Dixons reckons the HD disc war ain't over yet

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While many in the media are predicting that the HD disc format war is effectively over now that key studio Warners has pledged exclusive allegiance to Blu-ray, a consumer survey by Dixons suggests that HD DVD shouldn't throw in the HD white towel just yet. It has just revealed the...

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Would be interesting to know how many of the respondants actually knew about the Warner announcement
 
It would also be interesting to know how many of the consumers knew what the differences were. To many people both HD DVD and BD are high definitionn DVDs if you see what I mean.
 
Wow 700 people. That's a massive vote! :rotfl::rotfl:

Perhaps they should do a vote of Dixons and Currys staff and ask them what HD-DVD and Blu-ray are. :rotfl:

errr, don't know but it needs regular regassing. :D
 
"and how important it is for one format to win through sooner rather than later"

Why is it important...? It's not been important for CD or DVD formats, with dual format HD players coming through it won't matter one bit once they get the hardware side sorted out..
 
Wow 700 people. That's a massive vote! :rotfl::rotfl:

Perhaps they should do a vote of Dixons and Currys staff and ask them what HD-DVD and Blu-ray are. :rotfl:

errr, don't know but it needs regular regassing. :D

I work in market research and 700 is a perfectly good sized sample. Many research samples are much smaller than that.

The issue is, as you imply Greg, not the size of the sample but its makeup. It it was a sample of people who stated that they intend to buy in the next 6 months or some other filter that would find only those who are reasonably informed then it is likely to be a reasonably accurate portrayal of how people felt about the two systems when the research was conducted. (Whether the people had heard about the Warner's announcement, not just when the research was done, would be highly relevant)

If however it was a sample of the general population then the result could be highly misleading. I suspect a majority of the population have never heard of either and this would have a major impact on how they responded. People have an inbuilt bias in favour of the familiar and a question along the lines of 'which are you more likely to buy High Definition DVD or Blu Ray?' would lead people to respond in favour of what sounds like a better version of the system they know rather than something they've never heard of.

Basically without knowing what the respondents knew and the nature of the sample the results are meaningless!
 
OK so when was this survey really done? (I don't trust 'home cinema choice' as a source TBH).

Is this the same Dixons that's pulled all the HDDVD players off their shelves and started selling Bluray in its place? Because if they are, it looks like they didn't believe their own survey.
 
OK so when was this survey really done? (I don't trust 'home cinema choice' as a source TBH).

If you click on R Thomson's post above you can see it was done last week.

But I think the real issue is whether the respondents knew about the Warner move and its significance. Unless you read forums like this or spotted it in the papers it would be easy to miss. You could answer the researcher in the morning and spot the story in the afternoon and its quite likely that the story would change a lot of people's minds about which to support.

I find it strange that a retailer would bother to conduct a piece of research like this. better than anyone they actually know precisely how many of each their customers are buying. They count 'em as they go out of the door! They don't need research for that. And they can see trend data just as easily - are they selling more of one system than the other since the Warner announcement? Look at the sales figures. Research is very expensive. Why would they want it?

Ask yourself who would want to commission and pay for this research and who might feel that it would appear more authoritative if placed in the public domain by a neutral retailer.
 
Is this the same Dixons that's pulled all the HDDVD players off their shelves and started selling Bluray in its place? Because if they are, it looks like they didn't believe their own survey.

And they can see trend data just as easily - are they selling more of one system than the other since the Warner announcement? Look at the sales figures.

Judging by their listed stock of HD players HERE then I think its very clear that HD-DVD doesn't register very highly in their sales figures.
The same is true in Currys (DSG group), as I went to two of their shops (plus a Dixons and PC World) to try and buy a Toshiba HD-EP30 last week and couldn't find any on the shelves. When I asked an assistant where the HD-DVD players were, I was directed to a shelf, well a very small section in the middle of standard DVD players and recorders, where two BLU-RAY players sat.
"No, I want an HD-DVD player" I said, "not a blu-ray, I have a PS3 for that". "Haven't you got a Toshiba EP30" to which the assistant replied "OH them, no they were discontinued a while back, won't be getting any stock for a while, if at all". I tried to explain the EP30 is the newly released player, but I could tell I was losing him so decided to leave, go round the corner to Comet and buy an EP30 (£149.99 with the 7 free discs offer :smashin:)
How the heck can Dixons state "the HD disc war aint over" when their own staff dont know the difference between BLU RAY and HD-DVD. How can they give the consumer a choice when they don't even stock HD-DVD players ?
Given that Toshiba has slashed the prices for their HD players, they should be flying off their shelves, but thanks to the ineptitude of their management it could spell danger in the outcome of the "HD disc war" for HD-DVD.
Who knows, maybe the BD association has given DSG incentives (bribes ?) like they allegededly did to Warner to go exclusivly BLU and try and smash HD-DVD :D
 

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