Buyers Sitting Out the HD Format 'War'

Today the New York Times asks: What if nobody wins the high-definition DVD format wars? With no clear advantage for either format, except for the movie titles available on each, only 11 percent of current HDTV owners strongly intend to buy a Blu-ray or HD DVD player. Almost 75% of those (HDTV owners, mind you) surveyed say standard DVD is 'good enough.'
What the article doesn't bring out is that it is increasingly evident that both HD formats are competing against standard DVD, not each other. HDTV owners can walk into a Wal-Mart and buy a $29 HD-upconverting DVD player that will play ALL DVD movies from ALL studios and ALL the movies they currently own.
I predict neither format will reach mass acceptance while there are two of them, unless or until they reach the sub-$50 price point, as happened with DVD. By that time people will have moved on to downloading digital content, or continue to be satisfied with standard DVD.

read more | digg story