i personally think that is absurd. u'd be creating a non hi-def player for hi-def product. it'd be a complete waste of money. and when studios implement ICT, they'd really be down the drain.