"Do Not Buy A Blu Ray Or HD DVD Player Warning"

[JTK]

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Home_Ci...K9H4A2#Scene_1

CE Industry experts are warning consumers to not buy a new generation of HD DVD or Blu Ray players.

At the same time Industry groups like the Consumer Electronics Association has slashed projections for sales of next-generation DVD players. The war between the two emerging standards has already caused consumer electronics companies to lose money with many now concerned that both standards may have problems.

Even though both next-generation high definition digital video disc standards – Blu-ray and HD DVD – have their own competitive advantages and both offer increased image quality compared to the contemporary standard definition DVD, industry experts advice end-users not to acquire a new player, as eventually only one standard survives and it is not obvious that users will be correct in their assumptions now and may eventually find themselves with a player without content.

"You don't have to decide yet. History has taught us that only one of these formats is going to come out on top, and consumers who choose the wrong product will lose money, time, and, of course, quality home viewing entertainment. Wait to make this significant purchase until after the holidays, and after one of the two options appear to be leading the way to the next level of home entertainment," said Dan Diotte, the founder of disc repair and maintenance company VenMill Industries.

Back in January, the Consumer Electronics Association predicted that more than 600 000 high definition DVD players, worth $484 million, would be sold this year. However, delays of shipments and manufacturing issues have twice caused the organization to lower its forecast, and it now expects U.S. sales to reach only 200 000 players, worth $181 million, by the end of 2006, The Washington Post has reported.

Mr. Diotte believes that there is no guarantee that either HD-DVD or Blu Ray will be the clear leader a year from now, meaning that next year sales of next-generation DVD players may also be lower than expected, which will cost consumer electronics companies another hundreds of millions revenues not received. For consumers, the war may result in lower amount of content available for next-gen DVDs and, if the consumers invest in one format that will eventually disappear, they will lose the investment and need to re-purchase a player, discs, accessories and so on.

One of the ways to revive sales of next-generation players is to develop a player that will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD, making a choice obvious for consumers. However, both consumer electronics companies that planned such players – LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics – said they had dumped the projects.

So far Toshiba's HD DVD has been slightly more successful on the market with five-seven players available starting at $320 in the U.S. and over 160 titles in English and Japanese. Sony's Blu-ray is currently supported by three players and over 60 BD titles on the market.

To quote a certain friend of mine on another forum, who I'll continue to try and get to post here one day:

Originally Posted by Rob Zuber

This is perfectly good advice. The average person out there should not be buying these devices yet (not counting the PS3, since it's a gaming machine).

No. When HD-DVD finally dies, BD will still have to compete with regular DVD. People will be willing to spend only a bit more for the improved PQ. And the studios really want to move away from DVD for several reasons, with the important one being copy protection. The format war may have been good up to the point that both sides decided to go ahead with actually selling their products. Then it became a negative.

I can't state it any better. Someone get Rob to finally start posting here please! I've only nagged him about 30 times by now!

One thing I'll kind of disagree with him on is this: The hardcore enthusiast and early adopter set the tone, as always. The HD-DVD hacks and zealots refuse to accept this fact: The early adopter types don't CARE what it costs. They will open their wallet for the best that they can possibly get from the best companies. Period.

I encourage them to buy into BD and vote with their wallets and finish this thing.

Most people bemoaned this so called format war. We're stuck with it and we have to deal with the cards on the table. So now the trick is: Get it to end the way you want. Vote with your wallet.

This "advice" is at least a year too late anyways.