[The News Bot]

Future adopters of hi-def are more likely to buy HD DVD than Blu-ray players. So says market analysts The Diffusion Group. TDG researchers have identified a new mass-market buying group, dubbed the HDTV Intenders, who unlike the classic Early Adopters, have a lower disposable income but remain keen to adopt HD if the price [...]
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[rooster-x]

I am an HD intender!

[voles]

Originally Posted by rooster-x

I am an HD intender!

I'm a hybrid intender, though I believe HD-DVD is the one to support otherwise...

[dts borg]

come on I'm sure most HDTV Intenders have both formats. If you love film you just have to have both......

[RPD_UK]

I was a HD DVD Intender - then i bought the 360 add-on. Now i'm a Blue Ray Intender...ie i intend to get a PS3 for Xmas !!

[featherhall]

I have HDDVD, but intend to get blueray (a PS3) as soon as the machine gets some decent games. I wouldn't buy a standalone player given the mess the software war is in at the moment. Must say though that at the moment the exclusive studios that HDDVD has makes the format the more attractive (for me anyway). Bourne / Transformers and the likes are heavy hitters.

[WATTS]

I dont own any format yet but the one that i will go for will be the cheapest to use. IE: blank disc media is cheapest/hardware is cheapest etc etc.

[Cool-hand]

Oh yes im the Great Intender Ooo Ooo

But will again be the Great Dual Intender

CH

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[the mechanic]

I am HD neutral (got a PS3 and 360+HDDVD add on). I was kinda leaning more to BLURAY as the 360 is a noisy beast, but after buying Transformers (only available on HD DVD) I am back to sitting on the fence.

Graham.

[usualsuspect]

I'm HD neutral too. 360, PS3 and HD-EP35 (since the 360 is way too noisey!).
Having got the 'benchmark' HD-DVD's, Bourne U and Transformers. I'm siding with BR so far. Perhaps I'm being pathetic but the menu animatation and response is shocking on my HD-DVD machine, is this a machine issue or a format issue? Picture quality? I can't choose between the two. I have 300 on both and the picture is the same on both although I can't put the two side-by-side to be honest. The Blu-ray is up and playing in seconds whereas the HD-DVD player is a yawn. This looks to be affected all players not just the EP35.

[houdini_7]

Originally Posted by usualsuspect

Perhaps I'm being pathetic but the menu animatation and response is shocking on my HD-DVD machine, is this a machine issue or a format issue? .

I think it must be a machine issue as my 360 HD-DVD add-on is very responsive. I have read that some of the earlier stand alone players suffered from slow loading/response times.

[kevin_irl]

Upcoming HD disc buyers may favour HD DVD over Blu-ray, but Blu-ray's lead gets bigger!

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/12/16/...-niche-market/

[MartinG1953]

Until something is decided on this HD vs BR competition, I like the majority out there will do nothing.

PS. Merry Christmas.

[delto95]

Originally Posted by MartinG1953

Until something is decided on this HD vs BR competition, I like the majority out there will do nothing.

PS. Merry Christmas.

I think you may be "doing nothing" for a very long time in this case......!! This war is going to take ages to decide. Big bucks are nehind both formats (i.e. Sony vs. Microsoft) and none of both is going down without a fight. There is a Multi Billion dollar business model at stake here!!

[Albion]

The HD-DVD V Blu-ray war will continue.But it will be a niche market for some time to come.In 2-3 years all players will likely all be dual and very cheap,although some will always want all the bells and whistles,but that ain't the majority.
The real problem for HD as I see it,will be many, many titles have little or no chance of making it to either HD-DVD or Blu-ray.This is critical to my takeup of the format.I did buy an X-BOX add on for my PC and a few of the older titles,but now my buying has ceased.

My estimation is that there will be a process of osmosis,where all players will be HD capable.We will hardly notice the changeover.Older,less mainstream and archive titles will not reach HD because of the re-mastering costs.So mainly we will get new titles,modern classics and some older classics in that order.
A large portion of the current DVD market will be marginalised,and will be hugely critical of the new format.The format war will not help this situation one bit.

It might gradually change as the years pass,because once seen HD will be expected,but we are along way from that position at present.We can't even get titles begging for a release on DVD,what chance HD.

It seems High Definition is not and will not be the big technological success the industry was hoping for.DVD will therefore be the format of choice for the forseeable future.

[marty2005]

One is gonna be obsolete.

Merry xmas.

[thewsca]

I have both Toshiba hd e1 and Samsung bd p1000 blu ray.Picture quality is superb on both.However I do have slight lip sync problem with the Samsung on standard dvds and The Searchers Blu Ray disc.I've never had a lip sync problem with the toshiba and I can also use US HD Dvds on the Toshiba which arn't out in the UK.Therefore I slightly favour my HD Dvd player.

[subtyrant]

The major players in the industry have screwed up and the ones who will pay are us, the consumers. I bought a betamax vcr (yep, I'm THAT old) and can just remember the time when I could hire betamax films from my local video store.

At the moment the market drivers seem to be:
- cost/price of players (HD DVD wins)
- cost/price of disks (ditto)
- which studios back which format (hard to call but Paramount pulling out of blu ray must worry that camp)

All points to HD DVD "winning", but looking at the racks in my local Zavvi I'd have to say blu ray outnumbers HD DVD 2:1.

New drivers in 2008 will be:
- availability of PC writers (blu ray only for now)
- HD camcorder owners (blu ray looks the only option to me)

I own a Sony AVCHD cam and right now I would like to be able to assemble and burn footage onto a disk. The amount of data (c 8gb for 1 hour of filming) makes even dual layer DVD too small to be practical.

But I'll wait this time. I could go and invest in a blu ray writer and player but I might find myself with another load of obsolete investment so I'd rather take the risk of putting all my video onto the PC hard drive and hope it doesn't crash in the next couple of years.

And having to wait also means I pay, in a way. I bought my son a PS3 this christmas with Planet Earth on blu ray. Wow! How I wish I could buy into HD NOW! (Without selling my soul to the Sky Devil.) This competition is doing absolutely nothing for the consumer. Media formats are like railway tracks, competition should be based around the best train service, not what sort of track you're travelling on. May the best f-f-format win. I just hope it wins f-f-quickly.

[jegan111]

Couldn't agree more. When the two formats are so indicernable why is it left up to us to decide? I blame Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Philips etc for going there own way and deciding to develope Bluray and not going with the others who were happy with the way HD-DVD was coming along etc etc. It's down to their greed. They just wanted a bigger slice of the pie and thought Bluray was their meal ticket. So for that reason, I wouldn't be sad to see bluray fail.

I've got a PS3 and I've just aquired a HD-DVD add-on for my 360. To be honest the region free HD-DVD's and the relative inexpess when importing them from the states has made it my prefered option. But, i'm prepaired either way so I won't get caught in the Betamax/MiniDisc debacle again.... anyone see a pattern here?

[Adam Shaw]

Lest see what new and wonderful machines are rolled out at CES next week.

Bound to be something new and flashy in this arena from the big boys, which will probably make whatever you just bought for Christmas seem redundant!

[jegan111]

Originally Posted by Adam Shaw

Lest see what new and wonderful machines are rolled out at CES next week.

Bound to be something new and flashy in this arena from the big boys, which will probably make whatever you just bought for Christmas seem redundant!

You're right. Sony will unveil a Super HD Bluray thingy and a nuclear powered Ultra Clear Laser screen that both give 20 times the clarity of any 1080p compatible stuff we've just bought (something like 22,000p or whatever...) And it'll only cost £32,000 for the complete set up, or £43,000 for the colour version....