Poll: Tepid Interest Seen In HD Disc Players

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A new Harris Interactive Poll has found U.S. enthusiasm for high-definition movie players has been only “lukewarm” so far, with just 11 percent saying they own a player using the defunct HD DVD format and 7 percent saying they own a dedicated Blu-ray machine.

http://www.twice.com/index.asp?layou...leid=CA6666147

It's not a typo. HD DVD ownership is up from 6% to 11%, which is almost getting to the point of mainstream. Not bad for a dead format. Blu-ray, however, only grew from 4% to 7%. The Blu-ray standalone numbers do not include a PS3, which is at 9% (all PS3s, not just those used for HD). HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 was at 3%.

This was all from an online survey conducted between April 13-21.

I don't think one should read too much into the HD DVD numbers, since HD DVD players also happens to be cheap, but good quality DVD upscalers and many people bought them for this reason, plus the fact that HD DVD movies were going for a few dollars and people got in on the action last year.

However, the Blu-ray numbers are less than spectacular. In 2008, you could say that the PS3 numbers were essential since the best quality and value Blu-ray player was the PS3. You can't say the same in 2009 anymore, since standalone prices have dropped considerably (while PS3 prices have not). So I suspect there are less people buying the PS3 just for Blu-ray than a year ago, and you would expect standalone numbers to go up a bit more since Blu-ray disc sales have gone up by quite a bit.