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Less than ten per cent of HD TV owners plan to buy a Blu-ray Disc player, research group NPD has claimed. However 45 percent of HDTV owners claimed that they were familiar with the Blu-ray Disc format.
Only 6 percent of all consumers surveyed said they plan to purchase a BD device in the next six months, NPD found purchase intent to be higher among the growing population of HDTV owners.
NPD also claims that that 9 percent of HDTV owners plan to buy a BD-capable player in the next six months and that manufacturers still face challenges. Although HD-DVD is no longer a competitive threat, many consumers are content with standard-definition DVD players and content. The leading reasons cited as barriers to purchase were a perceived high cost of BD players and a belief that standard-definition DVD is “good enough.”
The research revealed that consumers who purchased a BD set-top player cited “leading-edge technology” and a “superior viewing experience” as primary reasons for making the purchase. And they indicated a clear preference for BD content. In fact current BD set-top player owners expect that 80 percent of their upcoming purchases will be in BD rather than standard DVD. By comparison, 43 percent of PS3 owners use the BD capability in their consoles at least once a month; however, they do not view BD movies as often as set-top device owners do.
“The door is open for studios to feed the consumer’s appetite for Blu-ray content, and we expect sales to increase, as prices for hardware and software moderate in the coming months,” Crupnick said. “Even so it will take a concerted effort by manufacturers and retailers to ratchet awareness even further and convince all of those potential buyers of the superiority of Blu-ray Disc versus standard DVD.”
Perhaps Toshiba’s post-HD DVD plan which we revealed yeaterday, to push DVD upscaling will prove a more successful move than its promotion of the hi-def format.
Still, of those consumers who have bought into Blu-ray, they’re switching their disc purchases accordingly, NPD found. Some 80 per cent of them said their next purchases will be BDs rather than DVDs. Picture quality was the chief reason for doing so.
