Originally posted by: Luke Skywalker
i agree the HD DVD does have a more widely accepted name. but this is assuming that the average consumer does absolutly no research on a High Definition setup when purchasing and therefore is not told about Blu Ray.
anyone planning to upgrading to HD is going to talk to sales associates and sooner or later will come into the Blu Ray name. it seems that many people here think that if someone is going to go high definition all they have to do is buy an HD DVD player and they're there. and if anyone has talked to sales associates or is one, we all know that we don't let customers leave without selling them more than they came for.
i agree the HD DVD does have a more widely accepted name. but this is assuming that the average consumer does absolutly no research on a High Definition setup when purchasing and therefore is not told about Blu Ray.
anyone planning to upgrading to HD is going to talk to sales associates and sooner or later will come into the Blu Ray name. it seems that many people here think that if someone is going to go high definition all they have to do is buy an HD DVD player and they're there. and if anyone has talked to sales associates or is one, we all know that we don't let customers leave without selling them more than they came for.
From what I've seen, there seems to be two types of people that have HD systems. The first is the audiophiles/techincally savvy types who do know what blu-ray is, and every, or most every acronym there is. They've extensively researched everything and pretty much know exactly what they want before they ever set foot in the store to buy anything. No, these types won't be bothered at all by the name blu-ray or HD-DVD.
The others are the people who want an HDTV and home theatre as a status symbol and to show off to their friends. These people are usually older, and more affluent. They don't know much about a high-def setup, and do minimal research before buying. They buy based on which model in the store display looks best to them, and/or brand name. These are the types who will walk into the store and get confused at the blu-ray name, and skip over it in favor of the name they understand, HD-DVD. So I think the name issue is going to hurt blu-ray. Will it cause it to fail? No, I don't think so. There are many other factors that will go into play in the end. And to be fair, Blu-Ray is not a "Sony only" format. Its gotten labeled as such, but there are many companies that are supporting Blu-Ray, and it isn't another Sony-proprietary technology. But the issue that it is becoming increasingly labeled as a Sony proprietary technology can really hurt blu-ray.
I'm not making a prediction, but I could see that even if Blu-Ray gets accepted as the standard format, many people will still call it HD-DVD because thats what they understand and relate to.