I can understand why BD is ahead, it's the hype of 50 gigs and 7.1 channels of surround sound. On paper this would be the format to choose over HD-DVD but the poll doesn't represent sales IMHO.
I wouldn't argue with that interpretation and it is not suprising that most would say that. I thought I would choose Blu-Ray (may eventually), then I thought I'll wait it out and somehow I ended up with HD DVD.
HD DVD is in full swing, while Blu-Ray just teased us (pissed us off) with a buggy Samsung player and sub-par software. First out the gate should have put HD DVD in a major lead. But with Toshiba going alone, there's not enough brand name recognition to take HD DVD sales to the next level.
IMHO: A tie or anything close at "this point in time" would be a loss for HD DVD (I do not assume a victory for Blu-Ray).
Voted to wait until ONE format wins....having TWO formats for any extended period of time will indeed force both into niche only status and in time, both may die off in favor of something else down the road.
Actually it's 52% for a HD format and 48% for sticking with DVD. It's when you break the 52% down that you see 23% for Blu-Ray, 23% for HD-DVD and 6% waiting for a winner to be decided. It's a tech oriented site, so it probably should be expected for HD to be winning the poll.
I'm getting a PS3, so I guess Blu-ray will rule my living room for a while. What happens beyond 2006, who knows. I'm waiting to buy a stand alone until something else happens.
The poll asks 4 choices and the leading answer is "Waiting till there is 1 format". The 2nd and 3rd choices may add up to a higher number of total votes, but that doesn't mean anything.
Most people are waiting. My point was that both formats are in jeopardy of losing. I believe the "format war" is unhealthy.
There are really only 2 choices, buying HD or not buying HD. Buying HD is divided into 3 categories; HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and waiting for hardware before deciding. I admit that 53% to 47% isn't a landslide for HD. If you add just the HD-DVD 24.4% and Blu-Ray 22.6% and compare it with the stick with DVD 47.1%, then it's a dead heat 47% to 47.1%.
It actually surprised me that buying HD is winning the poll at this point. Maybe the optimistic predictions for prerecorded HD have some merit. While the format war may have turned off a lot of people, it didn't do so enough to allow "sticking to current DVD" to beat the HD-DVD+Blu-Ray numbers. Even disgruntled people like Ronald Epstein here and Bill Hunt from the bits have thrown in the towel and bought into HD. These were 2 of the more outspoken people about how much they detested the format war.
If both of these formats where to fail that might have a very negative outcome on the next format in the future. Especially if there is any doubt or if it is perceived to be to exspensive. And a failure of both current HD formats may also keep alot of HTF people from quickly adopting the next format. I agree that only if the format war goes on to long that it could have a very negative outcome. Especially if the general public does not adopt ether format in great numbers. At that point studios would basically stop releasing titles and that would kill any format. I know that is something that none of us here at HTF want to see.
And it was Ronald Epstein's input that influenced my decision to purchase a HD-DVD player. Blu-ray was going to be the center peice of my HT and HD-DVD originally was not going to be concidered. HD-DVD looks very good and has very good sound so at $500 I could no longer hold out. This brings more HD content to my HT and if Sony can get there act together. I may just end up with a Blu-ray player as well, thats only if the titles look just as good as HD-DVD or better. This format war however over the long run has the potential of scaring off the general public and that poll is showing that to be true. Its not a good thing for 47% to be sticking with SD-DVD's when there is so much HD can do for the viewing exsperience. IMHO this is the first time the average consumer has to have actual theater quality video and sound in there home. DVD was a huge leap in audio/video quality especially with Dolby and DTS being offered. Now we all can have truely state of the art video playback in our home theaters and it will only get better in the future. Home video may get so good that there is a good chance we may be able to see first run movies in our home instead of going to the theater. This may happen sooner than we think especially once more people purchase HDTV's and get tired of paying the ever increasing ticket prices out comercial theaters.
I was very excited when DVD came out but IMHO HD offers more than SD-DVD ever could. DVD was a great stepping stone to get us to a true theater exsperience in our own homes. I just hope that HD does not go the way of SACD and DVD-A, that would be a true shame.
This would be true if all the options were equal, but they are not. That poll should have been 2 polls. One that asked "Will you be buying a HD format" and one that read "Which HD format will you be buying". By combining multiple polls into one poll, you create a poll that needs to be interpreted depending on what question you want the answer to. If the question you are asking is "Will you be buying a HD format?" then the answer is that "I'm sticking to current DVD until one format wins." loses by 3%.
Just because the people that weren't voting "I'm sticking to current DVD until one format wins." had to choose 1 of 3 options doesn't invalidate the fact that they plan on buying into HD, which appears to be what you are trying to say. The percentage of people that are not in the "I'm sticking to current DVD until one format wins." category is actually 54.9% of the poll.